Spain

The expedition to Manaslu Peak (8,163m) in Nepal, led by Alex Txikon, will not consume a single liter of fossil fuels thanks to two portable photovoltaic installations. The initiative is being promoted by Eki, a foundation created by Spanish solar company Solarpack and supported by the Basque Energy Agency (EVE).

The Spanish power utility announced it wants to deploy 23 green hydrogen projects by 2024. The company plans to build around 340 MW of electrolyzer capacity.

Around 569 MW of new PV systems were installed last year under the country’s rules for self-consumption. Around 56% of this capacity was deployed in the industrial segment, while commercial installations had a 23% share.

The European Investment Bank will lend more than half the cost of expanding the first solar project built by the West African nation’s electric utility, from 37 MW to 50 MW.

A number of companies spoke to pv magazine this week about the results of Spain’s latest clean-energy auction.

Companies from a dozen EU member states will commit the public funds in a bid to come up with novel battery chemistries and production methods as well as recycling and circular economy innovation.

In November, Cornwall Insight estimated that Australia had 7 GW of battery storage projects in the pipeline. Since then, massive amounts of storage capacity have been added.

The Spanish authorities awarded about 2.04 GW of PV and 998 MW of wind capacity, out of a total allocation of approximately 3.03 GW. The average price for solar was €0.02447/kWh.

Falling module prices will help PV post another record year after an estimated 132 GW was installed worldwide in 2020, according to an energy transition investment trends report published by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Batteries based on vanadium or zinc bromide represent the cutting edge of redox flow storage tech, an international research team has claimed. They have identified challenges and opportunities for about a dozen redox flow storage technologies, while providing estimates of their current and projected levelized costs of storage.