Sweden

Alight says it has obtained a 12-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for a 64 MW solar plant in Sweden. It says it will turn to non-recourse project financing, despite the conventional practice of financing PPA-backed solar assets with equity in the country.

Vargas, Northvolt’s parent company, has launched Aira, a new business venture that will sell heat pumps on a monthly fee basis. The venture is in the pilot phase in Italy and will expand to Germany and the United Kingdom later this year. It plans to start production in 2024 at a factory in Wroclaw, Poland.

The Gothenburg district court in Sweden has charged eight people for allegedly stealing nearly $416,000 of air source heat pumps, geothermal heat pumps, white goods and tools from multiple locations in the western part of the country.

German investors have agreed to back a hydrogen project in Namibia, while Plug Power and Thyssenkrupp Nucera have announced separate hydrogen-related deals in Sweden.

NEOM Green Hydrogen Company has secured an exclusive 30-year off-take agreement with Air Products for what they claim will be the world’s largest green hydrogen plant, while Germany’s EEX has launched the world’s first market-based hydrogen index.

Swedish scientists have created a contract to help renewable energy producers and retailers to pay high imbalance costs. The new framework could boost clean energy profits by up to 4.8% and retail profits by more than 7%, claim the researchers.

Dutch and Brazilian ports have signed a cooperation deal involving port development and green hydrogen production, while Thyssenkrupp Nucera has released a new alkaline water electrolysis (AWE) module.

First Solar has agreed to pay $38 million to buy Swedish manufacturing startup Evolar AB, as it seeks to expand development of high-efficiency tandem PV tech.

The Australian government has presented its 2023-2024 budget, with AUD 2 billion ($1.35 billion) to be invested in hydrogen, while Austria, Germany, and Italy said they have started moving forward on a southern hydrogen corridor from North Africa to Northern Europe.

Swedish researchers have used silver alloying to improve grain growth and crystal quality in the chalcopyrite absorber, which reportedly partly compensates for its high bandgap energy. The scientists fabricated a champion cell based on a ZTO buffer layer.