The future looks bright for UK solar
Last year’s figures marked the first time the market saw sustained, subsidy-free growth across residential, commercial and utility scale projects, according to trade body Solar Energy UK.
Europe’s gigafactory boom in full swing with another plant announcement
The list of planned gigawatt-scale battery cell manufacturing plants in Europe has grown, with Anglo-Korean battery maker Eurocell announcing plans for a gigafab in Western Europe to start manufacturing at scale within 12 months.
UK to move to annual renewables auctions from next year
With solar readmitted to the process for subsidizing new renewable energy generation capacity, the government says it is “hitting the accelerator” on clean power as it aims for a fully decarbonized electricity system by 2035.
Residential based energy storage will become the new ‘Boiler 2.0
Residential-based energy storage will become the new ‘Boiler 2.0’ and could form part of a virtual power plant, providing a viable solution to the global energy crisis and helping us to achieve our net-zero goals.
Solar for churches
Churches use energy mostly during the day, which makes them ideal buildings to deploy solar panels. Scientists in the United Kingdom have assessed the financial viability of a rooftop PV project for Bath Abbey and found that it could become profitable after 13 years.
Long-distance hydrogen interconnectors from an LCOE/LCOS perspective
New research from the U.K. shows the increasing competitiveness of long-distance hydrogen interconnectors over the next three decades. Compared to high-voltage electricity cables, hydrogen interconnectors may soon achieve a much lower levelized cost of storage and their ability to further reduce the final LCOE will depend on how much electrolyzer costs will reduce over the years.
Europe’s largest battery storage project leverages grid-forming inverter tech
Toronto-based developer Amp Energy has had the green light to install two 400MW batteries in central Scotland which have been touted as the largest grid-connected battery storage facilities in Europe. The projects will deploy grid-forming inverters and be coupled with two synchronous condensers.
Sodium-ion battery tech gets commercial testing in UK
Harwell Campus will provide a testbed for energy storage technologies coming from three U.K.-based innovative businesses, bringing their solutions one step closer to the market.
Shell acquires PV project pipeline in Italy
The energy giant acquired solar-konzept Italia Srl, which has a portfolio of solar projects at different stages of approval and development. The solar parks are planned to sell electricity to commercial and industrial customers.
Spraying water system for solar module cooling
A British-Indian research group has developed an active cooling technique that is claimed to improve a PV system’s yield by around 0.5%. The system could be used in residential solar arrays and the water heated by the PV modules may be fed into a solar water heating system.
