How to attract bees into solar parks
According to new research from the U.K., solar parks may help maintain natural habitats for pollinators that could be, otherwise, destroyed by intensive farming. The study also highlights that biodiversity could be both positively and negatively affected by solar parks and associated land-use change.
U.K. takes another tiny step to smart energy system
Energy regulator Ofgem has announced it aims to bring in market-wide half-hourly settlement across the retail electricity market – from October 2025. The long timescale reflects a sluggish attitude at an inconsistent regulator which appears to be planning an unpredictable route to net zero.
Submarine cable to connect 10.5 GW wind-solar complex in Morocco to the UK grid
UK-based Xlinks is planning to build 10.5 GW of wind and solar in Morocco and sell the power generated by the huge plant in the UK. This should be made possible by a 3,800 km high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line that would be connected to locations in Wales and Devon. The company’s CEO, Simon Morrish, spoke with pv magazine about the ambitious project, and on how it should become feasible.
India’s solar imports dipped 75% in ten months
Covid-19 disruption has been cited as the chief culprit as imports from China, Thailand and Vietnam slumped from April to January, but safeguarding duty also appears to have had an impact, with unaffected imports from nations such as Myanmar, Chad and Russia on the rise and Malaysian trade keeping steady.
British company to produce solid-state lithium-sulfur products this year
Oxfordshire-based Oxis Energy says it will produce the less flammable devices sought by the aviation industry using the same manufacturing processes as those used to make lithium-ion and conventional-lithium-sulfur products.
Out with the old… A guide to successful inverter replacement
For a number of reasons, replacing all of the inverters in an existing PV project is an increasingly common strategy among PV project owners, particularly for projects that have been in operation longer than five years. This revamping can bring advantages in terms of higher energy yields and lower operations costs, but it is also a complex process with potentially broad implications. In this pv magazine Webinar, produced in partnership with Sungrow, we’ll shine a spotlight on this revamping process, offering insight from successfully completed projects.
UK added 175 MW of solar in first quarter
More than 7% of the U.K.’s solar generation capacity is now unsubsidized, according to trade body Solar Energy UK, with the nation reaching more than 14 GW of photovoltaic projects during the first three months of the year.
The weekend read: New pathways in flexible thin film PV
Having picked up GBP 5.8 million ($8 million) in a series of investments, U.K.-based Power Roll is pushing ahead with pilot production of an innovative new thin film with which it can manufacture both solar modules and capacitors. In the future, the design could also bring the potential for solar generation and energy storage within a single lightweight device.
How much floating PV is enough?
Scientists in the UK have had a closer look at the impacts of floating PV systems on the water. They found that their cooling effect on water mitigates blooms of toxic blue-green algae and increased water evaporation, which are both caused by global warming. They also warned, however, that colder water may result in a reduction of the duration of so-called thermal stratification. The right proportion between the surface occupied by the PV array and a water surface’s total area is key for addressing this issue.
Incentives crucial to avoid green, blue, and even purple hydrogen fading to grey
An Anglo-German report has suggested the environmentally-friendly desire to use only clean power to produce hydrogen, outlined by nations such as Germany, could end up being more emissions-heavy than the more pragmatic embrace of blue hydrogen under consideration in the U.K.
