Western Europe

The authorities in China’s Guangdong province have released a 2022-25 plan that foresees the retail price for hydrogen dropping to less than CNY 30/kg ($4.42/kg). Germany and Canada, meanwhile, are set to strengthen their collaboration on hydrogen, and Ford has revealed plans to team up with Southern California Gas for a hydrogen fuel cell electric truck that will be on the road by 2025.

Meyer Burger has announced that it has concluded a binding supply agreement with Norwegian Crystals for silicon wafers to use in heterojunction cell manufacturing. Hydro facilities primarily power the production of the wafers and their precursor materials in Norway. Combined with the shorter distance they’ll have to travel, this adds up to a low carbon footprint.

The United Kingdom’s most energy-intensive manufacturers, already exempt from 85% of the contributions paid by other companies for green incentive schemes, could be spared from them entirely, according to a new consultation exercise.

Greece’s Public Power Corp. (PPC) Renewables, the green energy division of state-owned PPC, has kicked off a tender for a 550 MW subsidy-free solar plant at a former lignite mine.

UK researchers have revealed that gaseous hydrogen could cause problems in natural gas pipelines, while electrolyzer manufacturer Nel has announced plans to build a second production line in Norway.

China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) has announced plans to invest €7.34 billion ($7.6 billion) to build a 100 GWh battery plant in Debrecen, Hungary. It will be the company’s second battery cell manufacturing facility in Europe.

Scientists at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) have investigated gallium-doping in p-type silicon wafers as a route to better performance. Testing these specially produced p-type wafers in TOPCon and heterojunction cell architectures, which several major PV cell manufacturers are gearing up to produce on more expensive n-type wafers, the scientists found that with gallium doping, the p-type wafers can achieve similar or even better cell efficiencies compared to those made so far with n-type wafers.

SMA’s Home Solutions segment was particularly badly hit as the PV inverter manufacturer struggled to meet the demand due to the shortage of materials. The sales and results in the first half of 2022 were therefore significantly worse than in 2021. The company now wants to take “a series of measures to improve its long-term ability to deliver.”

EDP Renewables says the acquisition of a 70% stake in Kronos Solar Projects will open up the German and Dutch renewables markets to the Portuguese energy company.

Shell will purchase four planned PV projects totaling 100 MW in various locations across northern England. It says it will seek offtakers for the projects through its power trading team and sees strong demand in the corporate power purchase agreement sector.