Western Europe

In the procurement exercise, the Italian authorities selected 49 solar projects with a capacity of less than 10 MW and 11 solar parks ranging in size from 13.2 MW to 92.4 MW. The lowest bid came in at €0.06263/kWh and was offered for a 5.9 MW solar project located in the province of Perugia, in the Italian central region of Umbria.

Canada-based Ly-Cycle has formed a joint venture with Norwegian-headquartered strategic partners Eco Stor and Morrow Batteries to build a new commercial lithium-ion battery recycling facility in southern Norway.

The incentive cut will apply only for the period from February 1, 2022, to December 31, 2022, and will reduce the tariffs paid by the GSE to PV system operators under the Conto Energia regime, depending on the zonal energy price, with the incentive reduction being proportional to the increase in energy prices.

Designed by Chinese provider Mibet, the mounting structure can be used for different crop types. The system offers a tilt angle of up to 30 degrees and can host either framed or frameless solar modules.

The deadline to submit bids is March 1 and the offered capacity is 1,107.7MW instead of the originally planned 617MW. The ceiling price has been set at €0.0557 per kWh.

Developed in Spain, the Arca system integrates solar panels, power electronics, and energy storage. Arca Lite has a rated power of 490 Wp, and Arca Plus of 980 Wp.

Swedish scientists developed a three-step method that integrates techniques used for the automatic extraction of buildings along with their underlying roof faces, as well as the identification of utilizable rooftop areas for solar arrays. The novel methodology is claimed to avoid overestimating actual potential of buildings for PV deployment.

Mercedes-Benz has teamed up with ProLogium to integrate solid-state battery technology into a range of passenger vehicles; Panasonic and Toyota have launched an industrial-academic collaborative research program concerned with battery resources and recycling; and LG Energy Solution plans to spend $2.1 billion with General Motors to build another electric vehicle battery plant in the U.S.

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.

German scientists have developed a perovskite PV cell with remarkable stability by adding a bilayer of polymers that protects the perovskite from corrosion. This design helps to shield the extremely sensitive perovskite interface and provides the cell with extraordinarily high conductivity.