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In other news, BYD’s quarterly profit is up by 241% buoyed by demand for battery-powered cars, Ford takes a US$3.1 billion loss on its Rivian stake and cuts 580 jobs as part of corporate restructuring, and ABB agrees to provide its full portfolio of EV charging technology to Shell.

Researchers at the University of Genoa have conducted a techno-economic analysis to assess green hydrogen produced via water electrolysis and its conversion into three alternative fuels – methane, methanol, and ammonia. They looked into efficiency, storage capacity, annual costs, and production costs of the different fuels, which they found to be significantly higher than market reference values.

In other news, Hydrofuel Canada developed hollow hybrid plasmonic nanocages to create an electrocatalyst for ammonia synthesis from nitrogen (N2) and water (H2O) and said green hydrogen could be separated from this ammonia and sold at about $1.50 per kilogram. Furthermore, Norway’s Aker Horizons and Statkraft are exploring green hydrogen and ammonia production opportunities in India and Brazil, targeting local steel and fertilizer industries.

The urgency to mitigate climate change and the need for more energy independence in many countries will boost demand for renewable energy to unprecedented levels. Meanwhile, trade conflicts, the logistics crisis, and insufficient supplies of raw materials have disrupted supply chains for the past two years. This has resulted in higher prices for solar equipment, challenging the predictability of on-time delivery and the quality of products. Sebastian Petretschek, TÜV Rheinland’s global head of PV power plants, examines the key issues in module procurement for investors.

In other news, Volvo has invested in fast-charging battery tech firm StoreDot, Tesla has reported record profits in Q1, and Dutch start-up behind the world’s first commercial grid-independent solar car Lightyear has entered a carsharing partnership.

While a Japanese team developed a series of Er(Ho)Co2-based magnetic cooling alloys for hydrogen cooling, a US research team used a “simple” acid treatment to increase flow of hydrogen atoms within protonic ceramic electrochemical cells (PCECs). Hydrogen-fuelled mobility registered significant developments: the first hydrogen-electric passenger aircraft was piloted between two major airports in Germany, and a 75-passenger ferry service in the San Francisco Bay braces for operations in June.

The clean power numbers published annually by the International Renewable Energy Agency provide a snapshot of the global solar market and, this year, a lot of figures were unchanged from the previous dataset, especially in the off-grid segment.

The US-based Silver Institute’s “World Silver Survey 2022” report shows that the price of the metal will fall slightly this year, despite the global economic impact of the war in Ukraine.

Salzgitter has claimed a record efficiency level for its EU-funded GrInHy2.0 hydrogen project, which is based on solid oxide electrolysis cell tech. The high-temperature electrolyzer uses waste heat from the company’s steel production processes.

In other news, further Covid-19 lockdowns in China continue to negatively impact the EV battery supply chain and broader industry, Porsche is testing V2G capabilities, and Israeli startup Electreon announces extension of its wireless dynamic EV charging project in Sweden.