World

According to two new pieces of research, Europe is on track to reach 2.7 GW of operational hydrogen electrolyzer capacity by 2025 and most of this capacity is expected to be located in Germany. Furthermore, three European gas associations have assessed the competitiveness of the different transportation options for hydrogen and have found it depends on the distance over which hydrogen is transported, as well as on scale and end-use.

German manufacturer Robert Bürkle GmbH has obtained a first instance judgement preventing a rival company from producing equipment that infringes on its patents. The decision of the Intermediate Peoples Court in China is not yet final, and the rival company has already filed a complaint against the ruling.

As PV manufacturing lines continue to get larger, keeping track of the measurement data that’s vital for quality and process control becomes an ever more herculean task. Flashing equipment supplier h.a.l.m. has developed a software solution that keeps all of this data in one place and provides operators with a real-time view of production line performance and quality. pv magazine caught up with Managing Director Michael Meixner to discuss the latest on big data in PV manufacturing.

A group of researchers in the U.S. analyzed recent developments in efforts at dual land use projects, combining solar energy with habitat for pollinators and other wildlife. Based on recent projects and studies, they offer a list of best practices for developing the habitats; and warn that without careful oversight the promising concept could amount to little more than greenwashing.

French energy company TotalEnergies and Russia’s second-largest natural gas producer, Novatek, are exploring new opportunities in the development of decarbonized blue hydrogen and ammonia. Anglo-Dutch energy major Royal Dutch Shell has awarded the Australian engineering company Worley a services contract to support the development of a new 200 MW electrolysis-based hydrogen plant in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Private sector fossil fuel spending on exploration is drying up just as modest rises in clean energy investments are being observed. With stock market investors increasingly embracing renewables, the IEA has observed positive signals in its latest energy investment report, but warned we are still doing far too little to keep global heating at bay.

In the first installment of a new monthly blog by IHS Markit, Edurne Zoco, executive director for clean energy technology, writes that high prices and increased freight costs are putting solar PV procurement teams under extreme pressure, particularly those teams with connection deadlines this year that were anticipating a more favorable pricing and logistic environment in the second half of 2021.

The government of Mauritania and renewable energy developer CWP Global have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a 30 GW power-to-X project. Danish power company Ørsted, and Copenhagen’s utility, Hofor, entered into an agreement that will secure green power in the framework of the wider, 1.3 GW, Green Fuels for Denmark project.

Last week, testing specialists PV Evolution Labs launched its latest Module Reliability Scorecard, which names more than 100 products from 26 manufacturers as top performers, after being put through their paces in extensive lab testing. This year’s scorecard reveals an increase in modules seeing at least one failure during the testing procedure, with newly added mechanical stress procedures causing the greatest number of failures.

Solar rules in any scenario of what the world needs to work toward over the next three decades to keep global warming under 1.5 C.