COVID-19

UK researchers have evaluated the impact that heat pumps could have on fuel poverty in England and Scotland. They have found that the benefits heat pumps can provide exist in both scenarios.

Three-month solar panel permit wait times, rooftop installations and projects under 50 kW not requiring environmental impact assessments, and a raft of other emergency measures aimed at accelerating the European Union’s (EU) renewable energy rollout have been extended until mid-2024 to combat the energy crisis.

The Bulgarian government has opened public discussion for the country’s first renewable energy auction. Through the procurement exercise, it expects to allocate 1,425 MW of renewable energy power generation capacity and 350 MW of storage.

The off-grid solar sector has shown resilience in the face of pandemic-related challenges, with 70 million people gaining access to electricity from early 2020 to the end of 2021. However, the ability to pay for solar energy kits has taken a hit.

A prominent analyst in China expects the price of the solar panel raw material to pass CNY 300 ($44.70) per kg soon and says the sky-high prices will continue at least through September.

The central Asian nation went from 4 MW of grid-connected solar to 104 MW in just 12 months and Total Eren’s latest announcement indicates an ambitious national goal of adding 12 GW of renewables this decade may not be so fanciful.

The International Renewable Energy Agency’s latest annual report on the progress towards UN sustainable development goal seven estimates 670 million people will still lack electricity in 2030, and more than 2 billion will be reliant on unhealthy, polluting cooking methods.

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 second day of the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue was dominated by the role of renewables in facing three world crises: climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the war in Ukraine.

Covid-19 has left Shunfeng International’s accountants unable to publish its official 2021 numbers on time, but its estimated figures announced a net current liability of almost $155 million and a “capital deficiency” of near $140 million.