Energy

Saudi Arabia aims to add 10 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2027, with solar to account for the lion’s share. The Middle East Solar Industry Association (MESIA) describes the main market drivers that could make this target achievable.

Bureau Veritas tells pv magazine that there is a great deal of interest in hydrogen certification schemes in Europe, Australia, the United States, and the Middle East.

The European Heat Pump Association has compiled an up-to-date overview of subsidies for residential heat pumps in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Switzerland.

Skylab, a solar tracking distributor and renewable energy project developer, has unveiled ambitious plans to build about 1 GW of solar and battery energy storage facility in the Australian state of Queensland.

Samsung and the city of Oxford in the UK have announced the trial of a neighborhood heat pump scheme in Rose Hill, Oxford. The project aims to connect communities to local installers, helping to remove key barriers to heat pump uptake, including cost. Up to 150 Samsung air-source heat pumps will be installed at a reduced price of GBP 2,600 ($3,185) each.

The Polish government says it will launch the fifth round of its Mój Prąd program in April. The scheme will offer rebates for air and ground heat pumps, as well as residential batteries.

Relectrify, an Australian battery technology startup, has secured approval from the International Electrotechnical Commission for its ReVolve energy storage product, which opens the way for it to globally scale up its cell-level control tech.

The latest edition of Solar Solutions, the largest solar trade show in the Netherlands, showed that the Dutch PV market is set to stabilize in terms of volumes, while preparing to integrate more heat pumps and storage. The solar sector is asking to move away from net metering to create a more resilient distributed-generation PV market.

Australian materials tech developer Kinaltek has unveiled a one-step production process that it says can convert common silica powders into battery-grade nanosilicon for less than 5% of the cost of existing technologies. The innovation paves the way for the use of silicon nanoparticles in high-performance lithium-ion batteries.

Energy Systems Catapult has released interim data from air-source heat pump field monitoring in the United Kingdom between November 2020 and August 2022. Figures show that heat pumps are three times more efficient than gas boilers and that their median coefficient of performance (COP) on cold days is 2.44, compared to 2.80 year round.