raw materials

Gerard Reid, co-founder of corporate finance advisory Alexa Capital, considers whether the EU is up to the task of dealing with the twin threats of the energy crisis and the pull of a revitalized US clean power industry.

Finnish startup Sensmet Oy says it has attained the lithium manufacturing ‘Holy Grail’ of real-time, continuous monitoring of the battery raw material. This would potentially unlock big savings in time and money.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has opened a new door for US solar manufacturers, as one of the executives behind a US-Jordanian project to bring PV production to the US explains.

The European Union has set ambitious targets for solar PV expansion but is Brussels designing the right policies to support growth? Andreas Walstad investigates.

With an estimated 500 TWh of renewable electricity needed to produce the 10 million tons per year of clean hydrogen wanted by the European Union by 2030, the recent promise to ramp up European electrolyzer production capacity could give a boost to solar developers grappling with sluggish permitting regimes.

With China’s latest pandemic clampdown exacerbating existing costs for raw materials and shipping, big annual rises in solar cell and module shipments added up to a more than 91% fall in income from operations in just three months.

Be Clean Energy emphasized it was its wind power business that was the company’s 2021 success story, even though solar power sales revenue also jumped. Elsewhere, compatriot PV manufacturer Solargiga bounced back into profit last year.

The sheer volume of new power lines which will be required to accommodate the rising tide of solar installations ensures copper has been included by the International Energy Agency on its list of minerals which must keep flowing if the energy transition is to stay on course. And it’s not production that’s the potential bottleneck.

As the bloc pushes its digital and green transition agenda, policymakers have looked at the raw materials required. Little is mined, processed or assembled in Europe at present but the European Commission has a plan…

A Silver Institute study says demand for the precious metal for solar manufacturing accounted for 11% of global consumption last year but reduced solar generation capacity up to 2023 will eat into that figure and ‘thrifting’ technological advances will kick in after that point.