Central America’s largest PV plant goes online
A new solar project has been switched on in Penonomé, in the province of Coclé, Panama. It was built with 450,000 solar panels and 89 inverters.
New tech to reduce mechanical stress in floating PV arrays
French start-up HelioRec has developed a new floater that can contain water to add more weight and increase its stability on the water. According to its creators, the new product can be 3.5 times more stable than conventional blow-molded floaters.
Chinese fish pond hosts 550 MW solar farm
Built by the Chint Group, the project is currently the largest in China combining PV power generation and fish farming. It is located in Wenzhou, a city with a subtropical maritime monsoon climate in China’s Zhejiang province.
Silicon Ranch raises $775 million
Silicon Ranch, a Shell-backed utility-scale solar developer in the United States, has raised funds from new and existing investors.
Liquid air tech for long-duration, large scale storage in China
Finland-headquartered Sumitomo SHI FW has entered a collaboration with China’s Shanghai Power Equipment Research Institute to evaluate the feasibility of long-duration energy storage using liquefied air energy storage technology.
Brazil tops 13GW of installed PV capacity
The country installed around 3GW of new PV systems in the fourth quarter of 2021 alone. Around 8.4GW of the current PV capacity is represented by solar installations not exceeding 5MW in size, and operating under net metering.
Electrolyzer tech to produce hydrogen from seawater
With a new start-up and a consortium in the Netherlands, German automotive supplier Schaeffler wants to significantly reduce the costs of green hydrogen.
Large-scale PV could improve voltage of weak grids in Nigeria
Researchers have discovered that large-scale PV arrays could enhance the voltage stability of northern Nigeria’s electricity grid.
Solar-powered hydrogen for domestic applications via building-integrated transparent platform
An international research group has created a closed-loop, transparent energy platform based on PV power generation and hydrogen production from photo-electrochemical cells. The system is claimed to supply power without interruption and to be transparent enough to be integrated into buildings.
US developers added nearly 10 GW of utility-scale PV in first 10 months of 2021
US solar developers built almost 10 GW of new utility-scale solar in the United States in the first 10 months of last year, which is a record for that time frame.
