Masdar begins work on 230MW solar park in Azerbaijan
Construction on the project is planned to be finalized by the end of this year. The solar facility will likely supply power to the nearby located Garadagh Industrial Park.
Newer, larger PV plants perform better, while older plants pick up steam with repowering
An American government lab sees utility-scale solar fleets degrading faster than projected at 1.2% per year, while newer and larger plants are degrading at just 0.7% per year. Older plants appear to be getting repowered in year seven, resulting in lasting performance increases.
Storing renewable electricity with supercritical CO2 heat pump
Researchers in Spain have designed a pumped thermal energy storage system that uses supercritical carbon dioxide as a heat pump and a heat engine. The proposed system is claimed to achieve an efficiency of 80.26% and an LCOS of €0.116/kWh.
India installed 1.2GW of unsubsidized solar in 2021
India surpassed 5GW of cumulative, “open-access” solar capacity in December.
Spanish consortium wants to produce green hydrogen with sewage
The Zeppelin project is expected to generate more than 135,000 tons of green hydrogen from 99 million tons of waste and 50 million tons of municipal wastewater.
Australian electrolyzer invention enables green hydrogen under US$1.5/kg by ‘mid 2020s’
“We’re not talking about incremental improvement, this is a really giant leap,” Hysata CEO Paul Barrett told pv magazine Australia. Hysata is commercializing a breakthrough made at the University of Wollongong which effectively, Barrett says, invented a “brand new category of electrolyzer,” vastly improving efficiency.
Solarpack offers remote PV self-consumption to Spanish consumers
Solarpack’s click&go system relies on solar panels in its own projects, rather than in the homes of consumers, so households can consume renewable energy remotely. Clients can buy energy produced from their remotely owned panels for around €30 ($32.98)/MWh.
Italian solar park to be linked to 5MW/10MWh of second-life batteries
A unit of Enel plans to deploy 5MW/10MWh of second-life batteries at Rome-Fiumicino International Airport, where a 30MW solar park is now under development. The modular storage system will include different second-life lithium-ion batteries, mainly based on nickel, manganese and cobalt chemistry, with usable storage capacity ranging from 10kWh to 25kWh.
Azure Power commissions 300MW solar project in India
Azure Power has switched on a 300MW solar project in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It will supply electricity to Solar Energy Corp. of India for about $0.03/kWh over a period of 25 years.
Agrivoltaics for stone fruits
French specialist Sun’Agri is developing a pilot project to combine solar power generation with the cultivation of peaches, apricots, and cherries.
