Renewable Energy

The South Korean authorities have identified 5,359 examples of illegal subsidy use for renewable energy plants selected in tenders between 2019 and 2021.

A research group in Finland has created a new workflow to prevent voltage rises in bifacial vertical PV systems located at high latitudes. According to their findings, vertical bifacial PV may have a 46% higher power yield compared to monofacial conventional counterparts in the Nordics, while also having an improved temporal match between PV generation and consumption.

Australian renewables developer Genex Power has signed agreements with Japanese utility J-Power for a multimillion-dollar funding package that will support the delivery of its 2 GWh pumped hydro project in Queensland Australia, and the development of the 2 GW Bulli Creek solar and battery project.

Meridiam and Engie have agreed to acquire BTE Renewables, which operates 150 MW of onshore wind and 190 MW of solar in South Africa. The Johannesburg-based developer currently has a project portfolio exceeding 3 GW.

Bear Valley Solar will deploy 240 kW of a 1.5 MW cattle-sited solar field pasture this year, with the first phase of construction ramping up this summer, developer David McFeeters-Krone told pv magazine USA.

Australian renewables startup Green Gravity has teamed with underground mining contractor RUC to accelerate the commercialization of its gravitational energy storage tech.

In May 2022, PV experts from around the world convened in Germany for the third Terawatt Workshop. Almost one year later, takeaways from discussions at the workshop – combined with a wide-ranging review of research on decarbonization pathways, energy demand projections, and the state of the art in PV technology – led to the conclusion that 75 TW of installed solar capacity by 2050 was a realistic global target. More than 50 leading PV industry figures recently outlined the opportunity and the challenges that solar will face in reaching this goal.

Rodrigo Sauaia, the president of the Brazilian Association of Photovoltaic Solar Energy (Absolar), recently spoke with pv magazine about power purchase agreements, regulated auctions, macroeconomics conditions, and electricity prices in Brazil. He said the Latin American country could add 4.6 GW of utility-scale solar capacity this year, as well as another 5.5 GW from distributed generation.

Volkswagen France has commissioned a 20 MW solar carport project at its facility in Villers-Cotterêts, In northern France’s Hauts-de-France region.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, presents the solar irradiance data it collected for June, which showed that Mexico, the US Southwest and Midwest, and Canada received significantly above average solar irradiance. The enhanced solar generation was particularly welcome in Mexico and the Southwest, where it helped meet higher electricity demand caused by record-breaking heatwaves.