Renewable Energy

America’s booming solar industry has hit a major speed bump due to supply-chain disruption and the inflationary pressures driven by Covid, war in Ukraine, and trade restrictions with China. As a result, utility scale solar deployment dipped 40%, year-on-year, in 2022.

The question of where to put new solar projects in Australia is becoming troublesome, as many of the top-choice land parcels for renewables development have been taken. However, RELA Australia says it has a novel solution that levels the playing field between landowners and developers.

JMK Research says it expects India to install 14 GW of new utility-scale solar capacity and 2.8 GW of rooftop PV in the 12 months to Dec. 31, 2023.

The European Commission has informally approved Portugal and Spain’s request to extend the so-called “Iberian exemption” mechanism. The measure, which limits the price of natural gas for electricity production, was originally scheduled to end in May, but it will now run until the end of the year.

China sold the most heat pumps in the world in 2022, but Europe recorded the highest growth in overall sales, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). It says Italy, France, and Germany accounted for almost half of all sales in Europe, and notes that air-to-water heat pumps were the most popular technology.

The UK government is now evaluating a 3,800-km submarine cable that Xlinks plans to build. It will connect a 10.5 GW wind-solar facility in Morocco to locations in Wales and England. The UK authorities might eventually buy power from the plant via a contract-for-difference scheme.

Spain’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition says it is now reviewing a significant amount of hybrid wind-solar power projects. The developers include Iberdrola, Acciona, Forestalia, Ignis, and Enel Green Power.

Developers have until May 10 to submit bids to set up 2 GW of solar capacity anywhere in India, as long as the installations are connected to the interstate transmission system. The projects will be developed on a build-own-operate basis.

Altech Batteries, a battery tech company in Western Australia, has included “game-changing” sodium chloride technology in its new battery 1 MWh GridPack. It said it expects the new systems to be up to 40% cheaper to produce than dominant lithium-ion alternatives.

High interest rates and hefty capex drove up the average payback time for solar in Germany, Spain and Italy to around 20 years in 2022, according to a new report by SolarPower Europe (SPE) and Energy Brainpool. pv magazine recently spoke with SPE Market Analyst Christophe Lits to crunch the numbers.