Renewables

The fifth round of South Africa’s REIPPPP scheme was launched in March 2021. The authorities allocated 2.6 GW of renewable energy capacity across 25 projects ranging in size from 75 MW to 140 MW.

State-owned Hindustan Salts Ltd. has invited bids to build and operate 1 GW of solar capacity on 5,000 acres of disused land in the Indian state of Gujarat. The developer will pay Hindustan Salts a fixed annual rental fee for the land. Bidding closes on May 25.

Lift Energy Storage Technology is a proposed long-term storage solution that relies on elevators to bring solid masses to the tops of buildings in charging mode. It then lowers the same mass to produce electricity in discharge mode.

Belgium’s latest renewables procurement exercise resulted in final prices for PV that ranged from €0.03 ($0.0316)/kWh to €0.06/kWh.

A unit of India’s NTPC has opened global bids to develop 250 MW/500 MWh of battery energy storage capacity in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The proposed plants will need to have enough capacity to store two hours of electricity. Bidding closes on June 6.

Investors have applied for an environmental assessment for about 5 GW of wind and solar in Australia, which will support plans to produce green hydrogen and ammonia at a massive new facility.

US government researchers have collected 10 observations from recent research papers that look at solar- or wind-plus-storage power plants in the United States.

US scientists have improved the performance of intermediate-temperature electrolyzers based on protonic ceramic electrochemical cells. Germany and India have signed a hydrogen cooperation deal, while ArcelorMittal has tested the use of green hydrogen in the production of direct reduced iron at a steel plant in Canada.

Germany’s cumulative installed PV capacity for all subsidized and unsubsidized PV systems stood at around 58.2 GW by the end of March.

FlexSolar has developed a foldable, portable PV briefcase kit with a charge controller and connection cables.