World’s largest rooftop PV plant powering Chinese industrial park
The 120 MW PV facility was grid-connected in late 2020 is located at an industrial park in China’s Shandong province. Sungrow supplied its string inverters for the project.
Residential solar demand is ‘through the roof’
One question is whether or not manufacturers can keep up with demand, particularly inverters and semiconductors.
Japan revises 2030 targets, plans to double renewables
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has released a draft energy plan with ambitious revisions to the nation’s previous energy and emissions targets. The proposed plan will sees a doubling of renewables compared to the previous target, and significant cuts to coal and gas, much of which it buys from Australia.
Brazil’s recent energy auctions
Solar developers only had limited success in Brazil’s latest energy auctions, with relatively higher prices for PV. Several analysts spoke to pv magazine about the results of the procurement exercises.
Organic solar panels designed with coloured Moiré effect
French organic PV specialist Armor, and a Dutch designer specialized in integrating PV in furniture, windows and other objects, have provided the module technology for the Netherlands’ pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.
Australian Vandium to fast-track manufacture of flow batteries
Western Australian company Australian Vanadium Limited has been awarded $3.69 million in federal government funding to fast-track manufacturing of large-scale vanadium redox flow battery systems that can be used to support rooftop solar PV or in off-grid settings such as mining, agriculture and remote communities.
Heat pumps bankable as incentive-free solutions in many applications
Two Italian experts on heat pumps and PV systems recently spoke to pv magazine about economies of scale, the European market, and the maturity of heating tech. The Eurac researchers said currently available heat pumps can run at -20 C and efficiently provide hot water up to 65 C.
NASA developing 10 kW movable PV array for moon mission
NASA plans to place a solar array on a tall mast to avoid lunar shading and capture uninterrupted light. It will hang a pair of PV cell blankets from a horizontal cross arm supported by the mast, anchored to a deployable tripod base.
Belgium’s Flanders region allocates 33 MW of PV in first renewables auction
The procurement exercise’s final prices for the PV source ranged from €0.0321 to €0.15 per kWh. The next auction will be held in September.
South Africa installed 1.3 GW of PV last year
Around 800 MW of last year’s new additions came from ground-mounted solar plants, and the remaining 500 MW from distributed generation.
