Tariffs on solar glass harm the European solar industry. This problem can now be easily solved without jeopardizing the European solar glass production.
In another article of a series, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu) gives voice to Claire Gardner, Marketing Manager Europe at Chinese inverter manufacturer Solis. She tells how she had to deal with her own insecurities rather than with a women-hostile environment at the beginning of her career in the renewable energy industry.
In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that warm sea surface temperatures and disturbances increased onshore moisture along China’s southern coast, which in turn increased solar irradiance by 5-15% on long term averages.
In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, offers bite-sized analysis on solar PV module supply and price trends.
In 2023, solar photovoltaics and wind comprised about 80% of global net generation capacity additions. Four times as much new solar and wind electricity generation capacity was installed in 2023 as compared with all other electricity sources combined.
The Hungarian government has earmarked HUF 62 billion ($169 million) for grid-scale energy storage projects in a bid to facilitate further deployment of renewable energy sources.
Investment totaling €315.35 million ($337.8 million), consisting of funds from Eurobank and the Recovery and Resilience Fund Greece 2.0, will allow UK developer Lightsource bp to begin developing a 560 MW solar project located in the east of mainland Greece.
France’s EDF Renewables, South Korea’s Korea Western Power Co. (KOWEPO), and Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co. (Masdar) have agreed to jointly design, finance, build and operate a 1.5 GW solar project in the United Arab Emirates, under a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Emirates Water and Electricity Co. (EWEC).
Germany reached 86.2 GW of cumulative installed PV capacity at the end of March 2024.
Chinese module maker JinkoSolar says a fire broke out at its integrated module manufacturing facility in Taiyuan, China’s Shanxi province. It says the incident could affect its 2024 annual results.
The renewables arm of Singapore-based fund manager Cambridge RE Partners has unveiled plans for its first Australian project. It has submitted a development application to establish a 300 MW solar farm in northern Queensland.
An Australian research group has used an SMA inverter to switch the operating point of a PV array and has demonstrated its ability to create photoluminescence images for both rooftop and large scale solar installations.
Scientists in Israel have tested three different PV technologies to power a greenhouse hosting 400 cucumber seedlings. Their analysis has revealed that the PV module cover on the greenhouse’s roof has a “negligible” impact on crop yield, but they also noted that the greenhouse cover’s spectral transmittance and accumulated dust may negatively affect solar module performance.
As the Australian authorities launch rolling tenders for 32 GW of renewables and storage by 2030, it has become clear that some communities, including locals around pv magazine reporter Bella Peacock’s hometown, have not been brought onside. Heated debate on social media and a frenzy stoked by concerns about the impact on the natural environment are throwing up hurdles for renewables development.
The German parliament has approved “Solarpaket 1,” a policy package that includes higher feed-in tariffs for commercial and industrial (C&I) solar projects and new measures related to the size of eligible installations in large-scale solar auctions.
The France-based group said its has released two new BESSs with enclosures of 7ft and 20ft. Their power ranges from 60 kW to 500 kW.
SkyPower Global has signed a 1 GW solar power purchase agreement (PPA) with a Zambian utility to supply electricity to approximately 4 million homes. Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema hailed the significance of the deal amid ongoing droughts.
The Korea Institute of Energy Research has developed a solid oxide electrolysis cell stack that uses a special kind of separator plate to ensure proper flow of hydrogen and oxigen after water splitting. Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Bumhan Industries are now cooperating with the research center to improve relevant manufacturing process.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has issued its first report on the importance of battery energy storage technology in the energy transition. It has found that tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030 would require 1,500 GW of battery storage.
OCI has revealed plans to invest $617.9 million to expand production at its Malaysian manufacturing facility from 35,000 to 56,600 metric tons.
Chinese inverter manufacturer Sungrow shipped 130 GW of inverters last year, reaching a profit of $1.3 billion.
China Securities has revised its annual guidance for China, predicting up to 280 GW of new PV installations this year, while glass manufacturer Kibing and wafer maker HySolar revealed new solar investment plans.
German and Swedish researchers calculated the supply of materials to produce perovskite tandem PV at a multi-terawatt-scale, flagging the difficult supply of gold, indium and cesium, well as a need to streamline production of certain materials used for hole-transport layers. “In essence, we might be able to go post-fossil fuels, but we can’t go post-minerals,” the research’s corresponding author, Lukas Wagner, told pv magazine.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory developed a proof of concept for a method to remove polymers from solar panel manufacturing to enable more efficient recycling.
The European Parliament has approved the Net-Zero Industry Act, which now awaits formal adoption by the European Council to become law. The European Solar Manufacturing Council has welcomed the decision, saying that it “gives a green light for procurement of sustainable European-made solar panels.”
Aurora Energy Research says it has recorded a sharp increase in green hydrogen projects, with 90% of them in early phases of development, while E.ON says that Germany’s hydrogen ramp-up is stuck due to an investment backlog.
Researchers in China have designed a two-stage, solar-assisted thermochemical heat pump system that uses caustic soda and water as a working pair. The system is reportedly able to achieve an energy storage density of 363 kWh/m3 and is considered by its creators an ideal solution for residential buildings with limited space.
An international research team has proposed using iron oxide and copper oxide to lower photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) solar module temperature. Their analysis showed that the two compounds were able to lower the panels’ operating temperature by 23.49% and 34.58% respectively.
Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have identified a high-energy, high-power hybrid sodium-ion battery capable of charging in just a few seconds. The system integrates anode materials typically used in batteries with cathodes suitable for supercapacitors.
An African Development Bank (AfDB) report covering critical takeaways from the ARE Energy Access Investment Forum 2023 says that challenges in financing, policy, technology, and skills enhancement must be overcome to support the deployment of distributed renewable energy minigrids across Africa.