Sri Lanka to install rooftop solar at religious sites
Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Energy has launched a project to install rooftop solar arrays on places of worship throughout the island nation.
The Ceylon Electricity Board, the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority, and Lanka Electricity Co. are implementing the project, supported by a $17 million investment from the Indian government.
In the first phase, the partners will install 5,000 solar panel systems, each with a capacity of 5 kW, on the roofs of Buddhist temples, churches, mosques, and Hindu temples across Sri Lanka’s nine provinces. The installations are expected to be completed in early 2025.
The Sri Lankan government’s press agency has reported that this phase will add a total of 25 MW of solar capacity to the grid.
According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Sri Lanka had 966 MW of installed solar capacity at the end of last year.
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Trinasolar Evergreen unveils BIPV products for industrial, public use
Trinasolar Evergreen, Trina Solar's BIPV unit, has launched four new BIPV products aimed at public, industrial, and infrastructure projects. It introduced the new solutions at a recent event, as Trina Solar is actively targeting a share of the rapidly growing BIPV market.
The new line includes solar tiles for public building rooftops, solar industrial walls for factory facades, PV noise barriers for highway soundproofing, and colored PV glass for architectural glass installations. All products incorporate Trina’s tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar cell technology, achieving up to 21.9% efficiency in some models.
Trinasolar Evergreen said its solar tiles offer lightweight, color-customizable roofing for public and commercial buildings. It claimed that they meet national fire standards in China and can withstand winds up to 177 km/h. The tiles, equipped with TOPCon cells, produce up to 209 W per square meter at an efficiency of 19.4%.
The company's solar industrial walls are designed for factories and warehouses, featuring prefabricated, corrosion-resistant aluminum-magnesium steel for added durability. It said that TOPCon cells enable the facade solution to achieve 21.9% efficiency and 219 W per square meter.
Trinasolar Evergreen's PV noise barriers integrate soundproofing with solar tech for highway infrastructure. It said the solution, which is designed for quick installation, reduces sound by 35 dB and offers 18.4% efficiency at 184 W per square meter.
Its colored PV glass offering is designed for building facades, fencing, and canopies, allowing architects to select custom colors and textures. With up to 205 W per square meter, the product aligns with curtain wall standards for building facades, according to the company.
Trinasolar Evergreen said it offers a 25-year power guarantee for its BIPV products. The solar tiles also have a 10-year product warranty, while the colored PV glass has a five-year warranty. The other products have two-year warranties.
Since 2021, policies from China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the National Energy Administration have accelerated green construction, driven by dual-carbon goals. Analysts estimate that China’s 60 billion square meters of building space can hold 1,500 GW of PV capacity, with new construction adding 40 GW of potential every year.
Image: Trinasolar Evergreen
Trinasolar Evergreen, founded in 2024, operates as a BIPV subsidiary of Trinasolar Co., Ltd. Its core business includes green building design and consulting, as well as BIPV product and system solutions.
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French asset manager Mirova invests €480 million in Austrian developer RP Global
Paris-based asset management company Mirova has announced a total investment of €480 million ($519 million) in Austrian renewable energy developer RP Global.
Founded in 1984, the Vienna and Madrid-based RP Global has a development portfolio of more than 14 GWp, mainly photovoltaic, wind and storage. The transaction covers seven markets, Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Poland and Croatia.
The two players have been collaborating since 2015, particularly in project management. This financing therefore marks a further step in their collaboration. The transaction is being carried out via the Mirova Energy Transition 6 (MET6) fund, Mirova’s sixth fund dedicated to energy transition infrastructure, which will invest €200 million, allowing another co-investment vehicle managed by Mirova to invest €280 million. MET6 thus becomes a strategic minority shareholder in RP Global, which allows it to acquire IPP status.
“Mirova’s entry will help us move up a gear in terms of building sustainable infrastructure across the region and build a critical-size IPP,” said Gerhard Matzinger, CEO of RP Global, which aims to commission solar, wind and storage assets totaling more than 2,500 MWp of installed capacity in the next five years.
The company is also working on several hybrid assets. In France, RP Global began operations in 2008 and currently employs a team of 37 people based in Lille, Bordeaux and Avignon. It has so far developed and built more than 200 MW of generation assets, mostly wind, and has a 1.3 GW solar and wind pipeline at various stages of development.
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Construction begins on 20 MW solar plant in Namibia
Construction is underway on a 20 MW solar plant in Namibia’s Otjozondjupa region, owned entirely by London-based renewables developer Solarcentury Africa.
The company is funding the $20 million project with backing from its parent, energy trading group BB Energy. Namibia’s Sino Energy is co-developing the project.
Solarcentury Africa says this will be the first fully merchant independent power producer in the region, selling all 51 GWh of annual output on the Southern African Power Pool, a network of Southern African electricity companies.
Jason De Carteret, CEO of Solarcentury Africa, said the project offers a “forward-looking alternative to the traditional energy procurement model … The fully merchant structure means Solarcentury Africa will trade directly into the regional grid and removes the requirement for long-term [power purchase agreements] backed by sovereign guarantees, enabling faster implementation of new renewable power plants with greater flexibility.”
The project has secured a generation license from Namibia’s Electricity Control Board, connection agreements from utility NamPower, and an Environmental Clearance Certificate from Namibia’s Ministry of Environment.
Namibian contractor Alensy Energy Solutions Pty Ltd. has been selected to build the plant. Commissioning is scheduled for the third quarter of 2025.
Earlier this year, Solarcentury Africa announced construction of a 60 MW merchant solar project in southern Namibia. The company said it also has merchant projects in Zambia and Botswana in advanced stages of development.
According to figures from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Namibia’s cumulative installed solar capacity stood at 176 MW at the end of 2023.
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Go Energy Group plans to install 170 MW of green hydrogen and ammonia in Spain
A few weeks ago, the International Energy Agency (IEA) published its Global Hydrogen Review 2024, which shows how the clean hydrogen sector is adding more projects and more final investment decisions, “but setbacks persist”: of the 20 GW of electrolysers announced worldwide, only 6.5 GW have confirmed their final investment decision (FID). In Spain, two oil companies have threatened to halt electrolyser projects in the event that a 1.2% tax is applied to large energy companies.
Joaquin Verdeguer Asensi, CEO in Spain of the United Arab Emirates company Go Energy Group, has shared with pv magazine that the company's plans to develop two projects in the Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley are still on track: specifically, a 100 MW green hydrogen and ammonia plant in San Juan del Puerto, and another 70 MW plant in Gibraleón. The investment for the two projects will exceed €300 million.
The company stresses that, despite “the recent appearance of news about some energy companies that have decided to stop their investments or renewable energy projects in Spain” last week, “the two applications for Integrated Environmental Authorization from Go Energy have been registered to continue with all the administrative procedures required to start the construction of the aforementioned industrial plants, which require a multi-million euro investment.”
The company adds that “all the documentation submitted to obtain the Integrated Environmental Authorisations has been prepared by a multidisciplinary team of more than 50 people belonging to different leading companies such as engineering group TSK, the Garrigues law firm, and local companies in the province of Huelva for environmental aspects and other types of specialised studies on soil, noise pollution, emissions into the atmosphere, etc.” In this sense, they explain that they intend to promote specialised employment in the municipalities of Gibraleon and San Juan del Puerto “and that is why they are designing a very comprehensive training plan with local corporations, allocating resources for this purpose.”
“During the month of October, the president of Go Energy Group has visited countries such as Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where he has found great interest from large corporations to establish collaborations in the company's investments in Spain,” he explains.
The company is also developing two renewable hydrogen projects in the Balearic Islands using alkaline technology, as well as a green hydrogen plant in the Valencian Community town of Almussafes.
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US utilities discuss advanced conductors to enable 764 GW of solar by 2035
As 2,100 GW of solar and storage projects await transmission interconnection in the United States, reconductoring transmission with high-capacity or “advanced” conductors could enable interconnection of 764 GW of utility-scale solar, researchers have found.
Reconductored lines can cost-effectively double transmission capacity within existing rights-of-way, enabling projects near reconductored lines to more easily interconnect.
Two utilities with experience in reconductoring transmission lines shared their experience with advanced conductors and their “lessons learned” in a webinar hosted by Energy Central, a news service for the power and utilities industry.
Insights from the two utilities, NV Energy in Nevada and Southern California Edison (SCE), could prove helpful to other utilities.
For example, the US federally-owned utility Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), serving primarily Washington, Oregon and Idaho, said in January it has “begun the process” to analyze and qualify advanced conductors to increase the capacity of its grid, adding that the process “can take months or years of physical testing and analyses.”
Analysts at Energy Innovation and GridLab have challenged BPA’s approach, which they said is common across many other transmission providers. They suggested that utilities should rely on real-world deployments or other peer organizations’ testing. The analysts said BPA’s approach “considerably slows integration of many emerging technologies, not just advanced conductors.”
NV Energy has been reconductoring lines with advanced conductors since 2009, said Jim Lehan, the company’s manager of transmission and civil engineering. He said the advanced conductors the company uses have survived a transmission tower blown sideways by high wind, as well as fire exposure.
The utility now has 76 miles of advanced conductors across 20 circuits, and is developing additional projects that will use 56 miles of advanced conductors. Lehan said that a type of advanced conductor known as ACCC, made by CTC Global, “has become a standard for us, because it’s so high-capacity.” As the utility faces demand growth “we are putting up” advanced conductors “everywhere we can,” he said.
In California, SCE has installed 385 circuit-miles of ACCC conductors since 2016, said Robin Castro, the utility’s transmission and distribution asset engineering manager, and expects to install 300 to 400 more circuit-miles of the conductors by 2030.
SCE expects to invest up to $75 billion in its grid from 2030 to 2045, Castro said, including reconductoring existing lines and building new circuits, to integrate a predicted 80 GW of “new clean generation, which includes wind and solar” and 30 GW of battery storage.
SCE has “moved to ACCC InfoCore as our standard moving forward,” he said. That type of ACCC conductor has optical fibers embedded in the conductor’s core, through which a signal may be sent to check core integrity.
David Bryant, CTC Global’s director of technology, said on the webinar that “probably 95%” of the reconductoring projects the firm has done “have generally saved the utility money and/or accommodated a little bit of projected growth.”
He described a new transmission line in Canada that was “able to get a 65% increase in capacity at a cost delta of only about 1%” of the overall project cost by using ACCC conductors instead of an alternative type of conductor.
Bryant also noted the benefits of reduced line losses from advanced conductors, which he said “usually are not taken into consideration in the United States, because those losses are just passed along to consumers.”
The US Department of Energy, in its call for a national collaboration to deploy technologies that can increase transmission capacity, flagged reconductoring as having a substantial potential to do so.
A recording of the webinar is available online.
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German government funding for renewable energy expected tor each €18 billion in 2025
The Energy Economics Institute (EWI) at the University of Cologne has published its medium-term forecast for Germany's Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) in which it estimates funding to reach more than €18 billion ($19.48 billion) in 2025 — an increase of almost €1 billion compared to 2023.
What the Cologne researchers do not write is that it would probably be a decrease compared to this year. In 2024, by the end of September, almost €15 billion had flowed from the federal budget to the transmission system operators in order to keep the EEG account balanced, as detailed on netztransparenz.de, the joint homepage of the transmission system operators. The financing requirements determined a year ago significantly underestimated the costs. They will probably be just under €20 billion, as can be seen from the EWI's medium-term forecast.
The EWI's medium-term forecast extends to 2029. The Cologne-based researchers expect generation capacity from renewable energy sources to roughly double to more than 300 GW by 2029, compared to 2023. Under average weather conditions, this would result in a generation volume of 380 TWh. “EEG subsidy payments could rise to almost €23 billion in the same period despite the fact that 22 GW of solar and wind energy plants will no longer be eligible for EEG subsidies with high remuneration rates by 2029,” the EWI stated.
In the trend scenario, the one with the highest probability of occurrence, the EWI anticipates strong growth in installed capacity. “The greatest increase in assumed capacity is in open-space solar systems, whose expected installed capacity could more than triple by the end of 2029 compared to 2023,” said Fabian Arnold, project lead at EWI. The key factors behind that expected growth are falling technology costs and the regulatory framework, which has improved significantly, he added. Among those regulatory improvements are higher funding rates and tender volumes as well as the reduction of bureaucracy. In the scenario, EWI assumes an installed PV capacity of around 200 GW for 2029, almost 124 GW of which will come from open-space systems.
However, the increasing number of new installations is not the only factor for the rising EEG funding costs. A decline in expected market values is another important reason for the projected increase in EEG payments in the medium term, according to the EWI. As market values continue to fall, the difference to the promised subsidy levels increases and, in total, the costs for the EEG payments. “In particular, the market values of solar systems are falling in our simulation calculations due to the high level of simultaneity in their production. As a result, the subsidy payments via the EEG are increasing disproportionately to the expected expansion,” said Philip Schnaars, the EWI's head of research area.
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Record year for UK small-scale battery storage
From ESS News
It’s been a record-shattering year for accredited battery storage installations in the United Kingdom. September 2024 was the best month on record according to data collected by UK certification body MCS, with 1,193 recorded certified installations recorded.
Certification isn’t required to install battery storage alongside PV, and MCS data will not capture all installations, but growth among certified installers has surged. In 2023, the scheme recorded just 4,965 accredited battery installations for the year, compared to 13,263 year-to-date at the end of September 2024.
Alex Hughes, head of scheme at MCS, told ESS News that battery storage is “the fastest growing technology on the scheme.”
More than 5,000 UK contractors currently hold MCS certification, with 77% certified for solar PV, 58% for heat pumps and 34% for battery storage. MCS is a voluntary certification scheme, however using an MCS-certified installer is the only way households can guarantee access to the Smart Export Guarantee export tariff, a UK government’s successor to the feed-in tariff.
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The Outback communities embracing solar
Marlinja is a remote Northern Territory (NT) Aboriginal community of fewer than 100 people, living in about 16 houses, eight hours' drive from the nearest capital city. The rust-colored terrain is sculpted by sweeping flood plains, shaded by sparse ragged woodland, and fringed by distant sand hills, all under a vast Outback sky.
Marlinja is 715 km south of Darwin down the Stuart Highway. It’s a place where 60 Mudburra and Jingili people have collided with the country’s promise they be equally included in Australia’s energy transition.
The community has endured years of energy and water insecurity, sparking a five-year quest to change government and utility policy and give Marlinja access to renewable energy.
Marlinja resident Chantelle Johns said 50% of electricity disconnections arise from maintenance challenges on a 25 km feeder line from a hybrid gas and diesel power station in the nearby village of Elliott.
Hybrid power stations are used across the NT for remote communities which collectively consume around 25 million liters of diesel annually. When infrastructure fails, that can mean a three-hour-plus wait for technicians from towns more than 250 km away and if it’s summer, 40 C-plus temperatures are an added burden.
The effects of regular disconnection, including food and medicine spoilage and economic, educational, and health impacts, are felt most by the elderly and very young. “One time we were out of power for five days straight so we were collecting firewood and cooking outside and the nearest running tap to fill buckets was a 15-minute walk each way,” said Johns.
Frustrated Marlinja residents joined forces with Aboriginal organization Original Power, which advocates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s right to self-determination.
Original Power helped research options and rooftop solar became first choice but there was no established business model for rooftop panels on social housing or political will in the Territory’s housing department to enable Original Power’s proposed asset management framework.
The plan B is the Marlinja Microgrid. Built using a 100 kW 5B Maverick solar array, 136 kWh GoodWe battery, and GoodWe hybrid inverter, the microgrid is ready to power the community’s homes.
Prepaid meter
One last hurdle remains: around 10,000 NT social housing customers use costly prepaid meters that have to be manually topped up. For the first time ever in these communities, plans are in place to enable solar credits on household meters, shared on a community scale.
Johns said, on the prepaid meter, she has paid AUD 200 ($133) weekly to run air-conditioning, fans, and the fridge for four to six people during summer.
Original Power NT Clean Energy Communities Coordinator Lauren Mellor said energy insecurity is a recurring problem in communities like Marlinja. “Having reliable power is the ability for people to participate and fully realize their own, their family’s, or their community’s aspirations because in the past they’ve been too busy just trying to keep the lights on,” she said. “Once technology like microgrids became available it was really only the structural and policy barriers that we saw the need to overcome to give people the ingredients to self-determine development in their own communities.”
Mellor said energy access and inclusion became a priority for Original Power, which saw the economic benefits that it could bring.
“At the national level there are huge opportunities for First Nations communities and interests to be involved in some of these large-scale projects but at the same time, there’s a lot of hype about us becoming a renewable energy superpower,” Mellor said. “There are many, many First Nations communities being left behind on energy access so we wanted to work at that level and see if we can solve that challenge in addition to making sure people have a seat at the table when they’re deciding on small- or large-scale energy development.”
Yindjibarndi Energy
Large-scale clean energy developments that benefit his nation are close to Michael Woodley’s heart. As Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation’s (YAC) chief executive officer, Woodley and a dedicated team have spent almost a decade building a pretext for a First Nations 25%- to 50%-owned utility-scale solar, wind, and battery development.
The Yindjibarndi Energy Corporation (YEC) is a partnership between YAC and Philippines-headquartered renewables giant ACEN, a subsidiary of Ayala Group. The partners will develop, own, and operate up to 3 GW of utility-scale renewables on traditional land.
With an AUD 1 billion, 750 MW first stage and a 2 GW to 3 GW stage-two development in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, the collaboration is one of the largest renewable energy Indigenous partnerships in Australia.
Yindjibarndi Ngurra, or country, covers approximately 13,000 km2 under various native title rules and is owned by the Yindjibarndi. “It’s significant that the Yindjibarndi have come to a point where we take climate change and its effect on Ngurra very seriously, so we obviously want to assist in making sure that climate change doesn’t affect our country more than it has already,” said Woodley. “We also want to contribute to our global responsibility by stepping up to the platform on becoming an organization that can contribute to our global objective of reducing emissions as much as we can, or reaching our targets anyway.”
Woodley said YAC is the first such entity to develop large-scale, Indigenous-owned clean energy generation, demonstrating to First Nations people that it can be done.
“First Nations people can be leaders in this and this is something that obviously ticks all the boxes with establishing a long-term sustainable business that provides opportunities and jobs and training to our people but also puts funding back into our community where we can continue to sustain our way of life,” he said.
Going it alone
YEC Chief Executive Officer Craig Ricato said Yindjibarndi interest in renewables was first piqued when developers approached YAC about developing renewables installations on their land.
After researching what opportunities clean energy could create for Yindjibarndi people, the landowners opted for something novel. “We didn’t want this to be ‘mining 2.0’,” said Ricato. “We’d heard about Indigenous people participating in the energy transition and we really wanted to understand what that could mean. After all our research was done, the conclusion was, why not just do it ourselves.”
A Yindjibarndi renewable energy subsidiary company called Yiyangu was established and a capacity partner was sought and found in ACEN, after which the partnership of YEC was formed. “We have fundamental points in our agreement with ACEN. The first approval that we receive before we undertake feasibility for a project is from the YAC, the YNAC [Yindjibarndi Ngurra Aboriginal Corporation] and the Elders. They sign off on what we’d like to build and where we’d like to build it,” Ricato said.
Yindjibarndi people will own a minimum of 25% of the equity of every completed project and Yindjibarndi businesses and people will get preference on contracts, jobs, and apprenticeships.
“One of the reasons Yindjibarndi are doing this is not just the long-term economic outcome for the community but you’ve got a community than can visibly observe the changes in the flora and fauna,” said Ricato. “They’re losing their biodiversity; places are becoming drier and animals are going away. So they can really see climate change happening and they want to be involved and be part of the broader Pilbara community by providing a long-term economic outcome when mining’s gone.” Yindjibarndi lands are surrounded by mining infrastructure, which the YEC sees as an opportunity to help decarbonize the sector.
In 2023, YEC signed a memorandum of understanding with mining company Rio Tinto to study and evaluate solar, battery energy storage, and wind systems. The memorandum’s initial focus will be on a solar array to supply Rio Tinto’s four gas-fired power stations in the Pilbara that would need 600 MW to 700 MW of renewables generation to replace them.
“What we do is a blueprint for other First Nations groups and we’re happy to have that conversation with them too, to show them what we’ve done,” said Woodley. “We’re pleased as well, we have something to offer. If we want to continue to hold on to our identity and operate as a nation we have to act like a nation and the first thing you do is start making mainstream Australia aware of our structure and our aspirations to be a part of this nation’s growth and prosperity. If we don’t lead that, sadly, no-one will lead for us.”
Woodley added that the organization aims to use the same system that once exploited them to ensure their survival. He said that by leveraging capitalism, they can protect what they value most – their Ngurra, their land, and their identity as a First Nations group.
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US solar factories: From announcements to reality
Outgoing US President Joe Biden’s administration has placed infrastructure funding and job creation in the manufacturing sector at the heart of its policy messaging. The administration is beginning to see the fruits of its labors as legislation such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors Act, and 2022’s IRA move from interpretation to action.
The IRA created incentives both on the supply and demand side for clean energy manufacturers, and global investors have taken notice. Clean energy projects installed in the United States that source at least 40% of their equipment from domestic manufacturers are awarded a 10% tax credit that is fully transferable to other entities with tax appetites, for cash. The act also created significant supply-side tax credits tied to the production of various components along the solar supply chain. For instance, PV module makers earn tax credits of $0.07/W of panel generation capacity until 2029, while residential inverters are credited $0.065/W.
Carrot and stick
The Biden administration has employed the stick as well as the carrot in its bid to encourage domestic clean energy manufacturing. The United States has been attempting to create a more level playing field for domestic solar manufacturers via a multi-pronged crackdown on imports from China. The government has done that in various ways, including through the investigation of alleged antidumping and countervailing duty violations, which can peg importers with tariffs ranging from 50% to 250%. The administration enforces the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, cutting off supply from one of China’s prominent polysilicon producing regions. The Biden administration has also increased direct Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports – referencing a clause in the 1974 Trade Act – including doubling the solar cell tariff to 50%.
All told, the carrot-and-stick approach appears to be working to achieve the goal of bringing back well-paid manufacturing jobs to US shores. In 2023, more than $5.1 billion worth of solar manufacturing projects were announced, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). That represented 470% year-on-year growth. In the first quarter of 2024 alone, US solar module manufacturing grew 71%, from 15.6 GW of annual production capacity to 26.6 GW, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
The SEIA said that at the end of the first quarter of 2024, the United States could meet about 30% of demand with domestically made solar modules. But while the solar module manufacturing business is going strong, the upstream supply chain is still underserved. Many factory announcements have come to fruition, but some plans have already been scrapped.
Since September 2023, Qcells has expanded its Georgia module factory to 8.4 GW and First Solar has increased production in Ohio to 6.3 GW. New capacity has also come from Canadian Solar (with 5 GW more annual module production capacity), Longi and Invenergy joint venture Illuminate USA (5 GW, modules), and REC Silicon (6 GW, polysilicon), according to Reuters.
Despite the ramp-up in factory announcements, there are also a number of cancellations. The US Energy Information Administration has reported that solar module imports increased 82% to 54 GW in 2023, as prices fell rapidly. That oversupply in the market has challenged equipment manufacturers as they prepare plans to lay out capital for a footprint in the United States.
Looking ahead, analyst Wood Mackenzie expects the gap between announced projects and those that get built to increase. In 2024, WoodMac expects 38 GW of the 53 GW of announced module manufacturing capacity (71%) to come online. By 2026, some 66 GW of a 141 GW of project plans (46%) is expected to materialize.
While suppliers that are already “well known and bankable” in the United States are expanding, others cannot secure offtake for their products, according to Elissa Pierce, research analyst at WoodMac. Major brand names including JinkoSolar, Qcells, and Canadian Solar have successfully set up operations in the United States.
Other companies have had to halt or cancel plans. In February 2024, CubicPV revealed that it had scrapped plans to develop a 10 GW silicon wafer factory in the United States. That decision came just two months after Massachusetts-based CubicPV signed an eight-year deal, valued at around $1 billion, to become the first US-based customer of South Korean silicon producer OCI’s low-carbon, US-compliant silicon.
Under the terms of the agreement, OCI would have begun supplying polysilicon to feed CubicPVs planned wafer fab in 2025. CubicPV has since said it will now focus instead on producing tandem solar modules.
In August 2024, Meyer Burger announced it would cancel plans to open a 2 GW solar cell manufacturing facility in Colorado. The Swiss PV manufacturer said construction of the plant at Colorado Springs was no longer financially viable and the company’s board of directors also instructed management to draw up a comprehensive restructuring and cost-cutting program for the business. A planned 700 MW expansion of Meyer Burger’s 1.4 GW module production plant in Goodyear, Arizona, has also been put on hold.
The European manufacturer had sought a debt finance package backed by the monetization of tax credits available through the IRA. Announcing the Colorado production facility in July 2023, Meyer Burger had said it planned to monetize up to $1.4 billion in tax credits from the start of production in 2024 until the end of 2032.
The company said it will continue to seek debt finance on a reduced scale by monetizing the tax credits available to its US module production facility. It added that its financing requirements will be “significantly lower” due to halting the Colorado Springs plant.
CubicPV and Meyer Burger’s decision to cancel multibillion-dollar projects are evidence of how quickly dynamics can shift as the energy transition cycles its way to full maturity.
Sustainable prices
Opening a solar manufacturing facility in the United States is no small feat. The largest and most comprehensive project announced since the IRA passed into law is Qcells’ vertically-integrated manufacturing facility in Georgia, which includes a 3.3 GW expansion of annual ingot, wafer, cell, and module production capacity. That fab is expected to require around $2.5 billion in capital investment.
Many NREL manufacturing cost analyses use a bottom-up modeling approach. The federal laboratory individually models the cost of materials, equipment, facilities, energy, and labor associated with each step in the production process.
The NREL uses a “minimum sustainable price” (MSP) model to understand the viability of manufacturing facilities. MSP is the value that provides a minimum rate of return necessary in a given industry to support a sustainable business over the long term. The figure is calculated based on manufacturing and overhead costs plus other financial considerations such as finance, discount rates, and tax incentives. Solar has seen a lot of shifts in such financial considerations, both headwinds and tailwinds. Supportive policies like the IRA are driving the business case for some while high borrowing costs are damaging the model for others.
After summing up manufacturing and overhead costs, a manufacturer can arrive at an MSP by assuming an operating margin typically desired when pricing products in a given industry. That operating margin accounts for interest payments, profit, and the corporate tax rate.
Average U.S. solar manufacturer operating margins shrank for three straight quarters through the first quarter of 2024, according to the NREL, as falling prices and low demand cut into profits. The government lab also notes that operating margins have ranged from close to zero to around 10% since September 2022. In a notable exception, First Solar’s operating margins remained above 30% for a third consecutive quarter through the first quarter. Despite recent declines in margins, most big manufacturers have remained profitable since the second quarter of 2019.
With an operating margin in hand, an MSP can be determined and this minimum sustainable price helps the NREL assess project viability in different ways. Firstly, an MSP enables a direct comparison of the cost of different technology. Market prices aren’t ideal for such a comparison because manufacturers might be selling well above or below their production costs, according to the federal body. Furthermore, an MSP can provide a way to estimate what prices and margins might be for manufacturers when no public information is available.
Another important aspect of the MSP is that this minimum price will adjust over time as costs change. The resulting number is not the absolute minimum sustainable price that could be achieved by a given technology; just a minimum at that time and location.
The NREL has also developed a Detailed Costs Analysis Model (DCAM) to support manufacturing project vetting. The model, operating on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Open EI website, is a cloud-based tool to calculate the cost of manufacturing components and installing energy systems. DCAM underpins many of the NREL’s solar manufacturing cost analyses and is publicly available.
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New kesterite solar cell design promises 29.37% efficiency
A group of researchers from China and Malaysia has proposed a new structure for copper zinc tin sulphide (CZTS) thin film solar cells in a bid to improve efficiency and use more environmentally-friendly materials.
The team chose tungsten oxide (WO3) as a buffer layer based on its properties and performance uncovered in earlier research, such as its high bandgap and “excellent electrical conductivity,” It was used to replace the cadmium sulfide (CdS) buffer layer, which the team said is toxic and has a high cost. In addition, the team chose to apply a back surface field (BSF) based on Cu2ZnSnSe4 (CZTSe) between the absorber layer and the metal substrate Platinum (Pt).
In the study, one device was structured without the BSF layer, with zinc oxide (ZnO) as the window layer, WO3 as the buffer layer, CZTS as the absorber layer, and Pt metal substrate, noted by the researchers as Pt/CZTS/WO3/ZnO structure. The other device was similarly structured but with an additional CZTSe BSF layer sandwiched between the CZTS and Pt layers, which was noted as Pt/CZTSe/CZTS/WO3/ZnO structure.
The group then analyzed the structures with and without the BSF layer. It investigated how the layer thickness, operating temperature, back contact layers, acceptors, and defects in the BSF layer affected the performance using SCAPS-1D solar cell capacitance software, developed by the University of Ghent.
Comparison between the two structures demonstrated that the addition of the BSF layer could increase the erformance of the CZTS solar cell. The best results of the Pt/CZTSe/CZTS/WO3/ZnO device indicated an open circuit voltage of 1.2 V, a fill factor of 83.37%, and a power conversion efficiency of 29.3%. This was an improved result compared to the solar cell without a BSF layer, which had an efficiency of 23.01%, according to the team.
In concluding remarks, the scientists said that in industrial practices it is necessary to consider material costs, environmental sustainability, and material defect density to achieve large-scale production. “Future research should focus on advancing the development and stability of multi-heterojunction solar cells, exploring metal ion doping, and improving thin film techniques,” they said, asserting that this research ought to provide a new way to improve the performance of similarly structured solar cells to enable the industrialization of low cost and high-efficiency PV cells.
The research is documented in “Efficiency enhancement of CZTS solar cell with WO3 buffer layer using CZTSe BSF layer,” published in Energy Reports. The research team had scientists from China-based Wuhan University, Malysia-based Multimedia University, and Xiamen University Malaysia.
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Why were prices so high in Ireland’s latest renewables auction?
Ireland allocated around 960 MW of PV capacity in the fourth Renewable Electricity Support Scheme auction (RESS 4) it held on Aug 28. The procurement exercise concluded with an auction final average price of €0.09685/kWh, which is 4% less than in the previous round. The final average prices for the PV and wind technology were €0.10476/kWh and €0.09047/kWh, respectively.
Compared to other auctions held this year in Germany, Croatia, the UK, and Italy, Ireland’s RESS 4 auction prices were very high.
The Irish Solar Energy Association (ISEA) said that government intervention is needed to further reduce final prices, both for industry and end consumers. Ahead of RESS 4, the association lobbied for a price cap of €0.12/kWh to cover the industry’s costs, but the request was not granted and the final cap for solar was €0.11/kWh.
Speaking to pv magazine after the final auction results were announced, the ISEA’s CEO, Conall Bolger, said there needed to be “a state focus on cost reduction” overall.
In a statement to pv magazine in response to questions about the high RESS 4 prices, a spokesperson for the Irish government’s Department of the Environment, Climate and Communication (DECC), said the RESS 4 results compare well with other recent renewable energy auctions in Europe in terms of volume procured and auction prices when adjustments for scheme specific designs are accounted for, such as indexation or contract length, among other factors.
“In terms of what can be done to bring down prices, there are a number of topics which are always kept under consideration for each auction such as support duration, indexation, compensation for dispatch down,” the spokesperson said.
From an industry perspective, the final RESS 4 strike price was not so high when the costs associated with planning and developing solar plants are factored in. “To be honest, it's not a high price. It's still a significant discount to what we're seeing as the day ahead market price for energy in Ireland,” Justin Brown, co-CEO of Power Capital Renewable Energy (PCRE), one of Ireland’s biggest independent power producers (IPPs), told pv magazine.
“Ireland's day ahead price is set by imported natural gas. So, we have three or four days of gas supply here in Ireland at any one stage and therefore the day ahead price is set by the price of gas and what you're seeing is the day ahead price on average has been well in excess of 100 euros per megawatt hour. So, it’s comparable to what the market is getting already in terms of natural gas,” he further explained.
According to the spokesperson for the government, the department regularly monitors levelized cost of energy (LCOE) modeling around each auction to see what impact these changes should have on both LCOEs and bid prices to try to balance the risk profile for developers and consumers. The results impact the design of the auction, they added. Stakeholders are involved in consultation along the way.
PCRE expects to achieve the financial close on the two projects it secured in RESS 4 in early 2025. The company has been successful in all four Irish auctions. From the auctions, it has more than 1 GW of projects either in the construction phase or ready-to-build phase.
According to Brown, Ireland’s solar market makes it extremely difficult for smaller developers to operate. Cost is a big factor. “Our industry is no different to any infrastructure industry,” he added. “We've seen an increase in the cost of infrastructure right across the board. The cost of building and development in Ireland is higher. That affects everything from the cost of construction, the cost of materials, the cost of labor. Even grid connection is substantially more expensive here than it is in the UK or in mainland Europe.”
Brown added that the auctions coincided with a high-interest rate environment. “But that may be tailing off now so we might see a compression in the next auction, but ultimately what we have felt is any benefit that the reduction of interest rates is having is probably being absorbed in terms of the other costs.”
Other contributing factors to high prices are Ireland’s slow planning system and limited grid connection. As Brown said, it can be extraordinarily difficult to get planned projects agreed at local government level. This squeezes smaller developers out of the market.
“We also have very limited interconnection here. We are the furthest West, non-land connected European country, so even transport costs, logistics, getting your deliveries to Ireland, as opposed to somewhere else, is more expensive. This means your cost per unit is higher, and that's from legal costs, right through to county council costs, planning, grid connection, installation cost, all this stacks together to drive prices up,” said Brown.
The Irish government’s level of intervention may be unsatisfactory for many stakeholders, but it has made some modest progress on grid connection and planning and development. The Planning and Development Bill 2023 was signed into law by the president of Ireland on October 17.
Eva Barrett, director of policy and regulation at the ISEA, said the Act represents “a significant shift in the planning landscape, introducing both opportunities and challenges for the solar sector.” However, she added that the practical impacts on solar project approvals remained uncertain for the time being.
An update to Ireland’s Electricity Connection Policy by its utilities watchdog in September of this year may also shake the market up somewhat. The new policy is designed to allow for more small-scale projects and faster permitting processes. The ISEA welcomed it as “a positive step forward for Ireland’s renewable energy sector.”
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EBRD, European Investment Bank fund 99 MW of solar in Croatia
The EBRD and the EIB have signed loan agreements with Croatian state-owned utility Hrvatska elektroprivreda (HEP) for the construction of a 99 MW solar plant. The loan contracts total €62 million, consisting of €31.6 million from the ERBD and €30.4 million from the EIB.
The solar plant will be built near the village of Korlat in southwestern Croatia. It will be located next to a 58 MW wind farm, which was built in 2021. HEP said it plans to integrate the two sites into a hybrid energy project.
Construction of the solar park is set to begin during the first quarter of 2025, with commissioning scheduled for 2026.
Grzegorz Zielinski, EBRD's head of energy Europe, said the project is set to become the largest solar plant in HEP’s renewable energy portfolio. The EBRD has invested more than €4.7 billion through 252 projects in Croatia to date.
Croatia deployed 238.7 MW of solar in 2023, according to figures from RES Croatia.
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PV Hardware unveils solar tracker
PV Hardware (PVH), a Spanish manufacturer of solar trackers and mounting systems, has unveiled a new solar tracker for utility-scale projects.
Dubbed AxoneDuo Infinity, the new tracker is reportedly able to work with linked or unlinked PV rows with two, three, or four strings per row.
“Our latest solar tracker is designed for maximum adaptability to any terrain. With the lowest number of motors and controllers per string, it offers various combinations to suit any configuration,” a spokesperson from the company told pv magazine. “Thanks to PVH's pre-assembly service, some parts arrive pre-assembled from the factory, leading to up to 40% savings in field labor hours.”
The tracker's rotational range is 60 degrees and it can turn to 75 degrees during hail. It uses an astronomical algorithm with GPS input to calculate the position of the panels, using one central control unit per solar plant. The unit is self-powered by the solar energy produced.
The company added that every PV module can be connected to the tracker using bolts or rivets. They also said the product has a low height and is “strategically designed to withstand adverse weather conditions, providing great durability against harsh weather conditions.”
Furthermore, the AxoneDuo is said to have a slope tolerance of up to 15% on north/south. If the rows are unlinked, there is an unlimited slope tolerance on east/ west, and if they are linked, the tolerance is 15%.
The structure has a warranty of 10 years and the electrical parts of 5 years.
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Around 40% of PV plants deployed in Germany are close to transport routes
New research conducted by scientists from the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig has shown that more than 39% of Germany's operational PV plants corresponding to approximately 6.9 GW are located within 500 m of a transport route such as a railway, a highway, or a federal road.
“In Germany, areas covered by PV plants next to transport routes are mostly agricultural areas with all levels of yield potential,” the research's corresponding author, David Manske, told pv magazine. “The German legislator is in a position to ease this point of conflict by excluding areas above a selected threshold value of yield potential in line with existing potential studies.”
In the study “The development of ground-mounted photovoltaic systems next to transport routes,” published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, the research team explained the main goal of their work was to assess if the regulatory changes introduced in 2023 by the amendment of the country's renewable energy law, the so-called EEG, have impacted the expansion of PV plants next to transport routes.
Their initial hypothesis is that, in particular, five new provisions contained in the new EEG version released in 2023, which make it easier to build PV plants close to transport routes, will have an influence on the expansion of these projects and increase land use conflicts.
The group used geospatial data from the Manske & Schmiedt dataset created by the same Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig and PV system data from the German Federal Network Agency's Core Energy Market Data Register, with the latter providing information on 8,965 PV plants totaling 17.18 GW and occupying a total surface of 27,000 ha as of April April 20, 2023.
It also utilized the Digital Basic Landscape Model (BasisDLM) to collect data on the transport routes and the Corine Land Cover (CLC) dataset was used to measure the land type occupied by ground-mounted PV systems. It also used the so-called Soil Quality Rating for Cropland in Germany dataset to estimate the quality of arable land affected by PV systems.
Through their analysis, the academics found that, on average, there are 0.12 ha of PV plants within the mandatory 500-m strip for every km of road or railway track and 0.16 ha for every km of railway, as well as 0.1 ha for every km of federal road and 0.21 ha for every km of federal highway.
“The area data for ground-mounted PV plants indicate that more and more hectares of PV plants are being erected next to transport routes since the first monitored plant was installed in 1988,” they highlighted, adding that, previous to the new rules, the strips alongside transport routes could not be wider than 200 m, while until 2020 this limit was set at 100 m. “In 2021, 82 ha of PV plants were installed within the newly subsidized 110-200-m strip, which increased in 2022 to 125 ha.”
The researchers also found that about 71% of the PV plants installed next to transport routes are located on what was once agricultural land. “The PV plants examined in this study are located on former agricultural land cover soil that is of high quality (1407 ha), very low quality (1130 ha as of April 2023), low quality (1110 ha), and medium soil quality (1057 ha),” the research group emphasized. “Good soil quality does not seem to be an exclusion criterion for the installation of PV plants.”
The scientists said that policymakers may contribute to reducing land use conflicts by excluding areas “above a selected threshold value of yield potential in line with existing potential studies.”
The research project is part of the EE-Monitor initiative which is intended to provide a scientifically sound basis for a social debate on the nature-friendly expansion of renewable energies in Germany, while supporting the identification of undesirable developments and positive trends in the expansion of renewable energy.
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Test bench for aboveground compressed air energy storage systems
Researchers from Canada have analyzed the performances of an aboveground compressed air energy storage system (CAES) with both an experimental setup and a numerical model. A quasi-steady-state approach for system modeling was then able to predict different parameters of the experimental setup with a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of less than 4%.
“This study hypothesizes that the development of a fully instrumented test bench and an advanced numerical model, integrating real air properties and accounting for heat transfer dynamics, will significantly improve the model capability in representing the real behavior of CAES systems by minimizing errors,” they explained. “It is further hypothesized that this improved model will enable a detailed parametric analysis, which will help identify specific opportunities for system improvement.”
CAES can help utilize the intermittent nature of solar energy, as it can store compressed air in a time of production surplus and release it in time of deficits. While underground CAES can be used on a grid scale, an aboveground system is more flexible, although the research about it is less mature.
“CAES system operates as follows: during surplus energy periods, electricity is used to power a motor that drives a compressor. This compressor then compresses ambient air into a storage reservoir,” the academics explained. “When there is a demand for electricity, the compressed air from the reservoir is released and directed to a turbine. The turbine converts the air’s pressure energy into rotary motion, which is then used to drive a generator to produce electricity.”
The experimental setup created by the scientists included a 45 kW compressor, a control unit, an adsorption dryer, and 20 reservoirs with a combined volume of 5.86 m3. Based on results obtained from the operation of this system and the reviewed literature, the scientist created a model to predict its operation, using a quasi-steady-state approach.
“The quasi-steady-state approach models the transient dynamics of the system, partitioning calculations into smaller intervals characterized by steady-state conditions,” the group explained. “This method allows us to consider changes in ambient conditions over time, providing a dynamic simulation of the system’s response, which is an improvement over the steady-state assumptions used in other reviewed studies.”
The model was further calibrated and achieved a MAPE ranging between 0.21% and 3.58% across its 13 parameters. “With MAPE values consistently below 4.0%, confidence in the model’s capacity to accurately simulate the system’s dynamics is engendered, thereby furnishing a robust groundwork for the subsequent parametric analyses,” the researchers said, noting that the proposed model facilitates the deliberate manipulation of parameters, thus enabling a systematic assessment of its round-trip efficiency (RTE).
Based on the parametric analysis, the research group found that compressing air at lower temperatures reduces compressor workload and extends the charging duration, resulting in a 1% increase in RTE. They also found that lowering the polytropic index towards a near-isothermal process achieved a 7.5% increase in RTE with preheating. Finally, the team also found that “increasing the number of expansion stages from one to three significantly improved RTE from 5.5 % to 16.%.”
The results were presented in “Aboveground compressed air energy storage systems: Experimental and numerical approach,” published in Energy Conversion and Management. The research was conducted by Canada’s École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) and the Hydro-Québec Research Institute (IREQ).
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SunBrush develops robotic cleaning solution for commercial rooftop solar
SunBrush Mobil is developing a robotic solution for commercial rooftop solar systems in Australia, using mechanically simple technology to maximize utility-scale solar module yield through effective soiling removal.
SunBrush Mobil CEO Franz Ehleuter told pv magazine at the recent All Energy 2024 trade show in Melbourne, Australia, that the robotic system will be operated by radio control.
“There will be a lifter to place it on a rooftop and it will operate by radio control, and the controller will have a view of the cleaning process via built in cameras,” Ehleuter said. “It will be a wet and dry cleaning solution, but normally it will be wet cleaning.”
SunBrush displayed its TrackFlex utility-scale solar cleaning solution at All-Energy, which can clean 10,000 square meters per hour.
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Spain’s Silbat set to rollout silicon batteries by 2028
During The Business Booster (TBB), the annual two-day meeting organized by EIT Innoenergy, pv magazine spoke to Silbat, a Spanish startup that is developing a silicon-based long-duration storage (LDES) technology. Silbat’s battery stores electricity in the latent heat of fusion of silicon. It uses low-cost and widely available metal-grade silicon. Silicon is also the second element in the periodic table with the highest latent heat of fusion after the much less abundant boron.
The metallic silicon is stored in a refractory container inside a crucible, a thermally insulated cavity. The electricity is converted into thermal energy by resistors (Joule heating). When the temperature of the cavity reaches 1,410 C, the silicon begins to melt. The battery is fully charged when the silicon is completely melted.
Electricity can be recovered from the radiant heat of silicon using thermophotovoltaic cells, similar to PV cells but tuned to efficiently convert infrared emission from a 1,410 C radiant source.
There is also the option of keeping it stored as heat; its delivery as heat reaches 300-400 C in the form of steam.
To speed up transport and installation on the ground and allow a high degree of localized manufacturing, the company intends to provide a modular and portable product. For example, if housed in a 40-foot container, it would have an estimated power of 100 kW and a capacity of about 100 hours. According to the company, it can achieve an LCOE of less than $0.05/kWh in its early stages of industrialization.
Due to silicon's very high latent heat of fusion, it can provide the highest energy density, comparable only to that of some H2 storage schemes yet to be commercialized and clearly superior to that of commercial lithium-ion batteries. Its density can even be increased by alloying silicon with boron.
In addition, it can have a useful life of more than 30 years with relatively low operation and maintenance, compared to the 5-year to 10-year useful life of lithium-ion batteries.
Finally, its creators highlight that it works silently and quickly, thanks to the fact that its conversion of heat into electricity is based on solid-state electrical and electronic devices with no moving parts, such as turbines.
The startup, based in Madrid and Las Rozas, already has important corporate shareholders such as the multinational Baker Hughes. Product development at Silbat has reached a technology readiness level of 5 (TRL 5) and is currently working on its TRL 6. The development of the TRL 6 demonstrator is funded by the Shell GameChanger program, and Silbat is the first Spanish cleantech startup to have obtained this support. Its founders, father and son partners Antonio and Ignacio Luque, estimate that they can complete the development process and have a marketable product by 2028.
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Egyptian scientists build PV-powered mini fridge with thermoelectric cooling
Egyptian researchers have built and analyzed a solar-powered mini refrigerator using thermoelectric units (TUs) for cooling. The thermoelectric coolers (TECs) in this study use the Peltier effect, where electric current flows through p-type and n-type semiconductors in series, cooling one side of the device while heating the opposite side.
“The primary objective of this research is to study the efficiency of a thermoelectric refrigerator under various operational settings,” said the academics. “The goal is to meet the daily needs of residents of remote areas by using renewable energy sources without the need to store energy. Different configurations of Peltier elements, along with different voltages generated by the photovoltaic cells, will be tested to control target temperatures.”
The experimental refrigerator box (RB) consisted of an outer wooden box and an inner stainless-steel box, separated by thermal insulation foam. The default system included four TU, each including a Peltier unit made of n-p junction semiconductors soldered to a copper, aluminum heat sink with fins and a fan. The fan cools the hot side of the TU and maintains optimal operation. The RB measured 8 cm × 8 cm × 8 cm and had a volume of 512 cm3.
The researchers used a power supply to simulate various PV capacities and irradiance levels, applying voltages from 4 V to 14 V to operate one to four thermoelectric units. They placed 0.25 lters of water in the box, measuring its initial and final temperatures every five minutes over a 45-minute experiment.
“Best cooling is obtained by utilizing four Peltier units, 10 V, the initial temperature of 30.9 C, and final temperature of 26.4 C,” the scientists said. “The lowest coefficient of performance (COP) is 11.2%, while the highest COP is 77.3% obtained using one Peltier at 4 V.”
The researchers recreated the experimental model in a MATLAB Simulink simulation, optimizing for COP with one Peltier unit at 4 V and achieving a 71.089% COP, showing strong agreement with their results. Using the MATLAB simulation, they also calculated that for an eight-hour operation in Giza, Egypt, the required irradiance levels would be 149.5 W/m² in summer, 67.5 W/m² in winter, 119.3 W/m² in spring, and 118.3 W/m² in fall. Target temperatures were set to 20°C in summer and spring and 15°C in winter and fall.
They presented their results in “Optimizing COP by RSM and MATLAB model of mini refrigerator based on thermoelectric units driven by solar photovoltaic,” which was recently published in Scientific Reports. The research was conducted by scientists from Egypt’s National Research Centre and Helwan University.
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The Hydrogen Stream: Statkraft advances green H2 plans in Germany
Statkraft has secured financial support from the European Union to set up a hydrogen production site in Emden, Germany. The company was selected to negotiate a grant decision for up to €107 million ($115.97 million) for its project, which will include a 200 MW electrolysis plant and a 50 MW heat pump system. Statkraft said it also plans to make a final investment decision for its 10 MW green hydrogen pilot project by the end of the year.
Neste has decided to refrain from investing in a 120 MW electrolyzer project to produce renewable hydrogen at its refinery in Porvoo, Finland. The decision follows the basic engineering phase, which commenced in May 2023. “The reasons behind the withdrawal are the company’s challenging market conditions and financial performance, requiring critical assessment of any new investments,” said the Finnish oil refiner. “Evaluation of this project has been impacted by the tight limitations on the use of renewable hydrogen in the refinery’s processes in fulfilling the Finnish national distribution obligation.”
DHL Supply Chai and Diageo North America have announced plans to add two fuel-cell electric trucks, powered with hydrogen, to their US fleet. Nikola Corp. said that it will deploy Class 8 trucks fueled by a Hyla modular refueler at the Diageo campus in Plainfield, Illinois.
Eternal Power has secured a €2.3 billion “preliminary contract” to sell green hydrogen from a project to be built near Rostock, Germany. The German developer is expected to build an 80 MW electrolyzer, which could eventually be scaled up to 400 MW. The construction of the first phase near the Baltic Sea port will likely start at the end of 2026.
Air Liquide said it has recorded growth in hydrogen-related orders from China. The French industrial gas supplier said that the Asia-Pacific region experienced 4.1% growth in the third quarter of 2024, generating €1,340 million of revenue. Sales in large industries saw an increase of 6.6%, particularly due to the launch of a large hydrogen unit in China in March, added Air Liquide.