2022

Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, with missile and drone strikes, has seen the country’s power cut by nearly one-third, triggering widespread outages across the nation. With winter coming, the Ukrainian authorities haven’t ruled out a worst-case scenario that would see much of Kyiv, with its population of almost 3 million, evacuated from the city, reports Ian Skarytovsky.

It was a good year for the inverter market. Strong demand was only stifled by supply chain limits, but new inverters are less innovative and show a slower evolution in improvements. Nevertheless, more versatile options are emerging in response to the energy crisis.

China’s Three Gorges New Energy has started building the first 1 GW phase of solar-plus-storage capacity for a planned 16 GW mega-project in Inner Mongolia’s Kubuqi Desert. Upon completion, the massive installation will include 8 GW of solar, 4 GW of wind, and 4 GW of upgraded coal capacity.

Hyundai Heavy Industries has revealed plans to develop a hybrid engine with more hydrogen by 2023, and a complete hydrogen engine by 2025. Japan, meanwhile, has signed hydrogen-related agreements with Saudi Arabia and Oman.

The Zimbabwean government has agreed to guarantee viable power tariffs to 27 solar projects by independent power producers (IPPs). Developers are set to build 997.9 MW of capacity, with a total investment of around $1 billion.

China Huadian has connected a 120 MW solar plant to the grid in the Tibetan city of Nagqu, which has an average altitude of 4,500 meters. The installation is reportedly the largest PV project in Tibet.

Longi and TCL Zhonghuan have announced wafer price cuts, Arctech Solar said it will supply 2.8 GW of single-axis trackers for solar projects in India, and Risen Energy has started mass production of its heterojunction (HJT) solar modules.

If Europe is to come up with its own Inflation Reduction Act moment, and incentivize a return of EU solar manufacturing leadership, it must lift state-aid related restrictions on the PV manufacturers who have announced a willingness to build 30 GW of production lines.

Masdar has signed a joint cooperation agreement with Yemen’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy to build a 120 MW solar plant in Aden. It will be the country’s first large-scale renewable energy project.

N-type technology’s shift to the mainstream of PV production was a major development in solar cell and module manufacturing in 2022. Manufacturers added TOPCon and HJT capacity and racked up efficiency milestones in the process.