2022

Norwegian analyst Rystad Energy has warned the solar industry could suffer the same effects of rising input prices as onshore wind developers grappling with ever more costly steel, with much hinging on how much solar panel raw material polysilicon can be manufactured.

France has set a new target under which it will install 5GW of new PV capacity per year.

With the Polish government planning to commission five gas power plants over the next five years, London-based thinktank Carbon Tracker has estimated just how costly the move will be, compared to deploying solar plants and energy storage instead.

The triple-junction solar cell is based on indium gallium phosphide (InGaP), gallium arsenide (GaAs), and Germanium (Ge) and is made with a micro-grating made of glass, consisting of a two-dimensional x-framework structure fixed onto the surface of the solar cell. Its operating temperature was found to be 6 degrees Celsius lower than that of a reference cell without the cooling technique.

Verdagy has secured a $25 million investment for its new electrolyzer technology, which provides hydrogen fuel for heavy industrial applications. The membrane-based technology uses large active area cells, high current densities, and broad operating ranges to deliver hydrogen at scale.

The developers of the proposed 1.5GW Marinus Link transmission project, which would link Tasmania and the Australian mainland via an undersea electricity interconnector, have launched a new engineering survey to identify the most suitable corridor for the cables.

Electric vehicles, both fully electric and plug-in hybrid EVs, look set to become dominant in new car sales within years in many parts of the world, but overall changes to car fleets face significant inertia. What impact will this have on the future grid, and where’s the opportunity for solar? Tristan Rayner gets behind the wheel.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory launched a new catalyst based on nitrogen and carbon to extract hydrogen from hydrogen storage materials at mild temperatures and under normal atmospheric conditions. Furthermore, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the country is working on attracting new investments in electric vehicles and hydrogen and Norwegian consultancy and classification society DNV launched, together with 18 industry partners, a new Joint Industry Project (JIP) to enhance the standardization for hydrogen production systems that use renewable energy-powered electrolysis to produce green hydrogen.

Scientists have investigated how utility-scale solar may be used to power multistage flashing-brine recirculation (MSF-BR) water desalination plants in Aqaba, Jordan. They found the facility would be sufficient to provide the entire city with drinking water. The proposed system configuration comprises a 30 MW solar plant and a standar MSF-BR unit.

Germany’s Sunfarming is testing the new project design in cooperation with research centers Jülich and the Fraunhofer ISE.