Middle East

The European Court of Auditors says the European Union will likely fail to achieve its 2030 renewable hydrogen goals, while the US Department of Energy and Arches have agreed to build a $12.6 billion hydrogen hub in California.

Abu Dhabi-based Masdar has raised $1 billion through a new bond issuance. It says the investment will fund equity commitments on new greenfield projects, several of which are in developing economies.

A subsidiary of TCL Zhonghuan Renewable Energy has signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Vision Industries to begin producing 20 GW of solar ingots and wafers per year in the country.

China’s Sungrow has signed three landmark energy storage contracts with Saudi Arabia’s Algihaz Holding, amounting to the world’s largest grid-side storage order. Each project will have a capacity of 2.6 GWh, totaling 7.8 GWh.

A JinkoSolar-led consortium has announced plans to construct a 10 GW solar cell and module factory in Saudi Arabia with PIF and Vision Industries Company.

Though it already hosts several of the world’s largest PV installations, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s solar industry is still young, with limited local infrastructure and expertise. Project developers are learning quickly that building PV in harsh desert environments requires a careful eye on quality. New testing laboratories are looking to meet demand.

EDF has won an Israeli solar tender with a bid of $0.019/kWh, securing a 100 MW project to sell energy at a record price of ILS 0.07 ($0.02)/kWh.

AgRE.tech, which is developing a robotic operating system for existing photovoltaic infrastructure, has raised $2 million from EDF and Zemach Regional Industries. The company says it will soon set up commercial fields.

The Saudi Arabian developer has reached financial close for the Tashkent Riverside project in Uzbekistan, which includes a 200 MW solar plant and a 500 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS).

The Saudi research institute said its new four-terminal tandem device has achieved the highest efficiency ever reported for perovskite-based 4-T and triple-junction tandem solar cells to date. The key feature of the cell is the hole transport layer of the top perovskite cell, which was engineered with self-assembled monolayers.