North America

Wider use of electric heat pumps to heat buildings creates a larger market for renewable energy, but also presents challenges, which can be met through building insulation and weatherization, cold climate heat pumps, thermal energy storage systems, and higher-voltage distribution grids, according to a new report by Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG).

Replacing existing transmission lines, known as conductors, with advanced conductors could enable 764 GW of transmission-connected solar by 2035. However, some US utilities are slow to adopt this technology. In a recent webinar, two utilities that have used advanced conductors for years shared their experiences.

Now that incentives from the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are well understood, global manufacturers are announcing factories in the United States to constitute much of the solar supply chain. While some plans have been scrapped already, and more cancellations are expected, the broader trend is unprecedented growth.

Researchers in Canada have created an experimental workbench for aboveground compressed air energy storage. Experimental data calibration reportedly ensured model accuracy with a mean absolute percentage error below 4.0%.

Statkraft says it is progressing with its 200 MW electrolysis plant in Germany, while Neste says it will not invest in its 120 MW electrolyzer project in Finland.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, forecasts drier and sunnier conditions in the forthcoming winter across key solar areas in the southern United States, Mexico and Brazil, driven by borderline La Niña conditions.

Sunrun and Orange and Rockland Utilities have launched a residential virtual power plant (VPP) program that provides 300 solar-plus-storage systems to enhance grid stability.

New US incentives support solar manufacturers and encourage the domestic build-out of the earlier stages of the solar supply chain.

Repsol has told pv magazine that it has frozen 90% of Spain’s hydrogen projects nearing final investment decisions, while Statkraft has confirmed that it has revised its plans for its hydrogen project in Norway.

Laboratory testing has revealed that some negatively-doped, “n-type” tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) and heterojunction (HJT) solar modules are susceptible to ultraviolet (UV) light-related damage and degradation. That could mean trouble down the line, if modules in the field begin to show UV-related performance loss. Manufacturers are implementing solutions at cell and module level.