Portugal

Portuguese police today raided the residence of the country’s Prime Minister, António Costa, as part of a corruption probe involving lithium and hydrogen. Ministers of Climate Action and Infrastructure, Duarte Cordeiro and João Pedro Matos Fernández, have also been declared formal suspects.

Bosch has invested $106 million in a heat pump factory near Porto, Portugal, where it produces heat pump systems with propane as a refrigerant. It says its commitment to heat pump development and production will hit €1 billion ($1.06 billion) by the end of this decade.

Portugal generated 172.5 GWh of renewable electricity between Friday and Saturday. Its output included 97.6 GWh of wind, 68.3 GWh of hydro, and 6.6 GWh of PV. It exported surplus power to Spain, while consuming 131.1 GWh.

The US Department of Energy has allocated $7 billion for seven Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs (H2Hubs) to deploy commercial-scale clean hydrogen, while the Mission Possible Partnership, RMI, Systemiq, Power2X, and industry leaders have set up the Transatlantic Clean Hydrogen Trade Coalition (H2TC) to ship US clean hydrogen to Europe by 2026.

With utility scale solar installations accelerating, Philip Wolfe, founder of PV data consultancy Wiki-Solar, drills into the data to highlight some interesting variations in relative progress around the world.

Germany advanced its hydrogen ambitions this week with a fresh call for the International Green Hydrogen Promotion Program in Latin America, a collaborative deal with the UK government, and a tie-up between DHL and Sasol for sustainable aviation fuels based on green hydrogen (eSAF).

Research from Portugal has looked into adding utility scale PV capacity to wind plants across the country and found the hybridization can significantly increase their market value. The scientists also identified the most critical parameters for forecasting energy generation in hybrid wind-solar plants.

Iberdrola has started filling the reservoir for the Alto Tâmega reservoir, which is part of the largest pumped hydroelectric storage project in Portugal.

Portugal’s Ministry of the Environment has awarded 5 GW of grid-connection permits, primarily for PV projects. These permits cover 5 GW for power plants linked to the high-voltage transmission network and an additional 1 GW for projects connected to E-Grids at lower voltage levels.

China’s Sinopec has switched on the world’s largest solar-to-hydrogen project in Xinjiang, while India has unveiled a new plan to incentivize green hydrogen and electrolyzer production.