Sweden deployed 287 MW of solar last year
The nation’s cumulative installed solar capacity reached 698 MW at the end of December. Around 19,000 new PV systems were added last year.
Cooling down PV panels with water
France’s Sunbooster has developed a technology to cool down solar modules when their ambient temperature exceeds 25 C. The solution features a set of pipes that spread a thin film of water onto the glass surface of the panels in rooftop PV systems and ground-mounted plants. The cooling systems collect the water from rainwater tanks and then recycle, filter and store it again. The company claims the technology can facilitate an annual increase in power generation of between 8% and 12%.
French-German alliance for vertical PV
French energy giant Total and German start-up Next2Sun have joined forces to develop vertical PV solutions in the French market. The oil group’s unit Total Quadran plans to use the solution in agrivoltaic projects.
Covid-19 and dependence on China’s PV supply chain
The Asian Development Bank says developing countries in Asia and the Pacific should consider developing their own solar industry supply chains as the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed their over-reliance on China to carry through the energy transition.
Adding solar at airports
An Indo-Malay research group has sought to define the best conditions for developing large scale solar projects at airports. The researchers provided insight on glare analysis as well as design and performance.
Hungary allocates 131.4 MW of PV in renewables auction
Solar developers secured 131.4 MW of the capacity awarded in the auction, while a biomass installation accounted for the remaining 500 kW of capacity. The national energy regulator will provide 15-year feed-in premium payments to the winning projects.
World’s biggest PV module factory
GCL System Integration plans to build a 60 GW solar module factory in China’s Anhui province, with a total investment of approximately $2.5 billion.
German utility-scale PV tender concludes with average price of €0.0518/kWh
The government allocated 301 MW of PV capacity across 51 projects in the procurement exercise.
Chinese fishery hosting 260 MW of unsubsidized solar
The solar plant was built with fixed structures on a 400-hectare water surface at a fishery in Anhui province. The project was the first unsubsidized plant approved by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in 2019 and is selling power at a price of RMB 0.3844 ($0.054) per kWh.
Sheep in search of a solar plant
A large sheep farming company in Germany is seeking PV asset owners who will let its animals graze sustainably at solar project sites, in a move that could be a win-win situation for everyone.
