Australia’s Fortescue Future Industries is reportedly exploring an offtake agreement with what will be the world’s largest PV project as it advances plans to build a $9 billion (USD 6 billion) mega green hydrogen production facility in Brazil.

Chinese researchers have assessed the impact of residential rooftop PV arrays on energy use and surrounding air temperatures during extreme heatwaves. They found that panels with higher conversion efficiencies achieved the best results.

Corporations in the Asia-Pacific region are set to contract a record 7 GW of renewable capacity in 2022, according to a new report by Wood Mackenzie. Solar accounts for 57% of the region’s contracted corporate renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs) to date. India, Australia and Taiwan account for 89% of overall capacity in the region.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) says that solar could become the backbone of Indonesia’s energy system by 2030. However, the nation’s own expectations are still far off from IRENA’s scenarios.

An Israeli scientist has proposed a way to achieve uninterrupted PV power on the moon without using energy storage. The proposal involves the installation of PV panels around a 360-degree latitudinal ring close to one of the moon’s poles. There would be no inter-array shading, and static vertical PV arrays and arrays mounted on single-axis vertical trackers could be viable mounting structures.

In an unexpected move, the government of Thailand has introduced a feed-in-tariff (FIT) of $0.090 (THB 2.1679)/kWh over 25 years for solar and a 25-year FIT of THB $0.075 (THB 2.8331)/kWh for solar plus storage.

The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) says in a new report that PV module lifetime extensions should be prioritised over closed-loop recycling to reduce demand for new materials.

A consortium of Singaporean universities and companies will study the feasibility of integrating a hybrid floating solar project with ocean, tidal, and wind capacity. If successful, the parties plan to deploy a pilot system with at least 100 MW of renewables capacity.

The Malaysian authorities have revealed that they will extend power purchase agreements from the fourth LSS4 tender for large-scale PV from 21 to 25 years.

A US research team claims to have demonstrated that increasing the spacing of solar panels between rows improves PV system efficiency and economics by allowing airflow to cool down the modules. The method could improve a project’s LCOE by as much as 2.15% in certain climates.