Manufacturing

Brookfield Asset Management has inked a deal with Chinese multinational Envision Group to explore opportunities for manufacturing of clean energy equipment in Australia to support its plan to develop up to 14 GW of renewable generation and storage facilities in the country within the next decade.

Global inverter shipments increased to 330 GW last year with Huawei, Sungrow, Ginlong, Solis, Growatt and GoodWe named as the top vendors.

Biwatt Power, a Chinese manufacturer, has developed new residential sodium-ion batteries with an efficiency rate of 97% and a projected lifespan of more than 3,000 cycles.

A lack of clear policy support, raw material dependency, and higher production costs are inhibiting the localisation of European solar manufacturing, despite strong demand, writes Edurne Zoco, executive director for clean energy technology at S&P Global.

Western Australia battery tech company Altech Batteries has raised $13.3 million (USD 8.7 million) to advance the development and commercialisation of its sodium-chloride solid state battery project and to progress construction of a silumina anodes battery materials plant in Germany.

Singapore-headquartered solar manufacturer Maxeon Solar Technologies will invest more than $1.5 billion (USD 1 billion) to establish a TOPCon manufacturing facility in the United States, creating up to 1,800 highly skilled jobs.

Taiwanese manufacturer Winaico has developed new 525 W TOPCon solar panels with a power conversion efficiency of 22.1% and a temperature coefficient of -0.30% per degree Celsius.

South Korean companies Posco and East-West Power are developing a new building-integrated solar photovoltaic solution. The new product uses special galvanized steel as the panel’s backside that Posco says lasts five to 10 times longer than standard steel.

Singapore-based developer Vena Energy has announced it will investigate opportunities to manufacture solar panel components and battery energy storage systems in Indonesia to support a hybrid megaproject featuring up to 2 GW of solar capacity and more than 8 GWh of energy storage.

American investment giant BlackRock has teamed with the New Zealand government to launch a NZ$2 billion (AUD 1.86 billion) climate infrastructure fund to accelerate the growth of green energy technologies like solar, wind, green hydrogen and battery storage to fuel a low-emissions economy.