Asia

The Generating Authority of Thailand has announced that a 24 MW floating hydro-solar hybrid project has commenced commercial operations in the country’s northeast. The installation is part of wider plans to develop 16 floating solar projects with a combined capacity of 2,725 MW.

Chinese storage system manufacturer Bslbatt says its new batteries feature individual battery modules with voltages of 80 V to 1,000 V and a capacity of 135 Ah. They can be stacked in series with up to 10 battery modules.

Energy Vault has connected its 25 MW/100 MWh EVx gravity-energy storage system (GESS) in China. Once provincial and state approvals are obtained to start operating, it will become the world’s first commercial, utility-scale, non-pumped hydro GESS. Meanwhile, its partners China Tianying (CNTY) and Atlas Renewable Energy have begun construction on three grid-scale GESS in China.

Chinese manufacturer Aiko showcased its GEN 2 N-type ABC (All Back Contact) modules at last week’s Smart Energy Expo, where the technology’s shade optimisation, enabled by its cells’ bypass diode function, made a splash. Pv magazine spoke to Aiko’s leadership about how its technology works and how the Australian market entrant plans to position itself down under.

Researchers in Singapore have built a triple junction tandem solar cell with an ultrawide-bandgap perovskite absorber integrating cyanate (OCN) ions. The cell surpassed the power conversion efficiencies previously reported for all other perovskite-based triple-junction tandems, as well as single-junction perovskite and silicon solar cells.

Chinese solar manufacturer DAH Solar has launched into the Australian market with an anti-dust solar module with lowered frames, similar to that displayed by Longi just a few metres away during the Smart Energy Expo.

REC has developed a new series of residential heterojunction solar panels with efficiencies ranging from 20.6% to 22.2% and an operating temperature coefficient of -0.24% per degree Celsius.

Modular solar pioneer 5B has commenced construction of a potential giga-scale production facility in India that is to improve its access to international markets, but the Sydney-headquartered company remains committed to its manufacturing operations in Australia.

ACEN Australia and Marubeni Asian Power Singapore have struck a deal to jointly develop a 200 MW / 400 MWh battery energy storage system alongside ACEN’s multi-stage 720 MW New England solar project being constructed in regional New South Wales.

Australia will invest $2 billion into Southeast Asia green energy and infrastructure development as part of a broader economic strategy that estimates the region’s electricity generation needs by 2050 to be 454 GW.