Asia

While near neighbours, the electricity generation of the countries of Southeast Asia couldn’t be further apart. Indonesia burns locally mined coal, Malaysia has reserves of oil and gas, while populous Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines, depend on fossil fuel imports. They could all benefit from increased solar imports, but higher grid capacities and interconnection are key for an opportunity to unlock the power of the sun.

The University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF), in collaboration with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Climate Science Centre, has published the findings of its national “Climate Skills Survey” of financial professionals. 

Swiss energy storage company Energy Vault has been awarded the contract to supply the in development 330 MW Meadow Creek Solar Farm in Victoria with a 250 MW/500 MWh battery energy storage system.

The Vietnamese government has been working on a scheme to allow bilateral power purchase agreements (PPAs) since 2020. The start of the pilot scheme has been delayed and is now expected for the first quarter of 2023. The official program would launch in 2025.

Singapore-based Sun Cable, which is seeking to develop the giant Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPowerLink) consisting of up to 20 GW of solar and 42 GWh of energy storage on a 12,000-hectare site in the Northern Territory, is forming a consortium to advance sustainable smart energy grids in Asia.

The Asia Europe Clean Energy (Solar) Advisory revealed that most of the planned new solar cell production capacity relates to high-efficiency n-type cell technologies such as TOPCon and HJT.

Scientists in China have designed a new methodology to simulate the near-surface climate of utility-scale PV plants. Their findings suggest that the new tool could be used to design more climate-friendly solar parks.

Renewables developer Maoneng has teamed with Hong Kong-based real estate fund manager Gaw Capital Partners to fast track the development of a 1.9 GW portfolio of big battery and utility-scale solar PV projects in Australia.

Longi is entering the green hydrogen market in India with new alkaline electrolyser offerings. It also plans to roll out a next-generation Hi-MO solar module later this year.

According to VDMA, a German engineering association, there are now more orders coming in for German production equipment from Europe than from China. Nevertheless, shipments to Asia remain dominant.