Asia

Japan’s Panasonic claims its new pilot solar-plus-hydrogen facility marks the first attempt to create a factory powered by 100% renewables, via the full-scale use of hydrogen.

Nitin Gupta, chief executive officer and co-founder, Attero Recycling, speaks to pv magazine about the supply chain concerns for lithium battery storage manufacturing in India, current battery recycling scenario and Attero’s capacity.

TBEA-owned Xinte Energy says it cannot produce polysilicon quickly enough to meet demand and wants shareholders to back its bid to quadruple its manufacturing capacity by mid 2024.

A partnership between Quantum Power Asia and Berlin-based ib vogt is proposing a 3.5 GW solar and storage facility in Riau, Indonesia, an archipelago of islands south of Singapore. The AUD$6.7 billion potential project aims to export the generated solar to the Singaporean city-state by 2032, meeting 8% of its electricity needs.

Developed by a Chinese-Swedish research group, the device is an ultra-thin chip that could be integrated into electronics such as headphones, smartwatches and telephones. It combines a Molecular Solar Thermal Energy Storage System (MOST) with a micro-fabricated system that includes a thermoelectric generator (TEG) with a low-dimensional material-based microelectromechanical system (MEMS).

Indian renewable energy developer Greenko Group has partnered with Belgium’s John Cockerill to develop a green hydrogen electrolyser factory with a capacity of 2GW per annum. The partnership will also see the two companies jointly develop large-scale green hydrogen projects in India.

Water-from-air technology company Aqua Aerem’s Desert Bloom green hydrogen project received Major Project Status from the Northern Territory Government last year, now it has announced a partnership with Japanese energy giant Osaka Gas which not only brings the 10GW project closer to reality, but has also seen the company boost its ambitions to 20GW in light of “quickly developing demand.”

The global battery energy storage market will grow to US$10.84 billion (AU$14.54 billion) in 2026, with around two-thirds of the demand concentrated in the Asia Pacific region.

Hailed as a landmark for Australia’s vision of becoming a global hydrogen exporter, the Suiso Frontier’s first shipment of liquid hydrogen from Australia is now under investigation after a flame was seen coming from the gas combustion unit’s exhaust on deck.

A startup incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur has introduced ZincGel battery tech, which could offer significant savings for owners of two-wheel electric vehicles.