Brazil

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.

Sungrow told pv magazine at the recent Intersolar South America event in Sao Paulo that its cumulative delivered capacity in Latin America now stands at 9 GW, with 6 GW of the total delivered to Brazil alone.

In other news, German energy company Uniper said it will test a new salt cavern built for hydrogen storage, while Serbia and Hungary signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on renewable hydrogen.

Lift Energy Storage Technology is a proposed long-term storage solution that relies on elevators to bring solid masses to the tops of buildings in charging mode. It then lowers the same mass to produce electricity in discharge mode.

Scientists in Brazil have found that photovoltaic modules may be a repository of specialised microbes in tropical regions. According to them, these micro-organisms may be used in sunscreens, pigments for processed foods, chemicals, textiles, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics.

Energy Source, a Brazilian battery specialist, is currently providing energy storage services with reused and recycled batteries. Battery recycling and related metals recovery are conducted separately, without the burning of materials.

Underwater gravity energy storage has been proposed as an ideal solution for weekly energy storage, by an international group of scientists. The novel technology is considered an alternative to pumped-hydro storage for coasts and islands without mountains that are located close to deep waters, and may also be interesting for PV if used to store green hydrogen.

The facility is expected to be located in the state of Ceará and to be powered by around 3.6 GW of wind and solar facilities located in the region. The project developer is Australia-based Enegix Energy.

A report by Finnish company Wärtsilä has estimated the potential impact if every dollar committed to a non-renewables energy sector recovery was instead funnelled to clean power.

Brazil now has 12  GW of underperforming hydropower capacity, according to U.S. researchers. Large-scale floating PV is an ideal solution to offset this shortfall, due to its high capacity factor, load correlation, and high potential output during periods of high demand.