China

Chinese scientists have developed a new way to split seawater into hydrogen without using a separate desalination process. They incorporated a self-breathable waterproof membrane and a self-dampening electrolyte (SDE) into the electrolyser, so water migrates from the seawater across the membrane to the SDE, without extra energy consumption.

Sineng Electric has switched on a 400 MW/800 MWh storage facility in China’s Shandong province. The project features the company’s 3.15 MW turnkey battery stations.

Longi said it has achieved a 26.56% efficiency rating for a gallium-doped, p-type heterojunction solar cell and a 26.09% efficiency rating for an indium-free HJT cell, both based on M6 wafers. Germany’s Institute for Solar Energy Research in Hamelin has confirmed the results.

Growatt’s new APX HV cobalt-free lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery has a storage capacity of 5 kWh and a nominal voltage of 650 V. It can be scaled up to six battery modules, for a maximum capacity of 30 kWh, or 60 kWh in parallel. It comes with a 10-year warranty.

Shenzhen LiTime Technology’s new lithium iron phosphate battery system has a nominal voltage of 12.8 V and a capacity of 100 Ah. It comes with a five-year warranty and can purportedly operate for more than 4,000 cycles.

Growatt’s new 6 kW inverters have an efficiency rating of 93% and offer 12,000 VA of surge power, up to 500 V of input voltage, and 8 kW of PV input capacity.

The International Energy Agency says that it expects the use of renewables to support global hydrogen production to surge over the next five years. The Netherlands and Denmark, meanwhile, have revealed plans to expand electrolysis capacity.

On the back of the Covid-19 pandemic, geopolitical conflict and allegations of forced labour in sectors critical to the renewable energy transition, awareness of supply chain insecurity has rarely been higher. Seeking to strike while the iron is hot, the Clean Energy Council and law firm Norton Rose Fulbright have published a white paper arguing that Australia’s own renewable energy supply chains could “benefit significantly” by a more concerted effort to address modern slavery.

Electric vehicle and stationary energy storage companies have experienced battery cell shortages this year. InfoLink predicts overcapacity in 2024, but the concentration of production in China means customers elsewhere are mulling deals with miners.

PV InfoLink says polysilicon prices are clearly starting to fall. Meanwhile, Longi has lowered the prices of all wafers, and JA Solar has unveiled plans to build a new 10 GW factory.