China

Energy Vault’s EVx storage system is comparable to pumped hydro, using grid-scale renewable energy when supply is abundant to drive motors and raise 30-ton blocks on a six-arm crane tower, rather than water, up to a height. When power needs to be discharged back to the grid, the blocks are lowered, harvesting the kinetic energy.

A 3 GW solar installation will be built in the Tengger Desert, in northern China. It will require an investment of around $3.18 billion (CNY 15.25 billion).

Solar-wind hybrid plants are rapidly becoming mainstream, and in booming markets like India and the US these hybrids are increasingly preferred to singular projects despite the higher installation cost. There is no shortage to the benefits of hybridisation, from a smoother power output profile to the cost saving of grid connection. But getting the balance right for new projects and retrofits remains a challenge. Blake Matich reports on this growing trend.

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.

Yingli’s 156-cell Panda 3.0 PRO module has a temperature coefficient of -0.30% per degree Celsius and is available in wattages ranging from 590 W to 615 W, with a bifaciality of more than 90%.

Clean Energy Associates says solar wafer pricing will fall by 23% by the end of 2023, while BloombergNEF sees 500 GW of manufacturing capacity online by the end of next year.

Average polysilicon prices hit CNY 312 (AU$65.8)/kg this week, according to an industry association in China. The nation’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the National Energy Administration have also asked regional authorities to take action to deal with the price increase.

China installed 37.73 GW of solar in the first seven months of this year, according to official estimates. JinkoSolar said it is struggling to cope with power rationing in Sichuan province, while Shunfeng said it expects to record a hefty net loss for the first half.

Researchers in China have reported a colourisation strategy for solar based on photonic glass. They created solar panels that took on blue, green, and purple hues, while only dropping the efficiency of power generation from 22.6% to 21.5%.

Investments in renewables are hitting new highs in China, as recurrent Covid-19 outbreaks and a crisis-stricken housing market threaten the world’s second-biggest economy, according to BloombergNEF.