Germany

Recent analysis from Wood Mackenzie predicts green hydrogen, produced primarily by solar electrolysis, will reach cost parity in Australia, Germany and Japan by 2030.

Elon Musk has promised a fab near Berlin that will help create up to 10,000 new jobs. Tesla wants to build the facility near the city’s controversial new BER airport.

A report by Germany’s Energy Watch Group thinktank has said we would be better off sticking to coal and oil than switching to gas because emissions of methane, the most potent greenhouse gas, caused by gas extraction render any related carbon savings irrelevant.

It took a while, but now the energy giants can finalize the mega deal. Rival energy companies have criticized approval of the deal amid fears Eon could dominate the German market.

Credibility comes not just from offering products that generate clean electricity, but also from the way in which those products are manufactured, says SMA Solar Technology CEO Jürgen Reinert. Here, transparency and sustainability are key. That’s why one of the world’s largest PV inverter producers has partnered with pv magazine’s UP sustainability initiative. In the following Q&A, Reinert lays out what SMA is doing to step UP its green game.

An international team of researchers led by the University of Tokyo has discovered a new material which, when rolled into a nanotube, generates an electric current if exposed to light. If magnified and scaled up, say the scientists, the technology could be used in future high-efficiency solar devices.

With the benefits solar panels can bring to cropland being considered in Europe, PV and aquaculture are working in tandem in Vietnam. Shrimp and fish farming requires land and lots of water but solar panels are helping mitigate those demands.

A German research team claims to have created a new visualization technique it says can enable detailed mapping of the energetic landscapes of organic PV cells on a nano scale. The technique could lead to organic cells with reduced power losses.

Scientists at the Australia National University have observed a key stage in the process of photosynthesis which could be copied to greatly increase the efficiency of sunlight-powered water splitting processes used to produce hydrogen.

Study claims that investment in a new 1GW nuclear power plant leads to average losses of approximately 4.8 billion euros. It further argues that the technology’s dangerous radioactivity emissions and proliferation risks do not qualify it as a ‘clean’ energy solution to be considered for addressing climate change. Yet still, governments are incorporating the technology into clean energy plans around the world.