Spain

Spain’s government has submitted a new incentive scheme to a public consultation. It is designed to support the development of a clean-tech supply chain in the country, including the production of batteries.

Major Australian renewable energy portfolio holder Global Power Generation Australia, jointly owned by Spain’s Naturgy and an arm of the Kuwait Investment Authority, is reportedly going up for auction early next year.

Construction of the 380 MW Aldoga Solar Farm being developed near Gladstone on the central Queensland coast is to commence in the first quarter of 2024 with energy generated at the facility to go towards powering the state’s largest green hydrogen project.

Spain recorded more than 20 GW of installed solar capacity at the end of last year, according to recently published data from Wiki-Solar. The website’s founder claims that the country is becoming a PV powerhouse as utility-scale developers increasingly roll out projects.

Stanwell Corporation has signed a long-term offtake agreement with Spanish renewable energy developer Acciona Energia to purchase 100% of the output from the proposed Aldoga Solar Farm to power a 3 GW green hydrogen project being developed near Gladstone on the central Queensland coast.

Scientists in Spain tested PV modules under partial shading conditions, aiming to better understand the formation of performance-damaging hotspots. The study reveals a potential issue particularly affecting half-cell and bifacial modules, which may cause accelerated performance loss and is not covered by current testing/certification standards.

Spanish researchers claim to have established new measurement methods to assess the performance degradation of PV modules without the need for removing and reinstalling the tested PV modules from their operating positions. The new approach is claimed to increase productivity in PV plant quality control activities.

Western Australia-based company Carnegie Clean Energy has won a $6.3 million (USD 4 million) contract to deliver and operate a ~400 kW version of its wave energy converter off the Spanish coast by 2025.

China’s Sinopec has switched on the world’s largest solar-to-hydrogen project in Xinjiang, while India has unveiled a new plan to incentivize green hydrogen and electrolyzer production.

Researchers at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland said that chemical energy storages were needed for short and long-term balancing in every climate region, especially in the northern climates. Meanwhile, companies are moving forward with their plans to produce hydrogen in Namibia and Morocco.