World

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.

Panasonic claims that its new vehicle-to-home system can increase the self-consumption rate of residential solar and storage capacity to 90%.

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.

A research group has developed a new methodology that shows PV systems located in the same area could have similar distributions of power ramps. Their three-step method could be used for the dimensioning of rooftop arrays and the scheduling of daily operations.

Omani researchers have compared the performance of PV and concentrated solar power (CSP) in terms of energy generation intensity and the effective use of land at low latitudes near the Tropic of Cancer. They described nine project typologies and ranked them with three different simulation tools.

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.

The developed world is facing scenarios of zero economic growth or even recessions, as inflation, energy costs, interest-rate rises, and tougher lending criteria makes life tough for business. But money is flowing into the energy transition by scaling and commercialising existing technologies, reports pv magazine’s Tristan Rayner.

The idea of capturing solar power in space for use as energy on Earth is not new but the race for space-based solar power is heating up and global superpowers China and the United States are leading the way.

Freight costs fell for the 39th straight week to account for roughly 4% of solar module costs – close to pre-pandemic levels. PV consultant Asier Ukar tells pv magazine that this trend will likely continue over the short term.