World

Germany’s SMA has developed a modular lithium-ion solution for commercial storage applications. It comes in two versions, with capacities of 32 kWh and 56 kWh. The two variants feature SMA Sunny Tripower Storage X battery inverters, with up to 8,000 complete charge cycles.

China sold the most heat pumps in the world in 2022, but Europe recorded the highest growth in overall sales, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). It says Italy, France, and Germany accounted for almost half of all sales in Europe, and notes that air-to-water heat pumps were the most popular technology.

Storage specialist Fluence has launched Ultrastack, a battery energy storage system (BESS) for storage-as-transmission assets. It is designed to help network owners and operators to manage renewables curtailment, increase the use of power lines, and limit congestion.

US solar was disrupted in 2022, with module seizures delaying projects due to strict laws designed to stamp out alleged forced labor practices in sections of the Chinese PV industry. However, it remains to be seen whether seizures affected such alleged practices.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) told Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue participants this week that USD 5.4 trillion ($8 trillion) of annual investment is needed to support the global shift to renewables. Kenyan President William Ruto, meanwhile, called for a fair energy partnership between Europe and Africa.

A consortium led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) will test grid-forming inverters at a large-scale PV facility in southern Germany. The aim of the first tests is to examine the performance of the devices under real operating conditions, stress factors, and typical stress profiles.

Rather than using solar or wind to power electrolysis, researchers are testing the competitiveness of photoelectrochemical cells to produce emissions-free hydrogen fuels.

Swiss researchers have looked at whether storage could be cheaper than curtailment in medium-voltage distribution networks with significant amounts of PV capacity. They considered storage costs, operational costs, grid constraints, electricity costs, PV generation models, and loads.

The search for ever higher conversion efficiency has driven solar researchers to focus on back-contact cell approaches, and efforts to devise more cost-effective manufacturing are bringing technologies such as interdigitated back contact (IBC) solar into the mainstream, as Mark Hutchins reports.

Global renewable capacity increased by 295 GW last year, bringing the world to a cumulative installed capacity of 3,372 GW, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).