Construction begins on world’s largest integrated green hydrogen, ammonia plant
In other news, German energy company Uniper said it will test a new salt cavern built for hydrogen storage, while Serbia and Hungary signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on renewable hydrogen.
Five things to consider in designing and commissioning high performance solar-plus-storage projects
No two projects are alike, and sharing the lessons learned from working on these highly complex systems can help accelerate the deployment of energy storage with essential clean energy assets.
Can renewables curtailment be rethought as a good thing?
While curtailing solar and wind energy production can be viewed as a lost opportunity, NREL argues that it may be an important feature in the future energy grid dominated by low-cost renewable energy.
Weekend read: Global module demand to hit 240 GW in 2022
Despite polysilicon shortage-induced high module prices, the market saw strong demand in the usually slower summer season this year, due to the global race to net-zero emissions. Corrine Lin, chief analyst at PV InfoLink, expects demand to reach 240 GW, with China and Europe set to contribute more than 80 GW and 50 GW, respectively. Together with the United States, which has paused the introduction of new solar tariffs, the three largest markets will dominate nearly 70% of global demand.
Novel method to turn existing solar parks into agrivoltaic facilities
An international research team has developed a new methodology to increase levels of pollination at ground-mounted solar plants. It involves the development of new vegetated land cover below and around solar parks.
New method to evaluate performance, LCOE of elevated agrivoltaics
Scientists in Belgium have developed a way to assess elevated agrivoltaic projects, by calculating key performance indicators such as energy yield and levelized cost of energy (LCOE). They have found that shade-tolerant crops such as potatoes could potentially be paired with around 1,290 GW of PV capacity in Europe.
Solar power costs continued to fall in 2021, despite rising panel prices
The average global price of solar kilowatt-hours fell 13% on 2020’s prices, as around two-thirds of the renewables capacity installed last year was cheaper than the lowest-cost fossil fuel alternative.
The real value of energy storage
An international research team has developed a new way to evaluate the economic value of energy storage technologies. They went beyond pure cost assumptions to consider the benefits that such technologies could bring to energy systems.
There’s big money in recycling materials from solar panels
Recycling solar panels keeps them out of landfills, but also provides much-needed raw materials with Rystad Energy projecting a value approaching AU$118 billion (US$80 billion) by 2050.
No let-up in sight for polysilicon price hikes
A prominent analyst in China expects the price of the solar panel raw material to pass CNY 300 (AU$65.5) per kg soon and says the sky-high prices will continue at least through September.
