Highlights

Sand and dust are a PV plant operator’s worst nightmare. Performance losses due to soiling, or “the dust effect,” are a cause for innovation among O&M providers, particularly in dry and dusty regions that are otherwise ideal locations for large-scale solar installations. Yazeed Al-Mousa examines the latest robotic cleaning solutions, as well as the software and sensors that help plant operators with the tricky economic decision of when to actually start cleaning.

The Mukesh Ambani-led diversified business conglomerate has agreed to invest INR 5 lakh crore (US$67.6 billion) in building 100 GW of renewable energy capacity and green hydrogen eco-system in the State. It will also invest INR 60,000 crore (US$8.1 billion) in setting up manufacturing facilities for new and renewable energy equipment including solar modules, electrolyzers, energy-storage batteries, and fuel cells.

The nation reached a cumulative 151GW of renewable energy generation capacity – including large hydro – by December 31, although a large volume of off-grid equipment is not included in that figure.

The Indian state-owned electric transmission utility company has signed an agreement with infrastructure investor
Africa50 to develop 400kV and 220kV transmission lines in east African country Kenya under a public-private partnership framework.

Built by the Chint Group, the project is currently the largest in China combining PV power generation and fish farming. It is located in Wenzhou, a city with a subtropical maritime monsoon climate in China’s Zhejiang province.

The state-of-art 300 MW gas insulated substation facility, scalable to 700 MW, is the first-of-its-kind deployment of power infrastructure by any datacenter company in the Asia Pacific region.

The State-controlled renewable energy and energy efficiency lender has launched a scheme to finance new and emerging technologies that promote and increase the usage of renewable energy in the transport sector. 

Wood Mackenzie has predicted solar equipment cost increases will ease back after last year saw the average cost of solar electricity rise for the first time in the Asia-Pacific region.

The private-sector power producer has appointed Shersingh B. Khyalia as chief executive officer with effect from January 11, 2022.

The campus of the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands is currently hosting a retrofitted existing building provided with heating by an H2 heating boiler in the attic. The boiler is linked to an underground hydrogen system.