Technology

The Agua+S project under development in the Spanish region of Andalucia is aimed at combining a desalination plant, a pumping station network, and an onshore, floating photovoltaic plant in a single project design. According to its developers this is the first time that these three facilities have been combined together in a fully reproducible design that could be replicated in any river basin that has a reservoir and is close to the coast, to produce fresh water for both irrigation and human consumption.

The lead-acid battery major will use SVOLT’s technology to manufacture lithium-ion cells in India. It will produce cells across two popular chemistries and three formats out of its proposed multi-gigawatt fab.

Scientists from the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, have shown Ni2O3 as a promising catalyst for sustained electrochemical urea oxidation reaction (UOR) to produce green hydrogen. With Ni2O3 catalyst, they found the UOR activity to be almost six times higher than with the conventional NiO. 

New modeling suggests that the reduction in albedo caused by large-scale solar plants could double rainfall in the Red Sea coastal plain of Saudi Arabia.

Researchers from Australia’s Monash University have created a new generation of lithium-sulfur batteries to provide a cheaper, cleaner and faster-charging energy storage solution that outlasts lithium-ion alternatives and is rechargeable hundreds of times without failing.

Ratings agency ICRA has estimated Indian green hydrogen will cost that much if produced at sites featuring clean energy generation capacity and electrolyzers. That is between 50 US cents and a dollar per kilogram cheaper than in locations where the two systems are not co-located, with the saving possible due to a reduction in open-access, intra-state grid charges.

Michigan’s Our Next Energy (ONE) said it will use the funding led by BMW to accelerate R&D and build a US manufacturing facility.

Researchers in Saudi Arabia have fabricated an integrated fully PV-powered system to extract fresh water from the atmosphere. The system uses excess heat from the solar modules to evaporate and condense water that can then be used to grow crops. Part of the water is also used to cool down the solar modules through an active cooling technique.

Megasol said the solar module relies on new back-contact technology that is able to reduce internal resistance, ohmic losses and cell spacing.

Experts at a recent workshop by industry body India Hydrogen Alliance (IH2A) and the government thinktank NITI Aayog proposed the formation of a public-private taskforce to develop gigawatt-scale green hydrogen hubs in India. The taskforce will have participation from global funding agencies, industry and government.