Technology and R&D

Basf and Man Energy announced a plan to build a 120 MW renewables-powered heat pump for steam production at an industrial site operated by Basf in the Rhineland-Palatinate region, Germany. The feasibility study for the project should be completed by the end of this year.

Gas Authority of India Ltd. (GAIL), a state-owned natural gas supplier, has started accepting proposals from startups in the renewable energy and electric mobility sectors for equity investment under its “Pankh” initiative.

Renewable hardware that lasts longer and uses fewer materials could bolster recycling efforts and help to build an effective circular economy for solar and battery technologies, says the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

GH2 Solar is the project partner for a new green hydrogen pilot based on proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers. It will have the capacity to produce 10 normal cubic meters of green hydrogen per hour.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada have issued a joint recall of patio umbrellas due to fires caused by the overheating of lithium-ion batteries.

French researchers have developed PV modules with an area of 11.6 square centimeters for indoor applications. They said the achieved efficiency level marks a world record for a flexible perovskite device larger than 10 square centimeters.

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, have found that nanoscopic refractory metal layers like tungsten could improve dendrite growth tolerance in electrolytes of solid-state Li-ion batteries. The team collaborated with researchers from Carnegie Mellon University.

Vikrant Singh, co-founder and CTO of BatX Energies, told pv magazine that the company would use the funds to scale up its capacity, with plans to launch material production from end-of-life lithium batteries on a commercial scale. It will also set up recycling units in different geographies to locally produce black mass – a mixture of battery anode and cathode materials – and ship it to its India facility for battery material extraction.

A research team in Hong Kong has built a solar window that can generate power on the external side via a luminescent solar concentrator and thermal energy on the internal side via transparent solar absorbers.

Alsym will produce its new batteries – made of readily available materials, without lithium or cobalt – for electric vehicles, stationary storage, and marine applications.