News

Philippines-based AC Energy and Hong Kong-headquartered UPC Renewables’ solar energy arm are jointly building a 300 MWac (420 MWp) solar farm in Madhya Pradesh. The plant, when completed, will be the joint venture’s third and largest solar project in India to date.

An international research team has investigated how solar could be combined with thermoelectric coolers (TECs), which are small solid-state heat pumps used either for heating or for cooling. A system was built with six solar panels, an air duct system, four batteries, a charge controller, TECs, an inverter, heat sinks, a test chamber, and condenser fans.

Developed in Spain, the Arca system integrates solar panels, power electronics, and energy storage. Arca Lite has a rated power of 490 Wp, and Arca Plus of 980 Wp.

The past 12 months have been a turbulent time for PV manufacturing. Rapid and impressive developments in technology have been accompanied by price increases up and down the supply chain, and energy shortages weighed on production in the second half of the year. Chinese n-type module manufacturer Jolywood is now pressing ahead with ambitious expansion plans despite the disruption. pv magazine publisher Eckhart K. Gouras and editor Mark Hutchins recently caught up with Cathy Huang, European sales director at Jolywood, to discuss the company’s plans to bring n-type TOPCon technology into mainstream production.

Australian hydrogen vehicle and fuel cell startup H2X has partnered with Indian automotive parts manufacturer and developer Advik Hi-Tech in a deal which will see the Australian company’s products delivered into India and the wider international market.

Power minister RK Singh recently met with renewable energy developers and industry representatives to discuss the draft Policy on energy storage systems. He informed the participants the government is looking to delicense the setting up of energy storage systems not co-located with renewable energy generation facilities.

The NASDAQ-listed Indian renewable energy developer has sold off its 117 MW/138 MWp of distributed rooftop solar portfolio to Hyderabad-based Fourth Partner Energy for INR 6.72 billion (US$89.9 million), ensuring its increased focus on higher-return, larger-scale projects.

Mercedes-Benz has teamed up with ProLogium to integrate solid-state battery technology into a range of passenger vehicles; Panasonic and Toyota have launched an industrial-academic collaborative research program concerned with battery resources and recycling; and LG Energy Solution plans to spend $2.1 billion with General Motors to build another electric vehicle battery plant in the U.S.

According to BloombergNEF, electrolyzer shipments may reach up to 2.5GW in 2022, up significantly from 458MW last year. China and the United States will become the world’s first and second markets, respectively.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T), an Indian multinational EPC contractor, has partnered with Norway’s HydrogenPro to set up a joint venture in India for gigawatt-scale manufacturing of alkaline water electrolyzers.