Europe

Trade body the Ukrainian Association of Renewable Energy says more than 70% of the nation’s solar fields are either in, or near regions which have been affected by the fighting.

The Indian multinational business conglomerate has signed the agreement to buy Netherlands-headquartered lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery specialist Lithium Werks for US$ 61 million, including funding for future growth.

A previous announcement by Acme indicated the port site would be able to produce around 876,000 tons of the green fuel per year but the Indian developer today said that figure would be 1.2 million tons. The 100,000-ton-per-year first phase of the facility may be operational this year.

Clean energy facilities have been ordered offline in the nation since Thursday as the national grid ran an exercise to establish how it would function in isolation from the power networks of Russia and Belarus.

The International Energy Agency has published a 10-point plan for Europe to reduce its reliance on natural gas imported from Russia. The plan would see Russian gas imports to EU member states reduced by one third within a year, and notes that further reductions within this timeframe would come with significant tradeoffs, likely to impact both energy prices and Europe’s Green Deal. The plan was presented by Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, in a virtual press conference held earlier today.

Developed by Germany-based hydrogen specialist Enapter, the EL 4.0 electrolyzer is based on a patented anion exchange membrane (AEM) technology. Commercial production is currently being prepared at the company’s Italian plant and the first shipments should be made in the summer.

The stadium of German football club SC Freiburg will host a 2.4MW rooftop solar array that will be built with heterojunction modules provided by Swiss manufacturer Meyer Burger.

The Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, and the Innovation Fund Denmark (IFD) have collaborated to fund Indian and Danish researchers on the joint development of green fuels including green hydrogen. 

Norway’s Scatec, which has a 50% stake in Acme’s 900 MW solar project in Rajasthan, cited a lack of domestic solar panel supply and the 40% import duty on solar panels effective from April as the reasons for putting the PV project on hold.

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.