Middle East

The Climate Investment Platform launched by three multilateral bodies in September is now open for business and renewables companies in developing nations across 14 regions including south Asia could qualify for help with clean energy facilities, renewables-related grid improvements and energy efficiency schemes.

A range of up to 600 km is possible when Lithium-ion batteries are combined with metal-air batteries that the fossil fuel giant intends to produce in India under a partnership with Israel based startup Phinergy.

A Turkish research team has analyzed how big changes in temperature can affect absorbance, light transmittance and reflectivity in two types of solar glass. The scientists demonstrated lower efficiency in solar cells and the glass itself were attributable to a large number of micro-cracks and deformations on the glass surface.

The grid-connected solar project shall come up at a reservoir of NTPC’s Auraiya Gas Power Plant in Uttar Pradesh. It is to be developed under Open category, allowing use of solar cells and modules of any origin.

The total QIA investment in AEML is Rs 3220 crore (US$ 452 million), which includes equity consideration of Rs 1210 crore (US$ 170 million) and shareholder subordinated debt of Rs 2010 crore (US$ 282 million).

The joint venture will set up a factory in India to manufacture Al-Air batteries for electric vehicles and stationary applications and facilitate development of eco-system for Al-Air technology.

Following a dip in the last fiscal year, the value of cell exports saw a massive surge to an estimated Rs133,000 lakh from April to November. Exports to the U.S. tripled during the eight-month period as shipments to Turkey and Belgium rebounded to become the next two biggest export markets.

The Mumbai-based solar EPC solutions provider has to its credit 9.2 GWp of solar power projects (commissioned and under construction) globally, including 3.05 GWp in the MENA region.

Researchers from Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology have created flexible solar cells made of crystalline silicon. They claim to have stretched a crystalline silicon cell’s surface by around 95% while maintaining conversion efficiency of around 19%.

The annual global outlook report for solar published by IHS Markit notes there was no real uptick in the amount of new capacity added last year, compared with the returns seen in 2018. That is likely to kill any hope India has of overtaking the U.S. as the world’s second biggest solar market in 2020.