First Solar partners with Norwegian power firm on green hydrogen projects

• PV maker and Solar Module Super League (SMSL) participant First Solar has partnered with a Norwegian hydrogen power business to create a portfolio of green hydrogen manufacturing centers.

As part of the project, First Solar as well as Norway's Nel Hydrogen Electrolyser AS will interact to establish a power plant control and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system.

The firms said in a declaration that the SCADA system is "vital" to optimize solar-plus-hydrogen power projects and create low-priced electrical energy consequently.

Mark Widmar, First Solar's president, stated that the firm's experience in creating CadTel solar modern technology makes it "well positioned to deal with the market requirement for large green hydrogen." The producer hit a nameplate Series 6 CdTe thin film manufacturing ability of 7.9 GW in the first 3 months of 2021, having actually implemented numerous cell efficiencies programs, developed yield enhancements as well as increased line throughputs throughout 6 production facilities.

" As solar energy becomes mainstream, this is an exceptional example of exactly how we will power the new options."

It is the most up to date green hydrogen partnership revealed this spring, after energy firms Iberdrola, Total Eren and also EDF Renewables all stated they will partner with others to create low-emissions hydrogen power systems in the past month.

Much more lately, fellow SMSL participant LONGi Green Energy signed a critical arrangement with Chinese oil as well as gas significant Sinopec to work together on green hydrogen advancement. The news came shortly after LONGi introduced the establishment of a new service unit committed to the low carbon energy.

A recent report from BloombergNEF has actually forecasted that green hydrogen might become more affordable than gas by 2050 if prices in the solar sector continue to drop, however renewable energy capitalist Smartenergy told PV Tech last month that the sector still encounters key obstacles around system combination, federal government assistance and also project scale.

Evaluation from IHS Markit estimates that when electrolysis prices drop below US$ 2/kg, that is when green hydrogen begins ending up being competitive with hydrogen produced with nonrenewable fuel sources. Previously this year a team of 30 solar designers, energies, gas transmission system drivers, facilities funds and professionals founded a brand-new coalition to bring the cost of green hydrogen down below this by 2030, including 95GW of solar and also 67GW of electrolysis capability by the end of the years.

Jon André Løkke, Nel's president, claimed that the firm will certainly "leverage our capabilities to prolong our usual product using completion consumer with a target to be able to deliver the most affordable total cost of solar to hydrogen."