News

Strong winds flip cars competing in the World Solar Challenge
A solar car competing in the World Solar Challenge has rolled over on the Stuart Highway, just north of Coober Pedy in South Australia.
Oct 16, 2019 // Transport, Australia, World Solar Challenge, Oceania, Chris Selwood
What is the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge?
Having begun on 13 October and being due to end on 18 October, the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge is underway.
Oct 16, 2019 // Transport, Australia, Oceania, Bridgestone World Solar Challenge
Rebuilding for resilience
The islands of the Caribbean have been focusing on the deployment of storage solutions, minigrids and microgrids in response to the damage their power systems suffered during the 2017 hurricane season. But with the opportunities, there are also challenges.
Oct 16, 2019 // Plants, Large-Scale, Commercial, Markets & Finance News, Storage, Grids, storage, Wood Mackenzie, North America, Caribbean, RMI, Stephen Mushegan, Isaac Maze-Rothstein, off-grid market, Antigua and Barbuda
Cronimet finishes 1 MW rooftop PV array on Namibian mall
The German developer and independent power producer claims it finished its latest solar project in the country about one month ahead of schedule.
Oct 16, 2019 // Plants, Large-Scale, Commercial, Rooftop PV, Germany, Europe, Africa, Namibia, Cronimet Mining Power Solutions
AEPPL signs $689.7m deal for li-ion battery plant in western India
Automotive Electronics Power Private Ltd. (AEPPL), an India-based lithium-ion battery manufacturing venture between three Japanese companies, aims to produce 30 million cells per year by 2025.
Oct 16, 2019 // Markets & Finance News, Storage, India, Asia, AEPPL, Suzuki, li-ion battery plant
A new battery mix to prevent dendrites
Scientists at the United States Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have discovered a root cause of dendrite formation, which can cause battery failure and even fires in lithium-ion technology. With this new knowledge, the group is now working on electrolyte recipes that eliminate dendrite growth entirely.
Oct 16, 2019 // Technology, USA, North America, PNNL, Chongmin Wang
Australia’s AEMC calls for energy pricing and transmission overhaul
The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has released a new paper outlining a blueprint to coordinate generation and transmission investments. The draft proposal seeks to overhaul wholesale pricing and transmission access to lower electricity costs and the ever-increasing risks inherent in getting new renewable energy generation capacity into the network.
Oct 16, 2019 // Markets & Finance News, Australia, Oceania, aemc, Chairman John Pierce
Solar + storage to survive disasters
Roth Capital Partners expects the U.S. residential storage market to grow more quickly than expected. The prediction is founded just as much in disaster mitigation as it is in economic viability
Oct 15, 2019 // Storage, USA, North America, Roth Capital Partners
Plummeting lithium price will further dent Ganfeng profits
Beijing’s sudden retreat on electric vehicle subsidies in the summer has caused the value of lithium to hit the floor, with disastrous effects on the balance sheets of Chinese companies which had invested big in supply chains to support anticipated huge demand.
Oct 15, 2019 // Markets & Finance News, China, Australia, Asia, Oceania, Ganfeng Lithium
Australian agrivoltaics start-up aiming for eventual 1 GW of solar capacity
With sun the common component of solar energy production and agriculture, a new company in northern New South Wales is set to combine the benefits of sowing PV and forage crops in the same soil.
Oct 15, 2019 // Plants, Large-Scale, Commercial, USA, Arizona, Australia, Oceania, North America, Oregon, Ben Wynn
A carbon scaffold to boost lithium-sulfur performance
Scientists at Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research have developed a new method to produce lithium-sulfur based cathodes which exhibit stable performance and high storage capacity over 200 cycles. According to the agency, this represents “a promising step towards the commercialization of lithium-sulfur batteries.”
Oct 15, 2019 // Technology, Storage, Asia, Singapore, lithium-sulfur batteries, NanoBio Lab group, Jackie Y. Ying
State-owned Panda Green set to bank more public funds
The heavily indebted solar project developer has revealed the state-backed element of two trailed fire sales of 636 MW of solar and wind project portfolios in China. The divestments will generate up to RMB450 million for the company while recognizing RMB200 million in losses on its investments.
Oct 15, 2019 // Markets & Finance News, China, Asia, Panda Green, Xinhua Electric Development and Investment Co Ltd
SMA: Sustainability and profitability are not mutually exclusive
In the run up to our Greenwashing vs. verifiable sustainability webinar, the CEO of pv magazine’s UP initiative partner SMA Solar Technology, Jürgen Reinert, talks about what the inverter manufacturer is doing to prove its sustainability credentials.
Oct 15, 2019 // Manufacturing News, Inverters, Germany, Europe, sma solar technology, Jürgen Reinert
Tesla-based battery project launched in Slovenia
New company NGEN appears to have introduced the Powerpack battery to central Europe in a €15 million, 12.6 MW/22.6 MWh project in the northwest of the country which is the first of two planned utility scale systems due for completion by July.
Oct 15, 2019 // Storage, TESLA, Europe, Slovenia, NGEN, Damian Merlak, Roman Bernard
The weekend read: Next steps for HJT
There is movement in the heterojunction space, but will it be enough to surpass PERC’s momentum? New production lines show promise, but they might also be the last roll of the dice for Swiss production equipment supplier Meyer Burger.
Oct 15, 2019 // Manufacturing News, Germany, China, Panasonic, Europe, Asia, meyer burger, PERC, topcon, Alpha Series HJT, Shankar G. Sridhara, Ethan S. Simon, Christian Knechtel, Götz Fischbeck