Solar to Fuel

Be it rising fuel prices or failures in electricity power grids, the consequences of international energy situation are difficult to neglect. The need for alternate fuel resources is more than ever, however, regardless of the popularity of solar panels, a substantial amount of solar energy goes untapped.

The Australian energy storage company is planning the acquisition of SolarReserve Australia II, owing three solar sites in Australia. 1414 Degrees is about to create a huge solar park with 400 megawatts of photovoltaic capacity and a few thousand MWh of thermal storage.

The government has been seen as slow to act on climate change, while Labor offered an ambitious carbon reduction policy.

The solar field will become operational in Q2 of 2021. This is the project for deployment of phase five of the huge 5-gigawatt Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar farm.

The research group from the University of Houston has found a novel catalyst which is likely to help effectively split hydrogen from seawater. This innovation is supposed to considerably advance the seawater electrolysis development for commercial hydrogen production.

The advanced technology developed by the startup funded by Bill Gates is aimed at minimization of gas emissions from heavy industries.

France-based utilities have signed an agreement for joint deployment of the green hydrogen project, forecasted to generate 1.3 TWh of solar electricity per year as well as 10,440 t of renewable hydrogen by 2027.

Smart Energy Hub system can work both as an electrolyser and as a fuel cell. In the first case, it stores energy in the form of biogas. In the second case, it converts gas into heat and electricity. The system has been developed by Sylfen and French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission.

This has been a breakthrough year for non-battery storage, with key advances in pumped hydro, power-to-gas, and thermal storage technologies. Many industry players are moving beyond pilot projects to contracted projects, which could lead to increased scale and lower costs.

A team of scientists led by the University of Glasgow has discovered a more efficient method of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity which it says could almost double the amount of hydrogen produced per millivolt.

Analyst WoodMac has spelled out the urgent need to decarbonize the global hydrogen production industry. While the fuel can offer a sustainable grid balancing act for intermittent renewables, in its current fossil-fuel driven form it is pumping out more than 800 tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year.

In a bid to reduce its carbon footprint the oil giant is ramping up its renewable energy production at a refinery in the Philippines. The news was announced by the company in a week which saw it named seventh worst corporate contributor to the climate crisis since awareness of emissions-related damage first emerged.

The offer was apparently submitted by Saudi energy giant ACWA Power, which refused to confirm the bid when asked by pv magazine. The second lowest bid – $0.0175/kWh – was reportedly submitted by a consortium formed by Emirati developer Masdar, French utility EDF and Chinese PV panel maker JinkoSolar.

Germany has long been a global leader in driving acceptance of clean technologies through its progressive energy policies and regulations. Its influence in addressing climate change extends well beyond its borders, and the country is taking an active role to support the global energy transition through international cooperation. Germany has bilateral energy partnerships with approximately 20 countries, and its strong partnership with California is focused on creating a route to the future – a carbon-neutral one. State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy Andreas Feicht met with pv magazine to discuss the country’s partnership with California, and its journey toward decarbonization.

Developer Hydrogen Renewables Australia (HRA) and German engineering giant Siemens have unveiled plans for a hydrogen production facility in Western Australia, meant to be powered by a whopping 5GW of wind and solar.