Solar to Fuel. Hydrogen production from solar energy

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.

Global experts are set to gather in Taipei in less than a month to take stock of the island’s strengths and challenges as it embarks on a multi-gigawatt renewable transformation by 2025.

The International Renewable Energy Association says the integration of hydrogen into the energy transition will not happen overnight and electrolysis costs will not be halved until the 2040s. That hydrogen and related products could revolutionize the world energy landscape, however, is not in doubt.

A new report in Sweden suggests that renewables are an ideal source of power for marine vessels, based on a case study in which solar PV and proton-exchange membrane fuel cells, combined with a diesel generator, were used to reduce the greenhouse gas and particulate emissions of cruise ships by almost 10%

Australia’s Northern Territory has unveiled a new target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 in a policy document that touts solar and backs a proposed 10GW/20-30GWh solar-plus-storage plant earmarked to provide energy to the region and Singapore.

EuPD Research has calculated what needs to be done to replace the nuclear and coal generation to be phased out in Germany. Accelerated expansion of PV appears the best short-term option. However, storage capacity will need to increase 30-fold by 2040 so solar can become the main pillar of the country’s energy system.

French developer Neoen wants to build an energy superpark in South Australia that comprises 1.2GW of wind, 600MW of solar and 800MW of battery storage capacity.

With the 200 hydrogen bikes offered to journalists and world leaders at the G7 summit in Biarritz proving popular, manufacturer Pragma Industries has received an order for 1,000 of them from Chilean president Sebastian Pinera. The company’s founder, Pierre Forté, wants the bike to have a societal impact in developing countries.

Two of Germany’s leading research institutes and a CIGS module maker have announced plans to work on the development of perovskite-CIGS tandem cells with a target of producing thin film modules with better than 30% efficiency.

The Emirati utility and the Chinese communications giant and inverter maker have discussed how they can work together to roll out solar and storage in Dubai as well as collaborating on cyber security and the use of AI to analyze cyber threats.

The Dubai Water and Electricity Authority will use energy from the gigawatt-scale Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park to provide a new hydropower plant with pumped storage capacity. The state-owned utility has announced a number of innovations for the project in recent months, including plans for hydrogen and large-scale storage capacity.

Scientists at the Australia National University have observed a key stage in the process of photosynthesis which could be copied to greatly increase the efficiency of sunlight-powered water splitting processes used to produce hydrogen.