The Brazilian government has raised the import tax rate on solar modules from 9.6% to 25%.   Introduced by the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services (MDIC) this week (12 November), the tariff will see an increase of duties for solar cells built in solar panels or modules – as described in the government’s Official Gazette of the Union – and entered into force on the same day.   This is the second time the tariffs have been raised this year, with the implementation of the 9.6% duty on solar modules taking effect at the beginning of the year.   The tariff increase was in response to requests from two national module manufacturers, BYD Energy Brazil, a local PV module manufacturer subsidiary of Chinese automaker BYD, and Brazilian module manufacturer Sengi Solar.   After hydropower, solar PV is the technology with the most installed capacity in Brazil, with over 48GW in operation. Solar PV represents 20% of the country’s total installed electricity capacity.   Brazilian trade association Absolar said in a LinkedIn post that the decision was a “setback in the energy transition” and could risk an increase in prices and the loss of investments.   Its executive president, Rodrigo Sauaia, mentioned during a panel at the Conference of the Parties 29 (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, that: “This can impact very severely projects that are already under construction.” Sauaia added that the tariff increases will freeze the conditions for the market to access financing.   He also highlighted the timing of this decision, considering Brazil is set to host COP30 next year. “It is very important to help renewable energy technologies, to help the energy transition accelerate, not decelerate,” said Sauaia.   A survey made by the Brazilian trade association regarding the increase of tariffs on modules to 25% puts over 25GW of solar PV projects at risk of being cancelled by 2026, according to several local news outlets. This represents more than BRL97 billion (US$16.7 billion) in solar investments.

Today (13 September), the Australian government released an updated 2024 version of its National Hydrogen Strategy, focusing on accelerating clean hydrogen industry growth, with solar PV and wind generation set to provide the foundation for a booming industry. Australia’s new strategy aims to position the country as a global hydrogen leader. It will harness Australia’s abundance in renewable energy generation to capitalise on a growing and potentially lucrative export market for the clean energy carrier. Indeed, the strategy states that the global hydrogen market is forecast to reach US$1.4 trillion in 2050 and that Australia is well-placed for export and manufacturing opportunities. Solar PV and wind generation will be at the heart of Australia’s green hydrogen production goals, with these two technologies being the cheapest forms of renewable energy generation. Although Australia’s wind sector has started to pick up pace, solar PV continues to be the dominant clean energy technology, with it being added at an increasingly rapid pace. Indeed, 1.2GW of large-scale solar PV was added to the National Electricity Market (NEM) in the past 12 months, compared to wind’s 0.2GW. As seen in the image above, Australia has ample regions to develop green hydrogen projects via hybrid solar PV and wind projects. The majority are centred around the coastal regions of Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland, which grant acres of land to create large-scale projects. It should also be noted that there are various opportunities to create underground salt cavern storage projects, primarily in the Mallowa Salt and the Chandler Formation. This is one of the cheapest and safest ways to store hydrogen, with the gas needing to be purified and compressed before it can be injected into the cavern. At this current stage, the cost of renewable hydrogen production is high. The strategy details that the industry is nascent, and public investment in early movers will generate lessons that will reduce production costs over time. It should also be noted that creating ultra-low-cost solar could grant opportunities in this field. Readers of PV Tech will be aware that the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is working towards its vision for ultra-low-cost solar, arguing that a ‘30-30-30’ approach to solar—representing 30% solar module efficiency and an installed cost of 30 cents per watt by 2030—could help Australia become a renewable energy superpower. This would mean achieving a levelised cost of electricity below A$20 per megawatt hour by 2030 and could aid cost-competitive green hydrogen production. With the rapid rollout of solar PV, the price of the electricity generated will ultimately come down, allowing green hydrogen to be produced at lower rates, something that has plagued the industry in recent years.

Recently, Trina Solar's Central Research Institute announced that it has successfully manufactured the world's first fully recycled photovoltaic module through recycling the materials recovered from dismantling waste photovoltaic modules. After testing, this piece of golden size TOPCon 210N-66 recycled solar panel has a conversion efficiency of up to 20.7% and a power of more than 645W, marking a breakthrough in the recycling and recycling of waste solar panels. Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission and the General Office of the National Energy Administration jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Large-scale Equipment Renewal in Key Energy Fields", pointing out that it is necessary to promote the development of photovoltaic module recycling and reuse technology, support the development of low-cost green disassembly of photovoltaic modules based on physical and chemical methods, and high-value component efficient and environmentally friendly separation technology and complete equipment. Gao Jifan, Chairman and CEO of Trina Solar and President of the Central Research Institute, pointed out that the smooth roll-off of the world's first fully recycled solar panel is a vivid practice of Trina Solar's innovation to promote the development of new quality productivity, and it is also Trina Solar's responsibility to promote the circular economy and green development of the photovoltaic industry, and contribute Trina's strength to global energy transformation and green development. Trina Solar dismantles discarded photovoltaic modules and recycles broken silicon wafers. It uses a self-developed cleaning agent to remove bulk/surface impurities, and uses N-type single crystal direct-pull technology combined with a low-temperature impurity gettering process to obtain silicon wafers with performance close to that of the original. By collaborating with upstream and downstream partners, the silver powder recycled from discarded photovoltaic modules is further used to prepare the front fine grid slurry. By integrating high-resistance dense grid technology, the silver paste and silicon wafers exhibit good process characteristics during the printing process. The glass and aluminum frames recycled from discarded photovoltaic modules are formed through secondary melting, realizing the preparation of the first fully recycled photovoltaic module. Trina Solar has attached great importance to the treatment and recycling of waste photovoltaic modules more than ten years ago. In 2012, the European Union promulgated the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE), requiring that 85% of waste modules must be collected in a centralized manner, and 80% of the materials must be recycled. Trina Solar, with the direction of green environmental protection, low cost and high yield, combined with the existing advantages and conditions in the photovoltaic industry chain, carried out research on the disassembly and recycling of waste photovoltai...

According to energy think tank Ember, Central European countries have the potential to deploy up to 180GW of agri-solar projects. In a study of four Central European countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia), Ember estimated that up to 39GW of agri-solar PV could be deployed above agricultural products that shade crops, such as berries, and an additional 141GW of PV could be deployed by placing vertical panels between the grains. Between the four countries, deploying 180GW of agri-solar projects could almost triple the region's annual renewable electricity production, from 73TWh to 191TWh. Combining solar PV with agricultural land for food production could also bring benefits to crops, increasing fruit and berry yields by up to 16%. Less shade-tolerant crops, such as wheat, could still achieve more than 80% of their usual yields. Although there would be some food losses, farmers would still be able to offset some of their income by selling electricity, given that the four Central European countries account for 20% of EU wheat production. Food production in these countries, including wheat production, is at risk due to the deteriorating financial situation of farmers, the impact of climate change and volatile fertilizer prices. The benefits contrast with recent bans by the Italian and Ontario governments on ground-mounted solar PV projects on agricultural land. In Italy, the ban is intended to protect Italy’s productive agricultural land, a move that could cost the country up to €60 billion ($66.5 billion) in lost private investment and tax revenue.   Legislation is key to agri-solar deployment Legislation is a key factor in realizing the potential and benefits of agri-solar projects in Europe, but due to the lack of a unified definition of agri-solar projects, legislation is needed to address this issue. The Ember report said that legislation on agri-solar needs to ensure that agricultural land can maintain its original characteristics after the installation of any agri-solar project, so that it continues to qualify for agricultural subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy. Facilitating the deployment of agri-solar requires efficient spatial planning and simplified permitting and grid connection procedures. The report argues that agri-solar legislation should prioritize and encourage continued food production, allowing farmers to benefit from agri-solar, both for food and to improve their financial situation. Dr. Paweł Czyżak, Ember’s Regional Director for Central and Eastern Europe, said: “Instead of reducing food production, agri-solar can actually increase the yield of certain crops. Agri-solar combines the advantages of electricity production and food production, protecting valuable agricultural land while promoting energy transition and benefiting society and the economy. Governments such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia can seize the opportunities of agri-solar to simultane...

Malaysian energy company Cypark Resources Berhad has commissioned a 100MW hybrid project in its home state, which includes 35MW of floating solar capacity. The project, built in Merchang, a coastal town in the north-eastern state of Terengganu, comprises solar facilities built on land and water. Both facilities use leading Chinese manufacturer Trinasolar’s 210 Vertex 590-595W bifacial solar panels, which have a power conversion efficiency of 21.4%, and which the company notes are particularly resilient in high-humidity environments, such as Malaysia. “This is Malaysia’s largest hybrid solar power plant and consists of 35MW floating solar panels on the water surface and 65MW solar panels installed on land,” said Cypark executive chair Dato’ Ami Moris. “This project demonstrates Cypark’s ability to integrate solar power plant development with the natural environment of Terengganu, which is susceptible to flooding.” The project builds on a memorandum of understanding signed by Cypark and Trinasolar last year, in which the companies agreed to collaborate on the expansion of renewable power in Malaysia, and the potential for exporting electricity to Singapore. “We foresee significant opportunities in Southeast Asia for large-scale hybrid solar projects, integrating both floating and ground-mounted installations,” said Elva Wang, head of Southeast Asia at Trinasolar. “This project is a clear demonstration of the potential for hybrid solar projects in the region. We look forward to driving more such initiatives and contributing to Southeast Asia’s renewable energy ambitions.” Malaysia’s energy mix remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels, with just 1.93GW of solar capacity in operation in 2023, compared to 17.7GW of gas and 13.3GW of coal, and Cypark estimates that, if the country is to achieve its target of meeting 70% of its electricity demand with renewable power by 2050, around US$143.1 billion (MYR637 billion) will need to be invested in the next two decades. As a result, the commissioning of the project is a positive development for the Malaysian renewable power sector in particular, and the Asian floating solar sector in general. Earlier this year, research firm Rystad Energy noted that it expects Southeast Asia to add around 300MW of new floating solar capacity, and this report was quickly followed by the construction of the first floating solar project in Japan by SolarDuck and Tokyu Land.

first! The spacecraft uses lithium batteries! The power subsystem is one of the most critical systems among the 14 subsystems of the spacecraft. It can be said to be the "heart" of the spacecraft. This time, the power supply of the Shenzhou 18 manned spacecraft has been completely upgraded. It is understood that the development team replaced the main power storage battery of the spacecraft from a cadmium-nickel battery to a lithium-ion battery. After the oxygen resistance of the diaphragm system of other power supply zinc-silver batteries was improved, the battery life was increased by 20%.   Why upgrade to lithium-ion batteries? From Shenzhou 1 to Shenzhou 17, the spacecraft is equipped with "cadmium-nickel batteries". This kind of battery has the advantages of high safety, high reliability, resistance to overcharge and resistance to over-discharge, and can meet the requirements for high-safety operation of the Shenzhou spacecraft. Mission requirements. But it also has a disadvantage, which is the "memory effect". The "memory effect" is caused when the battery is continuously charged and discharged under low load conditions for a long time. Once the power consumption increases and returns to the full load state, the problem of insufficient power supply of the battery may occur. However, the "memory effect" has always existed. Why did nickel-cadmium batteries work in the past but not now? This involves another major variable in the process of my country's aerospace industry-the space station. After the space station era, the spacecraft’s stay in orbit is usually 6 months. As a result, we face two serious problems: • The occlusion problem of the space station cabin. The connecting length of the cabins is tens of meters, and there are huge flexible solar wings, which have severely blocked the solar wings of the Shenzhou manned spacecraft, resulting in insufficient independent power generation capabilities. • While the Shenzhou spacecraft is docked, it needs to receive power from the space station, which results in an unstable situation of constant switching of charging and discharging states, causing irregular charging and discharging problems. In this way, there is no memory effect and the lithium-ion battery with long service life has "successfully taken over". In this way, the Shenzhou spacecraft has overcome the problem of irregular charging and discharging, gained a longer time to dock at the space station assembly, and is also safer and more reliable. Of course, this doesn’t mean you can just change it. Because the safety of long-life and large-capacity lithium-ion batteries has been widely verified in the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft, in order to make the Shenzhou spacecraft more powerful, it has been replaced with lithium-ion batteries starting from Shenzhou 18.  The power supply system of my country's space station consists of three parts: flexible solar wings, sun orientation device, and lithium-ion battery. A...

• BESS Coya, owned by ENGIE Chile, obtained authorization from the National Electrical Coordinator to begin the operation. This battery storage system has an installed capacity of 139 MW/638 MWh and allows storing the energy generated by the Coya Solar Plant, located in María Elena, Antofagasta region. • ENGIE took an important step on its path towards decarbonization this week in Chile, obtaining authorization from the National Electric Coordinator (CEN) to commercially operate BESS Coya, the largest energy storage battery park in Latin America to date. This new asset of the company has a storage capacity of 638 MWh, with 139 MW of installed capacity. Its technology is based on the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) and uses lithium batteries to store the renewable energy generated by the Coya PV Photovoltaic Park (180 MWac), a plant located in María Elena, Antofagasta region. “The lack of optimization of renewable energy generated in northern Chile has always been one of our concerns. For this reason, we decided to incorporate a storage system into the development of the Coya Solar Plant, with the aim of injecting energy into the system at night, when it is needed most. We believe that this technology is key to accelerating the decarbonization of Chile, while providing flexibility and security to the system. That makes its development an essential pillar of our business strategy,” explained Rosaline Corinthien, CEO of ENGIE Chile. BESS Coya has 232 containers that are distributed evenly among the 58 inverters of the solar plant. It allows you to supply energy for 5 hours, which is equivalent to a delivery of 200 GWh on average per year. In addition, it plays a fundamental role in the environment, since it allows us to supply around 100,000 homes with green energy, avoiding the emission of 65,642 tons of CO2 per year.

Two years ago, the world's highest altitude photovoltaic project - Tibet Caipeng Photovoltaic Power Station was officially connected to the grid to generate electricity. The Tibet Caipeng Photovoltaic Power Station is located on a plateau with an altitude range of 4,994 meters to 5,100 meters in Nedong District, Shannan City. Construction will begin in August 2023. The project location has abundant sunshine all year round and is one of the four high-quality photovoltaic power generation areas in Tibet. The daily temperature here is 2.5 degrees Celsius, and the temperature in December reaches more than 20 degrees below zero, and the oxygen content is only more than half of that in plain coastal areas. A little, a little more talk will lead to lack of oxygen, and the world's highest altitude photovoltaic project is connected to the grid to generate electricity in such a difficult environment. The daily power generation of Tibet Caipeng Photovoltaic Power Station can meet the daily electricity consumption of 4,000 families and can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 92,000 tons, which is equivalent to planting 3.3 million trees on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Photovoltaic panels can block part of the sunlight and reduce water evaporation from ground vegetation. At the same time, they can also make full use of the barren mountain slopes to generate photovoltaic power generation, alleviating local electricity shortages in winter. After being connected to the grid for power generation, there are still many yaks roaming and grazing leisurely under the solar panels. This combination of grazing and photovoltaic power generation is particularly suitable for plateau pastoral areas. Talatan, Gonghe County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China, was once a semi-desert grassland with desertified land accounting for 98.5% of the total land area. Not only was it deserted, it also seriously endangered the safety of the surrounding Yellow River ecological zone. However, as the country began to vigorously promote the development of the photovoltaic industry in Qinghai, the animal husbandry here has continued to develop, the ecology has gradually recovered, and the economy has further developed. In 2012, my country's first 10-million-kilowatt solar power generation base began construction in Talatan. Since its development, Talatan has built the Hainan Ecological Photovoltaic Park, the photovoltaic power generation park with the largest installed capacity in the world. According to statistics, 46 companies have settled in the park, with a total installed capacity of 15,730 megawatts, an average annual power generation of 10 billion kilowatt hours, an annual saving of 3.11 million tons of standard coal, and a reduction of 7.8 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. You know, China is not only the largest producer of photovoltaics, but also a world-famous "infrastructure maniac".