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".

Recently, the Nangang user-side energy storage power station, the largest string energy storage system project in the country, officially completed completion acceptance. The power station uses a total of 306 200kW/402kWh liquid cooling system energy storage cabinets, with a full capacity of 61MW/123MWh. The implementation of this project not only broke the record for the user-side energy storage project with the largest single capacity in China, but also once again verified the excellent strength of Lingchu Yuneng in “large project development and large project delivery”. After the Nangang Energy Storage Power Station is put into operation, by charging and discharging twice a day, it can shift peaks and valleys by an average of about 240,000 kilowatt-hours per day. It can provide 1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity throughout its life cycle and is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 1 million tons. It will play an important role in easing the regulatory pressure on regional power grids, improving Nangang's green electricity consumption and storage capabilities, and reducing energy usage costs. The biggest highlight of the Nangang energy storage power station project is the application of string energy storage systems. The so-called string energy storage system refers to the combination of multiple energy storage units into an energy storage system, which achieves optimal management and control of the energy storage system through intelligent control. It mainly includes energy storage equipment, intelligent controllers and management platforms. parts. As the energy storage system service provider of the Nangang project, we fully considered the project’s ultimate requirements for all aspects of performance indicators and based on the distributed energy storage system architecture, divided 306 200kW/402kWh liquid cooling system energy storage cabinets into 17 square arrays. Through innovative technologies such as battery module-level energy optimization, single-cell battery cluster energy control, and digital intelligent management, multi-dimensional values such as higher discharge, better investment, simplified operation and maintenance, safety and reliability are given to the power station throughout its life cycle.

It is reported that on January 17, Meyer Burger, a Swiss-based photovoltaic module manufacturer, announced that it would close its solar module production base in Germany and said it would make a final decision by the end of February. It is understood that the module factory that Meyer Burger closed this time is the largest solar panels factory in Europe. The closure of the plant is a major blow to the photovoltaic manufacturing industry in Germany and Europe. Meyer Burger said in a statement, "Due to the deteriorating European market environment, it is currently unsustainable to continue full-scale European solar manufacturing. Unfortunately, part of the plan will begin to close in Frei, Germany, as early as April 2024." Berg has one of the largest operating solar module production sites in Europe, affecting around 500 people.” Meyer Burger said its cell production site at its Thalheim plant in Germany will continue to produce solar cells to support its U.S. module production operations. Gunter Erfurt, CEO of Meyer Burger, said: "The expansion of our U.S. operations is currently proceeding as planned, with start-up at our solar module production site in Goodyear, Arizona expected in the second quarter of 2024." Previously, Meyer Burger had planned to add approximately 3GW of production capacity in Germany by the end of 2024, including Freiberg's 1.4GW soalr panels production capacity. In addition, on July 18, 2023, Meyer Burger also announced that it will build a 3.5GW factory in Spain

Czechia recorded a significant increase in installed solar capacity last year, with about 970MWp of capacity added to the grid. However, the growth was mainly driven by household rooftop solar, according to the Czech Solar Association. Last year, a total of 82,799 solar power plants were connected to the grid in Czechia, with a total installed capacity of 970.1MWp, representing a 236% increase from 2022’s 289.1MWp. The number of solar power plants increased by 145%, from 49,000 in 2022 to 82,799 in 2023. Of the new solar power plants, 80,069 (96.7%) were from household rooftops, with a total output of 823.3MWp. The average size of domestic PV plants was 10.3kWp last year, up from 6.7kWp in 2022. 92% of families chose a solution combined with battery storage with an average capacity of 12kWh, up from 11.7kWh in 2022.  The Czech Solar Association said the driver of residential sector growth was the New Green Savings programme. According to the Czech government, the programme aims to achieve energy savings in final consumption, with measurement including the development of solar PV systems. In contrast, there were only 2,730 company and land-based solar PV plants added last year, with a total output of about 140MWp. Among these solar PV plants, 25 boasted a capacity of over 1MWp. “The growth was driven by rooftop power plants for family homes or companies. However, if we want to use the potential of solar energy in the Czech Republic and, above all, to prepare for the shutdown of coal-fired power plants earlier than expected, we must increase the construction of solar parks,” said Jan Krčmář, director of the Czech Solar Association. Moreover, the total output of all solar power PV plants in Czechia last year reached almost 3.5GW. In total, more than 170,000 solar power plants were connected to the grid, of which more than 150,000 were on the roofs of family houses. Moving forward, the Czech Solar Association said it expects more investors to build larger solar PV plants, subsidised by the European Commission’s Modernisation Fund. The fund focuses on several areas, including the generation and use of energy from renewable sources.

In early November 2023, the world's largest Ocean photovoltaic project-Shandong Dongying Kenli 1 million kilowatt offshore photovoltaic project has officially started construction. The project is located in the waters of Laizhou Bay, Dongying City. After completion, the annual power generation is expected to be 1.78 billion kilowatt hours. On December 26, my country's first large-scale ocean pile-based fixed offshore photovoltaic project, China General Nuclear Power Group Co., Ltd. Yantai Zhaoyuan 400 MW offshore photovoltaic project, also officially started construction. The project is also located in the waters of Laizhou Bay, with a total planned area of approximately 6.44 square kilometers, and consists of 121 photovoltaic sub-arrays. It is the deepest, most difficult to construct, and the most complex development condition among the first ten offshore photovoltaic project sites in Shandong Province. of site. After completion, the average annual power generation is expected to be 690 million kilowatt hours.   However, moving from "land photovoltaic" to "ocean photovoltaic" is far more than just "moving" photovoltaic power plants from land to sea. Experts said that currently there are challenges in all stages of offshore photovoltaic projects such as preliminary procedures, project construction, and later operation and maintenance management. Especially in terms of equipment and construction, there are many challenges. At present, there are two types of floating photovoltaics, one is the fixed type on pile foundation and the other is the floating type on the sea. Large-scale ocean photovoltaic projects are currently mainly based on fixed pile foundations on coastal beaches or intertidal zones. Use a pile driver to drive reinforced concrete pipe piles with a diameter of 30-50 cm into the water, similar to foundations, and then install corrosion-resistant metal photovoltaic brackets on the piles. Since pile driving can only be carried out within a water depth of 5 meters, where there are no geological hazards and small water level changes, pile-based fixed power stations can usually only be installed on tidal flats and intertidal zones. In the long run, stationary applications have limited scope. The country's largest coastal tidal fishery and light complementary photovoltaic project, which will be put into operation in 2021, the Xiangshan Changtu tidal flat project is located in the tidal flat area of Xiangshan County. It has 630,000 photovoltaic panels and generates an annual power generation of up to 350 million KW. The construction of pile-based photovoltaics is quite difficult. Because the tidal flat area is covered with ocean at high tide and filled with mud at low tide, transport ships often run aground halfway. The seemingly simple transportation of pipe piles is actually very difficult. In addition, because tidal flat photovoltaics are located at sea, the environment is humid and salty, and the metal supports are easily corrod...