EPFL researchers have built a pilot-scale solar reactor that produces usable heat and oxygen, in addition to generating hydrogen with unprecedented efficiency for its size. This is the first system-level demonstration of solar hydrogen generation. Unlike typical lab-scale demonstrations, it includes all auxiliary devices and components, so it gives us... Read more →

Lightyear, the developer of solar electric vehicles, will redirect its focus and resources completely towards the development and production of Lightyear 2, its intended mass-market model. This means the suspension of the production of Lightyear 0, the first production solar car. Accordingly, Lightyear has submitted the request to the court... Read more →

Fusion Fuel (earlier post) completed the interconnection of its H2Évora plant to the Portuguese electric grid and has successfully commissioned the facility. The demonstration project, comprising 15 HEVO-Solar units and associated balance-of-plant equipment, will produce 15 tons of green hydrogen per year and avoid the emission of 135 tons of... Read more →

Scientists from the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are providing researchers with a guide to how best to measure the efficiency of producing hydrogen directly from solar power. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting, which relies on sunlight to split water into... Read more →

ETH Zurich spin-off Synhelion has started the construction of DAWN—its own industrial plant to produce synthetic fuels using solar heat. (Earlier post.) Located in Jülich, Germany, the facility will demonstrate the entire process from concentrating sunlight to producing synthetic liquid fuel on an industrial scale. The production process—using only solar... Read more →

Global investment in renewable energy totaled $226 billion in the first half of 2022, setting a new record for the first six months of a year, according to Renewable Energy Investment Tracker 2H 2022, a new report published by research firm BloombergNEF (BNEF). Investment in new large- and small-scale solar... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) launched the Cadmium Telluride Accelerator Consortium (CTAC)—a $20-million initiative designed to make cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells less expensive, more efficient and develop new markets for solar cell products. CdTe solar cells were first developed in the United States and are the second-most common... Read more →

bp will acquire a 40.5% equity stake in and to become operator of the Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH), which has the potential to be one of the largest renewables and green hydrogen hubs in the world. Based on the development of world-scale renewable power generation, AREH, in the Pilbara... Read more →

Electrify America entered into a 15-year virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) with developer Terra-Gen to build a solar photovoltaic renewable energy generation project in San Bernardino County, California called Electrify America Solar Glow 1. The new solar project is expected to generate 75 MW at peak solar capacity or an... Read more →

Perovskite materials may hold the potential to play an important role in a process to produce hydrogen in a renewable manner, according to an analysis from scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Hydrogen has emerged as an important carrier to store energy generated by renewable resources, as a... Read more →

Using a hematite photocatalyst, a team led by researchers from Kobe University has succeeded in producing both hydrogen gas and hydrogen peroxide at the same time from sunlight and water. An open-access paper on the work is published in Nature Communications. Hydrogen has gained attention as one of the possible... Read more →

DHL Express is installing solar panel units on trucks within its US pickup and delivery fleet, reducing fuel consumption in markets throughout the country. Equipping 67 of DHL Express’ medium- and heavy-duty trucks with the TRAILAR solar technology is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 1,000 kg per year for... Read more →

Ford is partnering with solar company Sunrun to enhance home energy management, leveraging the onboard battery capability of the all-electric F-150 Lightning. Americans experienced the most power interruptions on record in 2020, according to the US Energy Information Administration; with F-150 Lightning, homeowners can use their truck to maintain their... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), joined by partners at Sandia National Laboratories and the Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute, launched the Heliostat Consortium (HelioCon), an international effort to drive down the cost of heliostats. HelioCon, led by NREL, emphasizes the significance of heliostats as... Read more →

For more than 20 years, California has aggressively supported the rooftop solar market through its Net Energy Metering (NEM) program in Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), and San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) territories. NEM allows customers who generate their own energy (customer-generators) to... Read more →

Heliogen and Bloom Energy have successfully demonstrated the production of green hydrogen by integrating the companies’ technologies: Heliogen’s concentrated solar energy system and the Bloom Electrolyzer. Heliogen’s AI-enabled concentrated solar energy system is designed to create carbon-free steam, electricity, and heat from abundant and renewable sunlight. When combined with Bloom’s... Read more →

Hyundai is facilitating the easy installation of an integrated clean energy ecosystem called Hyundai Home. Hyundai Home offers customers an opportunity to access solar energy and electric vehicle charging from their home with top-rated home chargers, solar panels, and energy storage systems through a one-stop marketplace platform. The Hyundai Home... Read more →

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered a new way to train microbes to make n-butanol. A team of biologists and engineers modified Rhodopseudomonas palustris TIE-1 (TIE-1) so that it can produce a biofuel using only three renewable and naturally abundant source ingredients: carbon dioxide, solar panel-generated electricity... Read more →

Lightsource bp, together with Xcel Energy and EVRAZ North America, launched its new 300-megawatt Bighorn Solar project. Lightsource bp, a 50:50 joint venture with bp, unveiled the solar project that will help reduce emissions and support more than 1,000 jobs at EVRAZ’s Pueblo steel mill—the world’s first steel mill to... Read more →

Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Toyota Motor Corporation, and Toyota Central R&D Labs., Inc. (CRDL) have commenced discussions on joint research aimed at accelerating development and implementing advanced technologies in the field of energy and the environment. The three parties each possess a strong desire... Read more →

Researchers at Monash University in Australia have conducted a lifecycle analysis and net energy analysis (LCA/NEA) of a hypothetical large-scale solar-electrolysis plant for the production of green hydrogen. The open-access paper on the study is published in the RSC journal Energy & Environmental Science. Process flow diagram and construction phase... Read more →

AMPLY Power is working with Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions to expand fleet electrification offerings, including the first commercially available combination solar canopy and overhead electric vehicle charging solution covered by a power purchase agreement (PPA) leasing and financing model. The field-tested solution, enabled by the patent-pending Pantograph In-Depot Equipment (PIDE)... Read more →

Cummins Inc. joined government leaders and partner Iberdrola, one of the world’s largest energy companies, to announce its plans for one of the world’s largest electrolyzer plants for the production of green hydrogen to be located in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. This investment in Spain comes on the heels of Iberdrola... Read more →

Ireland-based electrolyzer company Fusion Fuel Green PLC will collaborate with Consolidated Contractors Group S.A.L. (Offshore) (CCC), to develop green hydrogen plants in the Middle East. CCC and Fusion Fuel have agreed to cooperate on projects involving the production of green hydrogen for potential clients in the refining and petrochemical industries... Read more →

MAN Truck & Bus and Sono Motors have signed a Letter of Intent to investigate the technical and economic feasibility of integrating Sono Solar technology into MAN’s eTGE electric transporter. Sono Motors is developing its own electric car that is suitable for daily use, with integrated solar cells and innovative... Read more →

DTE Energy has commissioned a new solar array at the Ford Research & Engineering Center in Dearborn, Michigan. The 2,159-panel array is located on the rooftop level of the Deck 400 parking structure. The array includes an integrated battery storage system and will be used to power newly installed electric... Read more →

Syzygy Plasmonics, a technology company developing a high-performance photocatalyst for the industrial gas, chemical and energy industries, announced a $23-million Series B financing led by Horizons Ventures with participation from new global investors including Equinor Ventures. (Earlier post.) Licensed from Rice University, Syzygy’s “antenna-reactor” plasmonic photocatalyst has been published in... Read more →

Teijin and its joint development partner Applied Electric Vehicles have developed a polycarbonate solar roof for future mobility applications. The new solar roof uses Teijin’s Panlite polycarbonate resin glazing for its surface. Solar roof Teijin used its proprietary know-how in polycarbonate resin glazing and technologies to integrally mold the roof’s... Read more →

Electrify America, the nation’s largest public ultra-fast charging network, has added 30 solar-powered electric vehicle (EV) charging stations with two Level 2 chargers each to its network in the state of California. The off-grid, standalone chargers are strategically located throughout the Central Valley and inland areas of Southern California, intended... Read more →

Swiss haulier Rhyner Logistik has just acquired a Renault Trucks 26-ton D Wide Z.E. electric truck to supply Denner supermarkets. As part of this approach, the Swiss haulier has also fitted solar panels onto the body of its electric truck to power the refrigeration unit. The truck is now supplying... Read more →

Enel Green Power, through its North American renewable subsidiary Enel Green Power North America, Inc. (EGPNA), and Maire Tecnimont S.p.A., through its subsidiary dedicated to the deployment of technologies for the energy transition, NextChem, signed today a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to support the production of green hydrogen via electrolysis... Read more →

The National Science Foundation has awarded $39 million to a team of engineers and computer scientists at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) to build a first-of-its-kind testbed—DERConnect—to improve the understanding of how to integrate distributed energy sources such as solar panels, wind turbines, smart buildings and electric vehicle... Read more →

Audi Hungaria, in cooperation with E.ON Hungaria, officially started operation of Europe’s biggest photovoltaic roof installation. Since the start of the year, the site in Győr has used only green power. In 2012 Audi’s Hungarian plant opened a geothermal facility to supply most of its heat requirements. The remainder is... Read more →

Researchers at KAUST have discovered that a form of iron oxide—Fe2O3—makes an excellent co-catalyst for a promising photocatalytic material called gallium nitride for the production f hydrogen. An open-access paper on their work appears in Scientific Reports. Finding photocatalysts that can efficiently use sunlight to produce clean hydrogen fuel from... Read more →

Researchers at the University of Cambridge, with colleagues at the University of Tokyo, have developed a standalone device that converts sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into formic acid, a carbon-neutral fuel, without requiring any additional components or electricity. The device is a significant step toward achieving artificial photosynthesis—a process mimicking... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced $20 million in funding to advance perovskite solar photovoltaic technologies. (DE-FOA-0002357) Perovskites are a family of materials with a specific crystal structure, named after the mineral with that structure. When used to create solar cells, they have shown potential for high performance and... Read more →

Photoelectrical chemical cells (PECs) have the potential to produce hydrogen fuel through artificial photosynthesis, an emerging renewable energy technology that uses energy from sunlight to drive chemical reactions such as splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. The key to a PEC’s success lies not only in how well its photoelectrode... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced $100 million in funding over five years for two new awards focused on advancing artificial photosynthesis for the production of fuels from sunlight. The Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA), led by the California Institute of Technology in close partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,... Read more →

Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Caltech have found that copper that was once bound with oxygen is better at converting carbon dioxide into renewable fuels than copper that was never bound to oxygen. For their study, published in the journal ACS Catalysis, the scientists performed X-ray... Read more →

Air Products, ACWA Power and NEOM signed an agreement for a $5-billion world-scale green-hydrogen-based ammonia production facility powered by renewable energy. The project, which will be equally owned by the three partners, will be sited in NEOM, a new model for sustainable living located in the north west corner of... Read more →

SunHydrogen, the developer of a technology to produce renewable hydrogen using sunlight and water, has extended its sponsored research agreement with the University of Iowa through 31 August 2020. The current extension will allow the company to increase focus on its more efficient GEN 2 hydrogen production technology which is... Read more →

Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, are attempting to convert carbon dioxide to fuel using energy from sunlight. Recent results have shown that it is possible to use their technique selectively to produce methane, carbon monoxide or formic acid from carbon dioxide and water. An open-access paper on the work appears... Read more →

Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) have developed a hybrid material constructed from a metal oxide nanosheet and a light-absorbing molecule for splitting water molecules (H2O) to obtain hydrogen (H2) under sunlight. The research team led by Kazuhiko Maeda at Tokyo Tech developed a new photocatalyst consisting of... Read more →

Representatives of the Lufthansa Group and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zürich), with ETH spin-offs Climeworks and Synhelion, have signed a joint Letter of Intent for a possible cooperation to accelerate the market launch of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF). The researchers and engineers at ETH Zurich have developed... Read more →

High-tech mobility innovator Lightyear and Royal DSM will jointly scale the commercialization of Lightyear’s unique solar-powered roof for the electric vehicle market. With this solution, both companies aim to accelerate the global adoption of a broad range of Electric Vehicles (EVs). Specifically, the partnership aims to integrate solar-powered roofs in... Read more →

General Motors expects its Spring Hill Manufacturing plant will be powered by 100% solar energy beginning in late 2022. A green tariff agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority is expected to supply up to 100 megawatts of solar energy per year, or the amount of electricity consumed by 18,000 United... Read more →

The Department of the Interior (Department) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have approved a proposal to construct and operate the largest solar project in United States history. US Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt signed the Record of Decision (ROD) for Solar Partners XI, LLC to construct... Read more →

A research group led by Associate Professor Takashi Tachikawa of Kobe University’s Molecular Photoscience Research Center has developed a strategy that greatly increases the amount of hydrogen produced from sunlight and water using hematite (α‐Fe2O3) photocatalysts. They were able to raise the conversion rate up to 42% of its theoretical... Read more →

Rice University researchers have created an efficient, low-cost device that splits water to produce hydrogen fuel. The platform developed by the Brown School of Engineering lab of Rice materials scientist Jun Lou integrates catalytic electrodes and perovskite solar cells that, when triggered by sunlight, produce electricity. The current flows to... Read more →

HyperSolar, Inc., the developer of a technology to produce renewable hydrogen using sunlight and water (earlier post), is working with Suzhou GH New Energy Co. Ltd., a division of GCL Poly, in China to make the final modifications to the solar cells required to manufacture the Gen 1 hydrogen production... Read more →