Solar Energy

Between 2018 and 2020, the solar power capacity of Vietnam leapt to 16.5 gigawatts from 0.1 gigawatts. In the same period, the sunny Mena region added only 3.1 gigawatts in its entirety. The region has made some important strides in solar power but it needs to find the way to …

The UAE’s clean energy firm Masdar, owned by sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co., plans to develop 440 MW of photovoltaic solar projects in Uzbekistan as it expands its international footprint. Abu Dhabi-based Masdar will develop two power plants on a public-private partnership basis, building on its presence in Uzbekistan, …

Yazd Province in the middle of the Iranian plateau enjoys the opportunity of generating solar power in nine months of a year, so for an eight-year period, President Hassan Rouhani’s administration has attached importance to developing solar power plants with the capacity 71.5 megawatt of energy. Utilizing renewable energies has …

Developing new ultrathin metal electrodes has allowed researchers to create semitransparent perovskite solar cells that are highly efficient and can be coupled with traditional silicon cells to greatly boost the performance of both devices, said an international team of scientists. The research represents a step toward developing completely transparent solar …

OPEC’s Fund for International Development is among a group of development banks providing $114 million of loans to build the largest privately owned solar plant in Egypt. ACWA Power’s 200-megawatt Kom Ombo site also received funding from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the African Development Bank, the Green …

French energy major Total has signed an agreement with Iraq’s Ministry of Oil to develop a host of energy projects in the country, including 1GW of solar PV. The agreement, which builds on discussions between Total and the Iraqi government that began in October last year, has seen the two …

Iraq has suffered from a lack of electricity generation capacity following the US-led invasion of 2003 as well as the rise and fall of the Islamic State group (IS) over 2014-17. Successive governments have thus far failed to rehabilitate Iraq’s electricity sector, despite spending some 50B USD on it in …

The U.S. solar industry installed a record 19.2 GWdc of photovoltaic (PV) capacity in 2020, a 43% increase from 2019, according to a report released by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie. The numbers are particularly impressive considering the world was dealing with unique challenges as a …

US-based engineers have joined forces to develop high-voltage reference batteries for behind-the-meter energy storage applications, based on a bipolar technology that uses silicon wafers in traditional lead batteries. The wafers are similar to those in photovoltaic cells and the idea is that the development becomes a ‘plug and play’ solar-powered …

The share of solar energy in India’s power generation could equal coal fired output by 2040, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said yesterday, driven by falling renewable tariffs and a government push to increase green energy use. “Solar power is set for explosive growth in India, matching coal’s share in …