Startup bets on cheap and abundant zinc — and the emergence of a market for long-duration storage. Canadian startup e-Zn has raised money to store clean energy far longer than currently available batteries allow, using cheap and abundant zinc. On Wednesday, the company received CAD $2 million ($1.5 million) in non-dilutive grant funding from Sustainable […]
Solar Industry Asks Trump to Allow More Cell Imports to Spur Domestic PV Manufacturing
U.S. trade officials are preparing a midterm review of the Trump administration’s solar tariffs, with a range of potential outcomes. It’s been almost exactly two years since the Trump administration placed a 30 percent import tariff on solar cells and modules. And in large part, the industry has coped. Market conditions like module oversupply and […]
Thailand charges towards an electric car future, with a few speed bumps
Thailand has the biggest automotive industry in Southeast Asia and the 12th largest in the world. Most of those coming out of Thai factories, well just about all really, are standard internal combustion engines with a few ‘hybrid’ models sprinkled in there as well. The hybrids include electric motors and charging systems which saves fuel […]
Maxeon Aims to ‘Outgrow the Market’ After Splitting From SunPower
Separated from U.S.-based SunPower, Maxeon may have a freer hand to seek its lowest-cost manufacturing options in China. Last week, the solar industry met Maxeon Solar Technologies, a spinoff that will pull SunPower’s global solar panel manufacturing and sales into a new company based in Singapore. Expected to close next year, the split will leave […]
US Trade Court Sides With Longi, Jinko, REC in Solar Patent Infringement Case
A trade squabble between Hanwha Q Cells and some of the world’s largest PV manufacturers appears to be resolved in the all-important U.S. market. Longi Solar, JinkoSolar and REC Group appear to have emerged victorious from a legal attempt to shut the manufacturers out of the U.S. market. In a complaint filed in March, Hanwha […]
Iron Flow Battery Startup ESS Raises $30M From SoftBank and Breakthrough
The flow battery survivor marks the latest in a series of recent investments in unconventional long-duration storage technologies. Iron flow battery startup ESS raised an additional $30 million to take its technology from pilots to commercial scale. Since 2011, the company has been developing a low-cost, nonflammable long-duration storage technology to compete across domains where […]
Google Promises $150M for Renewables to Green Manufacturing Footprint
Tech giant will put money into “key manufacturing regions” for its products, including Nest. Google on Tuesday announced it will spend $150 million on renewable energy projects in “key manufacturing regions” for its products, including Nest, with a goal to encourage $1.5 billion in capital investment for renewables. Details on the commitment were scarce. Because […]
Trump Gets Manufacturing Win as Hanwha Q Cells Opens US Solar Factory
The country’s largest solar production facility officially opens Friday in Georgia, with the Trump administration expected to be in attendance. A representative of the Trump administration and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp will converge on Dalton, Georgia on Friday to celebrate a U.S. manufacturing win, as Hanwha Q Cells officially opens its solar module manufacturing facility […]
Lithium batteries: Far more widely recycled than second-hand statistics imply
Lithium-ion batteries are far more widely recycled than many people think, while China and South Korea are already leaders of the emerging circular economy of lithium, a report commissioned by the Swedish Energy Agency has found. An often-cited figure is that “5% of lithium-ion batteries are recycled”, when in fact this statistic, taken originally from […]
India’s Madhya Pradesh consults on 500MW of energy storage and manufacturing
Indian firm Madhya Pradesh Power Management Company (MPPMCL) has invited expressions of interest (EOI) for setting up 500MW of grid-scale energy storage capacity as well as a storage manufacturing facility in the central Indian state. Under prime minister Narendra Modi’s first term heading the government, the Saubhagya Yojna electrification scheme brought an extra 2.7 million […]