Sunday, 12 July 2026

Sunner has launched True Wind, a predictive monitoring system that detects wind-induced galloping in solar trackers before structural damage occurs, according to pv magazine.

Sunner is the solar tracker control systems division of Spanish engineering company IED, according to pv magazine. The company positions True Wind as a way to spot the onset of aeroelastic instabilities in tracker structures before they cause harm.

The system draws on data from Sunner's Galloping Avoidance Unit, a sensor installed on the tracker torque tube that measures the structure's torsional behavior during operation, according to pv magazine.

Sunner said the technology can be deployed in both new and existing photovoltaic plants without requiring modifications to tracker structures.

True Wind received The smarter E Award 2026 in the Photovoltaics category at Intersolar Europe, according to pv magazine.

OMV AG and Energie Steiermark AG have opened an early-stage geothermal project in Styria that could reach 670 gigawatt hours a year of heating output, according to Rigzone.

First heat could flow as early as 2030, according to Rigzone. Added capacity through 2037 would cover the equivalent of district heating for roughly 50 percent of the greater Graz area, the partners said.

The venture follows a seismic survey run this year across about 900 kilometers, according to Rigzone. Results from that survey are feeding into the next phase of the Tiefenkraft project.

Drilling on an exploration well named Petersdorf 2, sited in St. Marein near Graz, is due to start in the fourth quarter of 2026, according to Rigzone.

Ownership splits 75 percent to OMV and 25 percent to Energie Steiermark, Rigzone reported.

Energie Steiermark board members Martin Graf and Werner Ressi described the project as the largest single investment in the utility's history, according to Rigzone.

A separate OMV geothermal venture with Wien Energie began drilling in Vienna in 2024 for a heat plant of about 20 megawatts, enough for 20,000 households, according to Rigzone. That plant is set for commissioning in 2028 at an estimated EUR 90 million.

TotalEnergies is building the 8.9 MW Les Brandes solar park on an archaeological site in France's Dordogne department, using shallow gabion foundations to avoid disturbing buried remains, according to pv magazine. The ground-mounted plant occupies 9 hectares across the municipalities of Ménesplet and Montpon-Ménestérol, with Spanish EPC contractor Ijes Solar carrying out construction.

Conventional pile-driven or excavated foundations were ruled out because of the risk of disturbing buried archaeological remains, pv magazine reported. Instead, the project supports its photovoltaic mounting structures on gabions installed on a gravel bed, which distribute loads across the surface and provide structural stability without deep excavation.

The archaeological remains were identified during a survey carried out by France's National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) in September 2024, according to pv magazine.

The project received its building permit in 2023, construction began in September 2025, and commissioning is scheduled for summer 2026.

The plant will generate enough renewable electricity to meet the annual consumption of nearly 3,500 households, according to TotalEnergies Renewables France project manager Anne Frederic.

The first monopile for Vattenfall's Nordlicht I wind farm is now in the seabed of the German North Sea, marking the start of offshore construction on the wider Nordlicht cluster, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

The cluster lies roughly 85 kilometers north of Borkum and pairs two projects: Nordlicht I at 980 MW and Nordlicht II at 630 MW, according to OEDigital.

Foundation work on Nordlicht I covers 68 monopiles paired with transition pieces, OEDigital reported. Individual monopiles run up to 80.5 meters and reach weights of 1,290 tonnes.

OEDigital said both wind farms are due online in 2028, with combined output expected at around 6 terawatt hours of electricity a year after full commissioning.

DEME holds the contract for transporting and installing the foundations and transition pieces across Nordlicht I and Nordlicht II, OEDigital reported.

Manufacturing splits between two suppliers: EEW Special Pipe Constructions builds the monopiles in Rostock, while CSWind produces the transition pieces in Aalborg, according to OEDigital.

OEDigital reported that turbine towers on the projects use partly low-emission steel, which the outlet said cuts their overall carbon footprint by around 16%.

The UK Secretary of State issued a decision on the Dean Moor Solar Farm development consent order on 2 July 2026, according to UK DESNZ.

The project is being developed by FVS Dean Moor Limited in West Cumbria under the Planning Act 2008. UK DESNZ states the development sits wholly within the Cumberland Council administrative area.

The solar farm is designed to maximise a 150 MW distribution network connection capacity, according to UK DESNZ. It has the potential to generate up to 134 GWh of electricity annually.

The UK Secretary of State issued a decision on 2 July 2026 on RWE Renewables UK Solar and Storage Limited's application for the Peartree Hill Solar Farm in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero issued the decision as a Development Consent Order under the Planning Act 2008.

The generating station has a generating capacity of up to 320 MW.

The project includes associated infrastructure such as a battery energy storage system and cabling to connect to a National Grid substation.

German engineering company Everllence has launched a research initiative called HydroMonia to adapt engines for hydrogen and ammonia, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The project aims to burn green hydrogen and clean ammonia to help balance the grid as renewable sources rise, Hydrogen Fuel News reported. It also targets cutting lifecycle CO2 emissions compared with gas and diesel engines. The stated goal is carbon-free power plants.

South Africa is drawing on its platinum reserves and high-level engagement with China to place platinum group metals (PGMs) at the center of hydrogen fuel cell and green molecule value chains, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Deputy President Paul Mashatile recently concluded a mission in China focused on hydrogen energy and fuel cell technologies, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Sibanye-Stillwater asserts that its South African platinum assets are among the best in the world, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has launched the Green Hydrogen Certification Portal of India (GHCI) to digitally certify the origin and emissions of green hydrogen, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Hydrogen Fuel News reported that the portal is intended to boost domestic decarbonisation and enable compliant exports to global markets.

The GHCI is a digital platform that turns renewable energy into verifiable proof for hydrogen and its derivatives, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Missing or disconnected bypass diodes in solar modules can pass standard factory flash tests and field thermography inspections while creating a hidden fire risk when shading occurs, according to pv magazine, citing Althaus of Intertek CEA.

The blind spot starts at the factory. Flash tests use uniform artificial light that keeps the diodes inactive during production sign-off, so the fault goes undetected, according to pv magazine. The problem carries over to the field. Standard drone or handheld infrared thermography under clear skies shows a uniform thermal profile because no shading is triggering the bypass mechanism, pv magazine reported.

The danger surfaces only under shade. When shading occurs without a functional bypass diode, the obstructed cells must dissipate the full power of the entire unshaded string, according to pv magazine. Althaus said diode failures can pass standard factory and field inspections yet create severe overheating when shading occurs.

Two detection methods can catch the fault. Electroluminescence imaging can identify missing or disconnected junction box circuitry before modules leave the factory or are mounted on racks, according to pv magazine. For installed systems, Intertek CEA recommends shaded thermography, with teams intentionally creating or waiting for localized shading during an infrared scan to force the bypass mechanism to engage, according to pv magazine.

China issued three mandatory national standards governing energy use and efficiency across its photovoltaic supply chain, spanning polysilicon, silicon wafers, PV modules and inverters, according to pv magazine.

The rules were released on June 27, 2026, and take effect on January 1, 2027, pv magazine reported.

For modules, the standards set minimum Grade 3 efficiency at about 23.2% for TOPCon and heterojunction products and 23.5% for back-contact products, according to pv magazine. On bifaciality, the floors require 75% for TOPCon, 85% for heterojunction and 70% for back-contact modules.

pv magazine reported that the measures come after nearly two years of severe overcapacity and low-price competition running through China's PV manufacturing chain.

Industry analysts cited by pv magazine expect legacy PERC module lines, early TOPCon capacity, high-energy polysilicon plants and older wafer assets to feel the heaviest pressure.

According to Hydrogen Fuel News, the Hydrogen Adige Valley project in Bolzano South is bringing together local government, SASA and Alperia to produce green hydrogen for fuel cell buses. The project uses on-site electrolysis and a solar PV canopy to generate the hydrogen.

The collaboration is built around three players, Hydrogen Fuel News reported: the government of Autonome Provinz Bozen - Südtirol, regional bus operator SASA AG, and renewable energy provider Alperia AG.

The project aims at zero-emission public transport in South Tyrol, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Researchers at CEA-Liten have developed a technology to recover indium from discarded heterojunction (HJT) solar panels, according to pv magazine.

The process leaches the indium tin oxide (ITO) layer using diluted oxalic acid, which pv magazine reports is less hazardous than conventional mineral acids, and recovers indium at 4N purity in a single chemical step.

According to pv magazine, the best conditions were identified as a 0.2 M oxalic acid solution at 70 C for 4 hours, achieving a 97% yield of indium in solution.

The recycling technology was described in a paper published in Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells.

A consortium led by Robert Gumede acquired Tongaat Hulett from the brink of liquidation earlier in 2026, gaining a sugar producer whose mills and grower networks run through Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, according to Semafor Net Zero.

The structuring deal values Tongaat at roughly $1.1 billion, built from legacy debt converted into equity and emergency funding from the South African state-owned IDC that was swapped for shares and working capital, Semafor reported.

Gumede intends to run the business as an energy play alongside sugar. He wants to burn leftover cane stalks and fibre for electricity, capture carbon dioxide from processing for use as medical oxygen or beverage-grade CO2, and distill cane into ethanol for petrol blending, Semafor reported. He said he would press for a national biofuel mandate setting ethanol content at 10% to 15% of every liter of petrol sold in South Africa.

Renamed Vision Sugar, the group aims to lift its grower base from roughly 17,500 to more than 30,000 and to double the roughly 50,000 jobs tied to its value chain, Semafor reported.

Gumede put the operation's landholdings at roughly 140,000 hectares in Zimbabwe and 300,000 hectares in Mozambique, and he projected that those assets and operating cash flow would let Vision recoup its turnaround investment within two to three years.

Import pressure sits behind the rescue. Gumede said Tongaat absorbed a $36 million loss last year as Brazilian imports flooded the market. Industry data recorded over 111,000 tons of imported sugar arriving in South Africa across the first three months of the 2026/27 season, close to half of the whole prior season's volume.

Orica has made a final investment decision to proceed with its 50 MW Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub in New South Wales, according to pv magazine.

The hydrogen will replace gas feedstock in the production of ammonia at Orica's Kooragang Island facility, according to Arena. Arena said the switch reduces emissions from one of Australia's most intensive industrial processes while helping to establish a domestic market for renewable hydrogen.

Under the Hydrogen Headstart program, projects apply for a production credit delivered over ten years to bridge the gap between renewable hydrogen production costs and market prices, according to pv magazine.

The European Commission has launched a funding call targeting green hydrogen, electrolyzers and CO2 networks, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The call for proposals is managed by the Commission and focuses on ramping up green hydrogen production, boosting electrolyzer manufacturing, and building networks to capture and transport CO2, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

According to Hydrogen Fuel News, the initiative aims to attract both public and private investment as the EU seeks to decarbonize heavy industry, enhance energy security, and drive economic growth.

Germany's National Hydrogen Council has updated its demand forecast, projecting hydrogen demand of 275 to 555 TWh by the late 2040s, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The Council pushed the hydrogen market ramp-up to the early 2030s, citing geopolitical and policy uncertainties, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

The Council identifies steel, chemicals, power, heating, and transport as key demand sectors, according to Hydrogen Fuel News. It calls for targeted support and streamlined permitting.