Thursday, 16 July 2026

Hy2gen Nordic's 100 MW Albatros plant in Denmark secured European Hydrogen Bank backing, according to Hydrogen Fuel News. The project won a premium of EUR 0.97/kg and EUR 139.8 million in support for green hydrogen.

Albatros is a planned 100 MW electrolyser plant located in Kassø, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Solar projects across southern Honduras have hurt the local economy and the health of surrounding communities, according to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies cited by Mongabay.

Honduran officials designated renewable energy development a national priority in 2013, seeking foreign investment in solar power technology, according to Mongabay. In one case, the government approved 23 solar parks during an overnight legislative session.

In 2014, congress approved nine contracts for the Los Prados solar project in the southern department of Choluteca, according to Mongabay. The contracts let the companies operate for 50 years and supply energy to the government for 20 years.

Protests stopped six of the nine Los Prados projects from moving forward with construction, the report said. Residents, MASSVida and the Network of Women Human Rights Defense Lawyers have filed over 30 complaints about prior consultation and other irregularities, according to Mongabay.

Saitec Offshore Technologies has turned its operating DemoSATH floating wind demonstrator, run by DemoSATH Lab, into a working site for measuring environmental interactions and testing methods to assess how the structure coexists with marine life, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The underwater campaign is part of the AQUASATH Project, which fits several complementary systems to the foundation to gauge whether floating wind supports can host marine species and share space with aquaculture, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

Engineers fitted Nature Inclusive Design components to DemoSATH's submerged columns and packed them with shells and mussels, building microhabitats that give marine organisms surfaces to grow on, shelter in, and feed around the foundation.

A multi-trophic aquaculture trial on the platform is testing whether European flat oysters, pullet carpet shell clam, mussels, and Ulva algae can be grown next to floating offshore wind operations, evaluating whether the two activities can share the site.

Kotazero handled the subsea work, collecting the components from the raft and completing their installation on DemoSATH, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

China Three Gorges Corporation has moved its 1-gigawatt Hami solar-CSP hybrid in Xinjiang into commercial trial operation, according to Electrek. The plant leans on molten salt storage, not batteries, to keep generating after sunset.

The site combines 900 MW of standard photovoltaic (PV) panels with a 100 MW concentrated solar power (CSP) unit spread across 1,817 hectares, sited at the southern edge of the Tianshan mountains, Electrek reported. Capital spending totaled CNY 3.53 billion, roughly USD 480 million.

At the heart of the CSP section, 260,000 tracking mirrors span 800,000 square meters of collector surface, focusing sunlight to bring molten salt to 550 degrees Celsius and support up to eight hours of generation after dark, according to Electrek.

CTG says the plant first joined the grid on September 18, 2025, and has delivered 6.54 million kWh to the regional grid since then. The company estimates yearly output of 2.07 TWh, with annual carbon savings near 1.63 million tons of CO2, Electrek reported.

Electrek describes the project as the world's largest CSP-PV hybrid, ahead of the 950 MW Noor Energy 1 plant at Dubai's Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

CTG intends to build the Hami base out to 3 GW in a second phase. China Energy Engineering Corp has already started construction on a separate 1.5 GW hybrid in the area, matching 1.3 GW of PV with 150 MW of CSP.

The Ohio Power Siting Board has asked the Ohio Supreme Court to dismiss a solar case rather than issue a ruling, according to Canary Media.

For more than a year, the Ohio Supreme Court has been set to make what Canary Media described as a landmark ruling in a case with high stakes for renewable energy development. The Ohio Power Siting Board has now asked the court to skip that ruling and dismiss the case altogether.

The case traces back to December 2022, when the Ohio Power Siting Board denied developer Vesper Energy's permit, according to Canary Media.

The Victorian Liberals under Jess Wilson have pledged to pause major transmission projects and cancel the Southern Ocean offshore wind zone near Portland if elected, according to RenewEconomy.

Under the Liberal plan, a review of the new Victorian Transmission Plan would halt generation projects across the state, RenewEconomy reported. The party has said it backs offshore wind only in the Gippsland region.

State policy sets a target of at least 2 GW of offshore capacity by 2032, climbing to 9 GW by 2040, according to RenewEconomy. Nine projects with a combined 18.5 GW are in feasibility studies in the Gippsland zone, the first zone declared in Australia.

Southerly Ten published Commonwealth and state draft impact statements in May for its 2.2 GW Star of the South project and is seeking to be the first developer through environmental approvals, RenewEconomy reported.

The Port of Hastings Corporation disclosed design changes this week as it works to satisfy Commonwealth officials, after the federal government in 2024 ruled the site posed an unacceptable environmental risk, according to RenewEconomy. The corporation plans to open its full environmental plan for public comment in 2027. The state government is putting $124.5 million toward supporting the corporation through that process.

One Nation could hold the balance of power, and its stated policy is to ban offshore wind installations, RenewEconomy reported.

INOCEL and ACCIONA have deployed a hydrogen fuel cell generator at the Port of Valencia's North Terminal expansion to power a tower crane with zero local emissions, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The two companies are partnering with the Port of Valencia on the project, Hydrogen Fuel News reported. INOCEL is a hydrogen company from France, and ACCIONA is described as Spain's top infrastructure player.

The partners plan to begin installation of the high-power hydrogen generator for the North Terminal expansion this month, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The project aims to replace traditional diesel generators with zero-emission systems capable of powering a large crane in caisson dock construction, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

Drax biomass power station was the United Kingdom's largest emitter for the eleventh year running, with record emissions of 14.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to analysis from think tank Ember reported by CleanTechnica.

Drax collected a record GBP 999 million in subsidies last year, according to CleanTechnica. The plant is the UK's largest emitter.

EU energy ministers extended a derogation that lets Malta's planned Melita TransGas Pipeline keep its Project of Common Interest status and stay eligible for EU funding, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Under the EU's TEN-E Regulation, Malta retains that status and remains in the running for grants from the Connecting Europe Facility, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

The pipeline is designed to be hydrogen-ready, according to the outlet.

Preparatory studies for the project have received around EUR 4.5 million in funding over several years, Hydrogen Fuel News reported. The decision keeps the project moving forward.

PKR Offshore, the offshore wind arm of Marco Polo Marine, has agreed to charter two commissioning service operation vessels (CSOVs) to Siemens Gamesa for offshore wind work across Asia, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

The deal is non-exclusive. It commits PKR Offshore to supplying two upcoming CSOVs for a series of Siemens Gamesa wind projects in Taiwan.

The framework runs from 2029 across an initial two-year term, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital. The contract also lets the parties begin in 2028 and adds extension options ranging from one to three years.

One of the two vessels, CSOV Plus, is being built at Marco Polo Marine's Batam shipyard in Indonesia, with handover due in the second quarter of 2028.

Both CSOVs will carry Siemens Energy's BlueDrive PlusC hybrid propulsion system, which the report describes as intended to lift fuel efficiency and cut emissions.

PKR Offshore's other vessel, the CSOV Wind Archer, has been in service since it won its first charter in Taiwan in April 2025.

The two companies plan to extend the arrangement, deploying PKR Offshore's CSOV fleet on Siemens Gamesa projects in South Korea and Japan.

The European Commission opened consultation on draft rules for its fourth European Hydrogen Bank auction, a round scheduled for end-2026 that carries a EUR 500 million budget and pays winners a fixed premium tied to verified output over ten years, according to pv magazine.

The budget splits into two tranches, pv magazine reported. About EUR 350 million targets production of renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBO) hydrogen, while EUR 150 million covers RFNBO hydrogen and, alternatively, electrolytic low-carbon hydrogen.

Under the draft, at least 75% of a project's electrolyzers must be sourced from outside China, and the origin of key components faces further limits, according to pv magazine.

The premium mechanic mirrors the third auction, which closed in May with EUR 1.09 billion split among nine projects in seven countries, pv magazine reported. Those awards ran from EUR 0.44/kg to EUR 3.49/kg.

Subsidy levels have climbed across earlier rounds. The second auction, opened in December 2024, backed 15 renewable hydrogen projects across the European Economic Area (EEA) with EUR 992 million and premiums between EUR 0.20/kg and EUR 1.88/kg, according to pv magazine.

The program's opening round began in November 2023 with a ceiling of EUR 4.50/kg for renewable hydrogen, pv magazine reported. It drew 132 bids covering 8.5 GW of electrolyzer capacity and handed nearly EUR 720 million to seven projects in Finland, Norway, Portugal and Spain.

TCL Zhonghuan will spend CNY 1.4 billion to switch 20 GW of its TOPCon cell output over to back-contact (BC) production, according to pv magazine. Of that total, 6 GW sits at the Quzhou site and 14 GW at Xinzhou.

Work on the cell lines is set to start in July 2026, pv magazine reported. Those converted lines should enter production ramp-up by the close of the third quarter of 2026.

Full output at the reworked plants is targeted for the end of the first quarter of 2027, according to pv magazine.

Separately, the module side of the overhaul spans five locations: 3 GW at Quzhou, 4 GW at Yixing, 8 GW at Jingshan, 9 GW at Tianjin, and 1 GW at Zhangzhou, pv magazine reported.

Central and western Europe are on track to finish 2026 with irradiance running above the seasonal norm, with pockets landing around 5% higher, according to a Solcast forecast reported by pv magazine.

The projection extends beyond Europe. Solcast expects the final six months of the year to deliver above-normal irradiance across much of Southeast Asia, northern South America and eastern Australia, and it flags Southeast Asia as the region where its models line up most closely and North America as the area carrying the widest uncertainty.

Solcast built the outlook by lining up seasonal forecasts for the back half of 2026 from four meteorological centres: ECMWF, UKMO, JMA and NCEP. According to pv magazine, those centres agree that El Nino will strengthen into a strong to very strong event by late 2026, running alongside elevated sea surface temperatures worldwide.

Europe's positive irradiance swing from the first half of the year is forecast to hold through year end, concentrated across central and western areas, with some finishing near 5% above normal.

Solcast generates the figures by tracking clouds and aerosols globally at 1-2km resolution, with a typical bias under 2%.

New solar additions in Switzerland dropped to 1.33 GW in 2025, compared with 1.8 GW the year before, according to Swissolar figures reported by ESS News. Swissolar attributed the pullback to uncertainty over the country's energy and electricity policies, calling it the first yearly drop in new photovoltaic installations since 2017.

Battery demand ran the opposite direction. Swissolar reported that lithium-ion storage demand grew 70% against the prior year. Volumes sold rose to 490.1 MWh in 2025 from 287.4 MWh in 2024.

By the close of the year, the country operated 338,270 photovoltaic systems with a combined 9.5 GW of installed capacity, ESS News reported. Output from those systems approached 8 TWh, a 33.3% gain over the prior year, and covered 13.71% of national electricity consumption.

Among new capacity, commercial and industrial installations led at 547 MW, ahead of multifamily buildings at 204.4 MW, per the Swissolar data.

Porterville Unified School District in California is adopting solar power, battery energy storage, and electric school buses, according to CleanTechnica.

The district is working with ForeFront Power on the project, CleanTechnica reported. The combination pairs on-site generation and storage with a shift to electric transport for the district's fleet.

CleanTechnica described the district as quite rural, sitting between Los Angeles and San Francisco, or Los Angeles and Sacramento.