Wednesday, 22 July 2026

BMW Group and Toyota Motor Europe have begun a six-month pilot deployment of Repsol's Nexa 95 renewable gasoline to test whether renewable fuel scales on existing vehicles, according to Rigzone.

The trial in Spain runs about 20 vehicles from Toyota and BMW on Nexa 95, which Repsol says is made from 100 percent renewable resources, Rigzone reported. Repsol says use of the renewable gasoline reduces net CO2 emissions by more than 70 percent compared with conventional gasoline. Bosch will provide digital fuel tracking technology for the pilot.

The test builds on Repsol's move into industrial-scale output. Repsol announced in a press release on October 8, 2025, that it had begun industrial-scale production of 100 percent renewable gasoline at its Tarragona complex, according to Rigzone.

Repsol has expanded renewable fuel capacity across several sites. Its Puertollano renewable diesel plant can produce up to 200,000 metric tons a year, while the earlier Cartagena plant has a capacity of 250,000 metric tons, according to Repsol. Repsol invested EUR 130 million to transform a refinery unit in Puertollano into a facility capable of processing used cooking oil and other agri-food waste.

CorPower Ocean has been awarded the world's first DNV Prototype Certificate for a wave energy converter, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital. The publication describes the award as a step towards bankable, utility-scale wave energy.

The certified machine, the CorPower C4, passed independent verification under DNV-SE-0120, Certification of Wave Energy Converters and Arrays, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported. The certificate followed a seven-year process with DNV that began with establishing the design basis for the C4.

According to Offshore Engineer OEDigital, the C4 uses a spherical composite hull measuring 9 meters in diameter, stands 18 meters tall, and has a mass of approximately 100 tonnes.

The device has operated in ocean conditions since 2023 across three deployment cycles, the publication reported. That work included autonomous operation, power export to the Portuguese grid, and survival of Atlantic storms with waves up to 18.5 meters during Storm Domingos in November 2023, a regional record according to the Hydrographic Institute of Portugal.

CorPower Ocean is advancing its first two industrial wave farms, in Portugal and Scotland, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

Singapore-based Sunvera Solar Pte. Ltd. has met with government ministers in Kyrgyzstan to discuss building solar manufacturing facilities in the country, according to pv magazine. The talks centered on a high-efficiency solar cell production plant with a planned capacity of up to 2 GW, pv magazine reported.

The manufacturing proposal comes as Kyrgyzstan builds out generation from a low base. Cumulative solar capacity reached 100 MW by the end of last year, up from 0 MW the year prior, according to IRENA figures cited by pv magazine.

The country's largest operational solar asset, a 175 MW site, was switched on in June, per pv magazine. That array is the first phase of a planned 1.9 GW project being implemented, financed and managed by Vietnam's Rox Energy Global and RECA LLC.

Other deals have advanced in parallel. In November, Kyrgyzstan's National Investment Agency signed an agreement with Hungary's Electron Holding to develop 300 MW of solar, according to pv magazine. The Energy Ministry separately signed an investment agreement with a consortium of Chinese companies for a 250 MW solar project scheduled for completion in 2027.

Germany's degraded peatlands could host between 134 GW and 268 GW of photovoltaic capacity, according to a Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) study reported by pv magazine.

The study found that around 334,500 hectares of peatland could be made available for solar power generation, pv magazine reported.

Peatlands cover around 5% of Germany's land area, according to pv magazine. Agnes Katharina Wilke of Fraunhofer ISE said around 70% of formerly intact peatlands in the country have been drained for agricultural use, and that these account for just under 7% of Germany's total greenhouse gas emissions.

Germany aims to re-wet 50,000 hectares of degraded peatland each year to meet its climate targets, according to pv magazine. Since the 2023 reform of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), photovoltaic installations on re-wetted peatlands have been eligible for support.

In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, more than 85,000 hectares of degraded peatlands used for agriculture are not subject to restrictive nature conservation regulations, pv magazine reported.

Sharing existing grid links at hydropower plants in seven EU countries could accommodate an extra 25 GW of wind and solar generation, according to energy think tank Ember. The approach, called hybridization, ties new capacity behind the same connection point already used by the dam.

Those seven states hold 93 GW of the European Union's 131 GW of hydropower fleet. After screening out plants close to protected areas, Ember calculated that roughly 28% of large hydropower capacity across the group qualifies for such shared connections.

The headroom exists because the eligible plants run at an average of 19% of maximum output, leaving connection capacity that wind or solar could take up, Ember said. On that basis, the seven countries could absorb 18% of the renewable capacity expected by 2030 without building extra grid, the think tank found.

Regulation lags the opportunity. Ember said Spain and Portugal are the only two with dedicated frameworks for hybrid renewable projects. Spain's Royal Decree-Law 7/2026, published in March 2026, establishes the legal obligation for Renewable Acceleration Zones and names hybrid projects specifically.

One project already pairs generation with a reservoir: the Lazer floating solar plant in France, built with more than 50,000 panels on the water behind the Lazer dam.

Hyundai Motor Group has opened HTWO ENERGY Cheongju, its first Group-operated waste-to-hydrogen production and refueling facility, according to CleanTechnica.

The site combines biogas upgrading, hydrogen production, and compression systems, CleanTechnica reported. It produces approximately 500 kilograms of hydrogen.

CleanTechnica said the facility supports localized hydrogen production and use, cutting transportation costs and strengthening regional energy self-sufficiency.

Avantus has brought its Aratina 1 solar-plus-storage project into commercial operation in California, according to Power Magazine.

The installation is rated at 200 MW / 500 MWh and sits in Kern County, Power Magazine reported.

Aratina 1 holds long-term power purchase agreements with Central Coast Community Energy and Silicon Valley Clean Energy, both community choice aggregators, according to Power Magazine.

LONGi said its crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem solar cell reached a conversion efficiency of 35.5%, according to CleanTechnica.

The company disclosed the result at the 2026 Solar and Energy Storage Innovation Conference, CleanTechnica reported. LONGi described the figure as a new world record for crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem solar cell efficiency.

The 35.5% result was certified by the European Solar Test Installation (ESTI), according to CleanTechnica.

Spain has approved the environmental review for the PlemCat floating offshore wind test site in the Mediterranean, allowing X1 Wind to move toward deploying its 8.5 MW X100 platform through the NextFloat project. The decision permits the developers to advance installation planning at the site.

Spain's Boletin Oficial del Estado published the approval on July 8, covering the PlemCat test site inside the LEBA 1 commercial area.

Technip Energies and X1 Wind run the NextFloat project together, with the aim of installing X1 Wind's first commercial-scale floating wind platform at the location.

Built to carry turbines with a 160-meter rotor diameter, the X100 uses 1,500 tonnes of primary steel. According to X1 Wind, that structure cuts weight by 30% to 50% against conventional steel floaters used in European pre-commercial projects of comparable size.

DNV issued the X100 a Statement of Compliance for Basic Design, a review that found the design meets international safety, engineering and technical requirements, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

The developers also intend the project to feed commercialization of X1 Wind's X150, a platform designed for turbines rated above 20 MW. That unit represents a potential next step for larger turbines once the Mediterranean deployment is complete.

Go Energy Group is developing an integrated platform in Huelva that pairs 170 MW of green hydrogen electrolysis with a 200 MW artificial intelligence data campus, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The hydrogen electrolysis capacity feeds into low-emission ammonia synthesis at the site, Hydrogen Fuel News reported. The 200 MW AI data campus runs on dedicated solar and battery storage.

The AI campus is being built under the company's Tron AI Infrastructures division, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Beyond Huelva, Go Energy Group is developing green hydrogen and low-emission ammonia complexes in San Juan del Puerto and Gibraleon, Spain, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

The project is entering final permitting with a late-2020s construction target, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Intelligent Energy Ltd and the Aerospace Technology Institute's HEIGHTS programme launched the IE-FLIGHT 120, a 120 kW hydrogen fuel cell power system built for heavy-lift fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The system is designed to extend the range of unmanned aircraft while keeping emissions at zero and turnaround times short, Hydrogen Fuel News reported. The project targets challenges in defence, security, and logistics.

Hydrogen Fuel News said the collaboration is timed alongside the UK Government's GBP 5 billion Defence Investment Plan for drones and autonomous systems.

A team led by Prof. Hu Wenbin at Tianjin University used millisecond thermal pulses to assemble Pt@PtFe-i catalysts, cutting synthesis energy by 90% and time by 90%, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The researchers introduced the technique, called transient assembly, in a paper published in Science this month, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

The method uses thermal pulses lasting mere milliseconds to rapidly form platinum-skin intermetallic structures, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The resulting fuel cells achieved 1.25 W/cm² and 15.2 kW/g Pt performance, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

A team at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science has shown that crystal symmetry in vanadium acts as a switch for hydrogen's quantum tunneling versus classical hopping, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The researchers found that crystal symmetry can toggle how hydrogen atoms behave in vanadium metal, per Hydrogen Fuel News.

The researchers say the finding offers a new design rule for solid-state hydrogen storage materials.

A Rinehart-backed miner reached 90% renewables in the June quarter and may move a processing plant off grid, according to RenewEconomy.

The turbines cited in the report sit at the Mt Weld mine, per a photo credited to Lynas Rare Earths. RenewEconomy reported that the miner achieved the 90% renewables share during the June quarter.

The company may take a processing plant off grid, RenewEconomy said.

Serfimex Capital and the Quintana Roo state government have agreed to fund 50 solar and BESS projects, committing MXN 1 billion ($57.5 million) from the second half of 2026 through the end of 2027, according to ESS News.

The program covers PV installations that start at MXN 1 million in investment and reach up to 0.7 MW in capacity, ESS News reported. Borrowers can take terms running to 72 months, skip upfront payments, use grace periods on principal, and choose fixed or variable interest rates. Storage financing carries no capacity ceiling, Serfimex said.

Serfimex Capital President Carlos Kamkhaji Ambe said the firm partners with more than 800 integrators nationwide and has backed roughly MXN 1.3 billion in clean energy investments.

Distributed generation in the state climbed from 376 kW in 2017 to 71.66 MW by the close of the first quarter of 2024, on data from Mexico's Energy Regulatory Commission cited by the state government. Interconnection contracts reached 8,820 by that point, according to ESS News.

Mexico's National Energy Control Center forecasts average annual electricity demand rising 3.9% through 2028 and 3.6% toward 2037 across the Yucatán Peninsula.