Thursday, 3 September 2026

OMV Petrom has brought seven 5 MW electrolyzer modules onto the site of its Petrobrazi refinery near Ploiesti, Romania, for a new 35 MW unit, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The refinery is scaling toward 55 MW of green hydrogen capacity, Hydrogen Fuel News reported. The 35 MW unit assembled from the modular units is the step being taken now.

Output from the venture is targeted at about 8,000 tonnes of green hydrogen, per the same report. That volume feeds a refinery that is also gaining a 250,000 tonne plant for sustainable aviation fuel and hydrotreated vegetable oil, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The modular approach matters for the delivery schedule: seven identical 5 MW blocks rather than a single bespoke stack shortens fabrication and commissioning work at the refinery. Each block carries the same rating, and together they account for the full 35 MW installation.

Hydrogen produced on site at a refinery replaces volumes that would otherwise be sourced from fossil feedstock, and the SAF and HVO plant is a hydrogen consumer in its own right. The 250,000 tonne fuel facility and the 8,000 tonnes of green hydrogen are being built into the same industrial complex.

The gap between the 35 MW unit now being installed and the 55 MW figure Hydrogen Fuel News cites for the site marks the remaining build-out at Petrobrazi.

Nadara has confirmed Cowie, north of Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire, as the landfall point for the Bellrock floating offshore wind project in Scotland, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The project carries a proposed capacity of 1.8 GW, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

Alongside the landfall decision, the developer filed a Scoping Report and a Habitats Regulations Appraisal Screening Report with the Marine Directorate covering the offshore transmission infrastructure tied to the scheme, according to the same report.

The Cowie choice followed community consultation events held in November 2025 and March 2026, per Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

A fire has gutted the Tungatinah Power Station in Tasmania, a 142.2 megawatt above-ground hydroelectric plant, and left about 300 customers without electricity, according to RenewEconomy.

The outage covers Bonnie Lake, Tarraleah and Dee Lagoon, RenewEconomy reported.

"The fire is currently contained but the damage is significant," Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff told reporters on Thursday morning.

Bringing the blaze under control took 25 emergency crews and 45 personnel hours, according to RenewEconomy.

Tungatinah is one of 11 hydroelectric stations across Tasmania and the second built at Tarraleah, per the same report.

The first of 69 wind turbines has gone up at Squadron Energy's Uungula wind farm in New South Wales, Australia, according to RenewEconomy. The 414 MW project is the only large-scale wind farm currently under construction in the state.

Squadron Energy says the installation was fully completed at 2pm on Sunday August 30, once the third and final blade was fitted. The first of those blades reached the site earlier in the month, according to the developer. Squadron Energy is owned by Andrew Forrest.

Construction across the wider site is now two-thirds complete, RenewEconomy reported, with works expected to ramp up during the tower installation phase.

The logistics behind the remaining build are already running to a fixed cadence. Squadron Energy needs 204 blades for the other 68 turbines, and those components are arriving at the project site at a rate of one per day, excluding Sundays, according to RenewEconomy.

A South Korean research team has developed a route to upcycle silicon recovered from end-of-life photovoltaic modules into silicon nitride (Si₃N₄), according to pv magazine. The recovered silicon reached 99.95% purity after processing, pv magazine reported.

Purification quality drove the quality of the final ceramic. The Si₃N₄ made from the purified feedstock contained 93.1% α-Si₃N₄, against 54.7% α-Si₃N₄ when the recycled silicon was synthesized without the additional purification step, per pv magazine.

Milling speed governed how much aluminum survived the acid step. pv magazine reported that severe particle agglomeration at 800 rpm left a residual aluminum concentration of 4,290 ppm after HCl etching, compared with 189 ppm at 400 rpm.

A sedimentation stage handled titanium dioxide. In 5 minutes, 71.4% of the TiO₂ impurity was removed while silicon recovery held at 92.3%, according to pv magazine.

The work was published in Materials Today Sustainability, with researchers from the Korea Institute of Energy Research and Chungnam National University participating in the study, pv magazine reported.

Silicon nitride is a higher-value output than the feedstock-grade material typically targeted by module recycling, and the α-phase share reported here is the metric that separates the purified route from the unpurified one. The gap between the two figures, 93.1% and 54.7%, sits entirely in the added purification step.

Portuguese solar generation peaked at approximately 3.85 GW in August, a record for the technology, according to pv magazine. Electricity imports set a record of their own in the same month, exceeding 5.2 GW after interconnection capacity between Portugal and Spain was reinforced.

The monthly supply mix leaned heavily on cross-border flows. Renewable sources met 52% of Portuguese electricity consumption in August, non-renewable generation supplied 12%, and net imports covered the remaining 36%, pv magazine reported.

That import share stands against a considerably greener year to date. Across the first eight months, renewables covered 66% of national electricity consumption.

Solar's rise preceded the August peak. In July, solar PV became Portugal's largest single source of electricity generation for the first time, meeting 19% of national consumption, pv magazine reported, citing REN.

Installed capacity continues to grow, though at a moderate pace relative to the generation records. Portugal added 372 MW of solar between December 2025 and May 2026, per pv magazine.

Energy planning has largely bypassed African agriculture, and experts and policymakers this week pressed for coordinated funding to run food production on renewables, Climate Home News reported.

Hailemariam Desalegn, the former Ethiopian prime minister, told a panel at the 20th session of the Africa Food Systems Forum in Kigali that the two problems cannot be separated. "Irrigation needs energy. Cold storage, transport, processing, as well as markets - all need reliable energy," he said.

Up to 30% of Africa's food is lost each year before reaching markets, a 2025 report by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) found, with road conditions, storage and cold chain gaps behind the shortfall.

Climate Home News puts the number of people on the continent living without electricity at about 600 million.

The World Bank Group and the African Development Bank Group reported in June that their Mission 300 initiative had reached over 50 million people with new connections in 40 African countries. The programme targets access for 300 million Africans by 2030.

Money, not ambition, framed much of the discussion. AGRA launched its 2026 foresight report at the forum, which sizes the annual agrifood financing gap on the continent at USD 180 billion.

The same report estimates Africa's yearly infrastructure finance shortfall at USD 67 billion to USD 108 billion, and finds that filling it could cut post-harvest losses by half while lifting farmer incomes by as much as 40%.

Solar has passed coal in China's installed power capacity for the first time, with PV reaching 1.286 TW by the end of July against 1.285 TW of coal-fired plant, pv magazine reported.

That PV fleet is split between utility-scale projects at 704 GW and distributed systems at 582 GW, and together they hold roughly 31.5% of China's installed power capacity. All fuels combined gave the country 4.078 TW of generating capacity at the end of July.

Liu Zhiqiang, deputy director of planning and development at the China Electricity Council, described the crossover as "a milestone event".

On output, the ranking reverses. Coal plants supplied about 2.5 PWh during the first half of the year, or 49.7% of all generation, according to pv magazine. Solar delivered 802.4 TWh across the first seven months of 2026, around 13% of national electricity consumption.

New build has fallen steeply. First-half PV additions came to roughly 71.8 GW in 2026, against 212.2 GW in the equivalent period of 2025.

Utilization has weakened alongside the capacity build. The average PV utilization rate stood at 91.4% in the first half of 2026, down from 94% a year earlier, pv magazine reported.

Kongsberg Maritime has won a contract from COSCO Shipping (Qidong) Offshore to deliver an integrated technology package for two Wind Turbine Installation Vessels under construction for Cadeler, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The two T-class units were announced by Cadeler in August 2026, with deliveries scheduled for 2030 and 2031, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

The supply scope covers a complete electrical, automation and propulsion package for both vessels. It includes azimuth and tunnel thrusters, dynamic positioning technology, power generation and distribution systems, propulsion drives, integrated automation and vessel control systems, and energy management solutions.

The vessels are intended to support installation of larger next-generation wind turbines and foundations, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital. Turbine size drives installation vessel design: crane height, deck load and station-keeping capability all scale with the components being lifted, which is why dynamic positioning and thruster specification sit at the centre of the Kongsberg Maritime package.

Cadeler is described by Offshore Engineer OEDigital as an offshore wind installation company. The delivery dates place the two vessels in service well after the current installation fleet, a build-to-order timeline that ties yard capacity at COSCO Shipping (Qidong) Offshore to turbine models still ahead of the market.

Daimler Truck, the Volvo Group and Toyota are joining forces in Germany to speed up the commercial rollout of heavy hydrogen trucks and the refuelling infrastructure they depend on, with backing from Bosch, Air Liquide and TotalEnergies, according to electrive.

The partners will set out their aims on 15 September at the IAA Transportation show in Hanover, electrive reported.

Membership at launch reaches beyond the three truck makers. Bosch joins as a supplier, while Air Liquide and TotalEnergies come in on the energy side, electrive reported. TEAL Mobility and MB Energy round out the initial list alongside Daimler Truck, Volvo Group and Toyota.

The fuel cell groundwork predates the alliance. Daimler Truck and the Volvo Group run the joint venture Cellcentric, which Toyota entered this year as a third equal partner, according to electrive.

The German government has committed to building an initial hydrogen truck network and has received over 500 applications to its first funding call in that area, electrive reported.

Daimler Truck said Germany is bringing together the full ecosystem needed to scale the deployment of hydrogen trucks by 2030, pointing to policy frameworks, an OEM offering and an integrated hydrogen supply chain and infrastructure.

That supply chain maps onto the roster: vehicle production at Daimler Truck, Volvo Group and Toyota, components at Bosch, industrial gas at Air Liquide, and fuel retail at TotalEnergies.

Cypress Creek Energy has energized its 104 MWdc Ostrea solar project in Yakima County, Washington, according to Solar Builder, which reported the company announcement of Sept. 2.

Microsoft will take the output as the site's long-term off-taker of energy and environmental products under a power purchase agreement, Solar Builder reported. The plant feeds into the Bonneville Power Administration transmission system.

The project represents approximately USD 180 million in private capital investment, according to Solar Builder. Over its operating life, Ostrea is expected to generate an estimated USD 13.3 million in state and local tax revenue.

Cypress Creek Energy will own the project for up to 40 years, Solar Builder reported. The developer said the Ostrea project aims to add a new source of renewable energy to the regional grid in the Pacific Northwest.

Land stewardship programs tied to the site will conserve 275 acres of critical ecological habitats, support wildlife migration paths, and work to restore native vegetation across the project site, according to Solar Builder.