Wednesday, 16 September 2026

LG Electronics has begun a pilot project pairing heat pumps with power-to-heat (P2H) technology at an apartment complex on Jeju Island, South Korea, according to PV Magazine.

The demonstration site has one basement level and seven floors above ground, and houses 12 occupied apartments, PV Magazine reported.

The system's central heat pump is designed to convert surplus or lower-cost renewable electricity into thermal energy and charge a shared hot-water tank, per PV Magazine.

LG Electronics is working with Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, Jeju Development Corp. and the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) on the project, PV Magazine reported.

The partners plan to complete system design by October and begin full-scale operational testing after the project is completed in December, according to PV Magazine.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) has charted a route to running Germany's electricity system on renewables around the clock, according to PV Magazine. The study maps supply and demand on the country's grid for every hour through 2045.

PV Magazine reports the work was commissioned by The smarter E Europe, which used it as the scientific foundation for its Renewables 24/7 special exhibit. The study is titled "Cost-Optimal Transformation of the German Energy System by 2045".

IEEFA has launched an Australian Renewable Energy Scorecard, a quarterly-updated interactive tool that tracks how renewable energy projects across Australia are progressing. The scorecard is a joint effort with Green Energy Markets.

Large-scale renewable and battery builds now underway are generating roughly $6 billion of domestic construction spend and about 15,600 job-years, according to IEEFA. Pushing the remaining fully approved projects into construction could add around 127,000 job-years and about $44 billion in investment.

In aggregate, the pipeline of renewable and battery storage projects in development is sufficient to meet Australia's 2030 target, but too few have advanced to the construction phase, the scorecard finds. IEEFA points to the shortage of long-term power purchase agreements as a central obstacle blocking projects from breaking ground.

Rooftop solar and household battery installations hit record highs in the second quarter of 2026, IEEFA said.

Nordex Group has secured a 34 MW turbine order from EEF Erneuerbare Energien Fabrik GmbH for the Rauschenberg wind farm in Hesse, Germany, according to Nordex. The contract covers the supply and installation of five N175/6.X turbines.

The machines will sit on towers with a hub height of 199 metres, and the order is bundled with a Premium Service contract running 20 years, Nordex said.

The project is a repowering scheme. Nordex reported that delivery and installation will begin at the end of 2027, with five existing 3 MW turbines swapped out for 6.8 MW units, lifting site output from summer 2028.

The Rauschenberg contract follows an earlier deal for the same turbine platform. Nordex noted that in March 2026 it booked its first order for three N175/6.X turbines on the same 199-metre hub height for a project in North Rhine-Westphalia.