Renewable Energy

The state that built the world's first grid-level "big battery" is striking out on an even more ambitious green energy project: the world's biggest hydrogen power station, fed by an electrolysis facility 10 times larger than anything running today.

The China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) is upping the ante on offshore wind, announcing it's building the largest and most powerful wind turbine ever, making a peak 18 megawatts with an enormous 260-m (853-ft) diameter on its three-bladed rotor.

One of the most exciting companies in grid-level renewable energy storage is Form Energy, whose innovative iron-air technology promises to outperform lithium "big battery" projects at 10% of the cost. It's preparing to scale up with its first factory.

Australian company 5B has developed a hinged, folding solar array for ridiculously quick and easy installation at industrial scale. In May, 5B showed just how quick: a team of 10 covered the area of a soccer field with a 1.1-MW array in a single day.

Solar cells that are thin and flexible hold unique promise, as they could be applied to all kinds of irregular or otherwise unsuitable surfaces. Thinner than a human hair, a new lightweight solar cell continues to push the envelope in this space.

Sweden's Eco Wave Power has been proving its relatively simple, jetty-mounted wave energy devices for at least 10 years now, and has now inked a conditional deal for a 77-megawatt installation in Turkey - the world's largest wave power plant.

An international team of scientists eyeing next-generation energy storage solutions have demonstrated an eco-friendly and low-cost battery with some exciting potential, which includes a fourfold increase on energy capacity over lithium-ion batteries.

Floating wind turbines are crucial to the future of offshore wind, but they require radically different thinking. French company Eolink is building a full-scale pyramid-style floating wind turbine that reduces materials and weight by more than 30%.

Denmark's Hyme Energy wants to save shut-down fossil-fuel heat and power plants by repurposing them as renewable energy storage and release facilities using technology borrowed from the advanced nuclear sector. Its first plant will be online by 2024.

Scotland's AWS Energy has reported results some 20% better than predicted for its Archimedes Waveswing, a prototype wave energy generator that's been undergoing ocean-based testing at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney for the last 6 months.

Caltech's wildly ambitious space solar project, buoyed by a massive hundred-million-dollar donation, is preparing to launch its first prototypes into orbit. These cutting-edge ultralight structures will collect, convert and wirelessly send energy.

Irish company OceanEnergy has already tested its oscillating water column generators at significant scale in Hawaii, and it's just signed on to a four-year project to test, validate and commercialize its biggest unit yet off Orkney, in Scotland.