Here are some noteworthy cleantech announcements of the day from around the world:

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways under the Government of India has proposed to exempt battery-operated vehicles from paying charges to renew their registration certificates. The draft notification dated May 27, 2021, suggests amending the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, for assigning new registration marks for battery-operated vehicles. The move aimed at encouraging e-mobility has invited comments from the masses and all stakeholders within 30 days from when the notification was issued (June 1, 2021).

JinkoSolar’s large-area N-type monocrystalline silicon solar cell has reportedly achieved an efficiency of 25.25%. According to the company, this is a new record among large-size contact-passivated solar cells. The result has been independently confirmed by the National Institute of Metrology, China. This is the third world record JinkoSolar has broken since July 2020.

Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, and Russian Science Foundation will fund joint research proposals in India and Russia in the fields of basic science. Under the three-year program, each project will receive annual funding of up to an equivalent of $100,000 in respective national currencies. The institutes have invited researchers to submit proposals in areas related to clean energy, smart transport and telecommunications, and smart healthcare and medicines, among others.

Floating solar company, Scotra has initiated work on Korea’s first hybrid floating solar photovoltaic (PV) project. Scheduled to be completed in 2021, the project on Hapcheon Dam has a capacity of 41 MW. Scotra’s structure-type floating PV system will be applied to build the project. The initiative could reduce 30 tons of fine dust and 26,000 tons of greenhouse gases annually. The total cost of the project is slated to be KRW 92.4 billion (~$83.37 million).