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

Keppel Infrastructure Holdings and Greenko Group, through their subsidiaries, signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly explore green ammonia and renewable energy opportunities to meet the growing demand for low-carbon energy in India, Singapore, and globally. Keppel will collaborate with Greenko to explore the feasibility of jointly developing a production facility that can produce at least 250,000 tons of green ammonia per year. The companies will also identify and evaluate a portfolio of solar and wind energy projects of approximately 1.3 GW installed capacity, complemented by pumped hydro-storage, to power the green ammonia production facility.

Exide Industries broke ground for its first lithium-ion cell manufacturing facility at the Hi-Tech Defense & Aerospace Park Phase 2, Bengaluru. The event marked the formal start of construction of the first multi-gigawatt-hour lithium-ion cell manufacturing facility, which will be spread over 80 acres of land. It will produce technology-leading lithium-ion batteries to suit varied electric vehicle (EV) and industrial segment requirements. Exide has entered into a multi-year technical collaboration agreement with SVOLT Energy Technology, a global technology company that makes and develops lithium-ion batteries and battery systems for EVs and energy storage. In addition to technology, SVOLT would support setting up the plant on a turnkey basis. The facility’s first phase is expected to be operational by the end of 2024.

Saint-Gobain announced that it has signed a ten-year renewable power purchase agreement (PPA) with TotalEnergies to purchase 200 MW of solar power for its 145 industrial sites in North America. The PPA is expected to offset Saint-Gobain’s North American CO2 emissions from electricity under the scope 2 emissions by 210,000 metric tons per year, a reduction of around 33%. The agreement is expected to start at the end of 2024 and is the second PPA signed in North America by Saint-Gobain, the first being a wind project in Blooming Grove, Illinois, in the U.S. The two projects combined are expected to represent a 62% reduction in Saint-Gobain North America’s scope 2 emissions.

Trina Solar launched the Vertex N 595W solar photovoltaic module for C&I and utility-scale projects. Together with the Vertex N 690W for utility scenarios and Vertex S+ 445W for rooftop PV systems, Trina Solar’s n-type module portfolio is based on the leading 210 product technology platform and n-type i-TOPCon cell technology. The Vertex N module, with its dual-glass module, increases bifaciality to 80% and delivers higher efficiency, lower degradation, and better energy yield, delivering lower BOS and LCOE to projects. The Vertex N 595W modules adopt the latest 210 product platform +i-TOPCon technology and are highly compatible with trackers, offering more feasibility to utility-scale projects in the most complex terrain. The new generation of Vertex N modules will be in mass production by the end of 2022, and over 10 GW n-type modules capacity is expected to release by the first quarter of 2023. The capacity of n-type modules will reach 20 GW to 30 GW by the end of next year.

RAW Charging, a UK-based electric vehicle charging solutions provider, has reached an agreement with SolarBotanic Trees to initially supply 200 co-branded solar trees as part of their network of commercial electric vehicle charging sites currently being rolled out across the UK and Europe.  Deliveries for the solar trees are expected to start in mid-2023 and be complete in 2024. The SolarBotanic Tree is said to be an aesthetically attractive solar power system that generates electricity and will initially be integrated into the existing RAW Charging site infrastructure to supplement its renewable power requirement. In the longer term, the SolarBotanic Tree would incorporate RAW’s industry-leading hardware and battery storage into the solar tree structure.