Solar Energy

Investigators comb wreckage after S. Korea lithium factory fire kills 23

Published

10 months ago

June 25, 2024

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Investigators comb wreckage after S. Korea lithium factory fire kills 23

by AFP Staff Writers

Seoul (AFP) June 25, 2024

Investigators combed the charred wreckage of a South Korean lithium factory Tuesday to find the cause of a massive blaze that killed 23 in one of the country’s worst factory disasters in years.

The fire department said 23 people are now confirmed dead, including 17 Chinese nationals — one fewer than their initial figure of 18, with identification work ongoing.

“We plan to confirm the victims’ identities by collecting DNA from their bodies,” firefighter Kim Jin-young told reporters.

The government launched its formal investigation on Tuesday, involving ministries and departments from across the board, to pinpoint the exact cause of the fire, with investigators entering the building.

Over 100 people were working in the factory when workers heard a series of explosions from the second floor, where lithium-ion batteries were being inspected and packaged.

CCTV footage from the entrance of the factory building shows white smoke filling the area in less than 20 seconds, as people race out, the Yonhap news agency reported.

Toxic fumes likely quickly overwhelmed workers in the area where the blaze began, the fire department has said, adding that as it was a lithium fire, the workers’ efforts to extinguish wouldn’t have worked.

Park Soon-kwan, CEO of Aricell, the owner of the lithium battery plant, apologised on Tuesday for the fire, saying the company would “support the needs in every way” of the families of the victims.

He said the company would cooperate with investigators, adding that it had had dry-powder fire extinguishers throughout the building, and conducted regular safety training drills for employees.

Xing Haiming, Chinese Ambassador to Seoul, visited the site of the fire late Monday, calling it an “unfortunate and heartbreaking,” incident, but saying he “had a good conversation with the Korean government” on preventing any reoccurrence.

“It is hoped that South Korean businesses will learn a painful lesson, refrain from similar incidents in the future and earnestly safeguard the safety of Chinese citizens in South Korea,” he said.

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol also visited the disaster site late Monday, and ordered authorities to check similar factories that handle chemicals and take “measures to prevent such accidents from happening again.”

A spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry expressed “profound grief over the people who died” during a regular news conference on Tuesday.

“China has asked South Korea to find out the cause of the accident as soon as possible, make every effort to treat the injured, handle the aftermath, and provide assistance to the families of Chinese casualties,” Mao Ning said.

Lithium batteries burn hot and fast, and are difficult to control with conventional fire extinguishing methods.

South Korea is a major producer of batteries, including those used in electric vehicles.

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Solar Energy

Vietnam ups wind, solar targets as energy demand soars

Published

2 days ago

April 20, 2025

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Vietnam ups wind, solar targets as energy demand soars

by AFP Staff Writers

Hanoi (AFP) April 17, 2025

Vietnam has dramatically increased its wind and solar targets as it looks to up its energy production by 2030 to meet soaring demand, according to a revised version of its national power plan.

The Southeast Asian country has committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and the latest edition of its Power Development Plan 8 (PDP8), as it is known, maps out how it will reach those goals.

The manufacturing powerhouse has been heavily reliant on coal to meet its rapidly expanding energy needs. But now it wants to “strongly develop renewable energy sources”, according to the plan, which was published Wednesday on the government’s news portal.

With targets set at 73 gigawatts (GW) for solar and 38 GW for onshore wind energy by 2030 — and a significant increase to 296 GW and 230 GW by 2050 — the plan looks “really ambitious”, said Andri Prasetiyo, senior researcher at Senik Centre Asia.

The 2023 version of the PDP8 aimed for 12.8 GW for solar and 21 GW for wind by the end of the decade.

“I think this sends a clear message, Vietnam is positioning itself to maintain leadership in Southeast Asia’s clean energy transition, (even) taking a more prominent role in the region,” he told AFP.

Solar power grew rapidly in Vietnam until 2020 but its success hit a roadblock due to infrastructure limitations.

Prasetiyo said Vietnam’s new targets were “increasingly feasible”, although they far outstrip market projections of what the country can achieve.

– Coal, nuclear –

The latest version of the PDP8, which was approved this week, also re-emphasises the country’s 2023 pledge to end the use of coal by 2050.

Coal will represent nearly 17 percent of its energy mix by the end of the decade, down from a target of 20 percent set in 2023.

Meanwhile, solar will account for 31 percent of the country’s energy by 2030, while onshore wind will be 16 percent.

More than $136 billion will be needed if Vietnam is to get there, the document said.

Under the new plan, the country also aims to open its first nuclear power plant by 2035 at the latest.

It comes after Vietnam and Russia signed an agreement on nuclear energy in January, with Hanoi saying Russian nuclear giant Rosatom was “very interested” in cooperating on a project in central Ninh Thuan province.

Overall, as Vietnam targets an ambitious 10 percent economic growth rate by the end of the decade, it wants to raise its total installed capacity to a maximum of 236 GW by that date.

That’s up by more than 80 GW from the figure outlined in 2023.

Hanoi is also eager to avoid a repeat of the rolling blackouts and sudden power outages in summer 2023 that led to losses among manufacturers. They also prompted massive disruption for residents, as intensely hot weather and unprecedented drought strained energy supplies in northern Vietnam.

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Solar Energy

New system offers early warning of dust storms to protect solar power output

Published

6 days ago

April 16, 2025

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New system offers early warning of dust storms to protect solar power output

by Simon Mansfield

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Apr 10, 2025

A new predictive platform called iDust is poised to transform dust storm forecasting and improve solar energy output in dust-prone regions. Developed by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, iDust offers high-resolution, fast-turnaround dust forecasts that could help mitigate power losses across solar farms, particularly in arid zones.

The tool was created under the leadership of Dr. Chen Xi from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and detailed in the Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES).

“Dust storms not only block sunlight but also accumulate on solar panels, decreasing their power output.” said Chen, outlining the motivation behind the project. With China’s rapid expansion of solar installations in desert areas, the need for precise and timely dust forecasts has become increasingly urgent to avoid operational disruptions and revenue shortfalls.

Traditional systems like those from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) often lack the spatial resolution and processing speed needed for optimal solar planning. iDust addresses these limitations by embedding dust-related dynamics directly into its forecast engine. This allows the system to generate forecasts with 10-kilometer resolution-a fourfold improvement over previous models-while maintaining near-parity in computational load. Crucially, iDust can deliver 10-day forecasts within six hours of initial observations.

The effectiveness of iDust was put to the test on April 13, 2024, when it successfully tracked a severe dust storm over Bayannur in northern China. Such storms can distort solar energy projections by as much as 25% if unaccounted for, underscoring the value of integrating dust modeling into energy planning.

Designed for practical deployment, iDust aims to assist solar facility operators and grid managers in optimizing power production and reducing losses due to airborne particulates. As China pushes toward its carbon neutrality goals, innovations like iDust will be central to achieving sustainable energy reliability.

Researchers plan to expand the system for global application, allowing other countries with desert-based solar assets to benefit from enhanced dust forecasting.

Research Report:The Efficient Integration of Dust and Numerical Weather Prediction for Renewable Energy Applications

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Solar Energy

Going green with fluoride-enhanced perovskite solar cells

Published

7 days ago

April 15, 2025

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Going green with fluoride-enhanced perovskite solar cells

by Simon Mansfield

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Apr 15, 2025

A team of scientists from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has unveiled a sustainable method for fabricating perovskite solar cells (PSCs) by using a fluoride-based additive in a water-only solution. This innovation replaces hazardous solvents typically used in PSC production, achieving a notable power conversion efficiency exceeding 18%.

Perovskite solar cells have emerged as a promising technology for the future of solar energy, thanks to their high efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Yet, their commercial scalability has been hindered by the environmental and health hazards posed by conventional toxic solvents used during manufacturing. While water-based methods offer a more sustainable route, they have so far underperformed in delivering high-efficiency devices.

To overcome this barrier, QUT researchers introduced lead(II) fluoride (PbF2) into the aqueous precursor mix. This additive plays a dual role: it speeds up the formation of the light-absorbing phase and aligns the crystallization process to optimize light conversion. The fluoride ions also passivate surface defects in the perovskite grains, minimizing charge loss and improving conductivity.

“With the PbF2 additive, we achieved a power conversion efficiency of 18.1%, compared to 16.3% in the control device,” said Dr. Minh Tam Hoang, a postdoctoral researcher at QUT and lead author of the study. “Even more exciting is the improved operational and environmental stability, which brings us closer to scalable, green manufacturing of PSCs.”

This advancement signals a meaningful shift in perovskite solar cell development, offering a pathway to produce efficient and durable solar modules through eco-friendly processes. The results demonstrate the value of fluoride-based chemistry in advancing both performance and sustainability in solar technologies.

The findings were published in the journal Materials Futures, underscoring the growing role of green additives in next-generation clean energy solutions.

Research Report:Lead (II) fluoride additive modulating grains growth of water-processed metal halide perovskites for enhanced efficiency in solar cells