Author: sHq_LoGiNz
SUEZ, Egypt, Jan. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — ELITE Solar, a global leader in integrated solar manufacturing, today announced the commissioning of its new 5GW photovoltaic manufacturing facilities in Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone, marking a major milestone in the company’s global expansion strategy.
The facility includes 2GW of high-efficiency solar cell capacity and 3GW of solar module production, creating a fully integrated manufacturing platform designed to serve utility-scale, commercial, and industrial clients across the globe.
Egypt’s Prime Minister, Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, attended the official commissioning ceremony earlier this month, underscoring the project’s importance to Egypt’s renewable energy and industrial development goals. The new facility supports local workforce development while strengthening the region’s role in the global clean energy supply chain.
On January 23, ELITE Solar welcomed regional clients, strategic suppliers, and industry partners to the site for a firsthand look at the facility’s N-type solar cell and module production lines. The visit included discussions on supply chain coordination, production planning, local sourcing, and long-term collaboration—highlighting ELITE Solar’s focus on operational reliability and scalable manufacturing.
“This facility strengthens our global manufacturing footprint while reinforcing our commitment to dependable, market-ready solar supply,” said Arndt E. Lutz, CEO of ELITE Solar USA. “By combining advanced N-type technology with integrated production and disciplined execution, we’re positioned to support our clients with consistent quality and long-term reliability across multiple markets.”
The Ain Sokhna facility is a key component of ELITE Solar’s international growth strategy, pairing centralized technology leadership and global standards with localized manufacturing in strategic regions. This approach enables the company to respond efficiently to customer demand across the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and North America (MENA).
With its expanded manufacturing capabilities, ELITE Solar continues to strengthen its position as a trusted global partner for large-scale renewable energy deployment.
About ELITE Solar
Founded in 2005, ELITE Solar is a global provider of high-efficiency, intelligent solar solutions for utility, commercial & industrial (C&I), and residential markets. Headquartered in Singapore with U.S. operations in California, the company operates integrated manufacturing facilities in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Egypt, covering the full value chain from wafers to modules. ELITE Solar’s vertically integrated model and global reach support its mission to drive customer success and accelerate the transition to clean energy. Learn more at www.elite-solar.com
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/elite-solar-commissions-5gw-integrated-solar-manufacturing-facility-in-egypt-expanding-global-supply-capacity-302669421.html
SOURCE EliTe Solar
FREDERICK, Md., Jan. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Visit Frederick has formally adopted its Strategic Plan for 2026–2031, a five-year roadmap designed to guide tourism growth while protecting quality of life for residents across Frederick County. The plan outlines a clear vision for strengthening the visitor economy through collaboration, stewardship, and data-driven decision-making, ensuring tourism continues to deliver meaningful benefits to the community.
Tourism remains a vital driver of Frederick County’s economy, supporting thousands of jobs, hundreds of local businesses, and more than $500 million in annual visitor spending. The new strategic plan builds on that foundation, setting priorities that balance economic opportunity with community values as the county continues to grow and evolve.
“Tourism is one of Frederick County’s quiet success stories,” said Dave Ziedelis, Executive Director of Visit Frederick. “It supports local jobs, strengthens small businesses, and helps fund the amenities and experiences that make this a great place to live. This plan gives us a clear path forward to protect and grow those benefits for the entire community.”
Developed over an eight-month process in partnership with Coraggio Group, the plan reflects extensive engagement with residents, local leaders, tourism partners, and visitors. Surveys, interviews, and public listening sessions helped shape a shared vision for how tourism should grow responsibly and sustainably over the next five years.
The Strategic Plan centers on four core imperatives: driving visitation and visitor spending across all of Frederick County; cultivating positive community sentiment toward tourism; building organizational capacity to manage growth; and formalizing Visit Frederick’s destination stewardship framework. Together, these priorities aim to extend visitor stays, support emerging markets such as meetings and conferences, and ensure tourism investment aligns with resident priorities.
“This plan recognizes that the tourism landscape is changing, and so is Frederick County,” Ziedelis said. “We are welcoming new residents, new businesses, and new opportunities. This strategy helps us navigate that growth thoughtfully, so tourism strengthens our communities instead of overwhelming them.”
A key focus of the plan is destination stewardship – ensuring that tourism development enhances historic preservation, natural resources, infrastructure, and overall quality of life. Visit Frederick will continue to work closely with municipalities, Main Street organizations, nonprofits, and local businesses to align tourism promotion with community needs and long-term sustainability.
Visit Frederick’s 2026–2031 Strategic Plan is available in both a full booklet and a one-page summary at visitfrederick.org. The organization will begin implementing the plan immediately, using it as a guiding framework for marketing, partnerships, community engagement, and investment decisions in the years ahead.
Visit Frederick will host a public meeting to share details of the 2026–2031 Strategic Plan and gather community feedback on Wednesday, February 4 at 10am at the Frederick Visitor Center. Residents, partners, and stakeholders are encouraged to attend and learn more about how the plan will guide tourism growth in Frederick County.
Visit Frederick strengthens economic vitality and community pride by developing and promoting tourism that enhances quality of life for residents and visitors alike. As the official and designated Destination Marketing Organization for Frederick City and Frederick County, Visit Frederick leads the care and growth of the local visitor economy through stewardship, collaboration, and strategic investment.
For more information, go to visitfrederick.org or call 301-600-4047.
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/visit-frederick-unveils-20262031-strategic-plan-to-guide-tourism-growth-and-community-stewardship-302669340.html
SOURCE Visit Frederick
FREDERICK, Md., Jan. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Visit Frederick has formally adopted its Strategic Plan for 2026–2031, a five-year roadmap designed to guide tourism growth while protecting quality of life for residents across Frederick County. The plan outlines a clear vision for strengthening the visitor economy through collaboration, stewardship, and data-driven decision-making, ensuring tourism continues to deliver meaningful benefits to the community.
Tourism remains a vital driver of Frederick County’s economy, supporting thousands of jobs, hundreds of local businesses, and more than $500 million in annual visitor spending. The new strategic plan builds on that foundation, setting priorities that balance economic opportunity with community values as the county continues to grow and evolve.
“Tourism is one of Frederick County’s quiet success stories,” said Dave Ziedelis, Executive Director of Visit Frederick. “It supports local jobs, strengthens small businesses, and helps fund the amenities and experiences that make this a great place to live. This plan gives us a clear path forward to protect and grow those benefits for the entire community.”
Developed over an eight-month process in partnership with Coraggio Group, the plan reflects extensive engagement with residents, local leaders, tourism partners, and visitors. Surveys, interviews, and public listening sessions helped shape a shared vision for how tourism should grow responsibly and sustainably over the next five years.
The Strategic Plan centers on four core imperatives: driving visitation and visitor spending across all of Frederick County; cultivating positive community sentiment toward tourism; building organizational capacity to manage growth; and formalizing Visit Frederick’s destination stewardship framework. Together, these priorities aim to extend visitor stays, support emerging markets such as meetings and conferences, and ensure tourism investment aligns with resident priorities.
“This plan recognizes that the tourism landscape is changing, and so is Frederick County,” Ziedelis said. “We are welcoming new residents, new businesses, and new opportunities. This strategy helps us navigate that growth thoughtfully, so tourism strengthens our communities instead of overwhelming them.”
A key focus of the plan is destination stewardship – ensuring that tourism development enhances historic preservation, natural resources, infrastructure, and overall quality of life. Visit Frederick will continue to work closely with municipalities, Main Street organizations, nonprofits, and local businesses to align tourism promotion with community needs and long-term sustainability.
Visit Frederick’s 2026–2031 Strategic Plan is available in both a full booklet and a one-page summary at visitfrederick.org. The organization will begin implementing the plan immediately, using it as a guiding framework for marketing, partnerships, community engagement, and investment decisions in the years ahead.
Visit Frederick will host a public meeting to share details of the 2026–2031 Strategic Plan and gather community feedback on Wednesday, February 4 at 10am at the Frederick Visitor Center. Residents, partners, and stakeholders are encouraged to attend and learn more about how the plan will guide tourism growth in Frederick County.
Visit Frederick strengthens economic vitality and community pride by developing and promoting tourism that enhances quality of life for residents and visitors alike. As the official and designated Destination Marketing Organization for Frederick City and Frederick County, Visit Frederick leads the care and growth of the local visitor economy through stewardship, collaboration, and strategic investment.
For more information, go to visitfrederick.org or call 301-600-4047.
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/visit-frederick-unveils-20262031-strategic-plan-to-guide-tourism-growth-and-community-stewardship-302669340.html
SOURCE Visit Frederick
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Leading The Charge – Turning risk into reward with a circular economy for EV batteries and critical minerals, a whitepaper released by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026, marks the first integrated, actionable circular value-chain roadmap for EV batteries grounded in real-world industrial practice. It also sets a landmark milestone in the cooperation between CATL and the Foundation.
Developed with input from over 30 leading organizations across the EV battery ecosystem — including CATL, DHL, Volvo, and JLR, alongside research institutions and NGOs — the report sets out a clear, industry-informed direction for how EV batteries must be designed, used, recovered, and reintegrated to maximise value and reduce systemic risk across the value chain.
As the founding strategic partner of The Foundation’s Critical Minerals Mission, CATL worked closely with The Foundation and industry peers to translate circular economy principles into practical, deployable actions grounded in real operating experience. The roadmap also supports CATL’s Global Energy Circularity Commitment, including its long-term goal to decouple battery growth from virgin raw material extraction.
It highlights the opportunities a circular EV battery system can unlock across environment, economy, product, and broader value creation. By keeping batteries and their critical minerals in use across multiple lifecycles, it reduces demand for newly mined materials, lowers emissions, and supports renewable energy integration. It also increases economic value by improving material efficiency, lowering waste and operational costs, and creating new revenue streams. At the same time, it strengthens supply chain resilience and distributes economic benefits more equitably across regions, showing that a systemic, circular approach transforms potential risks into strategic, value-generating opportunities.
Five bright spots to unlock a circular EV battery system
The whitepaper identifies five interdependent actions needed to keep battery materials in high-value use and strengthen system resilience:
- Design batteries for circularity, not disposal
- Rethink battery service within optimized energy–mobility systems
- Scale circular business models that treat batteries as long-term assets
- Build and co-invest in regional circular infrastructure
- Enable a circular operating system through data, standards, and policy
CATL actions already in practice
CATL is already putting these system-level actions into practice across its operations. By separating the battery from the vehicle, CATL manages batteries as centrally managed assets, increasing utilization, enabling scheduled maintenance, and ensuring predictable return at end of use. Today, CATL operates more than 1,000 passenger-vehicle and over 300 commercial-vehicle swap stations, supported by a growing ecosystem of more than 100 partners.
This system integration enables high-quality recovery at scale. CATL’s recycling operations achieve recovery rates of 99.6% for nickel, cobalt, and manganese, and 96.5% for lithium, with processing capacity expanding toward 270,000 tonnes per year. In parallel, CATL is applying alternative chemistries such as sodium-ion batteries, using widely available materials and reducing lifecycle carbon emissions per kilowatt-hour by up to 60%, reinforcing circular performance across mobility, swapping, and energy storage applications.
Scaling together
Speaking at The Foundation’s Leadership Briefing among CATL Jiang Li, Vice-Chairman and Board Secretary of CATL highlighted: “This report marks a major milestone in the global journey towards a circular battery economy. Circular battery systems must now be scaled across regions, industries, and applications — from EVs to energy storage — and adapted to diverse market contexts.”
“As EV adoption accelerates, a circular economy for batteries and critical minerals is no longer optional — it is essential to affordability, resilience, and long-term growth while reducing environmental and social impacts,” said Wen-Yu Weng, Executive Leader for Critical Minerals at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. “EV batteries are strategic assets, and circular approaches are key to retaining their value and ensuring critical minerals never become waste. We welcome CATL’s contribution and look forward to continued collaboration to help scale a truly circular battery system and support the wider energy transition.”
For CATL, this agenda directly underpins its pathway to carbon neutrality — building on the achievement of carbon neutrality across all its battery plants, and its target to achieve carbon neutrality across the full value chain by 2035.
The launch of the report marks an early milestone in CATL and The Foundation’s broader collaboration to accelerate circularity of critical minerals. The next phase will focus on stress-testing these approaches in real-world environments, to understand how design, use, life extension, collection, and recycling loops function together at scale.
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/catl-and-the-ellen-macarthur-foundation-set-direction-for-circular-ev-batteries-with-landmark-whitepaper-302669414.html
SOURCE Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL)
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Leading The Charge – Turning risk into reward with a circular economy for EV batteries and critical minerals, a whitepaper released by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026, marks the first integrated, actionable circular value-chain roadmap for EV batteries grounded in real-world industrial practice. It also sets a landmark milestone in the cooperation between CATL and the Foundation.
Developed with input from over 30 leading organizations across the EV battery ecosystem — including CATL, DHL, Volvo, and JLR, alongside research institutions and NGOs — the report sets out a clear, industry-informed direction for how EV batteries must be designed, used, recovered, and reintegrated to maximise value and reduce systemic risk across the value chain.
As the founding strategic partner of The Foundation’s Critical Minerals Mission, CATL worked closely with The Foundation and industry peers to translate circular economy principles into practical, deployable actions grounded in real operating experience. The roadmap also supports CATL’s Global Energy Circularity Commitment, including its long-term goal to decouple battery growth from virgin raw material extraction.
It highlights the opportunities a circular EV battery system can unlock across environment, economy, product, and broader value creation. By keeping batteries and their critical minerals in use across multiple lifecycles, it reduces demand for newly mined materials, lowers emissions, and supports renewable energy integration. It also increases economic value by improving material efficiency, lowering waste and operational costs, and creating new revenue streams. At the same time, it strengthens supply chain resilience and distributes economic benefits more equitably across regions, showing that a systemic, circular approach transforms potential risks into strategic, value-generating opportunities.
Five bright spots to unlock a circular EV battery system
The whitepaper identifies five interdependent actions needed to keep battery materials in high-value use and strengthen system resilience:
- Design batteries for circularity, not disposal
- Rethink battery service within optimized energy–mobility systems
- Scale circular business models that treat batteries as long-term assets
- Build and co-invest in regional circular infrastructure
- Enable a circular operating system through data, standards, and policy
CATL actions already in practice
CATL is already putting these system-level actions into practice across its operations. By separating the battery from the vehicle, CATL manages batteries as centrally managed assets, increasing utilization, enabling scheduled maintenance, and ensuring predictable return at end of use. Today, CATL operates more than 1,000 passenger-vehicle and over 300 commercial-vehicle swap stations, supported by a growing ecosystem of more than 100 partners.
This system integration enables high-quality recovery at scale. CATL’s recycling operations achieve recovery rates of 99.6% for nickel, cobalt, and manganese, and 96.5% for lithium, with processing capacity expanding toward 270,000 tonnes per year. In parallel, CATL is applying alternative chemistries such as sodium-ion batteries, using widely available materials and reducing lifecycle carbon emissions per kilowatt-hour by up to 60%, reinforcing circular performance across mobility, swapping, and energy storage applications.
Scaling together
Speaking at The Foundation’s Leadership Briefing among CATL Jiang Li, Vice-Chairman and Board Secretary of CATL highlighted: “This report marks a major milestone in the global journey towards a circular battery economy. Circular battery systems must now be scaled across regions, industries, and applications — from EVs to energy storage — and adapted to diverse market contexts.”
“As EV adoption accelerates, a circular economy for batteries and critical minerals is no longer optional — it is essential to affordability, resilience, and long-term growth while reducing environmental and social impacts,” said Wen-Yu Weng, Executive Leader for Critical Minerals at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. “EV batteries are strategic assets, and circular approaches are key to retaining their value and ensuring critical minerals never become waste. We welcome CATL’s contribution and look forward to continued collaboration to help scale a truly circular battery system and support the wider energy transition.”
For CATL, this agenda directly underpins its pathway to carbon neutrality — building on the achievement of carbon neutrality across all its battery plants, and its target to achieve carbon neutrality across the full value chain by 2035.
The launch of the report marks an early milestone in CATL and The Foundation’s broader collaboration to accelerate circularity of critical minerals. The next phase will focus on stress-testing these approaches in real-world environments, to understand how design, use, life extension, collection, and recycling loops function together at scale.
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/catl-and-the-ellen-macarthur-foundation-set-direction-for-circular-ev-batteries-with-landmark-whitepaper-302669414.html
SOURCE Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL)
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Leading The Charge – Turning risk into reward with a circular economy for EV batteries and critical minerals, a whitepaper released by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026, marks the first integrated, actionable circular value-chain roadmap for EV batteries grounded in real-world industrial practice. It also sets a landmark milestone in the cooperation between CATL and the Foundation.
Developed with input from over 30 leading organizations across the EV battery ecosystem — including CATL, DHL, Volvo, and JLR, alongside research institutions and NGOs — the report sets out a clear, industry-informed direction for how EV batteries must be designed, used, recovered, and reintegrated to maximise value and reduce systemic risk across the value chain.
As the founding strategic partner of The Foundation’s Critical Minerals Mission, CATL worked closely with The Foundation and industry peers to translate circular economy principles into practical, deployable actions grounded in real operating experience. The roadmap also supports CATL’s Global Energy Circularity Commitment, including its long-term goal to decouple battery growth from virgin raw material extraction.
It highlights the opportunities a circular EV battery system can unlock across environment, economy, product, and broader value creation. By keeping batteries and their critical minerals in use across multiple lifecycles, it reduces demand for newly mined materials, lowers emissions, and supports renewable energy integration. It also increases economic value by improving material efficiency, lowering waste and operational costs, and creating new revenue streams. At the same time, it strengthens supply chain resilience and distributes economic benefits more equitably across regions, showing that a systemic, circular approach transforms potential risks into strategic, value-generating opportunities.
Five bright spots to unlock a circular EV battery system
The whitepaper identifies five interdependent actions needed to keep battery materials in high-value use and strengthen system resilience:
- Design batteries for circularity, not disposal
- Rethink battery service within optimized energy–mobility systems
- Scale circular business models that treat batteries as long-term assets
- Build and co-invest in regional circular infrastructure
- Enable a circular operating system through data, standards, and policy
CATL actions already in practice
CATL is already putting these system-level actions into practice across its operations. By separating the battery from the vehicle, CATL manages batteries as centrally managed assets, increasing utilization, enabling scheduled maintenance, and ensuring predictable return at end of use. Today, CATL operates more than 1,000 passenger-vehicle and over 300 commercial-vehicle swap stations, supported by a growing ecosystem of more than 100 partners.
This system integration enables high-quality recovery at scale. CATL’s recycling operations achieve recovery rates of 99.6% for nickel, cobalt, and manganese, and 96.5% for lithium, with processing capacity expanding toward 270,000 tonnes per year. In parallel, CATL is applying alternative chemistries such as sodium-ion batteries, using widely available materials and reducing lifecycle carbon emissions per kilowatt-hour by up to 60%, reinforcing circular performance across mobility, swapping, and energy storage applications.
Scaling together
Speaking at The Foundation’s Leadership Briefing among CATL Jiang Li, Vice-Chairman and Board Secretary of CATL highlighted: “This report marks a major milestone in the global journey towards a circular battery economy. Circular battery systems must now be scaled across regions, industries, and applications — from EVs to energy storage — and adapted to diverse market contexts.”
“As EV adoption accelerates, a circular economy for batteries and critical minerals is no longer optional — it is essential to affordability, resilience, and long-term growth while reducing environmental and social impacts,” said Wen-Yu Weng, Executive Leader for Critical Minerals at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. “EV batteries are strategic assets, and circular approaches are key to retaining their value and ensuring critical minerals never become waste. We welcome CATL’s contribution and look forward to continued collaboration to help scale a truly circular battery system and support the wider energy transition.”
For CATL, this agenda directly underpins its pathway to carbon neutrality — building on the achievement of carbon neutrality across all its battery plants, and its target to achieve carbon neutrality across the full value chain by 2035.
The launch of the report marks an early milestone in CATL and The Foundation’s broader collaboration to accelerate circularity of critical minerals. The next phase will focus on stress-testing these approaches in real-world environments, to understand how design, use, life extension, collection, and recycling loops function together at scale.
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/catl-and-the-ellen-macarthur-foundation-set-direction-for-circular-ev-batteries-with-landmark-whitepaper-302669414.html
SOURCE Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL)