As the European Commission prepares its strategy for a European Green Deal, it is important to understand how solar can deliver on ambitious climate targets.

The emergence of hydrogen power is changing the dynamic of the power supply arena. With new technology coming through comes increased demand for specialist skills from other industries, including from manufacturers. The following article why these technical abilities will be vital in the development of hydrogen storage vessels and, crucially, ensuring the industry operates safely.

A simple feasibility analysis shows the Mekong River in Cambodia would benefit from floating solar plants coupled with storage, rather than more hydro.

When it comes to hybrid microgrids, writes Fabian Baretzky, senior business development and sales manager for Dhybrid Power Systems, the incorporation of various sources of energy and complex requirements for long-term stability of the energy supply require expertise and an effective energy management system.

After China’s National Day holiday, demand started picking up at a slow pace, but the anticipated installation rush did not occur as expected, due to land and financing issues, as well as the return of winter. These factors will also delay the timing of more than 6 GW of capacity to the first half of next year. PV InfoLink has thus downwardly revised its estimates for installed capacity in the fourth quarter to 11.3 GW in China and 30 GW globally, bringing this year’s global demand forecast to below 120 GW.

Japanese utility Kansai Electric Power has extended a demonstration project with Australian P2P energy pioneer Power Ledger to track renewable energy certificates and trade PV-generated electricity.

According to a new study by Finland’s LUT University, solar PV consumes between 2% and 15% of the water that coal and nuclear power plants use to produce just 1 MWh of output; for wind, this percentage ranges from 0.1% to 14%. Under the researchers’ best policy scenario, water consumption could be reduced by 75.1% by 2030, compared to 2015 levels.

Eleven U.S. Senators have signed a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission about the threat that Huawei’s equipment poses to the nation’s energy infrastructure.

The Australian state of Tasmania has approached international investors to present its unique potential for the production of hydrogen from renewable sources, as it aims to position itself at the forefront of the nation’s green hydrogen push.

The Indian developer will hold a 51% stake in the venture, with Seoul-based GS E&C taking the remainder. The capacity was awarded under Solar Energy Corp. of India’s tranche-IV auction earlier this year.

The 8.5 kW pilot project, which was launched in February 2018, will soon be expanded to 50 kW. The Dutch consortium behind the installation eventually plans to expand it to 1 MW and then up to 100 MW at a later stage. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) provided financial backing for the project.

The PV project, which was tendered by Jordanian utility NEPCO in 2017, will sell power at $0.059/kWh. The plant is located in Jordan’s Risha region, which is roughly 300 km northeast of Amman.

Italian gas and oil producer Eni has followed the recent commissioning of a 10 MW solar+storage project in Pakistan with the completion of a similar off-grid installation at an oil field in Tunisia. The power plant was built in partnership with Tunisian state-owned oil company Entreprise Tunisienne d’Activités Pétrolières

An international research team has developed a new approach for solar power forecasting that combines neural networks and pattern sequences for the first time. The performance of the new Pattern Sequence Neural Network (PSNN) was tested on an Australian data set that includes information from two years of forecasts. It can be used with different clustering and cluster-sequence extraction algorithms, and can be applied to multiple related time sequences

Solaredge wants to enable households have a higher solar self-consumption with its new product. The Israeli PV company’s solution can now be ordered in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Digital imagery with laser lights has been used to measure a solar cell’s performance for some time now through a process called light beam induced current (LBIC) mapping. However, due to the serial nature of image processing, it hasn’t been easy to do quickly. Danish start-up InfinityPV says it has employed a method that will expedite the LBIC speed by more than 10 million times.

South Korean scientists have transformed an opaque crystalline silicon solar cell into a transparent one by punching holes into it measuring around 100 μm in diameter. A neutral-colored, transparent c-Si substrate was used to develop the new cell, which is said to have an efficiency of up to 12.2%.

Scientists from Israel have used nanowires to detach particles from the surfaces of solar panels. The proposed microscopic self-cleaning technology is said to raise the efficiency of particle removal with hydrophobicity.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has announced AUD 15 million ($10.3 million) in research funding to investigate end-of-life issues for PV modules. Ultimately it is hoped that the research will increase solar PV efficiency while lowering costs.

NREL has published a paper showing an experimental solar cell, with a unique technique for wiring two separate solar cells into one, that increased the cell’s efficiency by 4%. The document also offers a respectable review of other technologies being developed.

Chinese module manufacturer is stepping up its prowess with 314 MW of new high-efficiency Tiger modules being released to the market.

The Shaanxi-based solar manufacturer has made its 14th announcement this year of an intent to expand its ingot, wafer, cell and module output. Thus far – and we’re still three weeks short of year-end – the bill for the 112 GW of extra production spelled out in 2019 comes to a near $4.2 billion.

The French institute said the result has been certified by ISFH CalTeC, in Germany. The manufacturers claim they were able to increase cell performance by improving the plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of amorphous silicon nanolayers and the conductive and anti-reflective transparent oxide layers.

Scientists from China’s State Key Laboratory of Fire Science have analyzed the combustion behavior of flexible PET-laminated PV panels. They found toxic gases including sulfur dioxide, hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen cyanide and a small amount of volatile organic compounds are released when such a PV system burns.

A PV project by the Chinese company started generating electricity in late October, the group said. German subsidiary Astronergy supplied the solar panels.

The European Commission has approved state aid for the so-called European Battery Alliance to promote the development of a lithium-ion battery supply chain in the European Union.

Greece’s largest international airport has set a goal to operate as a net zero carbon emitter by 2025, mainly via investing in on-site solar. Should the goal be met, the airport will be Europe’s first to rely on self-generated electricity and operate with net zero emissions.

The EIB and the Hydrogen Council aim to jointly develop new ways to generate funding for hydrogen projects under the European Commission’s InnovFin Advisory program. The two parties, however, have not disclosed the financial terms of their planned collaboration.

The province’s Alternative Energy Resource Authority is seeking proposals for three utility scale PV projects ranging in generation capacity from 800 kW to 4 MW. Two of them should be coupled with large scale batteries with a total storage capacity of up to 2.4 MWh.

The European Commission has approved use of funds given by seven member states to back Europe-wide R&D projects across the lithium-ion battery value chain, with the aim of potentially unlocking an additional €5 billion in private sector investment.