In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, explains that the solar cycle does tend to increase the earth’s average annual extra-terrestrial irradiance, but only by a very small amount. It also explains that, while the annual cycle of extra-terrestrial irradiance causes a steady, predictable and significant 3.5% change through the seasonal cycle, the peak of the 11-year cycle of solar activity causes a smaller, more sporadic and unpredictable set of fluctuations.
This week, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu) gives voice to Oana Ijdelea, the founder and managing partner of Romanian law firm Ijdelea & Associates. She says there is no objective blockage impeding women from pursuing a career in the renewable sector. There is, however, a vicious circle where women may become reluctant to apply for a position where males appear to be more present, and on the other hand, the lack of female presence in such roles does not encourage other women to step in.
In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick look at the main price trends in the global PV industry.
The requirements of measures such as the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) mean that solar panel prices in the United States can be twice as much as in Europe.
Prices for tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar panels continue to fall. pvXchange.com founder Martin Schachinger explains how this will affect the sale of PV modules based on passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) cells.
CEZ Group has developed a new solution for securing solar photovoltaics in areas of unstable subsoil from the central section of conveyor belts previously used in strip coal mines. Several pilots of the steel structure have already been deployed on a reclaimed area near the Bílina Mine in northern Czechia.
Researchers at the University of South Carolina have successfully transitioned their highly-durable lithium-sulfur battery technology from coin to pouch cells and reported competent energy densities.
A model of a PV-to-methanol plant in Denmark shows that FCR, aFRR, and mFRR can reduce the levelized cost of methanol by up to 30%. Automatic frequency restoration reserves contributed the most to the redaction in price.
The power purchase agreement will see Clean Energy Connect Co Ltd, an Itochu portfolio company, develop around 72 MW of dedicated solar plants for Google by 2026, to help reach the search engine company’s renewable energy targets.
U.K-based indoor PV specialist Lightricity, and Japanese capacitator manufacturer, Nichicon, unveiled
JMK Research projects that 21.2 GW of new solar capacity will be installed in India in fiscal 2025. The new additions will include 16.5 GW of utility-scale PV, 4 GW of rooftop solar, and 700 MW of off-grid installations.
The second phase of Ireland’s Small-Scale Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (SRESS) is aimed at local communities and small- and medium-sized enterprises that produce their own electricity.
The versatility of solar mounting manufacturer and balance-of-system provider Clenergy’s ezShade 2.0 solar shade system has been put to the test with the solution at the core of a standalone power system fuelling an off-grid communications site in remote northern Queensland.
Our pv magazine newshounds will be walking the floors for one last time in Munich today to bring you all the developments as Intersolar Europe 2023 winds down for another year.
China’s cumulative PV capacity has surpassed 670 GW. The nation deployed approximately 60.5 GW of new solar in the first four months of 2024, including 14.37 GW in April alone.
Conceived for use in wearable photovoltaics, the micro-power system
U.S. scientists have developed a thermophovoltaic cell that could be paired with inexpensive thermal storage to provide power on demand. The indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) thermophovoltaic cell absorbs most of the in-band radiation to generate electricity, while serving as a nearly perfect mirror.
Perovskite PV devices are set to become the next big thing in solar with market analysts at S&P Global Commodity Insights predicting 1 GW of production by the end of 2024, rising to 6 GW in 2025. Perovskite tandem devices are at the front of the queue for commercialization but their characterization presents technical challenges.
Developer Loop Energia has built a 1.2 MW offgrid solar plant that now serves a center-pivot irrigation system in the Brazilian state of Bahia. The project reportedly enables local farmers to double soybean harvesting by achieving considerable savings through significantly lower diesel consumption.
Visionpark said its novel solar carport solution is self-weighted and requires no foundation. It can reportedly host all kinds of solar panels and be installed quickly.
Aiko Solar has won a patent litigation case against Maxeon Solar Technologies in a Dutch court. The judge has ruled that Aiko Solar did not infringe upon Maxeon Solar’s EP2297788B1 patent for back-contact (BC) solar cells.
Waaree Energies says it will supply 445 MW of its 540/545Wp dual-glass PV bifacial modules to Statkraft India’s single-location solar projects in Rajasthan, India.
Scientists in China built for the first time a four-terminal tandem perovskite cell with a 17.88%-efficient top perovskite device and a 7.85%-efficient bottom antimony selenide bottom cell. The key features of the tandem cell are the transparent conducting electrode used to improve the spectral response of the top cell and the “double” electron transport layer of the antimony selenide cell.
The Japanese industrial technology supplier is shipping coating tools for perovskite solar panels with dimensions up to 1,000 mm × 2,000 mm. The company will also offer soon a support for 2,400 mm ×1,200 mm sizes.
Gamesa Electric has released a white paper on losses due to harmonics in PV plants, including an independent study that compares the performance of ultra-low total harmonic distortion inverters.
BloombergNEF (BNEF) says in a new study of 1,600 planned hydrogen projects that governments will miss their 2030 hydrogen targets. Analyst Adithya Bhashyam tells pv magazine that most of the announced projects to the end of this decade lack the key conditions for success.
An international research group has utilized a newly designed coalitional game system to ensure economic fairness between members of energy communities. The game system considers different types of prosumers relying on stand-alone and combinations of solar and storage.
Ausgrid, a distributed network provider in the Australian state of New South Wales, has powered up its third battery energy storage system under the federal government’s AUD 200 million ($132 million) Community Batteries for Household Solar program.
About 60% of energy customers in California have included battery energy storage with their rooftop solar installations. However, a “sustained downturn” is expected for the market.
The subsidiary of Chinese-Canadian solar manufacturer Canadian Solar says the financing will go towards developing and constructing solar and battery energy storage projects across Spain, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands, France and Germany.