2021

French start-up Verkor is planning to build a 16 GWh manufacturing facility for EV batteries in southern France. French industry consultant Capgemini has joined the project to improve the manufacturing processes.

Work is underway for the deployment of the huge project in the Indian union territory of Ladakh. Land identification and preparation of a detailed project report (DPR) for the necessary transmission infrastructure have already begun.

Chinese inverter maker Sungrow has switched on a 6 MW / 21 MWh solar-plus-storage facility on the island. The FIT project’s connected AC capacity is limited to only 845 kW, but the containerized storage solution provided by the company ensures its viability.

Scientists in Singapore have conducted a review of all existing methods to produce colorful opaque and semitransparent perovskite solar cells for applications in BIPV and urban environments. They identified two general approaches consisting of coloring the perovskites via external or internal modifications.

Argonne National Laboratory researchers have found a way to use fluorescence to monitor the performance of redox flow batteries in real time. They used 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole as a redox-active molecule to store energy in the electrolytes. The molecule works as an energy carrier and signals a problem known as “crossover.”

Chinese solar module manufacturer Trina Solar has listed all inverter producers that in the past weeks have unveiled new devices or upgraded products for solar panels based on 210mm silicon wafers. Huawei, Sineng, Sungrow, SMA, GoodWe, Ginlong, and Kstar have all reportedly launched or are planning to launch centralized or string inverters that may better cope with bigger and more powerful panels.

French energy group Total’s latest solar acquisition in the United States includes 600 MW of co-located storage assets.

Reclaim PV is now one step closer to ensuring that solar generation lives up to the promise of providing clean energy throughout its life cycle, and that repurposing its component materials becomes viable.

The U.S. storage market is booming. But while the solar PV industry has come a long way, with decades of deployment to look back on, battery energy storage is still coming of age. And when things move fast, things can go wrong. At pv magazine’s Virtual Roundtables USA event in late-November 2020, experts raised the challenges that accompany opportunities for battery storage. A move toward greater maturity allows some lessons to be learned from solar – leveling up energy storage will require commitment from the sector with standards, testing, and quality performance.

State-owned power company SPIC is all set to contribute to the figures after announcing it wants to add 15 GW of renewables capacity during 2021 and China Glass, fresh from rebuffing Xinyi Glass’ takeover offer, is on the hunt for more manufacturing facilities.