March 2022

A business based at a Namibian mine has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement which will back the construction of a 5.4MW solar project. Elsewhere, the AfDB wants to roll-out solar panels to provide electricity access to six million people across six nations over the next six years.

The panel is part of the company’s new TOPCon module series, which also includes a 430W product with an efficiency of 21.99%.

Also, heterojunction module manufacturer Huasun has begun assembling production lines at its new 2GW factory and Trina Solar has agreed to buy 290 million wafers from Beijing Jingyuntong Technology.

Developed by Germany-based hydrogen specialist Enapter, the EL 4.0 electrolyzer is based on a patented anion exchange membrane (AEM) technology. Commercial production is currently being prepared at the company’s Italian plant and the first shipments should be made in the summer.

The city government of Florence, in Italy, is installing solar-powered, self-compacting garbage cans that are claimed to reduce emptying operations by 94% compared to traditional bins. The devices were provided by Korean manufacturer Ecube Labs.

In a chat with pv magazine, Christian Breyer – Professor of Solar Economy at Finland’s Lappeenranta University of Technology – explains which consequences the war in Ukraine may have on Europe’s energy landscape. According to him, only an unprecedented development of renewable energies, heat pumps and storage may help address the current energy crisis.

The Japanese manufacturer blames increasing wafer prices and logistics costs for its decision.

Developed for applications in BIPV, vehicle-integrated solar and smart glasses, the solar cell was built with an ultra-thin, semi-transparent, triple-cation perovskite film and gold nanorods (Au NRs). The device achieved an open-circuit voltage of 1097.1mV, a short-circuit current of 17.11mA/cm² and a fill factor of 73.12%.

Nearly a month after the fire occurred at the O’Mega 1 floating power plant in Piolenc, Akuo has drawn the first conclusions from the incident. pv magazine was able to visit the site to observe the damage, gather lessons, and see the arrangements put in place by the site managers.

India recorded its highest-ever annual solar capacity additions in 2021, despite the ongoing rise of component costs.