Chinese PV Industry Brief: Big module makers call for wafer standards
Trina Solar, JinkoSolar, JA Solar, Longi, Risen, Canadian Solar, Tongwei, Chint, and Das Solar have issued a joint statement demanding the standardization of wafer sizes.
The Hydrogen Stream: Thyssenkrupp lists hydrogen business in Frankfurt
German engineering conglomerate thyssenkrupp has listed shares of its hydrogen business, thyssenkrupp nucera, on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Prime Standard).
French railway operator launches renewables unit, plans 1 GW of solar
SNCF says it wants to devote 1,000 hectares of its land to solar development, so it can cover 20% of its electricity consumption by the end of the decade.
Dutch government mulling PV ban on agricultural sites
Dutch Economy Minister Micky Adriaansens said this week that she aims to make it impossible to install solar farms on agricultural land, with some unspecified exceptions. The plan has raised concerns at Holland Solar, with the trade group warning of potential damage to farmers and solar project developers.
Chinese oil company switches on high-altitude 40 MW solar-plus-storage plant
China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) says it has completed a 40 MW solar-plus-storage plant at an altitude of 3,000 meters. It is connected to 6 MW/12 MWh of battery storage and hosts grazing farm animals.
Indoor perovskite PV solar cells with 32.0% efficiency
Scientists in Thailand built an indoor perovskite solar cell with low-cost carbon electrode architecture. The manufacturing process is based on antisolvent deposition and vacuum thermal annealing (VTA) and reportedly results in higher perovskite film quality.
Using existing fences as near-zero-cost racking solution for PV deployment
American researchers are proposing to use steel zip ties to attach solar modules to fences in animal farms as a low-cost racking solution for agrivoltaic applications. They found the proposed approach is technically and economically viable, provided careful wind load tests are conducted on the fences.
China polysilicon prices hold steady amid rebound talk
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.
Indian state of Gujarat tenders 1.2 GW of PV
Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd. (GUVNL) has launched a tender to develop 1.2 GW of PV projects (including 600 MW under s greenshoe option).
Ground mounted agrivoltaics have minimal impact on grassland carbon-water cycling
A US-Spanish research team studied the ecological effect of a solar photovoltaic array located on a managed grassland plot using a hydraulic and soil hydrology model and field measurements. They found minimal effect on the plants’ carbon-water cycling, which they attributed to plant photosynthetic traits changing to take advantage of the dynamic shading under the panels.
