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.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that the impact of Hurricane Milton on solar production will be minimal outside the southeastern United States, as the system quickly moves offshore.

There are thousands of extraordinarily good pumped hydro energy storage sites around the world with extraordinarily low capital cost. When coupled with batteries, the resulting hybrid system has large energy storage, low cost for both energy and power, and rapid response. Storage is a solved problem.

Solar powered water pumps are one of the most important ways for off-grid communities to gain access to water cheaply and cleanly. Standards are required to enable this market to continue growing and the IEC is working on the appropriate specifications.

In its latest monthly column for pv magazine, IEA PVPS provides a comprehensive overview of the recently released fourth edition of the “Best Practices Handbook for the Collection and Use of Solar Resource Data”. The 530-page handbook, developed by IEA PVPS Task 16 in collaboration with NREL, elaborates on methods and models for accurately collecting solar data to plan and operate energy projects effectively.

Scientists have created a lighting system based on the AEM10941 solar harvester developed by Belgium-based E-peas. The system is reportedly able to provide a full brightness run time of 10 hours.

U.S. startup Sylvatex offers mixed metal oxide cathode active materials made with a waterless, continuous synthesis process. The company is currently validating its technology in the domestic lithium ion battery supply chain and plans to build a pilot line in California.

The Energy Taiwan & Net-Zero Taiwan 2024 trade show kicked off in early October with a whimper rather than a bang, as the threat of Typhoon Krathon prompted organizers to cancel the first two days of the conference in Taipei.

Sweden’s largest energy storage investment, totaling 211 MW/211 MWh, goes live, combining 14 sites.

The Panamanian authorities have kicked off an energy auction open to new and existing power plants. Wind, solar, hydropower, and biomass projects are eligible to participate in the procurement exercise.

Researchers in Sweden have measured barney yield in a vertical agrivoltaic facility and have found that despite the shade created by the modules the yields are comparable to open-field control conditions, if not slightly higher. Their methodology can be replicated for other sites and crops.

Yap State Public Service Corp. is seeking bids to supply solar minigrids with battery energy storage systems (BESS), totaling 79 kW, for Yap Island in the Federated States of Micronesia. Applications are open until Jan. 28, 2025.

Scientists have utilized a device based on the Duffing oscillator to solve the problem of PV systems’ low efficiency at low input voltages at dawn and sunset. Its performance was reportedly better than that of a conventional DC-DC boost converter in amplifying weak input voltages.

Harvard University researchers say hydrogen costs are underestimated due to unaccounted storage and distribution variability across sectors, while Kore Infrastructure has told pv magazine that it aims to reach a levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) of between $1/kg and $2/kg.

The Vietnamese authorities have approved a new price framework for importing renewable energy from Laos, with base import prices for wind and hydropower set to take effect at the end of 2025.

Researchers in Western Australia have discovered a method to increase the number of molecules that adhere to the surface of tiny semiconductor nanocrystals. They claim this breakthrough could significantly enhance the efficiency and performance of solar panels.

The Singapore-based manufacturer said its new panel can achieve self-cleaning through rainwater thanks to its frameless design. The new product features an operating temperature coefficient of -0.30% per C and an efficiency ranging from 21.51% to 22.53%.

Israel-based inverter maker SolarEdge has unveiled its new TerraMax Inverter, which boasts 99% efficiency and enables 200% DC oversizing. It features an integrated night-time PID rectifier and is paired with the company’s H1300 Power Optimizers.

The two Italian companies said their new modules use a fully recyclable sticker that can help to improve aesthetics and turn the panels into advertising billboards. The panels use 24%-efficient interdigitated back-contact solar cells from Maxeon.

Scientists in China have investigated the fracture strength of commercial G12 monocrystalline wafers via the 4-point bending test and have found that wafer thickness, the position of the silicon wafer in the silicon brick, and the bending test direction are key parameters to develop future strategies aimed at reducing fractures.

HeliosLite has developed new aluminum floaters that can be assembled and deployed at an on-site mini factory. It presented a prototype PV system based on the new floating tech this week in southern France.

A team from the University of California Santa Barbara used ultrafast electron microscopy to record photocarriers as they diffuse across a silicon and germanium heterojunction. It is the first time the movement, which lasts picoseconds, has been captured as a moving visual.

JA Solar has filed two patent lawsuits against Astronergy in the Unified Patent Court (UPC). The proceedings are related to the tunneling silicon oxide (SiO2) layers, the doped polysilicon layer, and the electrodes used in tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar products.

The experimental device achieved an open-circuit voltage of 1.21 V, which is the highest value reported to date for highly efficient perovskite photovoltaics. The cell is based on a photo-ferroelectric 2D/3D/2D perovskite junction integrating a 2D ferroelectric perovskite single crystals in the perovskite bulk.

Runergy is pushing the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to cancel Trina Solar’s tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) patents, US9,722,104 and US10,230,009.

Vision Mechatronics has partnered with JSW MG Motors India to repurpose retired MG ZS EV batteries for industrial use. The initial deployment of the battery is in a Pune-based facility. It uses six modules from MG ZS EV batteries and is paired with an industrial UPS to deliver 36 kW of power.

China has been an undisputed leader in the battery energy storage system deployment by a far margin. The nation more than quadrupled its battery fleet last year, which helped it surpass its 2025 target of 30 GW of operational capacity two years early. ESS News sat down with Ming-Xing Duan, secretary of the Electrical Energy Storage Alliance (EESA), to discuss the latest market trends.

Researchers in Denmark have found that using a large-scale air-to-water heat pump in solar district heating may significantly reduce its levelized cost of heat. The proposed system configuration was simulated for an existing district heating plant in Denmark and was found to improve the flexibility of the system in response to energy prices.

The US-based long duration energy storage startup has raised more than $1.2 billion to date, making it one of the top-funded players in the space.

The UK government has unveiled a cap-and-floor scheme to kick start investment in long-duration energy storage. The first round of applications is scheduled for 2025.