A research team from Russia’s institutes NUST MISIS and IPCE RAS, and Italy’s University of Rome Tor Vergata, have applied an additional layer of p-type copper iodide semiconductor between perovskite and the hole-transport NiO layer of the cell. According to the scientists, this inorganic material is more accessible and easy-to-use.

A 4.8 MW solar park, which is being built by Danish developer Better Energy, will cover 20% of total power demand of a new hospital complex in Odense. The energy produced by the plant will be 100% self-consumed.

Only eight of the 93 companies which acquired the technical specifications for the tender have decided to participate in the procurement exercise. Collectively, the submitted project proposals had a combined capacity of 90 MW. Domestic content rules required the use of solar modules assembled in Algeria, as well as locally manufactured mounting structures and cables.

Four projects, planned to be located across several regions, will be developed through private-public partnerships and a development program supported by the United States.

Construction on the Lommel project started in October. The facility, owned by Flemish investment company Limburgse investeringsmaatschappij, will sell power to a zinc manufacturer and is also entitled to a premium of €0.0479 on top of the market power price.

The €5.4 billion program is expected to spur new growth in large scale PV while also providing incentives for rooftop systems. Originally scheduled for January, the country’s first technology neutral clean energy auctions – which will provide additional incentives EV charging-linked projects – may be held in the months ahead.

Italian industrial group Maccaferri, the parent company of the insolvent EPC contractor, has also filed for insolvency for another three units of its energy business.

Three projects with generation capacities of 5.6-6 MW were pre qualified for a 5.6 MW capacity procurement and Finnish utility Fortum secured the only PV project selected. The capex figure offered by solar developers was lower than that for 71 MW of wind power allocated and lower than for previous PV projects.

Rodrigo Sauaia, CEO of Brazilian solar energy association ABSOLAR, analyzes the chances of PV in this year’s two energy auctions in which it can compete. But it is not all about auctions, Sauaia tells pv magazine, there are 2 GW of solar projects under development for which bilateral PPAs may be signed, and hundreds of MW worth of such schemes that have already secured contracts.

Projects with capacity 10-50 MW can compete for grid connection with a voltage of 15-60 kV. Projects applying for a connection with a higher voltage will have to have more than 50 MW of generation capacity.