Polysilicon prices continued to soar this week. Prices have been rising across the PV supply chain since mid-July due to recent accidents at two Chinese polysilicon factories, according to EnergyTrend.

Silver prices reached their highest levels this week since 2016. But Michael DiRienzo, executive director of The Silver Institute, says prices are still not high enough to complicate silver supplies for the PV industry.

Researchers built the device by attaching 17%-efficient monocrystalline PV cells to a mortar roof tile that was doped with a phase-change material (PCM). The PCM solar tile provided 4.1% more power than the PV tile with no cooling agent in the winter, and 2.2% to 4.3% more during the summer.

France’s EnerGaïa Forum will be held Dec. 9-10 in Montpellier, while Italy’s Key Energy event will be held in Rimini from Nov. 3-6. Australia’s top PV industry event will not take place in 2020.

Dutch researchers are trying to determine whether large-scale PV projects can be deployed on flood-control dikes across the Netherlands. A 5 MW solar project has already been built on a dike near Groningen, but the researchers believe there is potential to build up to 2.9 GW of PV on such embankments.

The Croatian energy regulator is seeking to allocate 88 MW of renewable energy generation capacity. The tender is part of the country’s plan to procure 2.26 GW of renewables including more than 1 GW of solar.

New Zealand researchers have proposed a way to assess the technical and economic feasibility of PV-powered parking machines. Solar might be an ideal solution, but the siting of the machines is critical and should be planned in advance, in line with available solar radiation and potential shading.

The Jaguar series, with 20.81% efficiency and 445 W of maximum output, may be a solution for installations with space constraints. The panels are based on a special cell design, which Recom describes as an evolution of the half-cut cell concept.

The Japanese electronics giant said a partnership with GS-Solar will not materialize and it will continue producing its modules in Japan and Malaysia while seeking other cooperation opportunities.

The government has announced the provisional results of the nation’s first renewable energy procurement exercise and says the 1 TWh auction will end up allocating more than 2.2 TWh of generation capacity for an average final electric price of €0.07408/kWh.