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Cost comparison between agrivoltaics and ground-mounted PV

Researchers in Germany have stated that agrivoltaic projects are still considerably more expensive than ground-mounted PV plants. They found the agrivoltaic developers may incur higher costs during the approval process or due to design constraints. Furthermore, the use of special components such as modules, mounting systems and trackers may significantly increasing a project’s cost, especially if vertical plants are planned or the modules must be elevated to let the agricultural machinery operate underneath.

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Tunisia’s 70 MW PV tender attracts lowest bid of €0.035/kWh

The Tunisian authorities will review 57 project proposals in the country’s latest solar tender, which will facilitate the construction of six PV plants with installed capacities of 10 MW each, as well as 10 smaller solar arrays.

Voltalia wins Albania’s 100 MW PV tender with bid of €0.02989/kWh

The French developer will sell 70% of the power generated by the facility to Albanian power utility Operatori i Shpërndarjes së Energjisë Elektrike SH.A. (OSHEE) under a 15-year PPA and the remaining portion will be sold on the spot market.

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South Korea deployed 4.1 GW of solar in 2020

Last year saw a record for solar, in terms of newly deployed capacity. This year, however, growth may be limited by new regulations for project siting.

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Cooling PV panels with HVAC system exhaust

A French-Lebanese research group has proposed a way to cool down PV modules by using air exhausted from heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. They showed that array performance improves when the cooling load rises.

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Polyelectrolyte-based inverted perovskite solar cell with 20.29% efficiency

Taiwanese researchers have added bathocuproine (BCP) molecules to three different kinds of solvents used in perovskite cells and have ascertained how this combination increases the carrier mobility and passivates the electron-poor defects. Furthermore, they utilized a polyelectrolyte (P3CT-Na) thin film as hole transporting material instead of commonly-used thin films based on PEDOT:PSS.

New photonic material for self-aligning solar cells

US scientists have made light-tracking, three-junction tandem PV cells with an active area of 650 × 650 square micrometers. They are based on indium gallium phosphide, gallium arsenide, and indium gallium arsenide antimony nitride and use photonic crystal film for maximum efficiency.

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How to protect rooftop PV systems from fire risk

Dutch research institute TNO has released a series of guidelines to reduce fire hazards in rooftop PV installations. The study follows a series of fire accidents that occurred between 2018 and 2020 in the Netherlands, for which the main causes were identified.

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Denmark introduces incentive for green heating

Danish gas transmission system operator Evida will exempt homeowners and individuals that want to abandon gas and choose renewable energy for heating from paying the grid disconnection fee. The scheme will be run on a first-come, first-served basis.

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Grätzel solar cell with 13.5% efficiency, high open-circuit voltage

Scientists from Switzerland fabricated a dye-sensitized solar cell with a new tailored organic photo-sensitizer coded MS5 and a copper (II/I) electrolyte. A device solely sensitized with MS5 showed an open-circuit voltage of 1.24 V, which the researchers said is a record value among copper-based Grätzel cells.

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