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.

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.

The inverter features 97.6% efficiency and a DC input voltage range of 65 V to 600 V. The device is claimed to have countless open interfaces for linking together the energy, storage, mobility, heating, and cooling sectors.

U.S. researchers have assessed the technical and economic feasibility of solar canals in California and have found that their LCOE is already close to that of ground-mounted solar plants. Three different project configurations were analyzed for eight different sites across the California network of canals.

German energy company Steag wants to build three PV plants totaling 244 MW across several olive groves in the southern Italian region of Apulia. The unsubsidized agrivoltaic projects are expected to sell electricity through power purchase agreements. The distance between the rows of the olive grove and the photovoltaic system has been specifically designed both to avoid shadowing and allow the passage of the automatic machinery necessary for the cultivation of the olive trees.

A 5 MW / 3.6 MWh solar-plus-storage plant is being built with sodium-sulfur batteries provided by Japanese specialist NGK Insulators in Mongolia’s Zavkhan Province. The project developer, Japan-based contractor JGC Holdings, wants to bring the facility online in the spring of next year.

The tender is aimed at procuring 2 GW of capacity in response to the chronic short-term electricity supply gap that is affecting the country and its mining sector. The South African government has selected three LNG projects that may secure around 60% of the awarded capacity and several renewable energy projects including solar, wind and storage. The procurement exercise attracted a lowest bid of $ 0.0998/kWh.

A US-Taiwanese research group has created a new spin coating method which they claim can be applied in the mass production of mini perovskite panels. The scientists used sulfolane as an additive in the perovskite precursor to convert the perovskite phase via a new reaction route. They demonstrated a mini-module with a power conversion efficiency of 16.06% and an active area of 36.6 cm2.

Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor began building its new wafer manufacturing facility in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region. Shanghai Electric is setting up a hydrogen research center with the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Scientists in the United States have analyzed how semitransparent organic solar cells placed on the roof of a greenhouse may impact crop production. They assessed, in particular, how solar power generation may affect lettuce crops and found that the plants not only grow unhindered but also that the solar cells reduce overheating in the greenhouse.