KilowattSol CEO Xavier Daval has criticized the absence of references to solar in the French government’s post-Covid recovery plan, which has allocated €30 billion to the energy transition. The head of the PV technical advisory says solar must become more central to France’s strategic choices and China must not be allowed to retain its near-monopoly on PV panel manufacturing.

Scientists have developed a new micro CIGS cell by using an area-selective electro-deposition process as a material-saving technique. It has a conversion efficiency rate of 5.2% and a high open-circuit voltage.

The plant was installed by developer Floating PV NV on five hectares of a lake created by sand extraction and owned by sand and minerals company Sibelco in Dessel, Antwerp province.

The national utility has kicked off a procurement round to build the country’s first major PV project.

Researchers in Taiwan have developed an organic PV module with an active area of 216 sq cm. The panel is said to have open circuit voltage of 10.6 V and short circuit current of 1.82 mA. It also features the highest efficiency reported for a panel of its kind which has an active area of more than 100cm2

Brazil now has 12  GW of underperforming hydropower capacity, according to U.S. researchers. Large-scale floating PV is an ideal solution to offset this shortfall, due to its high capacity factor, load correlation, and high potential output during periods of high demand.

Researchers in Germany are scaling up efforts to bring perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell technology into industrial scale production. The scientists say manufacturing cells of that kind is possible on widely-available six-inch silicon wafers and modular systems are being designed to do so at scale.

Caledonian Mining has revealed plans to build a $13 million solar plant at the Blanket gold mine in southern Zimbabwe. It raised funds for the project via a share sale.

Solar curtailment might become a valuable aspect of future PV deployment, particularly if grid operators start focusing on ‘curtailment management’ instead of ‘curtailment prevention.’ Management would include measures such as flexible generation, storage, load flexibility, and regional coordination.

Around 4.2 MWh of energy storage capacity will be connected to a solar and diesel micro-grid on Rarotonga, the largest of the islands in the South Pacific nation. Three 40-foot containers with a total power output of 4.8 MVA will be used as a power reserve and for grid support by utility Te Aponga Uira.