The new material consists of an heterostructure combining germanium, selenium, and tin sulfide, which also integrates atoms of zerovalent copper. It features an average photovoltaic absorption over 80% and could help photovoltaic cells break the Shockley-Queisser efficiency limit, according to its creators.

Margrethe Vestager, the executive vice president of the European Commission, said this week that the EU authorities are investigating the deployment of several wind farms in Spain, Greece, France, Romania and Bulgaria.

Researchers in the United States have investigated the sensitivity of PV inverters to the ectromagnetic pulses caused by high-altitude nuclear explosions during nuclear weapon testing. Their work presents several protection strategies aimed to improve the inverters’ immunity levels.

Chinese manufacturer Jolywood is currently applying a laser-assisted firing process in TOPCon solar cell manufacturing that can reportedly increase contact quality and corrosion resistance, while also reducing production costs. Scientists at the University of South Wales have investigated the impact of this production process on the quality of TOPCon cells and have found it “significantly” improve their reliability.

The photovoltaic micro aerial vehicle has a footprint of 0.15 m x 0.15 m and a weight of only 0.071 kg. According to its creators, it is the smallest solar-rechargeable multi-rotor ever developed to date. It uses a 22.6%-efficient solar module technology from US-based Sunpower and a 0.3 Ah storage system based on lithium polymer batteries.

A German research team has investigated the optical properties of perovskite/perovskite/silicon triple-junction cells and has found these devices may have a practical efficiency potential of 44.3% assuming idealized electrical parameters. These cells may also potentially achieve a fill factor of 90.1%.

The new heat pumps use R-454B as a refrigerant and have a size ranging from 2 tons to 5 tons. Their coefficient of performance (COP) ranges between 3.24 and 3.40, according to the manufacturer.

Developed by an international research team, the proposed methodology can reportedly be used with all kinds of solar panels and under different environment conditions. It relies uniquely on the specifications of the modules’ datasheet, temperature and insolation intensity.

A UK-Saudi research group has investigated the impact of uneven soiling on PV modules and has found that it can lead to enhanced performance losses due to different operational effects at intra-cell level. The academics conducted a series of experiments on a residential rooftop in Muscat, Oman, throughout 2021.

Developed by a research group in China, the two-terminal all-perovskite tandem device utilizes a 23.11%-efficient single-junction top cell relying on an optimized Sn-Pb perovskite material. The perovskite-perovskite cell was also able to retain 95.7% of the initial efficiency after being stored in a glovebox for 2,200 h.