Researchers in Japan have analyzed the warming effect of photovoltaic system on land surface temperature around the Kushida River Basin for ten years and have found this value increased by an average of 2.85 C.

Scientists in Japan have investigated the impact of seasonal, metereological factors on solar plant performance and have found the average power generation inefficiency reached significant levels. The findings suggest that optimal site for power plants requires careful consideration of meteorological and geographical data.

New research from Sweden suggests that low platinum fuel cells for hydrogen vehicles, when scaled up for the same number of cells, may achieve similar or higher efficiencies compared to commercial fuel cells. Their modeling is expected to act as a bridge between material science research and vehicle implementation.

An international team of researchers has proposed a series of processes to recover silicon and other metals from recycled solar cells. Their goal is to reuse the recovered silicon in the PV supply chain.

British Gas has developed the Carbon Cruncher tool for the UK market. It contextualizes emissions by comparing them to other emitters.

Researchers in Sweden have investigated incentive programs for rooftop PV and proposed the adaptation of future schemes to different investor profiles.

German research institute Fraunhofer ISE has unveiled a new metallization process for heterojunction solar cells that reportedly increases power conversion efficiencies by over 0.1% while reducing silver consumption. A device built with the new technique achieved an efficiency of 23.2%.

Researchers in Spain has found that combining PV power generation with fuel cells and battery storage may help homes considerably reduce their levelized cost of energy. Their simulation reportedly demonstrated homes may also become completely self-sufficient.

Scientists led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have designed a new PV-powered desalination system based on the time-variant electrodialysis reversal (EDR) technology. The proposed system reportedly achieves lower levelized cost of water than conventional solar-powered desalination techs.

The Aswan High Dam Reservoir is one of the world’s largest water reservoir and suffers from high water evaporation rates due to the region’s very hot and dry climate. Floating PV installations may be a remedy, while also offering a good match for hydropower generation.