Highlights

Rising volumes of photovoltaic project capacity are increasing the incidence of negative price periods for electricity–and changing the times of day when they occur.

New statistics from ACERA, the Chilean renewable energy association, show that solar covered around 12.9% of the country’s total electricity demand in March.

The cell showed open-circuit voltage values of up to 732 mV. It was fabricated with a back junction (BJ) design with a full-area p-n-junction at the back surface.

India’s Larsen & Toubro has announced plans to provide EPC services to support the deployment of 300 MW of solar in Saudi Arabia, under a contract with a consortium involving Masdar, EDF Renewables, and Saudi Arabia’s Nesma.

Risen will sell 50,000 metric tons of poly to Shangji Automation and Zhonghuan Semiconductor has raised the prices of all its wafer products.

The two companies are seeking proposals to provide power to Sasol’s synthetic fuel plant in Secunda, Mpumalanga.

Furthermore, Michelin said it wants to become a world leader in hydrogen fuel cell systems and ScottishPower aims to build a green hydrogen plant at a wind power complex. Moreover, a study led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory suggested new strategies to design perovskite materials to speed up the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), a process that frees up molecular oxygen from water and is key for hydrogen production.

Larsen & Toubro is set to work on the 1.5 GW Sudair plant – the largest solar project in Saudi Arabia to have a signed power purchase agreement in place. Upon completion, it will also be one of the biggest PV installations in the world.

A new study from the Lappeenranta University of Technology predicts solar may even achieve a 69% share for total primary energy supply by the end of the first half of the century. In terms of price, solar PV is expected to achieve a capex of €246/kW-installed for utility scale projects, and of €537/kW for residential arrays by 2050. The levelized cost of energy (LCOE), however, is expected to remain constant over the next three decades, as the energy transition will also be implemented with storage technologies, increased flexibility and the production of synthetic fuels.

A new ruling in Indiana could extend payback periods to as long as 25 years and effectively dry up new business in the southwestern part of the US state, according to one installer.