Highlights

The cell is being manufactured by Switzerland-headquartered Ecosolifer with a manufacturing line provided by heterojunction specialist Meyer Burger at a 100 MW factory located in Hungary. The claimed efficiency is yet to be confirmed by an independent party.

Scientists at Germany’s Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin have made a discovery they say could greatly increase the energy storage capacity of titanium-based ‘MXene’ pseudocapacitors, ultimately leading to faster-charging batteries. The group found adding urea molecules between MXene layers increased the material’s storage capacity by up to 56%.

As the contagion continues to spread, its impact is beginning to be felt on the solar industry outside China with the cancellation or postponement of major trade shows and conferences that were set to take place over the next few weeks.

The thin-film cell was manufactured through a low-temperature process and doping with alkali elements.

Spanish gas provider Enagás has signed an agreement with Ampere Energy for the joint development of several hydrogen production R&D projects with PV and storage. The first installation will be deployed at a gas plant in Cartagena, in the southern Spanish region of Murcia.

Italian inverter maker Fimer has completed its purchase of ABB’s manufacturing and R&D sites in Finland, India and Italy, along with 800 employees in 26 countries. Fimer said the combined business will ship more than 7 GW of inverters this year.

In just three years, Northvolt has progressed from a startup to become Europe’s response to the Asian dominance of global battery manufacturing. pv magazine investigates why Northvolt is setting up units in Sweden, Germany, and Poland, what the firm’s goals are, and how it is attempting to achieve them.

With the new decade, pv magazine brings forth yet another energy storage highlights. Approximately two weeks of work went into sifting through this year’s 22 highlights submissions, conducting research, and preparing them for the jury. Once again, this year’s work was crowned by the moderation of the jury meeting, in which six leading industry experts discussed the technologies and solutions. Differing from previous years, the jurors have selected the top five “Gigawatt” winners, followed by five “Megawatt” winners, and a series of “Finalists” which we are publishing here, leading up to Energy Storage Europe.

The Ministry for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition’s long-term auction was organized by grid operator RTE under the French capacity procurement mechanism. Storage accounted for 253 MW of the capacity assigned in the auction, which was open to all decarbonizing technologies.

Three more PV manufacturers are jostling to announce plans to invest in an expansion of production capacities as the industry appears to make light of coronavirus fears.