Highlights

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has opened a formal investigation into the exact failure mode behind the destruction at the Yamakura Dam floating PV installation. In the end, the ministry seeks to draw up a plan to revamp not just the dam, but also the arrays that are still intact. This is a learning exercise that should be closely followed, as floating PV is enjoying growing popularity.

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 will be published in the coming weeks, leading up to Energy Storage Europe.

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 will be published in the coming weeks, leading up to Energy Storage Europe.

A U.S. research group has used a lead-absorbing material to coat the front and rear of a perovskite solar cell stack. The researchers claim the films captured 96% of lead leakage when the cells were damaged.

The increased urgency for the automotive industry to deal with the disposal of EV batteries in the mid-term future will act as a catalyst for the emerging second-life battery market, writes Abhishek Sampat, Principal Analyst at Delta-EE. Automakers, and potentially third parties, are expected to exploit new value streams and a second-life market is predicted to drive down costs for stationary energy storage, with little to no compromise in quality to the end user.

The 100 MW tender was five times oversubscribed and the average final price tariff offered was €0.05 lower than the previous procurement round.

The 5 GW of new production lines announced by JA Solar at the start of the year have now been doubled as the company also unveiled plans to rejig up to 3.6 GW of its existing facilities to accommodate bigger wafers.

Scientists at Australia’s University of Queensland have set a new world efficiency record for a quantum dot solar cell. The group fabricated a 0.1cm² device from a perovskite material and measured power conversion efficiency at 16.6%. The record has been verified by the United States National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Japanese researchers have developed a new water-splitting technology based on a photoelectrochemical system made with titanium dioxide and cobalt. Cobalt is said to be a solid alternative to noble metals such as gold and silver to improve the light-absorbing properties of titanium dioxide used for water oxidation.

The oil giant says it will use the electricity provided by two 50 MW batteries to optimize the integration of renewables nearby. The task will be undertaken by the group’s Limejump unit. The energy storage units are set to be operational this year.