Highlights

Robert Piconi, CEO of gravity storage specialist Energy Vault, makes the case for the US company’s long-duration energy storage solutions as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries, and discusses the ideal project size from an economic perspective.

Solax has introduced new products with nominal power ratings of 0.6 kW to 3 kW and efficiencies of 98%. It says the devices are compatible with heat pump systems and home EV chargers.

South African scientists have designed a novel gravity energy storage system that uses linear electric motors to vertically move multiple solid masses to store and discharge electrical energy. They say its levelized cost of storage (LCOS) is $137.20/MWh, but with efficiency improvements, it could drop to about $100/MWh

JA Solar’s new manufacturing facility is expected to start commercial operations in the fourth quarter of this year.

Q Cells plans to manufacture 3.3 GW of solar ingots, wafers, cells, and finished modules in a new facility in the US state of Georgia.

The Romanian president has passed a new law to shorten the permitting process for solar projects built on less than 50 hectares of agricultural land.

Norway’s Over Easy Solar AS introduced a new vertical PV system for rooftop applications last year. pv magazine spoke to CEO Trygve Mongstad about system prices and future market prospects for vertical rooftop solar tech.

MyGrid’s new 1.5 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery system purportedly runs for more than 6,000 cycles. It uses a bidirectional charger to receive and send electricity to the grid via a wall socket.

Slovenia’s new rebate program for rooftop solar has a budget of €10 million ($10.7 million).

Radovan Kopecek, the co-founder and director of Germany’s ISC Konstanz, says interdigitated back contact (IBC) tech could account for half of the global market for solar modules by 2030. He says IBC will start to dominate once TopCON and HJT get stuck at certain efficiency limits, and he believes TOPCon will be the first victim.