Residential PV

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) explains how to optimally use its SolarCity Simulator, an open-access platform designed to help member countries to deploy PV systems at the municipal level.

Zhang Yingbin, Trina Solar’s head of global product strategy, speaks to pv magazine about the path to a supply chain dominated by n-type TOPCon products. He says Trina Solar will reach 30 GW of TOPCon solar module capacity by the end of 2023.

C2F has developed a building-integrated PV (BIPV) facade made of aluminum that purportedly limits the impact of hot and cold weather, while also improving solar module performance.

South Korea has cut its 2030 renewable energy target from 30.2% to just 21.6%, as it seeks to reduce support for solar and other clean energy sources, while preparing the ground for more nuclear power and liquefied natural gas. A lobby group is now challenging the plan in the Seoul Administrative Court.

Residential rooftop solar supplied a record 14% of Australia’s electricity this summer – contributing more than brown coal and more than large-scale wind farms and solar projects.

Norway’s Over Easy says its pilot vertical PV system in Oslo achieved remarkable performance throughout a snowy winter. In 2022, the vertical array generated 1,070 kWh per kilowatt installed, which the company says compares to around 800 kWh per kilowatt installed for a conventional rooftop array.

French module maker Systovi says its new solar panels weigh just 3 kg/m2. They are designed for flat tertiary rooftops that cannot support the weight of framed solar panels. It will begin selling the new modules in 2024.

Poland emerged as Europe’s third-biggest solar market in 2022, driven by the rapid uptake of PV micro-installations below 50 kW in size, but this year is already starting to look different. Marcin Ślęzak, chief commercial officer of Warsaw-based Menlo Electric, recently spoke to pv magazine about changes on the demand side and tech preferences in this thriving market.

Germany’s Vaillant has developed an air-source heat pump that uses propane (R290) as the refrigerant. It can produce between 3.5 kW and 12 kW of heat, and domestic hot water to a temperature of up to 75 C. It says the heat pump maximizes savings when paired with rooftop solar.

Sunmaxx says Fraunhofer ISE has confirmed the 80% efficiency of its new photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) module. It consists of 108 PERC half-cells in M10 format, with 400 W of electrical output and 1,200 W of thermal output.