Vast Solar secures funds for Australia’s first concentrated solar power plant
Vast Solar will move forward with plans to deliver Australia’s first commercial-scale concentrated solar power (CSP) plant after securing financial backing from the federal government to build a 30 MW/288 MWh facility in South Australia.
Only5mins! – Europe’s hottest heat pump markets
pv magazine speaks to Jan Rosenow, principal and director of European programs for the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP), about Europe’s top heat pump markets. He says Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, Germany and Finland posted the strongest growth in 2022.
SnapNrack introduces solar mount that attaches to module before roof
SnapNrack’s TopSpeed solar mount begins installation on the ground, which limits time spent on rooftops.
Dutch parliament approves proposal to phase out net metering
The House of Representatives of the Netherlands has voted to end net metering. If the Dutch Senate approves the proposal, it could usher in a new era for rooftop PV, with storage becoming crucial for the country’s energy transition.
Aerial image dataset automatically maps rooftop solar arrays
French scientists have developed a dataset to enable the creation of installation registries, by extracting small-scale PV metadata from overhead imagery. It can be used to provide training data for remote PV mapping algorithms and test the robustness of machine-learning models.
Air conditioning based on air-cooled photovoltaic-thermal system
Chinese scientists have developed a photovoltaic-thermal air conditioning system that uses an air-cooled condenser and a PV/T condenser combined in series. The system reportedly offers better cooling performance under night conditions.
Survey shows 34.3% failure rate for residential inverters over 15 years
The Bern University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland has published the initial results of a survey on the durability and performance of residential PV inverters and power optimizers over a 15-year period. They found that more than 65% of the inverters did not present yield-relevant faults by their 15th year of operation.
Only5mins! – Australia’s key minerals will make it a green energy superpower
Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance, speaks to pv magazine about the crisis threatening Adani Group with collapse, the “positive outlook” for Australian renewables, and the nation’s potential to become a clean energy superpower.
Dutch startup unveils controller to store excess PV power in hot water
Solyx Energy has developed a device to maximize solar self-consumption in residential homes. The sensor measures how much solar power can be fed back into the grid at different times, while a controller redirects that excess energy into an electric water heater.
Growing US microgrid market hits 10 GW in 2022
Wood Mackenzie estimates that the US microgrid market has seen a 47% increase in solar and storage capacity in 2022 compared to 2017 levels, driven by rising demand for uninterrupted services, military resilience plans, and corporate environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) goals.
