Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

The PairTree off-grid solar charging system for electric vehicles (EVs) combines bifacial solar panels ranging from 4.6 kW to 5 kW, a 42.4 kWh capacity storage system, and one or two AC “Level 2” EV chargers.

The rebound effect consists of a reduction in expected gains from a more resource-efficient technology as a result of behavioral or systemic change. An international research team has investigated this phenomenon in the residential PV segment in Vietnam and has found that it could happen in any country where the policy supporting solar power is not fully and scientifically explained.

Netherlands-based Taylor, a spinoff of Eindhoven University of Technology, has raised €8 million ($8.6 million) to expand sales of its cells string optimizers that the company claims improves PV rooftop system performance and safety.

A Dutch-German research team has built an interdigitated back contact PV device with a new patterning approach based on the enhanced oxidation rates under the local laser-doped n++ BSF regions. The cell achieved an open-circuit voltage of 656.6 mV, a short-circuit current density of 40.38 A/mAcm2, and a fill factor of 77.39%.

The trilogue negotiations on the Net-Zero Industry Act have concluded. The European Council and Parliament reached a provisional agreement on Feb. 6, following discussions on Article 20 Market Access, which set out the rules for resilience auctions.

Several containers with fake glass-glass module are said to be in circulation in Europe. Germany’s Bauer Solar has taken legal action against the counterfeiters, who are suspected to be based in China. It said the fake panels can be identified by the packaging and a lack of wooden reinforcements for the pallets.

New research from Belgium shows the importance of assessing inverter reliability by including climate-based PV panel degradation rates. The scientists found that, especially in hot and arid climates, PV inverters should be designed with parameters above the standard value.

The novel solar cell uses antimony trisulfide (Sb2S3) as the back surface field (BSF) layer. According to its creators, this layer can be included in conventional CIGS solar cells to improve their efficiency and reduce the absorber material’s cost.

While investigating on the effects of wildfire smoke on rooftop PV installations, a group of scientists in Australia has discovered that solar arrays, due to their sensitivity to smoke, could serve as an early warning detection of wildfires by providing temporal and spatial information on the presence and approximate concentrations of smoke.