Sinovoltaics updates solar module manufacturer financial stability ranking
The quality assurance provider reported India-based Insolation Energy, Waaree Renewable Technologies, and Solex Energy maintained their top three spots in the ranking this quarter. The number of companies with healthier Altmann-Z scores stayed the same at nine.
Waaree Energies opens 1.8 GW solar module plant in India
Waaree Energies has commenced production at its new 1.8 GW solar module factory in western India.
Novel MPPT method combines APO, model-predictive control
An international research team has tested a hybrid control technique combining adapted perturb and observe (APO) with model-predictive control to address complex partial shading in solar arrays. The method, validated through simulation and physical experiments, reportedly outperforms existing approaches.
Non-stop solar innovation despite module oversupply
It’s no secret that prices throughout the solar supply chain have been at rock bottom over the past 18 months. Alex Barrows and Molly Morgan of CRU Group explore how the market reached the imbalance that caused PV prices to crash, what this has meant for innovation, and how it might affect future technology transitions.
Impact of hydrogen on silicon solar cell degradation
German researchers have reviewed recent studies on hydrogen-related degradation in silicon solar cells. They said the work is timely, with n-type silicon dominating production and antimony-doping emerging.
China’s polysilicon rally enters fourth week, defying market fundamentals
In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick look at the main price trends in the global PV industry.
‘Soft-connected’ floating PV for offshore scenarios
An international research team has tested a floating PV system with a “soft-connected” configuration under offshore conditions, using six modular pontoons linked by elastic bar elements to simulate mooring lines and connection ropes.
Passive solar module cooling tech based on atmospheric water harvesting
Researchers in India have developed a cooling technology that uses calcium chloride for atmospheric water harvesting. The system reportedly improves PV module yields by up to 18%.
A better understanding of UV degradation
Performance loss from ultraviolet (UV) light has become a concern for new PV cells, though earlier lab tests may have overstated the issue. Paul Gebhardt, photovoltaic module reliability scientist at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE), outlines a mechanism that may have distorted earlier results.
PV module fault diagnosis uses convolutional neural network
Researchers in China have created a dataset of various PV faults and normalized it to accommodate different array sizes and typologies. After testing the new approach in combination with the 1D-CNN machine learning technique under different conditions, they found an accuracy of more than 99%.
