Photon recycling for more efficient perovskite solar cells
Scientists at the Technische Universität Dresden, in Germany, have found that photon recycling and light scattering effects greatly improve light emission in perovskite solar cells, thereby boosting the upper limit for their efficiency to 31.3%.
BIPV panels covering an entire building in Taiwan
The Sun Rock building is owned by Taiwan’s power utility Taipower. It was covered with 4,000 square meters of PV panels deployed by Dutch architectural firm MVRDV.
Vikram Solar launches M10 solar modules
The Indian manufacturer has unveiled its Series 10 monocrystalline PERC solar modules featuring 144 half-cells based on an M10 wafer. The modules are available in monofacial and bifacial versions with a maximum efficiency of 21.33% and 21.13%, respectively.
Chinese PV Industry Brief: Longi unexpectedly raises PV wafer prices
Furthermore, Tongwei secured 104,800,000 wafers from Shuangliang and PV module manufacturer Yingli said its capacity has reached 8GW.
Photovoltaic-thermal noise barrier from South Korea
The Korea Institute of Energy Research has developed a 3kW solar noise barrier to produce electricity and heat. The thermal solar modules reduce the operating temperature of the photovoltaic panels by absorbing excess heat.
Spraying water system for solar module cooling
A British-Indian research group has developed an active cooling technique that is claimed to improve a PV system’s yield by around 0.5%. The system could be used in residential solar arrays and the water heated by the PV modules may be fed into a solar water heating system.
Kesterite solar cell with 11.76% efficiency via aluminum oxide passivation layer
The solar cell was built with Al2O3-incorporated CZTSSe absorbers using aqueous spray pyrolysis in ambient air. It achieved an open-circuit voltage of 0.469 V, a short-circuit current of 36.96 mA cm2, and a fill factor of 67.25%.
Major advances for US, Australian solar window specialists
Australian solar window supplier ClearVue says its products can reduce carbon emissions in buildings by as much as 90%, while California-based BIPV window coating producer Ubiquitous Energy has raised $70 million to scale up its own tech.
Chinese PV Industry Brief: JinkoSolar announces Jiangxi Jinko’s IPO pricing
Jiangxi Jinko plans to issue 2 billion shares at RMB5.00 per share and expects to raise net proceeds of around RMB 10.0 million. Solar manufacturer Solargiga said it expects a 17% revenue growth for 2021.
Perovskite solar module with 21.36% efficiency via new passivation tech
Lithuanian scientists built the panel with 23.9% efficient solar cells with operational stability of over 1000 h. The module has an active area of 26 cm2.
