Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

The U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory says in a new report that costs for all types of PV systems continue to fall, although it notes that balance-of-systems costs have increased or remained flat across sectors this year.

Scientists in Japan and Europe investigated the long-term stability of perovskite solar cells utilizing layers of mesoporous carbon, building on previous work demonstrating the strong potential of this approach. This latest work demonstrates a light-soaking effect, which allowed them to fabricate cells that retained 92% of their initial performance after 3,000 hours in damp heat conditions – which the researchers say is equivalent to 20 years in the field.

A U.K. research group is developing an anti-soiling solution produced via a chemical process compatible with glass manufacturing. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council is providing $1.6 million of funding for the project.

As solar energy experiences record growth, investors, customers, and regulators are increasingly asking for more disclosure and transparency on how solar supply chains are managed throughout product life cycles.

Shirdi Sai Electricals, an Indian transformer manufacturer and EPC contractor, has placed a $252.16 million incentive bid to set up a fully integrated, 4 GW polysilicon-to-module fab under the Indian government’s production-linked incentives scheme.

Proposed by Turkish scientists, the system design consists of combining rooftop PV with a ground source heat pump in a greenhouse used for tomato, cucumber and lettuce cultivation. The solar array operates under net metering and grid electricity is used when PV generation is unable to cover demand. According to their findings, the system payback time ranges from 2.6 to 7 years.

In a new report, experts from the International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power System Programme (IEA-PVPS) have assessed the economical and environmental benefits of repairing and reusing or replacing solar modules that are not complying with a 30-year expected lifetime. They found that reusing offers the best environmental impact in all cases, while the profitability of this option is currently guaranteed only by rooftop PV under certain conditions. As for large-scale solar, module replacement remains the most competitive option.

Researchers in Spain have developed an n-type crystalline silicon solar cell based on vanadium oxide films deposited by atomic layer deposition. The cell showed an open-circuit voltage of 631 mV, a short-circuit current of 38.36 mA cm-², and a fill factor of 75.8%.

The 15%-efficient solar tile is manufactured by Russian producer Solartek with CIGS equipment provided by Sweden’s Midsummer.

Scientists in the United States investigated adding a layer of copper-aluminum oxide to the rear side of a cadmium-telluride thin film cell, finding positive impacts on carrier lifetime and efficiency. With further work, the scientists say, the discovery could open up new routes to higher efficiencies in CdTe solar cells.