Cooling PV modules with plants, coir pith
An Indian-Malaysian research group has investigated the effectiveness of several passive cooling techniques for solar panels, including the placement of plants around the modules or coir pith underneath them, both of which, surprisingly, offered good performance in terms of temperature reduction and power yield.
New PV facade design in Sweden
Soltech Energy has installed a 60 kW solar facade on the wall of a garage in Sweden that hosts 300 EV-charging posts. It features a steel structure to facilitate the flow of air.
Solar tariffs to be pegged to coal-fired power prices in grid-parity China
Solar glassmaker Xinyi reported Beijing’s plans as it outlined bumper first-half returns whilst warning investors the boost in glass prices seen last year is likely to be short-lived.
JinkoSolar builds 7 GW wafer factory in Vietnam
The new factory should begin production within six months and serve the company’s cell and module assembly factories in Malaysia, as well as the module assembly facility in the United States.
Energy transition to create 60m solar jobs by 2050
The switch from fossil fuels and nuclear will bring a jobs dividend thanks to the greater labor-intensity of renewables plants, according to a paper published by Finland’s LUT. However, the jobs dividend is unlikely to be evenly spread around the world, with Europe set to be a big winner.
Taiwan’s URE Corp deploys production line for M6, M8 solar modules
The new capacity is expected to meet domestic solar module demand, which the PV manufacturer expects will significantly increase in the second half of this year.
Palestine launches tender for 20 MW solar module assembly line
The line will be used in a new PV panel assembly factory located in the West Bank of Palestine which is set to begin manufacturing activities next year.
The Chinese PV Industry Brief: Tongwei raises solar cell prices
Canadian Solar also reports solid Q2 results, with PV shipments reaching 3.7 GW and revenue totaling US$1.43 billion.
Plug-and-play solar module from the Netherlands
Supersola has developed a 315 W, half-cut monocrystalline PV module. It costs €699 and can be coupled with other two panels to form a 1 kW residential PV system.
Ligand-free perovskite quantum dot solar cell with 9.3% efficiency
The quantum dots used for the device are based on methylammonium lead iodide and are synthesized within a porous silica (SiO2) matrix. Compared to its bulk counterparts, the ligand-free solar cell exhibited a more stable performance.
