Markets

A pandemic-related sales slump has dealt another blow to domestic panel makers already faced with rising input costs and an expected surge in imports due to the scheduled wind down of safeguarding duties on foreign products from late July.

Solar rules in any scenario of what the world needs to work toward over the next three decades to keep global warming under 1.5 C.

Italy’s Fincantieri has joined forces with Faist Group to produce lithium-ion batteries. Through the joint venture Power4Future, the two companies want to reach a production capacity of 2 GWh over the next five years.

Queensland’s worst power outage in decades has triggered calls for the introduction of more utility-scale batteries to provide security for the Australian state’s electricity network.

The German Federal Ministry of Economics and the German Federal Ministry of Transport selected 62 large-scale hydrogen projects to receive €8 billion in government funding. Furthermore, 11 projects have been selected in the framework of H2 Hub Airport, a call for expressions of interest to contribute to the surge of the hydrogen airport ecosystem in France. French energy company Total acquired a 20% stake in Hysetco, a French company developing hydrogen mobility in cities.

Longi has raised its wafer prices for June and the China Nonferrous Metals Association has reported this week that polysilicon reached a price of RMB200-210 per kg, and that the highest price exceeded RMB230 per kg.

A Swiss start-up has created a containerized movable PV system that is designed to be easily relocated to allow the use of solar energy in locations where a fixed installation is not an option. The solution is based on a racking technology which can include two racks able to host up to 30 solar panels.

The 100% solar-powered boat will be tested in a 9,000 nautical mile expedition from Chile to Australia that is set to start in December. The vessel is equipped with an 11 kW PV system built with heterojunction modules provided by Russian manufacturer Hevel Solar.

Researchers have developed a slot-die coated solar cell with an ‘n-i-p’ layout and a fluorine-doped tin oxide substrate, a tin oxide layer, a perovskite film, and a hole-blocking layer. It has an efficiency of 18.03%, an open-circuit voltage of 1024 mV, and a short-circuit current density of 22.4 mA cm−2.

According to new figures by the Korean Energy Agency, South Korea seems on track to have another successful year in terms of newly deployed PV. According to local experts, however, this will not be enough to achieve the Korean government’s goal of 20% renewable generation by 2030.