Wafer formats continue to evolve
Differences in wafer and module specifications, which have bedevilled solar developers in recent years, could now be narrowing.
Advancing circular economy in photovoltaics: The Hot Knife PV module recycling method
Recycling is of significant importance in a circular economy, yet some challenges have to be faced when recycling PV modules. The novel Hot Knife method to separate the crystalline silicon photovoltaic module front glass from the backsheet contributes only a few permill to the life cycle related potential environmental impacts of PV electricity.
Nigeria’s PV potential
Everoze Partner Abdul Sotayo highlights some of the issues that continue to hold back progress on clean energy in Nigeria, where energy poverty remains a problem, despite the nation’s vast solar potential.
July’s irradiance up in most of South America, down east of the Andes
In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, presents the solar irradiance data it collected for South America in July. The data show that South America experienced temperatures up to 15 C above winter averages, and that most of the continent saw higher than normal radiation. The Chilean Andine, especially Altiplano in the Atacama Desert, which has recorded the highest incidence of irradiance in the world, recorded values 10% above normal.
Prices of China’s PV upstream segments rise, module prices hold steady amid bearish sentiments
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.
Green hydrogen offtakers can shape the industry’s development
With strong government backing; a systems approach to development that views each component of hydrogen production and delivery as a whole; and growing demand, Australia could be on track for a commercially viable green hydrogen industry by 2030.
Five core challenges of the European solar photovoltaics research and innovation
In its latest monthly column for pv magazine, the European Technology and Innovation Platform for Photovoltaics (ETIP PV) presents its Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), published in collaboration with the European Energy Research Alliance for PV (EERA-PV).
A simple way to bring solar to multi-family apartments
Offering solar savings to apartment dwellers, and particularly renters, is not a simple task – as low take-up in Germany has demonstrated. Mel Bergsneider, from Australian startup Allume Energy, explains how a product offered by her company could change all that.
Offshore floating solar on calm seas could provide unlimited energy
In a new monthly column for pv magazine, the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) describes how regions that don’t experience waves larger than 6 m nor winds stronger than 15 m/s could generate up to one million TWh per year via offshore floating PV arrays. Most of the good sites are close to the equator, in and around Indonesia and tropical West Africa.
Heatwaves, storms, Atlantic cloud drive major shifts in European irradiance for July
In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, presents the solar irradiance data it collected for Europe in July, The data show that solar irradiance averages across Europe maintained fairly typical monthly totals, despite the month being punctuated by weather extremes. “This reaffirms nature’s remarkable equilibrium amidst a period of significant weather fluctuations,” Solcast says.
