Technology

A printed circuit board-based hydrogen fuel cell for use in autonomous boats and ships has been engineered by a British consortium, and Italian energy companies Snam and Edison want to set up a 220 MW green hydrogen production plant powered by 380 MW of solar in Apulia.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) showed, through a pilot incentive program, that whole-home heat pumps are a feasible solution for heating when switching from gas. Project costs, however, were found to be higher than expected.

The modular power station comes with two lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries and has a capacity of 6 kW/24.6 kWh. It relies on a 3 kW pure sine wave inverter which the manufacturer said is able to adjust the AC charging rate.

The module is claimed to be one of the top five most performant heterojunction solar modules, in terms of power density, with the champion panel achieving 214.15 W/m² and the average device 209.5 W/m². The panel showed an efficiency ranging from 20.95% to 21.41%.

Electricity transmission system operator Tennet has been forced to notify its regulator of more bottlenecks ahead, with the 5.6 GW capacity of the Gelderland and Flevopolder regional network already contracted out.

Antonio Delgado Rigal, chief executive of energy forecasting service AleaSoft, tells pv magazine that skyrocketing gas and electricity prices are putting the global economy under strong pressure, while also opening up huge opportunities for solar, renewables and green hydrogen. He says current gas and electricity prices, along with rising CO2 prices, already make green hydrogen competitive. He therefore calls for immediate action on building new capacity, but acknowledges that a quick end is not yet in sight for rising prices.

Developed by U.S. scientists, the 10%-efficient device is intended for applications in solar windows and promises efficiencies close to 15%. According to its creators, the cell retained 80% of its efficiency after 1,900 hours at 55 degrees Celsius.

Multiple factors affect the productive lifespans of residential solar inverters. In the second part of our new series on resiliency, we look at PV inverters.

Solar Team Eindhoven has developed an experimental mobile house that is powered exclusively by vehicle-integrated PV and is claimed to achieve a range of 730km, on a sunny day and at a, moderate speed of up to 85kph. The vehicle is equipped with a foldable PV system that can be unfolded and produce more power when the vehicle is not in motion.

The scheme is open to companies specializing in district heating and offers rebates covering up to 15% of the total investment made to buy and install the heat pump, with developers being eligible for a maximum of DKK5 million for each project.