Technology

The Sweden-based heat pump provider said its new product is one of the slimmest and most compact system available on the market to date.

A European research team has sought to combine for the first time perovskite solar cell technology with textile ceramic in a novel building-integrated photovoltaic device. The result is a solar brick with potential for future commercialiation, according to its creators.

An international research team has built an all-perovskite tandem solar cell based on a wide-bandgap top perovskite cell with a 20.5% efficiency. The 1-cm2 scale tandem device achieved the highest efficiency ever reported to date for all-perovskite solar cells of this size.

A study by German research institute Fraunhofer ISE has revealed a troubling trend. Data shows that modules are increasingly attributed higher power ratings than they actually have. Though the percentages are incremental, it all
adds up.

Jeffrey Saltman, partner at US intellectual property law firm Fisch Sigler LLP, recently spoke to pv magazine about the rising number of patent lawsuits between PV module manufacturers. He said this increase in litigation mainly stems from the industry’s convergence on tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) tech and noted that the number of lawsuits is likely to rise in the near future.

Servotech Power Systems has developed a new range of solar solutions, including on-grid microinverters and inverters, hybrid inverters, battery energy storage systems, and solar pump controllers. The microinverters feature maximum power point tracking, built-in WiFi, and reverse power transmission.

The Swiss manufacturer said the cell was developed in partnership with Echion Technologies, which supplied the niobium-based active anode material. It has greater energy density and faster charging compared to LTO technologies.

A research group has proposed a novel method to control ramp rates in power networks. Its control optimization is based on weather, load and production forecast data. The scientists simulated the operation of the proposed technique and reached a ramp rate reduction of up to 76.2%.

Metrel, a Slovenian measurement equipment supplier, says its new electrical installation safety tester can assess systems with a maximum voltage of up to 1,500 V and a maximum short circuit current of 40 A.

New research shows all the challenges that smart inverters will have to face in the next decades, including cybersecurity issues and increasing manufacturing costs. The scientists explain that, despite the new opportunities that the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence are offering, their application may also result in an increasing number of cyber risks.