New design for vacuum integrated photovoltaic curtain walls
Scientists in China have outlined a new system architecture for vacuum integrated photovoltaic (VPV) curtain walls. They claim the new design can reduce building energy consumption and yield more surplus power generation electricity.
Swiss utility switches on 200-meter solar bicycle path
Swisspower-Stadtwerk SIG says its pilot solar bicycle path in Satigny will pave the way for similar projects in Switzerland.
California energy storage facility hit by lithium-ion battery fire
Homes and businesses near the Valley Center Energy Storage Facility in California were evacuated this week and a shelter-in-place order was put into effect in the vicinity. Terra-Gen, the project’s owner, has issued a statement saying that the facility’s design systems contained the incident.
Computer vision for solar forecasts
A scientific review of solar forecasting with computer vision and deep-learning tech identifies areas for improvement and calls for more collaboration between project developers and grid operators.
Dutch students build 1,200 kg solar-powered car with 630 km range
Eindhoven University of Technology students have developed a 1,200 kg solar-powered car with a 630 km range. They said that the car is road-legal and entirely independent of charging stations.
Solar carport design for east-west oriented projects
UK roofing specialist SIG Building Solutions is offering the solar carport solution in three different versions. The largest structure is designed to give maximum power for east-west facing double row car parking layouts.
Chinese PV Industry Brief: China hits 500 GW milestone
China reached 510 GW of installed PV capacity at the end of August, while FuturaSun started building a 10 GW solar cell factory in Jiangsu province.
Training deep machine learning to identify PV, solar thermal systems in aerial images
A Swedish research group has found that using deep machine learning to identify solar energy systems in aerial images may not be so accurate in non-densely populated countries such as Sweden. They have also found, however, that this technique may be trained via an iterative process and achieve satisfying results.
Triple junction perovskite-perovskite-silicon solar cell with open-circuit voltage of over 2.8 V
Scientists at Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE have designed a triple-junction solar cell consisting of perovskite-perovskite-silicon subcells. The device reportedly achieves an efficiency of 20.1% and a remarkable open-circuit voltage of over 2.8 V.
UK firm to supply argon recycling tech for 2 GW of solar in India
Gas Recovery and Recycle Ltd. (GR2L) has revealed plans to supply its ArgonØ machinery for 2 GW of solar capacity in India. Its ArgonØ tech can recycle up to 95% of the argon used in the fabrication of silicon wafers for solar panels.
