Technology

South Korean researchers have developed a heat trading system including a ground-source heat pump, solar thermal collectors, a fuel-cell system, and two heat storage tanks for district heating at hours of peak solar production.

With calls for a revival in European PV manufacturing becoming more urgent, the Environmental, Social, and Governance credentials of its PV producers are being touted as a way in which manufacturing can be supported or even protected. The case for the ESG credentials of European manufacturing was advanced by multiple speakers at the 2023 SolarPower Summit this week in Brussels.

Netze BW has increased the amount of hydrogen it is injecting into the regional grid of Oehringen, in the southwest of Germany, from 20% to 30%. pv magazine spoke with the project leader, Heike Grüner, about the next phases of the project.

Tractebel, DEME, and Jan De Nul will deploy a pilot offshore floating PV facility off the Belgian coast in the summer. The Seavolt floating platform is reportedly able to withstand difficult offshore conditions.

Brazilian scientists have calculated the potential for floating solar generation in Brazil. The results show an installed potential of 43 GW for all of Brazil, with the state of Minas Gerais leading with 6 GW, followed by Bahia with 4.59 GW, and Sao Paulo with 3.87 GW.

Scientists in China have fabricated a Ruddlesden-Popper perovskite solar cell based on γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) as the organic spacer cation. They claim this innovation offers higher power conversion efficiency and outstanding stability.

University of Cambridge researcher Dr Virgil Andrei sits down with pv magazine  to discuss an innovative ultra-thin film device capable of generating clean synthetic fuels while floating merrily on the River Cam. 

Scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), have used an antioxidant known as L-glutathione as an interlayer in an organic PV cell to prevent other materials from oxidizing. The cell has an efficiency of 13.5% and an average visible transmittance of 21.5%. The researchers said it is suitable for applications in solar greenhouses.

The European Union is working on a draft proposal, which pv magazine has seen, that would require 85% of the components used in European wind farms – along with 60% of heat pumps, 85% of batteries, and 85% of electrolyzers – to be manufactured on the continent.

Technique Solaire plans to analyze animal behavior in outdoor poultry farms covered with solar panels linked by nets. The setup could be potentially beneficial for the birds and the quality of their meat.