Technology

Solar module developers have long recognised the detrimental effects heat has on cell performance but West Australian company Sunovate has pointed to solar PV-thermal (PVT) technology as an opportunity to value add by improving efficiency.

Scientists in the United States have analyzed how semitransparent organic solar cells placed on the roof of a greenhouse may impact crop production. They assessed, in particular, how solar power generation may affect lettuce crops and found that the plants not only grow unhindered but also that the solar cells reduce overheating in the greenhouse.

German tracker manufacturer Ideematec has adapted its Horizon L:TEC tracker for a series of agrivoltaic projects totaling 100 MW that will be developed in France by Spanish developer Amda Energía. The new tracker is claimed to be able to operate synergistically with the agricultural equipment.

Italian research agency ENEA is planning to build a €14 million ‘hydrogen valley’ in the province of Rome. pv magazine has spoken with its director of the department of energy technologies and renewable sources, Giorgio Graditi, and has found out that the project will also include the production of hydrogen from photovoltaics.

Russian scientists have developed a holographic film based on prismatic concentrators that reduces the operating temperature of solar panels, including thermal-photovoltaic devices. They claim the patented, low-cost technique can even improve PV module efficiency in cloudy weather.

The factory will be built by VRB Energy in the Hubei province, where it also wants to deploy a 100 MW solar park linked to a 100 MW/500 MWh vanadium flow battery.

Chinese researchers have taken a quaternary approach to fabricate a module with an area of 19.34 cm2, a geometrical filling factor of 95.5%, and an efficiency of 12.36%.

Berlin-based start-up Solarworx specializes in the supply of modular, off-grid, solar-plus-storage solutions.

German car manufacturer Volkswagen plans to create a gigantic network of charging points for electric cars in Europe with Enel and BP. They aim to set up six gigafactories for EV batteries across Europe by the end of this decade, with a total production capacity of 240 GWh.

The Taiwanese cell and module manufacturer claims to have achieved a 23.5% efficiency for its TopCon solar cell.