Technology

Researchers have assessed how much solar may be deployed on the rooftops and coal storage sheds in coal power plants in China and they have found potential for around 4 GW.

Five scientific institutions in Germany are currently working together on self-learning production plants that use process data for the permanent optimization of manufacturing. The initiative is aimed at making the settlement of photovoltaic factories in Germany and Europe attractive again.

A collaboration between the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Australia’s University of New South Wales has yielded a new efficiency record of 32.9% for a tandem cell device utilizing III-V materials. Key to the achievement was a new technique enabling the researchers to take advantage of “quantum wells” in the material that serve to trap charges and enable tuning of the cell bandgap to absorb more of the light spectrum.

The so-called powerfuels are primarily required for sectors that are difficult to electrify, such as aviation and shipping, as well as for the processing of raw materials. This is shown by a new study by Finland’s LUT University and the German Energy Agency.

A newly developed digital platform calculates the expected energy generation in kilowatt-hours for grid-connected PV arrays without storage, under standard testing conditions.

Scientists in Turkey have tested a transient thermal model to predict PV module temperature during a five-day interval in June. The model considers the heat capacity of a PV module, which is usually not provided by manufacturers in their product sheets, as a parameter for temperature prediction.

Australian scientists have developed an algorithm to increase both the efficiency and compatibility of light sensitizers in solar panels.

Perovskite developer Oxford PV has set a new world record for perovskite-silicon tandem cell efficiency at 29.52%, edging out the previous record set less than a year ago by Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin. The new record has been certified by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Solar windows are only likely to reach commercial maturity when manufacturers consider how they can add “soft” value to buildings, as required by the construction industry. In order to increase this value, increasing their conversion efficiency will become less important, while understanding how to blend them into the existing value chain in the real estate business will be crucial.

Spanish and Finnish scientists have developed a solar vanadium redox flow battery paired with commercially available CIGS solar panels. The open-circuit voltage values were high enough to achieve unbiased photocharge, they said.