Technology

British Li-S cell manufacturer Oxis Energy today revealed it is working with U.S. planemaker Texas Aircraft Manufacturing on a pilot training and private transport aircraft. The trainer appears likely to be at least three years away from development, given the commissioning timeline previously announced for Oxis’ Brazilian cell factory.

The manufacturer says its new device is the highest-powered string inverter available. The Solis-255K-EHV, three-phase product has a reported efficiency of 99% – and a European efficiency of 98.8%.

Recovering silicon of the quality required for reuse in panels is at the heart of mitigating device carbon footprints. R&D efforts should be ramped up now, says an international research group, so the technology is in place when huge volumes of modules begin to need replacing.

The module is available in five versions with power output ranging from 310 W to 330 W and efficiencies between 20.22 and 21.53%. The Chinese manufacturer claims the BIPV panel has an oustanding flexibility with minimum curve radius of 25 cm.

State utility SA Water is partnering with an environmental organization to ‘re-vegetate’ almost a ton of native seedlings under a large scale solar arrays. Beneath the ground-mounted PV projects, native vegetation should return to the formerly agricultural land, and the resulting scrub is expected to protect panels from soiling.

Finnish company ICS has developed a foil which it claims can significantly increase the yield of solar panels, when applied to the edges of a PV module. Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE has confirmed that the increase in performance for conventional solar modules with the solar film is ranging from 5% to 10%.

The Chinese manufacturer has claimed a world record for a large-size, contact-passivated solar cell. The result, certified by Germany’s Institute for Solar Energy Research in Hamelin, betters the company’s previous record by almost 0.6%.

Two new pass/fail protocols are said to be able to separate cells which present high hot-spot possibility, show high current leakage and demonstrate intermediate behavior. The sorting technique relies on a manual solar simulator, an infrared camera and a tool to measure isolation.

Scientists in the U.S. have estimated the expense of strengthening solar systems. The researchers stressed that the upfront investment needed to take 13 key measures may be outweighed by the benefits.

Almost 60% of Nigeria’s population currently has access to electricity. But this breaks down as 78% in cities and urban areas, and just 39% in rural communities. The Rural Electrification Agency (REA), established by the government as part of electricity sector reforms in 2005, is tasked with bridging this gap and bringing reliable energy supply to the most remote parts of Nigeria. pv magazine spoke with REA CEO Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad about the organization’s strategy and recent progress, as well as the challenges that remain for rural electrification in Nigeria and the role of PV technology.