Technology

The chairman of the European Energy Research Alliance says the EU must bring national research centers together in a continent-wide effort before it is too late, and the COP24 meeting needs to send out a positive message to the world.

The pitch of bifacial trackers is an important design factor in maximizing energy gain, says Soltec, which recently spoke during a pv magazine webinar on how its trackers can help to increase energy yields in large-scale bifacial PV installations. Read on to discover the answers to your questions from albedo to backtracking and everything in between.

Lithium-ion prices are jolting upwards, it’s time to take a second generation storage solution seriously. Craig Irwin of ROTH Capital Partners says his company has been a long-term skeptic on both the lithium-ion battery cost curves shared by major OEMs and price forecasts presented by industry consultants.

With a new decree, the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has enabled the owners of residential, commercial and industrial rooftop PV systems to sell excess power to the grid. The government hopes the new provisions will result in around 1 GW of deployed PV capacity over the next three years. Doubts, however, have been raised about the attractiveness of the scheme.

The 1 MW array – to be expanded to 5 MW – is being tested before official commissioning. The plant is at the Sobradinho dam, a 175 MW hydroelectric facility on the São Francisco River, in the state of Bahia.

Solar PV, battery storage and artificial intelligence systems are at the core of a new utility model presented yesterday in London. pv magazine attended the launch event.

The ASX-listed company which aspires to ‘close the loop’ on the energy-metal cycle has successfully produced lithium-ion batteries from tri-lithium phosphate sourced directly from a mine dump. It has also reported outstanding results in lithium recovery in excess of 90%, using its SiLeach process at the ANSTO Minerals pilot plant in New South Wales.

The storage system company, in which Solaredge recently acquired a majority share, has said it will commission two large storage systems in South Korea before the end of the year. The market looks somewhat promising according to recent government initiatives, like the ‘Renewable Energy 3020’ plan and a 3 GW solar park on reclaimed land.

Power market regulator favors a flat rate fee for electricity consumers to fund the cost of making the U.K. grid fit for the energy transition. Solar lobbyists say that will unfairly penalize households and businesses who have invested in on-site generation.

A new report from U.S. based Rocky Mountain Institute outlines the potential for minigrid deployment to provide electricity to underserved communities around the world, to the benefit of utility companies, minigrid developers and communities. The report takes examples from Nigeria to illustrate this potential, but states that many of its findings could be applied to communities with limited or no access to electricity around the world.