Technology

While market experts suggest solid-state battery technology will not play a significant role in the storage industry until 2025, one company may be leading the race. Blue Solutions, electrical energy storage award winner at The smarter E Europe in Munich, Germany, says it has developed the only commercialized solid-state lithium battery. pv magazine caught up with the company around the European trade show to discuss its award-winning technology and unique position in the market.

A Russian research team believes that the addition of rare-earth ions into the structure of photonic nanoparticles could help to increase the efficiency of industrial solar cells to 25–30%. However, they also said that further research is necessary.

At the Smarter E Europe, held in Munich this month, pv magazine hosted another Future PV Roundtable to discuss the possibilities of subsidy free solar projects. In all market segments solutions are at hand and representatives across the industry shared their insights with us.

Although the nation’s PV industry has recently established new landmarks, warnings have been sounded about the immediate outlook for the sector.

The race is on to process applications for central payments across the world’s biggest solar market, particularly as qualifying projects must reportedly be grid connected this year. The final electricity price will be a major competitive factor considered by the Beijing authorities.

Some 56 bids were submitted for the fourth round of the RenovAr program for large scale renewables. Projects will be selected on July 22. With this procurement the Argentinian government wants to allocate a total of 350 MW of solar and wind generation capacity, with a 10 MW size limit per project.

The development will comprise multiple smaller projects, a first 60 MW batch of which closed its first tender window this month with the results not yet publicized. Cambodia boasts comparatively high electricity prices and has been urged by the UN Development Program to use PV to drive down energy bills.

Australia’s national science agency CSIRO and Canada’s University of British Columbia have announced a memorandum of understanding aimed at accelerating clean hydrogen technologies.

With clean energy being generated at lower and lower prices around the world, solar power is playing a leading role in bringing the curtain down on coal, and will help the decarbonization of transport and space heating too.

At the Smarter E Europe trade show in Munich, pv magazine caught up with Lior Handelsman, VP for marketing and product strategy and founder of Solaredge. The Israeli company made headlines as it went on an acquisition spree in the last year to leverage its position in the storage and EV charging business.