Technology and R&D

Developer Loop Energia has built a 1.2 MW offgrid solar plant that now serves a center-pivot irrigation system in the Brazilian state of Bahia. The project reportedly enables local farmers to double soybean harvesting by achieving considerable savings through significantly lower diesel consumption.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, explains that the solar cycle does tend to increase the earth’s average annual extra-terrestrial irradiance, but only by a very small amount. It also explains that, while the annual cycle of extra-terrestrial irradiance causes a steady, predictable and significant 3.5% change through the seasonal cycle, the peak of the 11-year cycle of solar activity causes a smaller, more sporadic and unpredictable set of fluctuations.

Visionpark said its novel solar carport solution is self-weighted and requires no foundation. It can reportedly host all kinds of solar panels and be installed quickly.

An international research group has utilized a newly designed coalitional game system to ensure economic fairness between members of energy communities. The game system considers different types of prosumers relying on stand-alone and combinations of solar and storage.

Novel research from Germany and the USA has analyzed the impact of heat pump (HP) integration on the ability of day-ahead load forecasting in energy communities. Using different models, the scientists have also investigated whether HP loads should be forecasted separately from the rest of the household or both together.

Scientists in China built for the first time a four-terminal tandem perovskite cell with a 17.88%-efficient top perovskite device and a 7.85%-efficient bottom antimony selenide bottom cell. The key features of the tandem cell are the transparent conducting electrode used to improve the spectral response of the top cell and the “double” electron transport layer of the antimony selenide cell.

The Japanese industrial technology supplier is shipping coating tools for perovskite solar panels with dimensions up to 1,000 mm × 2,000 mm. The company will also offer soon a support for 2,400 mm ×1,200 mm sizes.

A compact, “motionless” wind turbine with a magnetic generator designed for large commercial rooftops provides 5 kW of capacity per unit. Aeromine Technologies secured Series A funding for scaling its innovative design.

Gamesa Electric has released a white paper on losses due to harmonics in PV plants, including an independent study that compares the performance of ultra-low total harmonic distortion inverters.

The French research institute presented in a scientific paper the technical details of its recyclable heterojunction module with a power output of 566 W and a carbon footprint of just 313 kgCO2eq/kW.