Technology and R&D

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that Southern India was the standout in terms of unusual irradiance in Asia in August, with 40% more than the month’s average. This brought the average irradiance up to 6 kWh per day.

US-based Sage Geosystems has presented field results showing that its Earthstore underground storage system can provide 18 hours or more of storage capacity, in addition to short-duration power. The solution is said to be cost-competitive with lithium-ion batteries and natural gas peaker plants.

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s (DEWA) Hatta pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant is now 74% complete, and it is expected to begin operations in the first half of 2025. The facility will also store electricity from the 5 GW Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

Scientists in Singapore developed a single-reagent approach to recover silicon in recycled PV panels that reportedly offers high recovery rates compared to double-reagent methods. The recycled silicon was then effectively reused in anodes intended for applications in lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries are generally safe and unlikely to fail, but they can catch fire if damaged, stored, or operated incorrectly. With calls mounting for development of engineering good practice, US-based Firetrace International suggests three steps that battery manufacturers, developers and operators should take into account.

Scientists from South Korea have developed a heat pump optimization technique that controls the secondary refrigerant flow. The proposed technology offers the advantage of bypassing the need to control the compressor of the heat pump, which is a function that is commonly not available in commercial devices.

Stryten Energy is planning to begin commercializing its vanadium redox flow batteries in January 2025. Meanwhile it has deployed a 20 kW/120 kWh pilot-sized version of the storage system at a facility operated by Snapping Shoals EMC, an electricity cooperative in Georgia, United States.

A French consortium, led by the CNR (Compagnie nationale du Rhone), is launching a pilot project to build a 900 kW solar cycling path in southern France. The initiative, set to run from 2025 to 2028, aims to assess the performance and design of the PV facility.

In its latest monthly column for pv magazine, the European Technology and Innovation Platform for Photovoltaics (ETIP PV) presents the added benefits of digitalized PV systems, which it will also discuss in two events planned for the upcoming EU-PVSEC conference in Lisbon, Portugal. Smartly blending the wealth of PV energy with the advanced features of inverters can maximize the benefits of PV systems, according to ETIP PV.

Australian researchers are proposing a novel, learning-based H∞ control method to enhance the performance of vanadium redox flow batteries in DC microgrids.