Technology and R&D

Researchers at Thailand’s Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology demonstrated a novel hydrogel that has high cooling effect on silicon PV panels. The lightweight technology purportedly enables a temperature drop of 23 C, from 70 to 47 C, and a relative 12.3% power conversion efficiency increase.

Researchers in Canada have compared strawberry growth under uniform illumination from semi-transparent thin-film cadmium telluride panels and non-uniform illumination from semi-transparent crystalline silicon modules. Their analysis considered metrics such as fresh weight, height, leaf count, chlorophyll content, soil temperature and humidity.

An international research team has conceived a dual-component controller for three-phase inverters that can reportedly achieve faster settling times, reduced overshoot and more stable current tracking compared to conventional controllers.

The Italian manufacturer said its new heat pumps use R454B as a refrigerant and have coefficient of performance of up to 3.35.

A global research team has developed a tandem solar cell with 30% transparency by combining perovskite and organic layers, achieving a record 12.3% efficiency for transparent solar cells.

Segula Technologies has launched its Remora Stack product, a containerized isothermal air compression storage solution the company claims is 70% efficient.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada investigated hydrogen as a potential decarbonization strategy for remote communities in Canada and Malaysia. They reviewed the two countries’ respective situations before presenting a value proposition for continued work – both separately and collaboratively.

A research group including scientists from U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Underwriter’s Laboratories Inc., and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has outlined a new protocol for assessing PV module backsheet degradation in the field. Through the proposed framework, the researchers analyzed PV backsheet degradation across 41 sites, with exposure times ranging from 1 to 38 years.

University of Sydney researchers have suppressed ion migration at the B-site in halide perovskites, reducing energy loss and improving solar cell stability and performance reliability.

A research team from two London universities have developed a multi-layer device that addresses the instability of organic materials in water to further their use in direct solar hydrogen generation. Monolithic tandem anodes fabricated by the team reached a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 5%, a record in organic photoelectrochemical device performance.