Technology and R&D

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) is moving forward with plans to split Eskom into three separate entities. NERSA has granted the National Transmission Company of South Africa the authority to function independently from Eskom, while South Africa’s National Treasury is working on a bill to address the troubled national utility’s ZAR 423 billion ($23 billion) debt burden.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has been awarded $35 million in funding from NASA to improve the company’s commercial solution that produces silicon from lunar regolith. The US spatial agency’s first efforts to build solar cells based on lunar regolith date back to 2005.

Developed by scientists in Malaysia, the new PVT collector uses reversed circular flow jet impingement (RCFJI) as a cooling mechanism. Its creators claim the panel may be used for off-grid applications and the generated thermal energy could be used for drying purposes.

Weidmüller USA, a manufacturer of electrical connectivity solutions, has introduced new PV DC Combiner Box models for large-scale PV systems in the US.

A Colorado farmer has installed vertical bifacial solar, leveraging greenhouse albedo to increase output. The installation demonstrates promising generation during winter months, while maximizing limited land space.

Scientists in Korea examined the parameters of laser ‘scribe and break’ processes used to cut silicon cells, in search of optimizations to reduce damage caused at the cut edges. They also found that varying encapsulant thickness or even adding a supportive rail across the back of a module can help reduce performance loss caused by cell cutting damage.

Spanish researchers have defined practical guidelines for short-term ground-based albedo measurements that reportedly entail a maximum of 1.5% yield uncertainty contribution for utility scale bifacial solar PV plants.

The world would have been a different place today had John Goodenough accepted the Shah of Iran’s $7 million offer, in 1974, to carry out solar research. Instead, he secured a job as the head of inorganic chemistry at the University of Oxford. During his tenure, he made a lithium-ion battery discovery that would affect the lives of almost everyone.

A research team in China combined solar power generation from kesterite thin-film generation with a nickel-cobalt bimetal oxide (NiCoO2) electrochromic window. The proposed prototype not only realizes the function integration of self-power and intelligent solar radiation adjustment, but also extends its function to energy storage.

The German authorities have announced plans to double domestic electrolysis capacity to 10 GW by 2030, BloombergNEF has reported that green hydrogen became competitive with gray hydrogen earlier than expected, and Chinese researchers have presented new research on microbial hydrogen production.