Technology and R&D

One to four hours of battery storage for a solar power facility can significantly increase site revenue in areas with high population density or abundant solar energy. However, the added value diminishes with storage capacities exceeding four hours.

By regulating the secondary growth of lead iodide, an international group of scientists has built a perovskite solar cell with low non-radiative recombination and defect state density. The device reportedly exhibited superior stability in both humidity and thermal stability tests compared to reference cells.

Researchers from the two companies have built a lightweight and flexible silicon heterojunction (HJT) PV panel that measures 563 mm x 584 mm and weighs just 218.5 g.

Denmark-based Grafisk Maskinfabrik (GM) is now selling roll-to-roll turnkey pilot production lines featuring slot-die coating, available through its GM Functionals unit.

With hailstorms in Australia and the United States severely damaging solar arrays – including “golf-ball sized” hail at the 350 MW Fighting Jays project in Texas in March 2024 – insurers are raising premiums and reducing or canceling hail coverage. Everoze Partner Simon Mason discusses the challenges the industry faces in minimising its hail risk exposure.

Wider use of electric heat pumps to heat buildings creates a larger market for renewable energy, but also presents challenges, which can be met through building insulation and weatherization, cold climate heat pumps, thermal energy storage systems, and higher-voltage distribution grids, a report says.

The latest findings from Taipei-based intelligence provider TrendForce show that all-solid-state battery production volumes could have GWh levels by 2027. The rapid expansion will lead to cell price declines, reaching CNY 0.6-0.7/Wh ($0,084-$0,098) level by 2035.

Each expansion unit adds another 13.5 kWh of storage capacity to the original installation with a maximum of three such units connected to a single Powerwall. Now available in the US, the new product comes at a lower cost and slashes installation time by roughly half to 22 minutes.

Sonnenwagen Aachen, a student team from RWTH Aachen University in Germany, secured second and third place at the iLumen European Solar Challenge 2024, sharing the podium with Belgium’s KU Leuven team, which took first place.

Scientists created a model to study bifacial PV thermal (BPVT) solar panels using jet impingement and built an experimental setup to validate it. They achieved a thermal efficiency of 62.28%, while electrical efficiency peaked at 11.22%.