Technology and R&D

The utility’s renewable energy unit PGE EO has announced the construction of a PV laboratory and a solar module field test in Siedlce. The move is part of its plan to invest in solar parks up to 1 MW under Poland’s auction mechanism.

Crystalline silicon tandem cell structures show great promise in delivering efficiencies beyond the limits of conventional c-Si. Swiss researchers claim to have gone beyond 25% with a c-Si-perovskite tandem cell structure, using what they claim is a competitive production process.

A team of scientists from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has proposed a gold-based halide perovskite as a material for high efficiency solar cells, which it says could be both more stable and more environmentally friendly to produce than many existing perovskites which scientists are investigating to boost solar efficiency.

Pioneering UNSW solar researcher Martin Green has received wide recognition for his achievement as being selected as one of the winners of 2018 Global Energy Prize. The prize has brought with it $820,000 towards Green’s research and teaching, and a congratulatory call from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Through the joint call, the European organization is seeking to provide financial backing for, among other PV and CSP technologies, high-performance crystalline silicon and thin film technologies which can increase module efficiency and decrease turn-key system costs.

A team from Rice University and Los Alamos National Laboratory has been able to observe electronic properties of perovskites at the quantum scale, and made discoveries likely to impact the development of perovskite solar cells.

India’s PV sector is expanding at a serious pace, creating jobs and further securing energy supply for many businesses. Yet, sourcing battery cell technology at the current rate resulted in annual foreign exchange of $150 million creating deficits, that hopefully can be averted in the future.

With a growing global residential PV market, software solutions to optimize rooftop systems have spawned. Last year the PV market grew by 29% with no sign of decelartion in sight. Optimizing installations and making them as convenient as possible has thus become a hotter market recently.

While intriguing, OPV technology has yet to achieve the commercial efficiency yield to be a serious competitor. Research institutes and companies worldwide are exploring compound and manufacturing methods as organic PV yields rise.

The Spanish power provider developed the pilot project with the Institut de Recerca en Energia de Catalunya and German spin-off Ineratec. Meanwhile, the European Power to Gas Platform has issued a paper demanding more regulatory certainty for power-to-gas, and to include it as an alternative in the cost-benefit analysis for grid extensions.