Technology and R&D

It took eight years of field measurements for researchers at the RWTH Aachen University in Germany to estimate the usable capacity of home battery energy storage systems and develop a dataset covering 106 system years and 14 billion datapoints. Their key finding was that home battery systems lose about two to three percentage points of usable capacity per year on average, meaning good news for the industry as most warranties in the market can be met with the implementation of capacity reserves.

Researchers at TU Delft modelled a variety of offshore floating PV structures to uncover the design parameters that affect durability and yield..

Italian winemaker Svolta Srl has deployed an agrivoltaic facility at its vineyard in Apulia, Italy. The PV array allowed the cultivation of vines that are normally not viable at this latitude.

Researchers in China have proposed a new lithium-free doping strategy to fabricate spiro-OMeTAD-based hole transport layers (HTLs) for applications in perovskite solar cell. A PV device built with a salt-doped HTL achieved a record-breaking efficiency of 25.45%.

A group of researchers in Thailand outlined a new methodology to identify the optimal temperature in two-stage cascade heat pumps using non-azeotropic refrigerants. Through their analysis, the scientists found that the coefficient of performance for simultaneous heating and cooling is affected by the pinch point temperature at the cascade heat exchanger, with lower temperature levels being responsible for a higher COP.

Researchers have measured the power loss of a 50 W panel stationed in a 30-meter wave tank. Based on ten different scenarios, they were able to draw an empirical equation for the prediction of power loss, with the highest loss being measured at 12.7%.

Shipment volumes are growing in the global solar tracker market as innovation in project development drives demand. Joe Steveni, of S&P Global Commodity Insights, takes a look at the factors shaping the commercial landscape for trackers, from agrivoltaics and undulating terrain to Indian ambition and the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act.

The U.S. company introduced a hail-stow hanger, a hanger for north-south orientations, and rail system for clustered disconnect designs.

Ballard Power Systems says it has started restructuring its global operations to cut costs due to slower hydrogen infrastructure development and delayed fuel cell adoption.

German fluid management company Lutz-Jesco introduced a system aimed at supporting pumping and water disinfection in cases of blackouts. The hub is preconfigured to work with solar panels, a battery charge controller, an inverter, and cabling.