Technology and R&D

The Asia Europe Clean Energy (Solar) Advisory revealed that most of the planned new solar cell production capacity relates to high-efficiency n-type cell technologies such as TOPCon and HJT.

Australian researchers have sought to measure solar cells’ optical properties via low cost office scanners and found they may offer results that are comparable to those of tools used in the PV industry.

Italian startup Tialpi is developing a process to recycle end-of-life solar panels that promises to recover 100% of a PV module’s weight. The new plant design is currently being tested at the company’s facility in the Italian northern province of Biella.

Borosil Renewables signed a binding offer to acquire 100% of Germany’s Interfloat Group in April this year.

Australian startup Vulcan Energy announced it produced high grade lithium hydroxide which ‘easily exceeds’ battery grade specification.

Germany’s Paxos is currently testing the solar tile in a testing facility connected to an air heat pump. The panel can provide heat and electricity at the same time, while also improving the heat pump’s coefficient of performance by around 25%.

Japan’s Penta-Ocean has opened a new factory powered by a 670 kW PV system and fuel cells. Plug Power, meanwhile, has revealed that it will provide fuel cells, hydrogen storage, and fueling infrastructure to FreezPak Logistics.

Smart Solar Technology has secured Turkish government support to build a vertically integrated solar module factory in Izmir, Turkey.

South Korean scientists have used a vertically oriented passivation layer, featuring two-dimensional Ruddlesden-Popper perovskites (RPP), to mitigate nonradiative recombination in inverted perovskite solar cells. They achieved the highest efficiency ever reported for a perovskite cell formed by vacuum deposition.

Spanish scientists have built a cooling system featuring heat exchangers on solar panels and U-shape heat exchangers installed in a borehole at a depth of 15 meters. The researchers claim that this reduces panel temperatures by up to 17%, while improving performance by about 11%.