Midsummer secures funding for 200 MW Swedish solar factory
Swedish thin-film solar manufacturer Midsummer inked a deal with the European Union Innovation Fund grant to receive €32.3 million ($34.8 million) to pay for a third of the company’s soon-to-be-built copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar module production facility in Sweden.
Japanese scientists develop high energy density, cobalt-free lithium-ion battery
The new cobalt-free battery yields about 60% greater energy density than conventional lithium-ion batteries for an equivalent weight and volume and sustains unprecedented 1,000 cycles.
US draft rules may disqualify Australian critical minerals from IRA subsidies
A number of Australian critical mineral producers will likely be ineligible for US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) subsidies, as the US government has published draft rules forbidding access to enterprises with stakes held by Chinese investors.
Reducing PV module temperature with beeswax, paraffin wax
Scientists in Iraq have applied two different kinds of phase-change materials to lower the operating temperatures of PV panels. Their experiment showed that beeswax and paraffin wax are particularly effective in achieving this goal, even when they are combined together.
Sharp unveils 575 W TOPCon solar panel with 22.26% efficiency
Sharp’s new IEC61215- and IEC61730-certified solar panels have an operating temperature coefficient of -0.30% per C and a bifaciality factor of over 80%.
New model to predict defrost cycles, behavior of air-sourced heat pumps in cold weather
UK-based researchers have developed a novel method to estimate the amount of defrost cycles a heat pump will experience in the winter and how much energy it would require to implement the cycles. The results of their simulation showed a strong relationship between the number of defrost cycles and the ambient temperature.
Tesla Cybertruck can power homes
Tesla’s new trucks offer 11.5 kW of power output to homes, and 9.6 kW of output via five plugs.
Inverted perovskite-organic tandem solar cell achieves 23.07% efficiency via metal ion-doped absorber
A group of scientists in Korea has a hot-air technique instead of atomic layer deposition to fabricate a perovskite absorber that reportedly shows a higher film quality. They applied this film in a perovskite-organic tandem solar cell, which exhibited low open-circuit voltage losses and high efficiency levels.
China Three Gorges commissions 1 MW pilot PV plant with perovskite panels
China Three Gorges has commissioned a 1 MW pilot solar plant with perovskite panels near Ordos, in China’s Inner Mongolia region. This marks the world’s first commercial PV system to use perovskite tech and features 11,200 modules from an undisclosed manufacturer.
Hybridizing anaerobic digestion with photovoltaic-thermal energy
Scientists in Spain have proposed to combine anaerobic digestion plants with photovoltaic-thermal panels and have found that this combination may achieve an LCOE of $0.045/kWh across several locations in Europe and North America.
