Technology and R&D

A Finnish-Swedish consortium has designed a hybrid system that uses photovoltaics and solar thermal energy separately to provide steam to industrial facilities. The PV unit is coupled to a sand-based thermal storage system and reportedly contributes to lower the levelized cost of energy of the entire system.

A Chinese-Swiss research group has fabricated a 2D-3D perovskite solar cell with a world-record power conversion efficiency. The cell uses a 2D perovskite layer at the interface between the perovskite and the hole transport layer, which the researchers said can improve charge-carrier transport/extraction while suppressing ion migration.

Pegasus Solar has developed the InstaFlash pre-installed sealant for composite shingle roofs.

In a bid to avoid costly grid augmentation, Spanish electric vehicle (EV) charger supplier Wallbox has designed a multi-layered energy intelligence solution – proving that necessity is the mother of invention.

German researchers say gas-grid retrofits for hydrogen transport, combined with power grid expansion, could decarbonize Europe’s economy, while S&P says the global ammonia trade could expand by nearly 10 times by 2050.

Researchers in Denmark have analyzed the potential of PV systems and their influence on the underlying farmland in three different agrivoltaic projects, including vertical bifacial optimal tilted, horizontal single-axis tracking, and vertical bifacial setups. They also calculated the potential for agrivoltaic in every region in the European Union and found that the eligible areas are unevenly distributed.

Chinese inverter manufacturer TSUN says its new balcony PV kit consists of one or two 20.7%-efficient solar modules, a 96.7%-efficient microinverter, a bracket, and cables.

An international research team has fabricated a heat-driven thermoacoustic heat pump prototype that is claimed to achieve a heating capacity of 5.7 kW and a coefficient of performance of 1.4, with a heating temperature of 300 C and a heat-sink temperature of 55 C. The device uses medium/low-grade heat sources and is purportedly able to offer a complementary solution to the existing domestic heating methods.

Scientists in China have proposed to use recycled silicon from discarded solar cells to build anodes for batteries. They combined the recycled waste silicon powder with graphite and created a composite material that is claimed to exhibit remarkable electrochemical performance.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, presents the solar irradiance data it collected for Australia in June. The data showed that Eastern New South Wales received irradiance about 15% above normal for June, whilst central and western Victoria received totals 10-20% lower than normal.