Technology and R&D

In pv magazine’s second roundtable session, Advanced technologies, the U.S. storage market came under the spotlight – in particular, the lessons that can be learned from solar as the market moves towards greater maturity. Also under discussion was the trend among PV manufacturers to producing ever larger cells and modules in the continuous drive to bring down LCOE. But is big necessarily better?

Researchers in China are proposing a new technique to recover polyethylene glycol terephthalate (PET) and ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) in solar panels at the end of their lifecycle. The two materials represent around 15% of the total material in a wasted solar cell, with a share of 10% for EVA and 5% for PET, respectively.

A U.S.-Pakistan research group has created a new self-cleaning mechanism for standalone PV systems up to 5 kW in size. The system increases power yields by around 35%, while its payback period is estimated at around five years.

The novel technique consists of a PVC pipe with 20 holes that is placed on the top of a PV module and is able to maintain a constant discharge of water. It was demonstrated on an experimental photovoltaic-thermal PV system in which the PV panel was not integrated with the solar collector but connected to it via pipes.

Scientists in Russia have analyzed the most important technological advances achieved for solar water pumps over the past decades and have indicated the roadmap that future research should follow to expand their use and application.

Scientists in Germany investigated printing processes for perovskite solar cells, making some important conclusions for the development of inks suitable for the deposition of perovskite cell materials onto a substrate.

U.K. researchers have developed a way to optimize urban rooftop use with solar PV and agriculture.

Scientists in the United States demonstrated a lithium-air battery with improved energy and stability performance, thanks to the use of molybdenum triphosphide as a catalyst for both charge and discharge reactions.

Low-cost batteries and novel perovskite materials are among the topics selected for joint research and development.

Researchers in New Zealand have developed a new methodology for solar park planning that considers clear-sky radiation for voltage stability analysis. It is based on two different generation profiles for separate purposes.