Technology and R&D

Developed by Chinese manufacturer Enerack, the carport can host all types and sizes of solar panels and relies on waterproof technology for rain protection.

The heat storage tank is 45 m high and has a capacity of 56 million liters. It will store district heating water at a temperature of 98 C and, according to Vattenfall, will use heat produced with renewable electricity coming from the grid.

Japanese scientists built a near-invisible solar cell based on indium tin oxide (ITO) and tungsten disulfide (WS2) as a transparent electrode and a photoactive layer, respectively. The cell has the potential to achieve a transparency of 79%.

Indian developer Acme will set up a green hydrogen and ammonia project in Tamil Nadu with 1.5 GW of electrolysis capacity and 1.1 million tons of ammonia synthesis, powered by a 5 GW solar plant.

US researchers find that placing agrivoltaic installations along highways to power EV charging stations can reduce both carbon emissions and range anxiety.

According to a third-party study, the projected output over the 40-year warranty period of Maxeon solar panels exceeds the energy demand of manufacturing them by over 100-fold. Plus, more details from the Maxeon 2021 sustainability report.

Machinery company Yuchai expects mass production by the end of 2022, targeting tractors and other heavy commercial vehicles in mountainous or plateau areas. Sunfire is installing a 2.6 MW high-temperature electrolyzer at Neste’s renewable products refinery in Rotterdam, with commissioning expected in early 2023. Meanwhile, hydrogen-based projects in the mobility and transportation sectors are taking off in France, Czech Republic, and the UK.

Scientists from the Fraunhofer ISE built a bifacial heterojunction solar cell with a power conversion efficiency of 21.7% via rotary screen printing. They used a machine that is able to achieve a cycle time of just 0.6 seconds per solar cell and enables a strong reduction in silver use.

Australian company AspiraDAC, which uses solar-powered Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology to remove carbon from the atmosphere, has been selected to be part of the first round of purchases from Frontier, a program backed by Facebook and Google’s parent companies, Meta and Alphabet.

The Tunisian module maker said its new product is based on p-type gallium-doped solar cells and is suitable for both residential and commercial applications. The panel is available in nine versions with nominal power of up to 505 W and an efficiency of up to 21.44%.