Technology and R&D

Scientists in Germany fabricated an all-manganese flow battery, which they say serves as a proof of concept for the potential of such devices. Their results working with various battery configurations show that cheap, abundant manganese has plenty of potential for flow battery applications; and is worthy of further investigation in the frame of developing sustainable energy storage technologies.

The device was built by an international research team. The cell features a buffer layer based on zinc sulfide oxide and a low copper absorber. The cell showed an open-circuit voltage of 920 mV. And though a different material from the widely commercialized CIG selenide PV thin films, the researchers claim similar processes could be used in its large-scale manufacturing.

Italy’s Enel will launch an experimental agrivoltaics program at its 34 MW Cohuna Solar Farm in the Australian state of Victoria to help formulate a “best practices” template for utility-scale solar PV sites in other countries.

A €4.8 million EU-funded research project is aiming to develop a process that allows recovering all components of a photovoltaic module.

Building renovations may result in up to 51% space heating demand savings, according to recent research from Germany. Its authors claim that, if buildings are retrofitted and thermal energy storage and individual hybrid heat pumps with back-up gas boilers are applied on a large scale, significant heat cost reduction may be achieved across the whole of Europe.

Poland-based Green Cell is offering two versions of its new inverter, with power outputs of 1 kW and 3 kW. The inverters feature an efficiency of 90% and are recommended for small buildings such as cottages or year-round homes.

Scientists in South Korea tested a new cathode material as part of a calcium-ion battery (CIB), achieving some impressive results. The material retained more than 90% of it initial capacity after 500 cycles, alongside some of the best performance results seen so far for this technology. The scientists say that this discovery opens up “an unexplored pathway toward the realization of stable and high-power cathodes in CIBs.”

The panel, fabricated by scientists in Italy, is composed of five series-connected cells, each with an area of 2.01 cm² and has an aperture area of 11 cm². It showed a power conversion efficiency of 16.1%, an open-circuit voltage of 5.59 V, a short-circuit current of 37 mA, and a fill factor of 72.5%.

The smallest of the storage units has a capacity of 4.8 kWh and an output of 1.5 kW. It can be expanded to eight battery modules in steps of 2.4 kWh and has a maximum of 57.6 kWh, and 6 kW, of power.

Spanish mounting system provider Alusín Solar has developed a solution to enable the transit of installers on roofs. It has recently commissioned a production line for this product, which it dubbed Carex.