Technology and R&D

MiaSolé and Solliance have achieved record performance by optimizing the bandgap and the efficiency of both the rigid semi-transparent perovskite top cell and the flexible CIGS bottom cell.

India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is funding research to develop high-efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells, as well as perovskites.

UK-based company Power Roll has picked up £5.8 million in investment over the past six months and plans to begin pilot production this year. The company has developed a unique flexible thin-film technology, which promises to combine both solar generation and storage.

Spanish companies Repsol and Ibil have launched the first charging station for electric vehicles with energy storage. The system reuses batteries from electric buses.

Abengoa Innovación has completed the construction of the pilot plant for the Grasshopper project, which is in the commissioning and start-up phase in Seville. The plant will be then transferred to its final location – the Netherlands.

Ford, Toyota, and the U.S. government have all taken huge steps toward getting more electric vehicles on the roads, and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy has released a report outlining which states are keeping pace.

Scientists in India modeled the performance of tin-based perovskite (methylammonium tin triiodide) finding that with careful optimizations the material could achieve efficiencies beyond 28%.

Scientists in the Netherlands are seeking to assess how hybrid wind-solar projects may be impacted by the shade produced by the wind tower and wind turbine blades on the PV facility. According to them, the slow movement of the wind unit’s shadow can be easily incorporated into project design.

Researchers at the Michigan Technological University claim to have demonstrated that PV system owners in the United Stated are unjustly subsidizing electric utilities. Their analysis showed that, thanks to rooftop PV, utilities and their non-PV customers can save money from avoided costs for new grid, reserve, and generation capacity, as well as for avoided operation and maintenance and environmental and health liabilities due to fossil fuel power generation.

Augwind CEO Or Yogev recently spoke to pv magazine about the Israeli company’s new storage solution for the renewables sector. The underground compressed-air storage specialist recently secured 166 MWh of capacity in Israel’s latest solar+storage tender, and plans to take equity stakes in all five projects.