Solar will dominate Neom City’s energy mix, but CSP may prevail
Saudi Arabia’s futuristic Neom City will not use the cheapest sources of renewable energy, but those with the best chances of being dispatched, due to the storage potential of concentrated solar power. But several issues must be addressed to make the tech viable.
All-in-one residential battery inverter solution from Solax
The new solution integrates the inverters of Solax’s X-1 Hybrid G4 series and its Triple Power 3.0 Battery systems. According to the manufacturer, the hybrid battery inverter can be deployed in only 30 minutes and by a single person.
US ‘aqueous air battery’ developer reveals investors in recent $76 million funding round
The holy grail of energy storage has always been low-cost and long-duration. Form Energy plans to deploy a 1 MW/150 MWh system with a Minnesota utility before 2023 – an unprecedented energy storage duration, if successful.
pv magazine video: US storage market under spotlight
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?
New process to recover PET and EVA from recycled solar panels
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.
Self-cleaning tech for small off-grid PV arrays
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.
Water-based cooling technique for photovoltaic-thermal systems
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.
The unstoppable trajectory of photovoltaic water pumps
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.
Large-scale printing for perovskites
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.
Rooftop PV vs. rooftop farming
U.K. researchers have developed a way to optimize urban rooftop use with solar PV and agriculture.
