Technology and R&D

The South Korean government has released a new roadmap to support R&D activities in the solar sector. The document indicates the country’s solar manufacturing industry may be encouraged to opt for high-efficiency and expensive panels based on tandem solar cells.

An international group of scientists has discovered a ‘space charge’ mechanism that explains why certain metal oxides used as electrodes in lithium-ion batteries exhibit higher storage capacities than should be theoretically possible. The research, according to the group, will unlock new pathways to the development of more advanced energy storage systems.

According to the 2020 Global Gas Report by Snam, the International Gas Union and BloombergNEF, public policies are required to support clean hydrogen reach industrial clusters and to facilitate large-scale use. The authors of the report acknowledged the advantages of using wind and solar to directly power electrolysis, but they do not discard the possibility of using gas power with carbon capture storage. The experts of the three parties also identified barriers to remove for future development.

A new white paper by Alencon outlines the differences between PV-centric and battery-centric coupling.

In the third article in a series, pv magazine editor Pilar Sánchez Molina and industry experts continue their discussion on the challenges and opportunities created by new panels with power output exceeding 500 W.

An EU-funded research project coordinated by German research institute Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin has tested several configurations for solar-powered hydrogen generation. First results showed which may be the most suitable PV technologies for electrolysis.

Scientists in China have developed an organic module with an area of 18 cm2 based on a non-fullerene acceptor called DTY6. The device has a certified efficiency of 13.98%, but when a non-halogen solvent was used, it even reached 16.1%.

The Internet of Things (IOT)-enabled solar tree — using 35 solar PV panels with a 330 Wp capacity each — is especially useful for the agricultural community in providing electricity for high-capacity water pumps, e-tractors and e-power tillers. It can also allow precision agriculture through IoT-enabled features such as real-time humidity, wind speed, rainfall prediction and soil health monitoring.

Scientists at Saudia Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology demonstrated an organic PV cell that can simply be printed onto a piece of paper. The cell set a new efficiency record for a fully inkjet-printed device, and its designers envisage applications in integrated medical sensors.

In the second article in a series, pv magazine editor Pilar Sánchez Molina and industry experts keep discussing the challenges and opportunities created by new panels with power output exceeding 500 W.