Technology and R&D

Against the backdrop of its war with Hamas, Israel has started allowing villages to install solar fences to improve protection for residents.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a black perovskite solar cell that reportedly achieved the the highest efficiency ever reported for PV devices built with this perovskite material and a dopant-free hole transport layer based on the P3HT polymer. The cell was also able to retain around 93% of its original efficiency after continuous illumination for 570 h.

A new imaging system for contactless defect detection in roll-to-roll printed thin film solar cell manufacturing lines is available from InfinityPV, a Danish printed electronics equipment manufacturer. The so-called ultrafast laser beam induced current mapping system is suitable for manufacturers of perovskite, organic, kesterite, copper indicum gallium diselenide (CIGS) and amorphous silicon PV foils and can be retrofitted into existing roll-to-roll lines.

Province Resources, which is developing an 8 GW green hydrogen project in Western Australia, has secured additional state licences for more than 600,000 hectares of land, as well as over 864 hectares of the seabed near Carnarvon.

Developed by scientists in India, the global maximum power point (GMPP) technique is based on the voltage and current of strings in a PV array. The research group tested it in computer simulation, as well as through an experimental setup.

Ascent Solar, a US-based manufacturer, has achieved an efficiency of 17.55% for its copper, indium, gallium and selenide (CIGS) technology. It says it plans to release a new CIGS solar module with this efficiency rating soon.

SunDrive Solar, a Sydney-based startup working to replace the silver in solar cells with copper, has obtained AUD 11 million ($7 million) from Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to expand its metallized cell production to a commercial scale of more than 100 MW per annum.

Conducted by Italian scienitists, the analysis includes standards such as IEC 61727, the US EREC G83/2 Recommendations, Germany’s VDE-AR-N 4105, China’s GB/T 19964-2012 and GB/T 20,046, Italy’s CEI 0-21, Australia’s AS 4777.2, and New Zealand’s AS 4777.2 standards, as well as the United States’ IEEE 1547. 

Genex Power, the owner of a 50 MW/100 MWh battery system that caught fire in the Australian state of Queensland on Sept. 26, says the blaze was triggered by issues on the grid side of the Tesla Megapack battery unit.

An international research group has assessed the economic feasibility of exclusively powering remote villages in Pakistan with off-grid solar-plus-storage projects. They said that their proposed system configuration has a “justifiable” net present cost.