Technology and R&D

Austria’s Aerocompact says its new PV mounting system can be installed on foil, bitumen, gravel, and concrete rooftops. It can reportedly withstand wind loads of up to 1.7 kN/m2 and snow loads of up to 3.5 kN/m2.

Scientists in China have introduced developments to the RIME optimization method, which takes inspiration from the developmental course of hoarfrost in nature. They have compared it to other MPPT algorithms and found it to be faster and to improve power output.

Immersion-cooled batteries submerge cells in a special liquid as a fire-protection measure, as XYZ executive Zha Qing explained to pv magazine at May’s Intersolar Europe trade show.

The UK-based heating solutions provider has developed a pre-engineered and ready-to-install unit compatible with most of the residential heat pumps available in the market. It can be placed underneath a standard hot water cylinder and transfer heat from the pump via a plate exchanger to the central heating indirectly.

Netherlands based PV module testing equipment supplier Eternal Sun today announced that it has acquired German company Wavelabs, which also supplies flash testing equipment to the solar industry. The acquisition creates a new company, Wavelabs Eternal Sun Gmbh, headquartered in Leipzig, Germany and operating as a 100% subsidiary of Eternal Sun Group. The new owner plans to continue operating the two companies under their respective brand names, with Eternal Sun focused on testing PV modules and Wavelabs on cells.

The rollout marks one of the largest live-event deployments of mobile solar today and offers a high-profile test for organic, ink-based photovoltaics.

A Danish trade group has ruled out any link between suspicious components found in local energy equipment and recent reports of compromised solar inverters in the United States, narrowing the scope of an ongoing cybersecurity investigation.

Larks and other bird species are flourishing in Germany’s solar parks, where breeding success exceeds that of many other habitats. These PV project sites are becoming valuable refuges, benefiting both wildlife and the surrounding environment.

SL Rack has launched SL Planner, a tool linked to Google Maps that analyzes roof surface area and automatically distributes the appropriate number of solar modules.

Researchers in Germany have unveiled new high-efficiency, micro concentrator photovoltaics technology that taps established micro-components manufacturing processes to enable lower costs. A demonstrator relying on the micro-CPV module achieved efficiency of 36% based on IEC62670-3 concentrator standard test conditions.