Technology and R&D

A team of researchers at NYU have presented a new chemical reactor type that synthesizes a precursor for nylon production through electrosynthesis, rather than a thermal based reaction.

Researchers want to better understand how hydrogen atoms may improve the performance of phosphorus-doped polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) films for passivating contact solar cells.

The module was developed by Insolight, a spin-off of Switzerland’s École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne. The panel is based on tiny solar cells usually used for spaceflight applications and the limited amount used in the module makes it close to mass production, its creators claim.

The Singapore research institute will cooperate with China’s Ruxing Technology to increase the efficiency of its monoPoly™ technology. Through this cooperation, SERIS believes its solar cell efficiency could be raised to 24%, and module power beyond 345 W.

The Energy Storage Europe conference is nearing and pv magazine is featuring the top ten developments in the field as our Energy Storage Highlights, selected by an independent jury of experts. We continue our ranking with a renewed approach to a storage technology which appeared in the 1970s.

Some 377 households and a retirement home are participating in a pilot project. In the first two weeks of this month, solar power generators sold 82% of their electricity within the neighborhood. The goal of the one-year test run is to develop a viable concept for the local marketing of solar power.

Plans were broadly sketched out in the nation’s twelfth five-year plan, in 2008. Since then China’s Defense Science and Technology Bureau has supported key technology research. An initial, megawatt-scale project is planned in the stratosphere sometime in the 2021-2025 period.

A new approach could extract carbon from polyethylenes in a cost-competitive way, that could be scaled up. Researchers have also performed electric testing with the extracted carbon and found it suitable for use as anodes in Li-ion batteries, among multiple other uses.

Scientists at the U.K.’s University of Manchester have developed a flag which can harvest solar and wind energy while hoisted. The banner, say the researchers, can generate up to 4 mW of energy, and could be used to power remote sensors or small electronic devices.

Belgian research institute imec has developed a new simulation framework it says can calculate the expected output of a bifacial PV system. The model could help improve developer understanding of the best system configurations for bifacial, and foster confidence among investors by providing a precise prediction of energy yields.