Technology and R&D

The material is a conductive additive for silicon anodes in lithium-ion batteries, helping to improve cycle life and increase energy density. It has taken decades to bring the nanotubes into commercial production.

The British-German perovskite startup has closed series D funding with another £34 million to bring the money raised in the round to £65 million.

Researchers at Denmark’s Aarhus University have created a modelling tool which they say, by taking into account weather data and the historical performance of PV installations, can precisely predict the output of a solar plant at any location. The tool, say the academics, will help with the planning of new installations and the integration of PV into energy systems.

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the U.S. used x-ray imaging to observe cracks forming in a solid state lithium battery, a discovery they say changes the understanding of performance of solid state batteries and which could lead to more durable systems.

Technology made in China competes with conventional plasma-based equipment to deposit the aluminum oxide layers at the heart of passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC) cells.

Scientists from China and the United States have developed an additive for electrolyte materials they say could improve the operating temperature range for lithium-ion batteries, allowing them to operate down to minus 40 degrees Celsius without compromising performance at temperatures up to 60 degrees Celsius.

Australian and Indian scientists have developed a method of manufacturing soluble graphene in a cost-effective and eco-friendly way from one of Australia’s most common resources, gum trees.

In our series of renewable energy and geopolitics interviews, Indra Øverland – head of the Center for Energy Research at the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs – explains why hydropower can be the perfect match for intermittent renewables such as solar and wind. Hydropower assets are one of the biggest geopolitical stories of the energy transition but receive almost no attention. Nations with strong hydro potential may become linchpins of regional renewable energy.

Bifacial modules are here to stay. But even as manufacturers commit further capacities to two-sided module production spanning a whole range of technologies, there are still challenges to overcome, to fulfill predictions that bifacial will represent almost 40% of all modules produced inside the next decade. Flash testing conducted at the end of cell and module production presents one of these, and there is plenty of debate among equipment suppliers as to how this manufacturing stage should treat bifacial cells and modules.

Scientists working at Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, in the lab of renowned PV scientist Michael Grätzel, have developed a new method for testing perovskite solar cells that they say combines the advantages of laboratory and outdoor testing and will contribute to the creation of industry standards for characterizing perovskite stability.