Technology and R&D

A team of researchers from Rice University in Houston, Texas has developed a new method for using solar power to desalinate sea water. Part of a federally funded research effort into water treatment , the team has developed a system utilizing a combination of membrane distillation and nanophotonics to turn salt water into fresh drinking water.

Several of Australia’s top universities are working together on gaining a better understanding of excitons. The Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science is a partnership led by the University of Melbourne alongside other top Australian universities and organizations, and consists of a team with a broad range of expertise in physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering and other disciplines.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new semiconductor alloy that can capture near-infrared light in the leading edge of the visible light spectrum. This could be a major step forward the development of a new generation of solar cells called “concentrator photovoltaics”.

Researchers at the University of Huddersfield have developed an energy sharing platform to allow communities to share energy generated from small-scale PV. The platform also includes new systems that could allow for faster fault detection and better monitoring.

The new robot may make manual cleaning of large-scale solar PV plants a thing of the past.

The Chinese PV manufacturer has achieved a new efficiency breakthrough for its PERC solar cells, with the help of nanostructured black silicon. GCL-SI plans to reach an efficiency of up to 21.0% by the end of this year.

Rena and Aiko Solar Energy will expand their collaboration into electroplating cell metalization technology. Germany’s Rena has already delivered some 4 GW of wet chemistry tooling to the Chinese PV producer, and will now deliver one of its InCellPlate to Aiko’s new Yiwu production facility, in the Zhenjiang province.

The climate control unit of the French energy giant seeks proposals from start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises. Bids must be submitted by July 4.

A low-cost and ultra-stable perovskite solar cell, which was built by a team of scientists at Switzerland’s Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), has been operating at a constant efficiency of 11.2% for over a year with no performance loss.

Swiss equipment provider INDEOtec announced that it has received an order for its OCTOPUS II PECVD system from the renowned Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in Germany.