Enel starts building 170 MW of agrivoltaics in Italy
Enel Green Power says it has started working on the largest agrivoltaics plant in Italy. It will feature bifacial PV modules mounted on trackers. Olive trees will grow around the solar panel rows.
German manufacturer achieves 80% overall efficiency with new PVT solar module
Sunmaxx says Fraunhofer ISE has confirmed the 80% efficiency of its new photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) module. It consists of 108 PERC half-cells in M10 format, with 400 W of electrical output and 1,200 W of thermal output.
Germany added 1.62 GW of PV in January-February period
Germany’s grid authority has reported that the country added 874 MW of solar in January and 746 MW in February.
Gensol Engineering acquires Scorpius Trackers
Gensol Engineering has acquired Indian solar tracking specialist Scorpius Trackers for $16.42 million.
FERC says 1,700 GW of US renewables still awaiting interconnection
The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) says that just 86 GW of power projects based on fossil fuels are awaiting interconnection, while 1,700 GW of solar, wind, storage remain delayed.
Qcells announces new US solar encapsulant factory
Hanwha Advanced Materials Georgia has agreed to supply EVA encapsulant film to Qcells, in addition to supporting Qcells’ plans to develop a fully integrated solar supply chain in the United States.
New propane heat pump for district heating
Swedish manufacturer Qvantum has developed a 6 kW heat pump for apartments connected to district heating systems. It uses propane (R290) as the refrigerant.
Meyer Burger aiming for EU funding to hit gigawatt scale
Swiss PV manufacturer Meyer Burger hit its 321 MW production volume target last year, and its expansion into the gigawatt scale is already underway, as it recently completed two additional purchase agreements with major customers. It has also applied for hundreds of millions of funding support from the EU Innovation Fund, with a final decision to be made in the summer.
Assessing the area intensity of PV
Solar is wrongly perceived by some people to be an area-intensive energy generation technology requiring much more space than conventional fossil-fuel power plants.
Novel oxygen-ion battery may offer longer lifespan, claims TU Wien
Austrian scientists have created a lab-scale, solid-state, oxygen ion battery based on mixed ionic electronic conducting (MIEC), which is a special class of non-flammable electroceramic materials. The battery has around 30% of the energy density of lithium-ion batteries but can purportedly achieve a longer lifespan.
