This week, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu Network) takes a significant step by shedding light on health and safety issues for women in the solar and energy storage industry, a crucial topic that gained even more relevance after the observance of World Day for Safety and Health at Work on April 28th.
In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that April’s weather in Europe presented a north-south divide impacting solar generation across the continent. High pressure systems over the Mediterranean meant sunnier than normal conditions in Southern Europe, benefitting PV output.
In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick look at the main price trends in the global PV industry.
If solar-powered irrigation pumps can be rolled out in a responsible manner at scale, the impact on agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa could be transformational.
As the world becomes increasingly roiled by extreme weather, drone-based electroluminescence (EL) mapping can be a key weapon in the arsenal of solar investors.
The Austrian manufacturer said its new heat pump can achieve a seasonal coefficient of performance of up to 4.7 and flow temperatures of up to 75 C. It is available with sizes ranging from 2 kW to 7 kW.
Fraunhofer project
An international team of researchers developed a performance boosting treatment based on phenethyl ammonium chloride (PEACl) that also reduced the number of process steps. Resulting cells had greater durability and a champion device outperformed the reference devices with a 20.9%-efficiency.
A group of scientists in Thailand has outlined a new approach to avoid oversizing and overvoltage in energy markets applying volt-watt droop curtailment strategies. The novel methodology leads to a reduction in a PV system’s net present value but also increases its levelized cost of energy.
The European Commission has shared updated documents with its member states for speeding up permitting procedures and designing auctions for renewables. It includes the use of non-price criteria in auctions, which the commission says will allow higher value-added projects to be rewarded.
Renew Home, a partnership between Google Nest Renew and OhmConnect, aims to expand from 3 GW of electrical energy use to 50 GW by 2030.
AGL Energy has completed the installation of a solar-powered microgrid with a 5.4 MWh battery energy storage system in Australia to support the transition of a commercial orchard’s operations from diesel to renewables.
Heavy rains recently triggered floods in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state when Lake Guaíba and the Taquari River and Uruguay River overflowed, reaching more than 5.30 meters and affecting more than 1.95 million people. The death toll stands at 143, with 125 still missing. The authorities still have yet to assess the losses from submerged or affected PV plants.
Consortia featuring subsidiaries of Chinese solar module maker Longi and Chinese industrial conglomerate Shanghai Electric have withdrawn from a public procurement tender for a solar park in Romania. The European Commission opened two anti-subsidy investigations into their involvement, which have now been closed.
Greece added 1.59 GW of new solar capacity last year, and projections for the current year look strong. Curtailment remains the sector’s thorniest issue, however.
Researchers have doped FAPbI3 with a trace amount of CdI2 to allow it to be manufactured at room temperature. They found the ideal concentration to be 0.6%. PCE reached 22.7%
Developed through bandgap engineering and material design, the proposed PV device relies on a tin-based perovskite material known as CsSnI3-xBrx. It can reportedly be further designed to achieve power conversion efficiencies exceeding 24%.
Scientists have investigated different techno-economic scenarios for using hydrogen storage in combination with hydropower and pumped hydro storage in Switzerland. They have found that hydrogen storage plays no major role under most conditions.
A research group in China has tested how membrane-based floating PV platforms can operate in offgrid scenarios. Their analysis showed that, especially with high wave frequencies, this kind of floating PV installation may suffer from the floater bending stiffness, which could limit both in-plane and out-of-plane motion amplitude.
Midea says its new outdoor residential Evox G3 Heat Pump ranges in size from 1.5 tons to 5 tons, with a coefficient of performance of 1.8. It features enhanced vapor injection technology and uses A2L as the refrigerant.
The number of module assembly businesses in Türkiye continues to rise but, despite protectionist moves to support domestic manufacturing, consolidation appears likely. Ambitions abroad, expansion at home, and interest from Chinese suppliers, were all on show at the recent SolarEX trade fair in Istanbul.
Trina Solar says its solar panel shipments reached 65.21 GW in 2023. The Chinese module maker achieved a turnover of $15.75 billion and a net profit of $768.2 million in fiscal 2023, with an annual module production capacity of 95 GW by the end of December.
Guangdong Electric Power Development (GDEP) has bought 118 MW of Trina Solar panels for $0.12/W. It says it will use the modules for several solar projects in China’s Shandong province.
Chinese company Hunan Rich Photovoltaic Science and Technology is set to invest over €300 million in the development of a 1 GW solar panel factory and 200 MW solar power plant in Serbia. The agreement is one of two the country’s Minister of Mining and Energy has signed with Chinese companies this week.
Scientists in Czechia have conducted a techno-economic analysis of a green hydrogen production system powered exclusively by photovoltaic and wind energy. The system uses surplus energy for water treatment and, according to its creator, can achieve a levelized cost of hydrogen of $3.12/kg.
Lightsource bp says it plans to develop a solar-plus-storage facility in Ireland. The proposed installation will feature a 57 MW solar array and a 54 MW energy storage system on an open grassland site in the eastern part of the country.
Sinovoltaics has released its latest energy storage manufacturers ranking report, based on balance sheet assessments and publicly available financial information. It lists US-based Tesla as number one, followed by South Korean’s LG Energy Solution, Taiwan-based Kung Long Battery, China’s Mustang Battery, along with US-based Solid Power in the top five.
The authorities in Ireland have opened a €20 million ($21.5 million) fund for energy research and innovation. It will support projects contributing to the nation’s clean energy transition, such as heat decarbonization and energy storage.
UK scientists have proposed a way to combine photovoltaic-thermal energy with Stirling engines and battery storage in residential buildings. Despite the high upfront costs, they said the cost-effective hybrid co-generation system could significantly reduce CO2 emissions.
Researchers at the Wuhan University of Technology in China The system was described in the paper “Performance analysis of radiative cooling combined with photovoltaic-driven thermoelectric cooling system in practical application,” published in Energy.