Green hydrogen and the cable-pipeline dilemma
New research from Singapore has found that gas pipelines for the onshore transport of green hydrogen and the cables for the transport of electricity to produce it at a distant location have similar costs at a 4000 km transmission distance. For longer distances, gas pipelines were found to be cheaper than cables, although the electric lines are said to benefit from scaling up and higher utilization. For both options, however, a currently too high hydrogen LCOE remains the biggest barrier to overcome.
Chinese PV Industry Brief: Xinte wants to increase polysilicon capacity to 100,000 metric tons
Xinte unveiled a $197 million plan to raise its polysilicon production capacity to 100,000 metric tons per year in Xinjiang. Longi signed a strategic cooperation agreement with oil and gas giant Sinopec to jointly develop hydrogen and renewable energies.
India tenders 1.2 GW of hybrid wind-solar projects
Projects selected in the procurement exercise will sell power to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) under a 25-year PPA.
Trina launches tracking system for high-power modules
The tracker has a length of 72 meters, which the company says allows for 120 modules per tracker. The new product was conceived as a multi-drive, dual-slewing system that is claimed to have improved overall stability compared to other products and to show a reduced aeroelastic effect.
I’ve got solar over my skin
Researchers in Japan have built a PV-powered device to measure volumetric variations in blood circulation. The system, which is just a few microns thick, was built with an organic solar module, a polymer light-emitting diode (PLED), and an organic photodetector.
Noise-based technique to test crystalline silicon solar cells
The proposed technique is said to be able to connect directly to the microscopic and medium scale defects in the solar cell materials. It is based on three kinds of noises that science has thus far been able to identify in PV devices.
Chinese PV Industry Brief: Another big polysilicon deal and rising wafer prices
Risen will sell 50,000 metric tons of poly to Shangji Automation and Zhonghuan Semiconductor has raised the prices of all its wafer products.
Chinese solar glass companies enjoy bountiful reporting season
An ‘explosive’, ‘booming’ global solar market in the second half of a Covid-hit 2020 saw the previous glass manufacturing overcapacity reversed, as float and auto glass producers bent all their efforts on making material for PV modules.
Canadian Solar begins production of 640-665 W panel series
The panel was unveiled in October and is the most powerful product the company has brought to the market to date. The Chinese-Canadian manufacturer expects to reach, for this product, a 10 GW capacity by the end of the year.
Jolywood plans new Indonesian fab
The n-type TOPCon solar module manufacturer is preparing to invest in a joint venture with state-controlled local partner PT Len Agra Energy to set up 1 GW of annual cell and panel capacity.
