Europe

Dutch company Rads Global Business has developed an anti-soiling coating for solar PV modules that is claimed to reduce cleaning cost by around 60%. The anti-reflective and anti-corrosive coating is also said to mitigate potential-induced degradation (PID).

While Spain is struggling with the largest snowfall since 1971, pv magazine editor Alejandro Diego Rosell has asked two Spanish experts what the consequences of the massive snow loads produced by Storm Filomena will be on solar installations. According to them, some PV systems may stop working completely and component failures may not be excluded.

The two French companies have announced Horizeo, a massive project that includes a solar plant, battery storage, a green hydrogen production unit, a data center, and an agrivoltaic facility. The huge project is scheduled for completion in 2026.

Researchers in the Netherlands and Singapore have measured irradiance-weighted average temperatures of floating PV systems in both countries and have compared the results with reference rooftop and ground-mounted PV systems. They have discovered that floating PV systems with open structures, which allow wind to pass beneath the modules, can provide a higher heat loss coefficient.

Italian researchers have engineered a hole extraction layer with water-splitting additives to reduce the impact of moisture in perovskite PV devices. They claim that the method ensured a power conversion efficiency of more than 9% in perovskite cells stored for a month in a water-saturated atmosphere.

Switzerland’s Smartvolt has developed a special mounting system that facilitates the quick deployment of small ground-mounted PV systems at the base of ​​wind turbines.

State-owned utility ESB is working with energy storage solution company Fluence and EPC service providers Powercomm Group and Kirby Group on its first battery projects in Ireland.

The solar park will host sheep grazing and sell power to green energy provider Enercoop under a 30-year PPA.

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets has established that the first-come, first-served principle applied by grid operators is the correct approach to manage current grid congestion. The decision was taken to resolve a legal dispute between Liander and an agricultural entrepreneur that was denied grid access for a PV project.

A Slovenian research team has analyzed the behavior of a full-size cell PV module and several 1/6 cell panels under partial shading and has come to the obvious conclusion that the cell cut panels suffer fewer energy losses. They also found, however, that the orientation of the cells connected in series should be aligned as much as possible with the shade shape to lower the losses and to minimize reverse cell voltage.