Illinois

A Chinese research group has sought to understand the relative performance of two weather prediction techniques based on ensemble modeling for solar energy forecasts. The scientists applied the two methods in combination with three classical post-processing methods.

With so much more agricultural real estate than Europe, the United States is building on the body of research built up across The Pond and rolling out solar panels on farmland at an impressive rate.

Swift Current Energy has secured $779 million in financing for an 800 MW solar project in Illinois – the second-largest PV installation in the nation.

Offering solar savings to apartment dwellers, and particularly renters, is not a simple task – as low take-up in Germany has demonstrated. Mel Bergsneider, from Australian startup Allume Energy, explains how a product offered by her company could change all that.

The world would have been a different place today had John Goodenough accepted the Shah of Iran’s $7 million offer, in 1974, to carry out solar research. Instead, he secured a job as the head of inorganic chemistry at the University of Oxford. During his tenure, he made a lithium-ion battery discovery that would affect the lives of almost everyone.

US scientists studied a zinc-manganese dioxide battery and found that hydrogen, rather than zinc-ions, move back into the manganese cathode, damaging its structure. The researchers will be able to use this knowledge to pursue new ways to improve its performance.

Module price falls driven by the energy demand slump and Chinese oversupply may reverse at the end of the year, Germany appears immune to the Covid rooftop curse and emergency funding has been offered up to EU businesses affected by the crisis.

Researchers have found strong anodic activity in disordered particles of magnesium chromium oxide. Unlike conventional, ordered nanocrystals, the disordered particles reportedly achieved reversible magnesium extraction and insertion.

Battery innovations started to come thick and fast this quarter as the hunt for alternatives to lithium-ion intensified and the latest slew of solar tenders indicated the relentless pressure on solar power generation costs was showing no sign of abating.

The solar project, southeast of Seville, will power Amazon Web Services data centers and logistics locations, and is expected to start generating next year. The company has launched its Climate Pledge with the aim of complying with the Paris Agreement 10 years early by neutralizing carbon emissions by 2040, and of operating with 80% renewable energy by 2024 and 100% renewable energy by 2030.