Middle East

The Ministry of Electricity Transmission Establishment is seeking to build a 23 MW solar facility in Damascus and a 40 MW plant near Homs.

A Turkish research team has analyzed how big changes in temperature can affect absorbance, light transmittance and reflectivity in two types of solar glass. The scientists demonstrated lower efficiency in solar cells and the glass itself were attributable to a large number of micro-cracks and deformations on the glass surface.

Dubai-based Enerwhere has built an 80 kW floating array at a resort island in Abu Dhabi. The installation features bespoke modules from GCL and Sungrow inverters. The developer told pv magazine the business case was based on the fact the cost of diesel generator operation in such locations can run to $0.25/kWh.

The one-off charge for PV systems with generation capacities of 10-100 kW will be almost halved. The fee levied on 100 kW-1 MW arrays will come down by 1-30.7%, depending on system size.

The solar giant shipped 14.2 GW of modules last year, up 33% on 2018 for the high-water mark of another year dominated by Chinese manufacturers.

Saudi researchers have developed a cell which is said to exhibit improved structural and optoelectronic properties as well as enhanced carrier mobility and diffusion lengths. The feat was achieved by reducing voltage losses using a new passivation technique.

Financial newspaper Globes has reported the tender, launched only three weeks ago, is being opposed by the country’s Land Authority, which claims the project could interfere with sand-mining near Dimona.

A 2MW pilot project is now being developed in the Governorate of Duhok. The project was funded with $2 million by the European Union.

Illegally re-badged panels were sold on to Senegal, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Turkey and even Syria. Italian authorities found 60 tons of panels which will be examined.

Saudi researchers claim to have improved the thermal stability and moisture resistance of such devices by replacing 3D hybrid perovskite with two-dimensional compounds. They used organic compound ethanolamine, which is said to provide better results in slowing down the hot-carrier cooling process.