Covid-19 daily bulletin: Meyer Burger reduces working hours for staff
The Swiss equipment supplier already needed to shore up its bottom line and is now taking measures to help combat the spread of an epidemic which has also claimed November’s planned climate summit in Glasgow and an estimated 19% of this year’s demand for energy storage.
Carbon nanotubes pave the way for silicon in storage
Scientists in the United States have developed a carbon nanotube method of fabricating a lithium-ion battery with a silicon anode. The device reportedly demonstrated better than 87% capacity retention after 1,500 cycles. The developers say their discovery overcomes many of the obstacles to the use of silicon as an anode and could open up the use of other materials for electrodes in lithium-ion devices.
Solaria sues Canadian Solar for alleged patent infringement on PV cell ‘shingling’ tech
The U.S. solar panel manufacturer has filed a lawsuit against Canadian Solar in the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California.
Covid-19 daily bulletin
pv magazine rounds up the latest Covid-19-related stories likely to affect the world of solar and energy storage.
Focus on the negatives: A new path to highly efficient tandem cells
Scientists in the U.S. and South Korea have identified what could be a new route to high-efficiency perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells. Through engineering negatively charged particles in the passivation layer, the group made a tandem cell with 26.7% efficiency. With further tweaks to the silicon layer they expect to be able to surpass 30%.
US behind-the-meter storage forecast falls 31% on coronavirus fears
Wood Mackenzie has cut its 2020 storage outlook to 430 MW – still an increase of more than 100% over 2019 – amid concerns over the role of sales, commissioning and interconnection in a period of shelter-in-place ordinances.
Canadian Solar’s shipments rise 30% YoY amid strong figures for 2019
The company said that multicrystalline modules accounted for 68% of its shipments in the fourth quarter and 74% for all of 2019, with monocrystalline modules accounting for 32% and 26%, respectively.
SunPower reduces management salaries, freezes hiring and withdraws 2020 financial guidance
SunPower CEO: “We remain on track to complete our planned company split into two independently focused pure-play solar companies by the end of the second quarter.”
First Solar manufacturing unaffected by Covid-19 measures
The US solar company says its production lines in Ohio, Malaysia and Vietnam have thus far been able to carry on operations. The company says measures have been taken to protect its workers at all of its premises.
Could Covid-19 be the catalyst for change where the COP process has stalled?
While the world’s climate negotiators dither, the post Covid-19 world could see their efforts overtaken – but only if policymakers are bold enough to take the opportunity to offer truly green fiscal stimulus packages to get us through the crisis. Felicia Jackson, from the center for sustainable finance of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, gives her thoughts here.
