North America

Perovskites and quantum dot solar cells both have potential for use in high efficiency PV devices, but have major challenges to overcome to be a commercial reality. Scientists at the University of Toronto have found that if the two technologies are combined in the right way, they can stabilize each other.

U.S. President Donald Trump has removed Turkey from the list of developing nations that are exempted from Section 201 tariffs on PV cells and modules.

What was originally a landmark bill to establish rights for the owners of PV systems has made it to the floor of the California Senate in a dramatically reduced form.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego – with the help of the university’s Comet supercomputer – modelled thousands of halide compounds to come up with a shortlist of 13 materials that could be candidates for the efficient solar cell materials of the future.

The solar-plus-storage combination is super-charging the deployment of batteries across the country and IHS Markit says the U.S. will become the largest market for grid-tied energy storage this year.

The contraction in Chinese trade flows to the U.S. is likely to result in the dumping in India of Far Eastern electronic and electrical components as well as steel, iron, chemicals and plastic products.

While the lifting of any tariffs is welcome news to the U.S. solar industry, manufacturers say low materials prices are unlikely to return as long as protectionist measures elsewhere remain in place.

The Solar Energy Industries Association’s “ambitious goal” of solar supplying 20% of U.S. electricity in 2030 looks more like a forecast, and vision for rapid decarbonization is coming from the climate movement and the American Left, not SEIA.

It’s unclear exactly what the interest is in the California-based supercapacitor maker, but it could be more about the process than the product.

Pumped hydro storage is highly cost competitive for large-scale energy storage, according to a report published by the San Diego County Water Authority. The report models a pumped hydro project as securing better financing terms than battery storage.