North America

Scientists in the United States developed an innovative method to observe the inner workings of lithium-ion batteries and found that cracks which form in the electrode – something manufacturers do their best to minimize – may actually have benefits in allowing for faster charging. The work also challenges assumptions on how certain particles behave inside a battery, with potential consequences for their future design.

NextEra, the leading clean energy developer in the United States, has deployed nearly 1.9 GW (AC) of solar, wind and storage over the past quarter, expanding its project backlog to nearly 20 GW. It has also secured interconnection queue positions for 145 GW of its projects.

Canadian-based Heliene plans a new factory in Minnesota that will begin producing modules in 2024 and cells in 2025.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has been awarded $35 million in funding from NASA to improve the company’s commercial solution that produces silicon from lunar regolith. The US spatial agency’s first efforts to build solar cells based on lunar regolith date back to 2005.

Microinverter supplier Enphase is slipping in share price as revenues dip. It has announced a $1 billion stock buyback program.

Weidmüller USA, a manufacturer of electrical connectivity solutions, has introduced new PV DC Combiner Box models for large-scale PV systems in the US.

A Colorado farmer has installed vertical bifacial solar, leveraging greenhouse albedo to increase output. The installation demonstrates promising generation during winter months, while maximizing limited land space.

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.

RCT Solutions says it will provide its module production equipment for CAD 3 billion ($2.26 billion) in a 10 GW solar module factory in Manitoba, Canada. The Manitoba provincial government said in a statement that the facility will be fully integrated.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, presents the solar irradiance data it collected for North America this month. July’s high pressure in the southwest and trough in the northeast dramatically influenced the region’s solar energy production. Persistent high-pressure systems in the southwest led to frequent clear skies and warm air masses, driving up solar irradiance and enhancing potential solar power generation.