South Korea

Andries Wantenaar, a solar analyst at Rethink Energy, explains why he sees a bright future for perovskite PV cells, with technological advancements and major R&D investment paving the way for revolutionary change.

South Korea’s Rural Development Administration has created an energy system for greenhouses that combines photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) panels with a ground-source heat pump. It is said to compensate, via the PVT panels, the typical shortcomings of geothermal energy and to be able to reduce heating and cooling costs in greenhouses by up to 78%.

Qcells has acquired full ownership of intellectual property rights for LECO technology with the recent acquisition of Cell Engineering. The technology is known to enhance the efficiency of PERC and TOPCon solar cells.

With utility scale solar installations accelerating, Philip Wolfe, founder of PV data consultancy Wiki-Solar, drills into the data to highlight some interesting variations in relative progress around the world.

South Korean researchers have developed a long-term solar irradiance prediction method based on a reinforcement learning algorithm. They claim that the new model is able to forecast solar radiation for more than a year using just two weeks of solar radiation learning.

Jaebin Choe, renewables permitting team researcher at environmental advocacy organization Solutions for our Climate (SFOC), told pv magazine that some South Korean regional governments have been forced to pass exceptional clauses to allow the construction of solar PV arrays in their municipalities despite federal recommendations. The association claims this represents the ‘biggest bottleneck’ in the country’s solar pursual.

LG Energy Solution will soon release its lithium iron phosphate batteries in the European market, featuring compatibility with single-phase and three-phase inverters. The South Korean manufacturer will offer two configurations, with capacities of 12.4 kWh and 15.5 kWh.

Scientists from South Korea have developed a heat pump optimization technique that controls the secondary refrigerant flow. The proposed technology offers the advantage of bypassing the need to control the compressor of the heat pump, which is a function that is commonly not available in commercial devices.

South Korean scientists built an air source heat pump integrated with a photovoltaic thermal unit that can reportedly achieve an average heating and cooling coefficient of performance (COP) of 3.54 and 3.31, respectively. The system is also claimed to be 44% cheaper than ground source heat pumps combined with PVT energy.

Researchers in South Korea have developed a process to enable colored and flexible, thin film modules suitable for vehicle and building-integrated PV applications. It is reportedly a low-cost process that does not significantly impact power conversion efficiency.