Sweden

A paper from Sweden has attempted to uncover why the conversion efficiency of solar cells based on cheap, abundant iron pyrites continues to languish below 3% despite the apparent optoelectronic promise of the material.

The government said developers have one more month to apply for the subsidy. It also delayed the project-completion deadline from Dec. 31, 2020, to June 30, 2021. From next year, rooftop PV will likely be supported by unspecified tax breaks.

Analysts appear divided on the effects the public health crisis will have on the EV market even as sales of petrol-engined SUVs soar in China. And Portugal is plowing on with its Covid-delayed national solar tender, an exercise which may help establish whether clean energy thinktank Ieefa is right to predict PV prices will continue to fall.

The sustainable lithium-ion battery manufacturer wants to secure raw materials to recycle into its products and will tap one of the world’s most advanced electric vehicle markets for its end-of-life batteries.

The Swedish storage system manufacturer said its Voltpack Mobile System can be used in different market segments, particularly for remote or weak grids. The battery has a scalable storage capacity ranging from 245 kWh to 1,225 kWh. Swedish utility Vattenfall is now testing the system’s capabilities.

Appetite may have been lacking among private investors – at a time when global stocks are tanking amid Covid-19 and global recession fears – but the eco-friendly new Finnish government, and neighboring administrations, have stepped in to fill the breach.

The Nordic nation is now the third European country to have waved goodbye to coal for power generation. Another 11 European states have made plans to follow suit over the next decade.

The country’s solar sector offers the lowest average prices for corporate power purchase agreements on the continent, according to BloombergNEF.

A group of scientists at Sweden’s Uppsala University have developed a proton battery based on abundant organic materials. They say the battery can be charged “in a matter of seconds” while operating at low temperatures, and can be cycled more than 500 times without significant capacity loss.

The nation’s cumulative installed solar capacity reached 698 MW at the end of December. Around 19,000 new PV systems were added last year.