Switzerland

The PexaQuote software is said to allow both parties to a power purchase agreement to identify the best structure and price for a deal within seconds. The platform provides price indices, a deal tracker and a quote service.

Researchers from Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne have used molybdenum oxide as the hole-selective contact in an heterojuction silicon cell. The scientists claim the compound can compete with traditional contacts despite a lower level of optimization.

The Swiss-headquartered technology corporation is restructuring, stirring up the figures. That effect was amplified by acquisitions and sell-offs last year with ABB announcing in July it would hand over its inverter business to Italian company Fimer.

Swiss renewable energy association VESE has reported an average 4% increase for owners of PV systems not exceeding 10 kW in size. However, the remuneration continues to vary widely between the 30 largest network operators in the country.

Scientists at Switzerland’s University of Applied Sciences Rapperswil have demonstrated an aluminum conversion process which could be valuable for long-term renewable energy storage. Simulations suggest that by employing the process, a new multi-family building in Switzerland could meet all its energy demand from a 7-11 kWp solar system.

Italian steelmaker Acciaierie Venete will buy solar power procured by Swiss energy trader DXT Commodities from a third-party unsubsidized PV plant in Italy under a five-year power purchase agreement.

Battery innovations started to come thick and fast this quarter as the hunt for alternatives to lithium-ion intensified and the latest slew of solar tenders indicated the relentless pressure on solar power generation costs was showing no sign of abating.

Storage has long been expected to be the handmaiden of a renewable energy world and its long awaited advances started to finally emerge in the third quarter as researchers posited R&D achievements ranging from potentially potent tungsten disulfide nanotubes to the business case for 10-year solar panels.

The first part of pv magazine’s review of 2019 considers Q1, when solar early adopter Italy offered an optimistic start to the year by fleshing out its plans for PV but uncertainty still clouded the world’s biggest solar market. The potential for household solar installations to rocket the world over – helped by ever cheaper panels – prompted strategic decisions in the inverter market and analyst expectations were confounded as the cobalt and lithium price plummeted, bringing the EV revolution a big step nearer.

Baden-based utility Axpo is building a 2 MW facility at the Muttsee reservoir in the canton of Glarus, Switzerland. It expects the plant to maintain high levels of power generation, especially throughout the winter months.