Switzerland

A new application for ABB’s ‘Ability’ digital platform enables industrial customers to avoid peak charges without using of battery storage. The Swiss corporation has developed two apps for its energy management software with the help of an artificial intelligence specialist.

The Swiss multinational has opened a production facility for energy storage systems for the mobility market and placed a 900 kW rooftop array on one of its Italian factories.

The Swiss solar equipment supplier today fought off an attempt by its largest single shareholder to have a representative appointed to its board and to have its executive pay regime reviewed. Victory in that battle may secure the company some wiggle room, but the war over corporate strategy appears far from over.

The Swiss solar equipment maker has already sold its corporate headquarters this week as it aims to generate a fighting fund until the hoped-for returns of a European PV manufacturing renaissance materialize.

The Swiss equipment maker has announced a fresh, CHF18 million order from Oxford PV but the news may have been strategically timed ahead of today’s update that it has completed the sale of its headquarters building.

Cesium lead black perovskites could be interesting for solar cell development if their crystals are observed in their less efficient but more stable beta phase. The efficiency shortfall can be solved by healing emerging cracks in the surface of the cell using a choline iodide solution, according to an international team of scientists.

The Swiss Federal Council intends to increase competition in the solar sector and set fixed tariffs for large PV projects using tenders. The electricity market will be fully opened up in a move industry association Swissolar says will discriminate against PV and threaten the rapid expansion of renewables.

pv magazine’s UP campaign aims to highlight industry movers who embrace carbon reduction and the circular economy in their operations and Swiss BIPV manufacturer 3S Solar Plus boasts an impressive sustainability record.

Carbon clusters of a few nanometers in size could be responsible for the defects affecting the thermal stability of SiCs. The defective carbon accumulations arise during the oxidation of silicon carbide to silicon dioxide under high temperatures.

A consortium of European research institutes has received €10.6 million in EU funding to establish pilot production of a high efficiency module concept developed by Swiss startup Insolight. The module combines high efficiency multijunction cells with a solar concentrator lens and has previously demonstrated 29% efficiency.