Skip to content

United Kingdom

Germany tops global league table for renewable energy

A list compiled by a British price comparison website draws upon data from German company Statista which shows clean energy – including hydro – made up 12.74% of the nation’s power mix at the end of September.

9

Mind the gap

Fire safety engineering researchers have demonstrated increasing the gap between the modules of commercial PV arrays and flat roof surfaces is a decisive factor in reducing fire risks. Experiments have identified a critical gap height below which flame spread rate increases significantly.

4

NEC Energy Solutions to build 100 MW of storage capacity in Northern Ireland

The company will provide two 50 MW systems for investor the Gore Street Energy Storage Fund and project developer Low Carbon. The projects will be completed by the first quarter of 2021.

2

UK researchers confirm correlation between micro-cracks and hot spots in polycrystalline cells

A research team from the University of Huddersfield used electron microscopy to analyze micro-cracks in 4,000 polycrystalline silicon solar cell samples. The results showed power losses may vary from 0.9-42.8%, and increased temperatures due to micro-cracking may favor the formation of permanent hot spots in the cells.

Solar-plus-storage will start to make big inroads in the year ahead

By this time next year we may be able to wave goodbye to that old chestnut about renewables endangering security of supply. Elsewhere, the price of lithium – and the products it goes into – could go either way after tanking this year.

18

The year in solar, part III: Battery breakthroughs, inverter trouble, sustainable role models and new tech

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.

5

The year in solar, part I: New modules, flat-pack solar and inverter turbulence

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.

Oxbridge scientists seek to explain electron dynamics in perovskite cells

Researchers from the two prestigious U.K. universities are analyzing spatiotemporal charge-carrier dynamics in the perovskite materials used for solar applications. They have discovered the carriers propagate ballistically over 150nm within 20fs of photon absorption.

4

UK water company seeks solar power from large scale, rooftop and floating plants

Southern Water has issued a request for information about sourcing solar power through bilateral power purchase agreements. The company is considering buying electricity from generation facilities on its sites in southern England.

1

Green shoots of recovery

There has been significant progress in the decarbonization of the electricity supply in Great Britain in recent years, underscored by a record run of 19 days of zero coal generation in May and June 2019. With National Grid’s stated aim of operating a carbon-neutral electricity system by 2025, the co-location of PV with battery storage could play a key role. The proposition offers the twin benefits of enabling increasingly high renewables penetration while simultaneously improving network stability. Adam Sharpe of Everoze explores the role of co-located PV and energy storage assets within the context of the UK’s future decarbonization plans.

This website uses cookies to anonymously count visitor numbers. View our privacy policy.

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Close