United States

Module manufacturer Silfab has opened a new plant north of Seattle and is now shipping its 370 W Prime series modules.

Scientists in the U.S. discovered a promising new battery chemistry based on chlorine and table salt. Batteries based on this chemistry can achieve at least six times the energy density of today’s lithium-ion batteries, according to the group that created it. The prototype battery could already be suitable for small devices such as hearing aids, and with further work could be scaled up to larger applications.

U.S. solar projects totaling more than 1.1 GW in potential capacity have public hearings coming up this fall, as the state of Ohio experiences a rush of developer proposals.

U.S. researchers have proposed a new approach to fabricate solar thermophotovoltaics (STPV) with higher power densities. The novel technique consists of reducing the distance between the emitter and the solar cell to a nanoscale.

The solar cell was manufactured with crystals that were grown directly onto indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates covered with hole transport layer (HTL). These substrates have a controlled thickness of tens of micrometers and area of tens of mm2. The device showed an efficiency of 17.8%, a short-circuit current of 21.0 mA cm−2, an open-circuit voltage to 1.08 V, and a fill factor to 78.6%.

The governments of Mexico, Malaysia, and Turkey – along with the Solar Energy Industries Association, NextEra Energy Resources, REC Americas, and other companies – are chiming in to have a say in a recently reignited debate in the U.S. solar market.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory researchers have studied which tech offers the lowest levelized cost of energy to provide the US Western Interconnection grid with electricity when wind and solar are not available. They assumed 85% renewables penetration and determined that geologic hydrogen storage and natural gas combined-cycle plants with carbon capture storage are the cheapest options for 120-hour discharge applications. 


California-based Sakuú Corp. has started work on a 2.5 MWh per year pilot facility to produce 3D-printed solid-state battery tech.

Energy Vault secured $100 million in Series C funding for its EVx tower, which stores gravitational potential energy for grid dispatch.

Slovakian business InoBat will use the patented silicon battery material manufactured by U.S. company Group14 Tech to offer bespoke products for the world’s biggest carmakers.