New safety standard for PV hazard control
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) have approved the new UL 3741 standard.
Relectrify posts results from second-life battery systems
After more than a year of testing, Relectrify has released the interim results of a pilot that combines repurposed batteries from Nissan Leaf vehicles with proprietary inverter technology.
Chinese polysilicon makers driving industry’s second great consolidation
The 275,000 metric tons of annual polysilicon production facilities pushed out of the industry by the expansion of big Chinese producers is more than double the capacity lost in the last great poly market shake-out, between 2010 and 2013.
McDonald’s adds 420 MW of solar, pushing renewables capacity past 1 GW
The fast-food giant has signed three new virtual power purchase agreements for two wind farms and a solar project. The 750 MW of new capacity follows the company’s decision to deploy 380 MW of renewables last year.
Grace Solar links six strings per motor with Linkage Tracker System
The tracker maker claims its product reduces the need for motors.
QuantumScape records breakthrough performance for solid-state batteries
QuantumScape reported performance results this week for its solid-state batteries and their potential impact on the electric vehicle industry.
The future of power electronics is distributed, aggregated and service oriented
IHS Markit released a white paper in which the analyst outfit shared some predictions for the power electronics market. First and foremost, inverters will become smarter, and after some power outages in key markets, these devices are gearing up to take on more grid stabilizing tasks, which hitherto had been reserved for synchronous generators.
US scientists apply Suns-VoC method to outdoor PV tests
Researchers in Arizona have used the Suns-VoC characterization method for indoor solar cell testing to monitor PV installations. The method can also be used with outdoor distributed-generation and large-scale solar arrays.
World’s largest residential virtual power plant
Like Airbnb, but monetizing spare energy: “The first big step toward opening the door to a massively transactive grid.”
Low-cost organic pigment coating for 21.1%-efficient perovskite solar cell
Scientists in the United States have conceived a new process to apply a low-cost organic pigment to perovskite solar cells. The new technique is claimed to increase the efficiency of the devices by around 1.2% and also to improve the cells’ stability.
