Fraunhofer ISE solar cell manufacturing spin-off could reduce silver content
Highline Technology GmbH has a production process in which metal contacts are applied without touching the front of solar cells, reportedly saving resources and raising efficiency.
Acciona seeks innovative storage technologies
The Spanish renewables company is offering up two of its solar and wind power sites in Spain for the testing of energy storage systems. The call for companies to take part is open until the end of next month.
Solar power generation has risen 13% in Germany this year
The proportion of German electricity generated from renewables is five percentage points higher already than it was in the first nine months of last year.
Two more PPAs for Spanish solar plants
Solaria secured a ten-year deal to supply solar power from a 150 MW of generation capacity this week and a Sino-Israeli consortium signed a deal to supply energy from 50 MW of capacity over the same term.
Over-irradiance events affect utility scale PV components
Researchers are seeking to understand the extent to which sudden spikes in irradiance can affect solar power plants. The preliminary findings indicate large scale PV projects are not immune to such events, especially when the spikes last longer than a minute.
US and UK discover lithium as IHS Markit projects battery price to fall below $100/kWh
The business intelligence firm has projected storage costs will continue their downward trajectory on the back of product and process optimization. That will favor a higher adoption rate in automotive and grid applications, the analysts say. Elsewhere, discoveries of lithium in the U.S. and the U.K. have raised hopes for lower raw material costs and more supply chain diversity.
Fraunhofer ISE develops organic solar cell with 14.9% efficiency
The record was obtained with a 1.1 sq cm device.
South African renewables jobs should be in coal regions
A study into the potential pitfalls of the shift to clean power in the nation’s coal-dependent energy mix, pointed out almost all of South Africa’s solar farms are far to the south and west of the coal regions likely to bear the brunt of job losses in a country which already has 29% unemployment.
‘Nuclear power is now the most expensive form of generation, except for gas peaking plants’
The latest edition of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report indicates the stagnation of the sector continues. Just 2.4 GW of net new nuclear generation capacity came online last year, compared to 98 GW of solar. The world’s operational nuclear power capacity had declined by 2.1%, to 362 GW, at the end of June.
An optimistic – but realistic – perspective for sodium batteries
International researchers have analyzed the potential of sodium-based energy storage and found recent technical advances have arrived faster than those for the lithium-ion batteries which have been studied for three decades. Issues remain, however, before sodium constitutes a complementary option to lithium.
