Solar projects enable biodiversity
Eco-Tec, an Austrian PV company, is cooperating with a startup, Meine Blumenwiese, to ecologically upgrade ground-mounted solar projects. The two companies aim to generate clean energy while also creating new habitats for a range of insects and animals.
Computational method shows Italy may install 144.5 GW of PV by 2050
According to a new study, PV may reach an installed power of 144.5 GW in Italy by the end of the first half of the century, followed by onshore and offshore wind with 59.6 GW and 17.6 GW, respectively. The research is based on a new computational model that identifies the best spatial distribution of renewable energy sources in an individual country or electricity system while avoiding problematic concentrations of technologies
Photovoltaics for highways
The Austrian Institute of Technology, Fraunhofer ISE, and Forster Industrietechnik are developing a new rooftop PV system concept for motorways. They aim to harness the potential of underexploited road networks to generate electricity.
New dopants may improve PV glass performance
According to a British-Swedish research team, the down‐shifting process for solar glass manufacturing can be improved through the use of two dopant cations that produce no absorption bands. The doping with these compounds is said to reduce the UV transmission while also keeping the glass free from absorption in the visible and near-infrared ranges.
Germany deployed 447 MW in July
According to the latest figures from the Federal Network Agency, the country’s cumulative installed PV power has now reached 51.98 GW.
Exoskeletons for solar panel mounting
Endesa, the Spanish unit of Italian power group Enel, is using a new technology in the construction of three solar parks in southern Spain.
Enel and French PV institute achieved an efficiency of 25.0% for a heterojunction solar cell
The solar cell calibration laboratory ISFH CalTeC has certified the efficiency of the cell, which was made with a standard M2 wafer.
France installed 379 MW of PV in H1
France’s cumulative PV capacity reached 10.3 GW at the end of June. Solar generated 6.7 TWh of electricity in the first half of 2020, compared to 5.9 TWh during the same period in 2019, representing 3.0% of French electricity consumption.
Slimming down on silver
Using an innovative high-speed video setup, scientists in Germany were able to observe the screen-printing process used in solar cell metallization, on a time scale of less than 50 milliseconds. Insights into the paste’s behavior and the mechanisms at work during screen printing will improve the process and the formulation of the silver paste it relies on.
Centrotec becomes largest shareholder of Sonnenstromfabrik
Centrotec, a German energy efficiency specialist, has acquired Switzerland’s Pari Group, which holds an 80% stake in German PV module manufacturer Sonnenstromfabrik.
