World

Texas-based Quanex’s new sealant helps to delay power losses over a PV module’s lifetime and extends useful lifetimes by locking out moisture.

The Covid-19 pandemic and resulting economic fallout have had a variety of impacts on the clean energy transition, with some sectors being more affected than others. Earlier this year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned of slowed progress towards sustainable energy goals due to Covid-19 and reversed progress in many areas crucial in reaching net zero, such as energy efficiency, clean cooking, or access to electricity. There is one sector, however, that has shown remarkable resilience since the beginning of the pandemic and has been able to maintain, and even accelerate, its rapid growth since 2020: green energy infrastructure.

Scientists in the Netherlands have developed a model to forecast the energy yield of a PV system. It is able to take into account factors such as partial shading and multiple module orientations. Tested against a reference cell and pyranometer, the model showed less than 5% error, and the scientists claim their approach is up to three orders of magnitude faster than more common approaches using complex ray tracing.

Tom Hunt, the CEO of Pivot Energy, says that renewable energy capacity at the distribution level can meet needs without the long lead times required for larger, utility-scale resources.

The US House of Representatives is set to vote on a bill this week that could provide a new production tax credit for green hydrogen production, while the European Commission has approved plans to support renewable hydrogen in Romania.

An international team of scientists developed a nanoparticle structure which, when added to a solar cell, was shown to scatter light and potentially reflect it many times within the cell, contributing to a noticeable jump in current.

Sunrun has launched its new Level 2 EV charger for residential customers, while BYD has posted its highest monthly electric vehicle sales ever. Nissan, meanwhile, has revealed that it has decided to rent EVs, rather than sell them.

BASF has signed virtual power purchase agreements for 250 MW of solar and wind power in the United States.

New research from Stanford University researcher Mark Jacobson outlines how 145 countries could meet 100% of their business-as-usual energy needs with wind, water, solar and energy storage. The study finds that in all the countries considered, lower-cost energy and other benefits mean the required investment for transition is paid off within six years. The study also estimates that worldwide, such a transition would create 28 million more jobs than it lost.

Researchers from Deakin University in Victoria have announced a breakthrough in the development of new polymer electrolyte chemistries that they believe could pave the way for a safer and cheaper alternative to current lithium-ion battery energy storage technologies.