photovoltaics

The authorities in the Philippines have inaugurated the country’s largest solar-powered irrigation system, featuring more than 1,000 solar panels and two submersible pumps. The system benefits over 200 farmers and is the first of its kind to be constructed over an irrigation canal, preserving farming land.

Standard Energy, a subsidiary of Singapore’s GSTAR Group, says the first batch of equipment has arrived at its new 3 GW silicon wafer and 3 GW solar cell smart factory in Thailand. Production is expected to commence in July.

OMV Petrom, a majority-owned Romanian oil and gas supplier, has purchased a 50% stake in three solar projects in Romania.

The Hauts-Plateaux de l’Yonne Energy Association (EHPY) has started planting 5.8 km of hedges in central France to integrate 14 agrivoltaic projects into the landscape. The initiative aims to improve project acceptance and promote biodiversity.

Elewit, the tech platform of Spain’s Red Eléctrica de España (REE), has revealed plans to build a hybrid storage project in the Canary Islands, featuring an 18.8 MVA virtual synchronous compensator and a 16 MW hybrid solution based on ultracapacitors.

Taiwanese manufacturer Winaico said its newest bifacial, n-type, glass-glass TOPCon compact modules are available in a 435 W aluminum-framed version, and a 430 W full-black version. The module efficiency is up to 22.30%.

The Austrian government has introduced incentives for PV systems over 35 kW that feature made-in-Europe modules. The measure aims to create new jobs and support the energy transition, offering a 20% higher subsidy for qualifying projects.

Two-year old Monalee has developed an online platform for U.S. homeowners looking to buy solar PV and storage systems. Its software enables the process from quotes to financing, installation, and after-sales support.

A recent report from the Swiss Federal Council describes the difficult trajectory of efforts to rebuild the domestic PV industry and concludes that plans to create a European supply chain could be too expensive.

The result is the best efficiency ever recorded for a carbon-based PV cell using unconventional hole transporting materials to date. The device was built with a hole transparent layer based on electrochemically produced large-area phosphorene flakes, which reportedly enable the required band energy alignment within the cell.