Research shows bats stay away from ground mounted solar plants
New research from the United Kingdom claims that ground mounted PV facilities have a negative effect on bat activity. According to the scientists, the panels may be causing some bats to alter their flight paths, potentially resulting in further fragmentation of the ecological landscape.
Masdar wins Dubai’s tender for 1.8 GW solar farm
Masdar submitted the lowest bid of $0.0162154/kWh in the procurement exercise. The total capacity of the solar energy projects commissioned at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park has reached 2,427MW.
Novel AI-based tech to identify rooftop solar systems from aerial images
The model utilizes deep learning and image processing techniques and is said to offer “superior performance.” In the future, it might be able to differ between panels of PV and solar thermal systems.
Mitigating residential duck curve via solar pre-cooling
Solar pre-cooling consists of using residential PV systems to run air conditioners to pre-cool residential and commercial buildings. It offers benefits in terms of mitigating low minimum demand in electricity networks, flattening the grid’s net demand profile, and reducing electricity bills.
July’s irradiance up in most of South America, down east of the Andes
In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, presents the solar irradiance data it collected for South America in July. The data show that South America experienced temperatures up to 15 C above winter averages, and that most of the continent saw higher than normal radiation. The Chilean Andine, especially Altiplano in the Atacama Desert, which has recorded the highest incidence of irradiance in the world, recorded values 10% above normal.
Argentinian lithium miner sourcing electricity from 100 MW solar farm
Minera Exar has started to extract lithium from the Salar Cauchari-Olaroz mine in Argentina, with part of its energy supply coming from the 100 MW Zonda solar farm, which is owned by oil producer YPF Luz.
Indian hydropower company secures 90 MW of floating PV for $0.046/kWh
SJVN Green Energy has secured 90 MW of floating solar capacity in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh with a bid of INR 3.79 ($0.046)/kWh.
Brazil added 6.8 GW of new PV in H1
Brazil installed 2.3 GW of large-scale solar and 4.5 GW of distributed-generation PV in the first six months of this year.
Biwatt unveils new residential sodium-ion batteries
Biwatt Power, a Chinese manufacturer, has developed new residential sodium-ion batteries with an efficiency rate of 97% and a projected lifespan of more than 3,000 cycles.
Solar bus canopy reduces temperature by up to 20 C
The University of Sevilla has designed a PV-powered “smart” canopy that activates a thermal conditioning system to reduce extreme heat by up to 20 C.
