Solar parks could help to increase rainfall in arid regions
New modeling suggests that the reduction in albedo caused by large-scale solar plants could double rainfall in the Red Sea coastal plain of Saudi Arabia.
Psyche asteroid mission will be PV-powered, says NASA
NASA has said that it will explore a large, metal-rich asteroid with a remotely operated craft powered by two cross-shaped solar arrays.
PV to account for about half of planned US utility-scale capacity additions
The US Energy Information Administration says that over the next two years, 60% of new capacity additions in the United States will be solar or battery energy storage.
India’s solar cell imports rise as domestic module production expands
The nation imported solar cells worth more than $633 million from April to the end of last year, a figure higher than the value imported during the whole of the 2020-21 fiscal year.
Hanwha Q Cells, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin claim 28.7% efficiency for 2T perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell
The Korean manufacturer and the German research center were able to improve the performance of their jointly developed tandem solar cell by almost one percentage point.
Macquarie-led consortium acquires Reden Solar
French solar developer Reden Solar was on sale since October. The €2.5 billion transaction is expected to be finalized in the third quarter of this year.
Debate on land allocation for ground mounted solar heats up in Israel
Conflicts are arising within the Israeli government on how much land should be further allocated for ground mounted PV installations. According to the local renewable energy sector, more land is needed, inevitably, if the country’s renewable energy targets must be met.
Spectrum splitters to raise efficiency of perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells
Researchers in Canada have conducted a series of simulations to understand how spectrum splitters may raise the efficiency of two-terminal tandem solar cells and have found that efficiency gains may be of up to 6%. The proposed cell configuration was also found to be economically competitive.
Hybridizing PV, redox flow batteries and geothermal heat pumps
A Spanish consortium is equipping one of Madrid’s largest metro and bus stations with a hybrid system that combines PV, geothermal pumps, and vanadium redox flow batteries to provide cooling and heating.
Autonomous laser system clears birds from PV arrays
Bird Control Group’s autonomous laser system reduces bird populations in specific areas by more than 70%. In many cases, bird activity has been reduced by more than 99%.
