PV modules

Dutch renewables company Photon Energy is teaming up with Australian technology provider and project developer RayGen Resources to develop a facility that will deliver 300 MW of solar generation and 3.6 GWh of energy storage. The technology used is claimed to have an LCOE of less than $0.072/kWh.

Insolight has developed a translucent monocrystalline solar panel with a nominal power of 106 W and a power conversion efficiency of 20.1%. The solar cells are covered with protective glass and optical lenses to concentrate and direct sunlight onto them at around 100 times the intensity of standard solar glass.

Lazard’s newly released Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis 15.0 and Storage 7.0 reports that solar and wind are the most competitive electricity sources in the US energy market. According to the investment bank’s 2021 study, gas combined cycle has the lowest LCOE of $0.045-$0.074/kWh among the conventional sources and that of coal and nuclear is $0.065-$0.152/kWh and $0.131-$0.204/kWh, respectively.

U.S. border agents have confiscated PV modules from Longi Green Energy. The panels accounted for roughly 1.59% of the company’s total 2020 export sales volume to the U.S. market.

The discounted cash flow from a solar project’s electricity generation increases by 46% when shifting the installation from today’s standard 25-year lifetime to a 50-year time scale.

The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court, in Germany, has ruled that Longi Solar and REC have to pay a fine because they have not fully complied with the court order to recall their solar modules affected by the patent dispute in Germany.

Scientists in the United States developed what they describe as a ‘scotch-tape like’ solution, which can absorb potential lead leakage from perovskite solar cells, preventing the toxic material from entering the environment. The tape, according to the scientists, can easily be integrated with existing encapsulation strategies, and was shown to absorb 99.9% of lead leaked from cells from that were severely damaged.

High polysilicon prices helped South Korean supplier OCI to achieve strong results in the third quarter. Tight supply and demand conditions will likely continue until the first half of 2022, the company said.

Developed by U.S. scientists, the cell is claimed to achieve an equivalent bifacial efficiency of more than 20% with an open-circuit voltage of more than 2 V. The choice of the bifacial architecture is intended at increasing the device’s power yield in order to offset the high costs for producing the CdSeTe sub-cell.

Brazilian consultancy Greener reports that monocrystalline PERC modules are currently being sold at an average price of $0.24/W in the Brazilian PV market, but prices may keep rising, possibly into 2022.