Australian solar park to host crops as part of agrisolar program
Italy’s Enel will launch an experimental agrivoltaics program at its 34 MW Cohuna Solar Farm in the Australian state of Victoria to help formulate a “best practices” template for utility-scale solar PV sites in other countries.
Amazon warehouse fire linked to solar installation
A recent fire at an Amazon warehouse, with an estimated $500,000 in damages, has been linked to an issue with a rooftop solar system, according to Susquehanna Hose Co.
France may reach between 70 and 208 GW of PV by 2050
French grid operator RTE has outlined six scenarios on how France’s energy system may achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. In the most optimistic one, solar is expected to reach a cumulative capacity of 208 GW.
New process to recycle silicon, silver and glass from end-of-life PV panels
A €4.8 million EU-funded research project is aiming to develop a process that allows recovering all components of a photovoltaic module.
Building renovations crucial for heat pump deployment
Building renovations may result in up to 51% space heating demand savings, according to recent research from Germany. Its authors claim that, if buildings are retrofitted and thermal energy storage and individual hybrid heat pumps with back-up gas boilers are applied on a large scale, significant heat cost reduction may be achieved across the whole of Europe.
Australian PV system owners look at off-grid options amid talk of tariffs
Q Cells Australia says many residential solar customers are contemplating exiting the grid entirely as policymakers grapple with how to integrate small-scale renewables like rooftop solar PV and batteries into the electricity system.
Netherlands allocates 3.53 GW of PV
The fall 2020 round of the Dutch SDE++ program awarded 75 MW of heat pumps and 310 MW of electric boilers to developers. About €2.12 billion of state funds will also be used to support a CO2 capture project that an international consortium is building in Rotterdam.
First Solar to add 3.3 GW of capacity in a new $680 million US factory
The 1.8 million-square-foot facility is projected to create 500 jobs and produce an enhanced thin-film PV module for the utility-scale solar market in the U.S.
Perovskite solar panel with 16.1% efficiency via ambient air blade-coating
The panel, fabricated by scientists in Italy, is composed of five series-connected cells, each with an area of 2.01 cm² and has an aperture area of 11 cm². It showed a power conversion efficiency of 16.1%, an open-circuit voltage of 5.59 V, a short-circuit current of 37 mA, and a fill factor of 72.5%.
Madrid taxis to be powered by solar hydrogen
Spanish developer FRV has agreed to participate in a €100 million effort to generate hydrogen via a 10 MW electrolyzer, powered by a 20 MW solar plant.
