PV

Researchers from the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering at Switzerland’s Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne have developed a device which they say could “provide a pathway for device scalability aimed towards the large scale deployment of photo-electrochemical hydrogen production”.

The energy program will initially relate to combined cycle gas power plants with a capacity of 2.76 GW. No mention was made in electric utility CFE’s official statement of the possibility of increasing capacity by harnessing renewables.

The new manufacturing facility will be located in Leshan, in China’s Sichuan province and will produce monocrystalline wafers. It will raise the group’s wafer capacity to around 11.5 GW. Meanwhile, large supply deals are said to have come from markets including Vietnam, Mexico and Spain.

A new project is in line with the target of the Island Council of Tenerife to cover all electricity demand with renewable energy. The development of electromobility and storage is key to the ambition.

The Verbraucherzentrale NRW says advertising for the Solstråle solar system is misleading and has warned the furniture provider and its partner Solarcentury Microgen (Deutschland) GmbH it will begin legal action if the campaign is not changed.

World Bank Group member the IFC has signed an agreement to implement tendered projects with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company. The tender for the solar complex was launched at the end of 2017.

The first mixed auction for renewable energy technologies will be held in September and will allocate around 300 GWh. The government will apportion €20 million for solar rebates up to 2023.

According to the Korean manufacturer, its Q.Peak Duo-G6 module is produced with larger wafers than those used in the G5. This is said to increase module yield by around 6% for a power output ranging from 355-420 W.

The slew of new capacity will come from projects allocated from the bids received for the autumn 2018 round of the SDE+ program for large scale renewables. The Dutch Central Agency for Statistics revealed new PV additions last year were 200 MW more than predicted, at 1.5 GW, and the government last week announced net metering conditions for rooftop solar would be maintained until 2023.

A U.S.-Chinese research team has discovered that carbonyl groups in caffeine can increase the efficiency of perovskite solar cells from 17% to 20%. The peculiar molecular structure of caffeine is said to be a good match for the precursors of perovskite material compounds.