PV

Some 1.5 million bifacial panels make up the power plant in Ad-Dhahirah governorate which was constructed in just 13 months by ACWA Power, the Gulf Investment Corporation and Kuwaiti developer Alternative Energy Projects Co.

Researchers in Switzerland have replaced the electron transport layers in perovskite solar cells with a thin layer of quantum dots. On an area of 0.08cm², they achieved a record efficiency of 25.7% and high operational stability.

Scientists in Singapore have developed a cell that could be used to power vehicles and boats, among other applications. The tandem device purportedly retains 90% initial efficiency after 500 hours of maximum power point tracking under continuous one sun illumination.

Operated by Czech utility CEZ Group, the pilot solar plant will be located at different heights during the charge and recharge cycles of a pumped-hydro plant and the difference in height may reach up to nine meters.

Scientists in China analyzed defective solar cells based on Czochralski (Cz) silicon wafers and found Swirl defects may be responsible for an efficiency drop of up to 4.7%. According to them, the presence of Swirl defects could be mitigated by applying a heat treatment at a temperature above 1,050 degrees Celsius in a clean environment before the manufacturing of the solar cells.

Through the procurement exercise, the power utility is seeking proposals to deploy around 600MW of capacity that will have to start providing power in February 2026, and another 250MW to begin commercial operations in February 2027.

A research team has outlined an optimized array topology for agrivoltaic projects built with bifacial modules. According to its findings, the benefits of bifacial PV arrays are most prominent in stilt mounted projects, where modules are elevated considerably off the ground at over 2 m, thus allowing plenty of light to be absorbed by the rear PV side as well.

The National Energy Administration (NEA) reported this week that the newly installed PV capacity for the Chinese market reached around 53 GW last year. Of this capacity, around 29 GW comes from distributed generation projects. The country’s cumulative installed power reached 306 GW at the end of December.

According to Asia Europe Clean Energy (Solar) Advisory (AECEA), this huge capacity may not be met by actual demand in the global market. Furthermore, the consultancy reveals that solar module prices should reach a price level of up to RMB 1.75 ($028)/W by the second half of the year, and that in 2021 new PV additions totaled 53 GW with more than half of this capacity being delivered by distributed generation.

Researchers in India have built the 4T device with top and bottom cells based on large-area semi-transparent perovskite cells with copper metal contacts. Copper has been used instead of expensive gold with the aim of reducing the cell’s overall cost.