Plan for solar module gigafactory unveiled in France
An industrial area of the southern region of Occitanie has been identified for the construction of a 2 GW factory. The local development agency is currently seeking potential investors.
Flexible metal dichalcogenide solar cell with 5.1% efficiency
Stanford scientists have fabricated a transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) solar cell that is claimed to overcome the typical issue of this kind of PV device, the so-called Fermi-level pinning. They used graphene contacts to mitigate this phenomenon and achieved a record power per weight of 4.4 W/g.
US bank to lend $500 million for First Solar’s 3 GW fab in India
The U.S. International Development Finance Corp. has offered debt financing to support a 3 GW module manufacturing facility that thin-film PV manufacturer First Solar plans to build in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Deploying solar on curved metal roofs
Midsummer and Medacciai are developing a BIPV solution for curved metal roofs in southern European markets, through a five-year deal.
RTE Energy plans PV module factory for Australia
Australia’s solar PV panel manufacturing capacity is set to get a major boost, as Melbourne-based RTE Energy has confirmed that it plans to set up a large-scale heterojunction module factory in the state of Queensland.
Three vastly divergent US solar deployment projections
The International Energy Agency, S&P Global Market Intelligence, and Rystad Energy have issued new renewable energy projections for the U.S. market that range from a 50% decline to a year-on-year surge in deployment.
Grid stability and 100% renewables
New research from Stanford University professor Mark Jacobson seeks to remove any doubts about grid stability in a world powered entirely by renewable energy. The latest study models 100% wind water and solar powered grids across the United States, finding no risk of blackouts in any region and also broad benefits in cost reduction, job creation and land use.
Icephobic surfaces for ice, snow shedding in utility scale solar
Developed by U.S. researchers, the proposed coating solution is claimed to effectively melt ice and snow with temperatures down to -35 degrees Celsius. It was fabricated by using medium-chain triglyceride oil to plasticize two common industrial polymer polyvinyl chlorides and tested at a pilot facility in Alaska.
New solution to store residential, commercial PV electricity as green hydrogen
Germany’s Home Power Solutions has developed a hydrogen storage solution with a capacity of up to 15,000 kWh. The Picea system stores excess electricity from rooftop PV systems in the form of green hydrogen.
New metric for 50-year solar plant operation
A German-U.S. research group has proposed a new model to treat PV installations as permanent assets, with maintenance being performed at regular intervals. Through the new metric, it found more convenient to operate a module with 0.5% annual degradation for 35 years, and a module with 0.2% degradation, for 50 years.
