South Australia’s hot water systems set to soak in solar
Around 2,400 South Australians will soon be fogging up the bathroom mirror without qualms about the cost of heating water, as Solahart is set to implement a new trial to control hot water systems.
Australia deployed 2.6 GW of rooftop PV in 2020
The rise and rise of rooftop solar PV has established Australia as a renewable energy powerhouse, with new figures from the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) revealing the nation achieved a record in renewable capacity in 2020.
Large-size solar tile from Spain
The product is available both with monocrystalline and CIGS solar cells and is claimed to be the world’s largest solar tile with dimensions of 457 x 510 mm.
Australia’s first large-scale PV recycling operation amps up ‘waste’ collection
Reclaim PV is now one step closer to ensuring that solar generation lives up to the promise of providing clean energy throughout its life cycle, and that repurposing its component materials becomes viable.
Air conditioning powered by self-consumed PV
French company Sirea has installed one of its energy management systems on a rooftop PV plant that is connected to an air conditioning system at a school on Reunion island. The system can help manage four real-time measurement points: photovoltaic production, withdrawal and injection into the distribution network, consumption of cooling units, and building consumption.
Romania improves rebate scheme to speed up rooftop PV development
The Romanian government has changed the rules of the Casa Verde Fotovoltaice (green PV home) scheme to support residential solar installations under the country’s net metering regime. The new provisions improve the installation process and settlement of rebate payments.
LG Electronics offers hybrid system combining heat pump, PV and storage
The system generates electricity and heat for residential houses and small businesses. An integrated energy management system should guarantee maximum self-consumption of the solar power produced.
Improving PV panel performance with luminescent solar concentrators
Researchers in the Netherlands say the lack of a universal standard is preventing luminescent solar concentrators from being widely adopted as photonic devices or for improvement of PV module performance. This technology can be integrated with finished solar panels with no need of modifying their electronic structure, helping them collect high-energy photons that they fail to harvest.
Stochastic fractal search algorithm to measure parameters of PV modules
An international research team has used, for the first time, a powerful metaheuristic and a nature-inspired algorithm to improve the estimation of the parameters of PV cells and modules. The algorithm imitates the natural phenomenon of growth and uses the diffusion process, based on random fractals.
Malaysia to allocate another 500 MW of rooftop PV under net metering
The NEM 3.0 program will run until the end of 2023 and will see the participation of residential, commercial and industrial prosumers as well as public entities and government ministries.
