Daikin lauches new air-to-air heat pumps
Intended for applications in commercial buildings, the new VRV 5 heat pumps have reportedly a 9.1% higher seasonal efficiency compared to the company’s previous models. The new products use difluoromethane (R32) as the refrigerant.
Enphase introduces commercial-scale microinverter
Enphase’s new IQ8-3P solar microinverter offers peak power output of up to 480 W.
Brazil’s oldest PV system turns 26
Prof. Ricardo Rüther, the coordinator of the Strategic Solar Energy Research Group at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), installed a solar energy system at the university 26 years ago. It currently operates at about 80% of its nominal power.
India’s residential rooftop solar potential estimated at 637 GW
The Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) says in a new report that residential rooftops in India could accommodate 637 GW of solar capacity.
Fenice Energy unveils microinverters for high-power solar panels
Fenice Energy, formerly SunEdison, has developed single-phase and three-phase microinverters for residential and commercial solar installations. The microinverters support up to 670 Wp+ PV modules, with a maximum input current of 20 A.
‘Cool roofs’ increase power yield in bifacial rooftop PV systems
A Spanish-Algerian reserch group has tested how “cool roofs” could help increase power yield in rootop bifacial PV systems. Cool roofs are based on coating materials with high reflectance properties.
Residential PV for urban loads as an antidote to solar curtailment
Researchers in the Netherlands have proposed the use of residential PV capacity to supply electricity to urban loads such as tram substations and dwellings, potentially reducing PV curtailment and demand for additional storage.
Cyprus embraces residential solar, awaits competition
Cyprus has announced a new scheme to increase residential solar deployment and help about 6,000 households to lower their electricity bills. Constant delays in the opening of the national retail electricity market to competition, meanwhile, are costing households millions.
Collectively owned PV systems improve energy community performance
Researchers have looked into the impact of potential regulated charge exemptions on two types of energy communities in 39 European countries. They have found that communities with collectively owned PV systems achieve greater savings.
Residential photovoltaic panels with high partial shading tolerance, high voltage
Scientists from South Korea have designed new photovoltaic modules with both rectangular and triangular shapes and solar cells connected in parallel, which they said have higher partial-shading tolerance compared with cells connected in strings. The panels are reportedly less sensitive to partial-shading geometries than shingled modules.
