Russia

Under the current Russian energy regulatory framework, bilateral deals can be concluded between a seller and a buyer with a power distribution company mediating as a third party.

Russian scientists have developed a holographic film based on prismatic concentrators that reduces the operating temperature of solar panels, including thermal-photovoltaic devices. They claim the patented, low-cost technique can even improve PV module efficiency in cloudy weather.

The new net metering provisions came into force three years after the legislative process was launched. Power surplus will be sold to the grid at a rate of up to RUB2/kWh ($0.026).

Off-grid PV has become a much more viable solution than diesel power generators to bring electricity to Russia’s remotest regions. Furthermore, solar-plus-storage is able to deliver with no interruption 24 hours per day and seven days per week, while fuel availability means diesel power can only ensure between four and seven hours per day.

The production equipment was bought by Russian nanotechnology specialist Rusnano. The line will be used to produce BIPV modules at a factory in the Republic of Mordovia.

The country’s cumulative installed PV capacity reached 1.7 GW at the end of 2019, as a result of the grid-connected projects tendered by the Russian government between 2014 and 2019. The remaining 500 MW quota of the 2.2 GW tendering scheme should be assigned this year.

The state-owned company will manufacture module type lithium-ion traction batteries for electric vehicles, as well as energy storage systems for emergency power supplies, renewable energy resources, and the smoothing of load demand.

The facility was built with 140 heterojunction solar panels mounted on pontoon-type floats. The project is located at the site of the 320 MW Nizhne-Bureyskaya hydropower plant, owned and operated by Rushydro in the Russian Far East’s Amur region.

Researchers in China have proposed manufacturing perovskite cells using a pre-nucleation technique. Compared to traditional solvent dripping methods, the approach enables the creation of smaller crystallites in the perovskite films as uncontrolled crystallite growth affects the efficiency and durability of cells.

Researchers have integrated A3B5 semiconductors on a silicon substrate in a prototype solar cell and claim the technique could enable the production of III-V solar cells with conversion efficiencies of around 40%.