science

A Swedish-Italian research group has applied state-of-the-art models for global horizontal irradiance decomposition to assess photosynthetically active radiation in agrivoltaic projects – an important variable to properly predict crop yield.

Australian researchers have developed a way to use rooftop PV to run air conditioners to pre-cool residential and commercial buildings. They have identified several factors that could help reduce a building’s energy costs.

Scientists in Australia have demonstrated a new way to apply a passivating contact layer to silicon cells. They produced an n-type cell with aluminum-titanium passivating contact and 21.9% efficiency, and claimed the technique could open up new possibilities for the use of transition metal oxides in cell passivation.

Indian researchers claim that commercial buildings with LED lighting could gain energy independence by installing standalone solar-plus-storage systems. They said a 914.4 kW PV system linked to lithium-ion batteries could be enough to power an entire building with an estimated annual demand of 190,830.7 kWh.

Scientists in Australia have looked at how gettering technologies could improve passivating contacts based on polysilicon and silicon monoxide (SiOx) for tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar cells. They found that the gettering strength of the P-doped poly mainly depends on the doping concentration.

Terabase Energy has raised $44 million in a recent funding round to support digital and robotic platforms for the development of utility-scale solar power plants.

Iranian scientists have demonstrated a multi-layer silicon nanoparticle (SNP) solar cell based on nanoparticles that are densely stacked inside a dielectric medium. They considered different SNP structures and configurations to tailor these particles as a p–n junction cell.

Mitsubishi Power Americas and Magnum Development are set to begin construction on a 300 GWh underground storage facility in the US state of Utah. It will consist of two caverns with capacities of 150 GWh, to store hydrogen generated by an adjacent 840 MW hydrogen-capable gas turbine combined cycle power plant.

Scientists in Bangladesh have investigated the potential of agrivoltaics in rice fields. They analyzed the economic viability of bifacial agrivoltaic projects in Vietnam, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Brazil, and India.

Scientists in Denmark have modeled the likely impacts of reduced gas supply on the European energy mix up to 2050. Their research finds that if the continent is to achieve the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global average temperature increase to 1.5 C, then gas consumption would need to be heavily reduced, anyway. In less ambitious climate scenarios, however, limited gas supplies could delay the phase-out of coal-fired electricity and lead to longer-term uncertainty over fuel and electricity prices.