science

NREL researchers said a profitable and sustainable solar panel recycling industry could establish itself by 2032. Here’s how the numbers work.

French specialist Sun’Agri installed a pilot facility on five hectares in southern France in 2018. Its goal is to protect the vines from weather hazards and to improve the quality of the wine by lowering its alcohol content. The first harvest took place in mid-September.

Operated by Gasunie, the underground storage facility is located near Veendam in the province of Groningen and should be fully operational in 2026. Tests will be run until spring 2022.

A Russian-Italian research group has developed resonant silicon nanoparticles that are claimed to improve the performance of perovskite solar cells. These particles serve as nanoantennae – they catch light and it resonates inside them, which amplifies the cell’s light absorption.

Developed by Dutch company UseAllEnergy, the module is fabricated with a heat exchanger placed on the rear side that works as a heat source for a brine-water heat pump. Thanks to this innovation, the heat pump does not need to get heat from a borehole yet can still generate sufficient thermal energy. The solution is claimed to be easy to install and also to be suitable for retrofits.

Swedish start-up Clean Motion is seeking to commercialize an electric delivery van that is also powered by IBC solar modules placed on its roof. The vehicle is claimed to have a 400 km range, of which up to 130 km are provided by the PV array.

From pv magazine Australia Queensland’s University of Technology (QUT) is working on verifying Titan Hydrogen’s claims its patent-pending technology will “effectively double” vehicles’ driving ranges by enabling a fuel cell to produce more electricity from the same amount of hydrogen. The Australian-based company claims its technology could increase the capacity of fuel cells by up […]

A Canadian consortium led by the Sherbrooke University has developed a CPV panel with improved light absorption through a microstructured anti-reflecting coating consisting of a monolayer of silica beads, which they claim can improve the device’s short-circuit current by up to 3.7%. The module is based on III-V solar cells.

Green hydrogen cost may reach between €0.7 and €1.8/kg by 2030 and €0.3 and €0.9/kg by 2050, according to a European research team led by the European Technology and Innovation Platform for Photovoltaics. The scientists found that the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) could drop from around €0.031-0.081/kWh currently to €0.02-0.05 by 2030 and €0.01-0.027 by 2050.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) showed, through a pilot incentive program, that whole-home heat pumps are a feasible solution for heating when switching from gas. Project costs, however, were found to be higher than expected.