science

The module is claimed to be one of the top five most performant heterojunction solar modules, in terms of power density, with the champion panel achieving 214.15 W/m² and the average device 209.5 W/m². The panel showed an efficiency ranging from 20.95% to 21.41%.

Developed by U.S. scientists, the 10%-efficient device is intended for applications in solar windows and promises efficiencies close to 15%. According to its creators, the cell retained 80% of its efficiency after 1,900 hours at 55 degrees Celsius.

Solar Team Eindhoven has developed an experimental mobile house that is powered exclusively by vehicle-integrated PV and is claimed to achieve a range of 730km, on a sunny day and at a, moderate speed of up to 85kph. The vehicle is equipped with a foldable PV system that can be unfolded and produce more power when the vehicle is not in motion.

South Korean researchers have tested four operational modes to combine residential batteries with balcony PV modules and have found that the best configuration is when solar is supplied to the load after the battery is fully charged. Charging the battery with the grid prevents the risk of full discharge in the absence of PV power, they said.

WattEV will build 1 MW solar-powered chargers to deliver 320 miles (515 km) of range to Class 8, 80,000-pound trucks in 30 minutes.

BayWa r.e. and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE have built a 258 kW agrivoltaic system that hosts apple cultivation under four different crop protection systems. The system utilizes agrivoltaic technology with permanent, light-permeable PV modules that block rain, and tracking PV module tech that blocks rain only if necessary.

The cell was fabricated by adding a special additive that improves the low crystallinity and high resistivity of the antimony trisulfide film. On top of the improved efficiency, the device showed an open-circuit voltage of 0.62 V, a short-circuit current density of 15.85 mA/cm² and a fill factor of 59.61%.

Multiple factors affect the productive lifespan of a residential solar panel. In the first part of this series, we look at the solar panels themselves.

Scientists in Japan delved deep into the crystalline structure of a perovskite solar cell in order to understand how chlorine helps to improve the cells’ stability. By varying the concentration of chlorine in the material they were able to find an optimal level for increased stability, and open new doors on the way to understanding the specific role of chlorine and the mechanism behind the improvement.

The Chinese manufacturer and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have improved the average cell efficiency by 0.68% through a post-cell hydrogenation process. The cell’s average open-circuit voltage increased by 7 mV from 696 to 703 mV, and the average fill factor from 82.03% to 83.07%.