science

Defect engineering for silicon heterojunction solar cells has come a long way. But Matthew Wright, a solar researcher at the University of New South Wales, asks whether these proven efficiency gains could be applied more effectively.

The solar cells for the space station were provided by Boeing’s subsidiary Spectrolab.

A group of researchers in the U.S. analyzed recent developments in efforts at dual land use projects, combining solar energy with habitat for pollinators and other wildlife. Based on recent projects and studies, they offer a list of best practices for developing the habitats; and warn that without careful oversight the promising concept could amount to little more than greenwashing.

Scientists at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory have simulated a III-V solar cell by stacking gallium arsenide films onto interdigitated back contact silicon solar cells with a glass interlayer. The scientists have already done some initial mini-module integration work, but significant size scaling will ultimately be needed to reach commercialization. The cell currently has an active area of 1 cm2.

Swedish energy company Vattenfall is planning to build a 150 MW electric boiler near Amsterdam under the Netherlands’ SDE+ program for large scale renewables. The facility is planned to operate when a lot of electricity from wind and sun is available and to supply hot water to households in the city and its surrounding areas.

The proposed technique is based on radiative cooling and consists of a glass coating made with a two-dimensional subwavelength nanostructured grating, which is imprinted in soda-lime glass and has enhanced mid-infrared emissivity, and a micro-structured grating. The temperature decrease provided by the nano-micro-grating coating was found to be approximately up to 5.8 degrees Celsius.

France’s Solar Cloth has announced that Renault Trucks has listed it as a supplier for its factories.

Scientists in the U.S. fabricated a semitransparent perovskite solar cell that reached 19.8%, and 28.3% in a tandem cell stacked on top of a silicon-heterojunction device. The device relies on a film of gold just a few atoms thick, grown using an innovative seeding method, which has the valuable properties of being both highly conductive and transparent.

The Chinese module manufacturer said the result was confirmed by the Institute for Solar Energy Research in Hamelin, Germany.

Scientists in China developed a new kesterite solar cell they say could be suitable for indoor or outdoor applications. The bifacial solar cell reached 9.3% frontside efficiency, and also achieved a 9.0% on the backside.