SERIS

More than 1.3 GWp of floating solar capacity has already been built throughout the world, according to a new report, with the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore reaffirming its belief that the global potential for floating PV is in the terawatt range.

The Singapore research institute will cooperate with China’s Ruxing Technology to increase the efficiency of its monoPoly™ technology. Through this cooperation, SERIS believes its solar cell efficiency could be raised to 24%, and module power beyond 345 W.

From a little known niche just a few years ago, floating solar has quickly grown to more than 1 GW of installed capacity worldwide, and a source of great hope for the industry’s future, particularly in countries where space for solar is at a premium. pv magazine spoke with experts from leading floating PV test centers in Singapore and the Netherlands to outline the challenges still faced by floating PV as the technology moves towards major growth.

The Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) announced a new efficiency milestone, achieving 21.5% average cell efficiency for its fully screen printed bifacial silicon technology. According to SERIS, the milestone was achieved at pilot-scale production using commercially available wafers.

Mitsubishi Electric and Tokyo-based Sumitomo Mitsui Construction have finished building a 2.6 MW floating solar plant on a pond in western Japan.

At the recent PV Taiwan event, pv magazine caught up with Lu Zhao, head of PV System Technology Group at the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) to discuss the current potential of floating PV applications, and examine how hydropower coupled with floating solar could become a world-leading energy sector.

Chinese Tier-1 solar company JinkoSolar is embarking on a research collaboration with the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore to develop high-efficiency bifacial solar cells.