Determining solar cells’ optical properties with conventional flatbed office scanners
Australian researchers have sought to measure solar cells’ optical properties via low cost office scanners and found they may offer results that are comparable to those of tools used in the PV industry.
New industrial plant concept for end-of-life PV panel recycling
Italian startup Tialpi is developing a process to recycle end-of-life solar panels that promises to recover 100% of a PV module’s weight. The new plant design is currently being tested at the company’s facility in the Italian northern province of Biella.
Photovoltaic-thermal solar tiles
Germany’s Paxos is currently testing the solar tile in a testing facility connected to an air heat pump. The panel can provide heat and electricity at the same time, while also improving the heat pump’s coefficient of performance by around 25%.
Turkey provides $410 million for 2 GW solar module factory
Smart Solar Technology has secured Turkish government support to build a vertically integrated solar module factory in Izmir, Turkey.
Inverted perovskite solar cell hits 21.4% efficiency with Ruddlesden-Popper passivation layer
South Korean scientists have used a vertically oriented passivation layer, featuring two-dimensional Ruddlesden-Popper perovskites (RPP), to mitigate nonradiative recombination in inverted perovskite solar cells. They achieved the highest efficiency ever reported for a perovskite cell formed by vacuum deposition.
Underground heat exchanger to cool down solar panels
Spanish scientists have built a cooling system featuring heat exchangers on solar panels and U-shape heat exchangers installed in a borehole at a depth of 15 meters. The researchers claim that this reduces panel temperatures by up to 17%, while improving performance by about 11%.
Mondragon Assembly to develop multi-gigawatt automated manufacturing line for BVG
It will be one of the largest and most automated lines in North India, with the capacity to produce high power modules with larger cells. The first phase will have a production capacity of 500 MW.
High-voltage solar panel for narrow roofs
Japan’s Xsol says its new monocrystalline PV modules offer 275 W of power output and an efficiency rating of 20.3%. They measure 1,760 mm × 768 mm × 30 mm and can be installed in two-panel rows.
Three-junction III-V solar cell with 29.3% efficiency
Japanese researchers have built an InGap-GaAs-CIGS solar cell that purportedly has the potential to reach an efficiency of 35%. The device has already achieved an efficiency of 31.0%, an open-circuit voltage of 2.97 V, a short-circuit current density of 12.41 mA/cm2, and a fill factor of 0.80.
Chinese PV Industry Brief: Daqo secures 46,200 MT polysilicon order
Daqo has secured another big polysilicon order and GCL Technology said it expects a profit of CNY 12.7 billion ($1.76 billion) from its solar materials business in the third quarter. Wafer manufacturer Wuxi Shangji Automation, meanwhile, has secured an order from TOPCon panel maker Da-Solar.
