Solar Cells

A Spanish research team aims to bring concentrating photovoltaics closer to commercial viability by miniaturizing its components. The scientists claim that smaller CPV cells may reduce production costs and enable better CPV module assembly.

GCL Group has announced plans to build China’s first gigawatt-scale perovskite solar module factory in Suzhou, Jiangsu province. It said in November that its 1 m x 2 m perovskite single-junction modules had reached a power conversion efficiency of 18.04%.

As solar module prices continue to fall, pvXchange.com founder Martin Schachinger explains the difficulties of rebuilding a solar supply chain from scratch in Europe.

British renewable energy company Octopus Energy Group announced it would use a recent $800 million investment to “drive real scale” of heat pump manufacture and installation, and create 3,000 new jobs.

Saudi Arabia-based energy developer ACWA Power says it has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with state-owned utility Eskom for a 442 MW solar facility with 1200 MWh of battery storage in South Africa’s Northern Cape province.

CEA-INES researchers and Enel have developed a new solar cell with an active area of 9 cm² and an open-circuit voltage above 1,900 mV. Their results improve on the 27.1% efficiency they achieved for the same kind of cell in June.

Prices in most European markets in the second week of December were lower than the previous week’s figures, according to AleaSoft Energy Forecasting. Less electricity demand, lower gas and CO2 futures prices, and increased solar energy production in most of the major European electricity markets caused the downward trend.

Prices for p-type PERC solar panels could cross the €0.10 ($0.1093)/W threshold in the first quarter of 2024, says Leen van Bellen, business development manager Europe for Search4Solar, a Dutch purchasing platform for PV products. He told pv magazine that European stocks are expected to shrink, and that prices should recover in the middle of the second quarter of 2024.

TAQA, an Abu Dhabi-based energy company, has signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the possibility of becoming a shareholder in the €1.9 billion ($3.08 billion) Greece and Cyprus high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electricity interconnection.

Last year Canada switched on its largest utility-scale PV array – the 465 MW (AC) Travers Solar Project – which buoyed solar figures to 4.4 GW, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). But a PV expert warns a six-month pause on renewable energy projects in Alberta this year could slow the whole country’s momentum.