Solar Cells

The China Energy Investment Corp is planning to invest RMB22 billion in a facility in the autonomous region. The state-owned mining and energy company has signed a framework agreement with the government of the city of Yijin Holo Banner for the project.

The 18-meter long solar cell-clad trailer is said to enable fuel savings of 5-10% in Sweden. Swedish thin-film manufacturer Midsummer is a partner on the project.

A U.K.-Portuguese research group is proposing a new solar cell design based on diffraction gratings – optical components that split and diffract light into several beams. They claim this could lead to a 125% improvement in light trapping.

Indian Minister of Power RK Singh has revealed interest from manufacturers in developing more production lines, even before newly planned incentive schemes are taken into account.

A US study has suggested the raised energy yield of bifacial perovskite devices effectively means they could have a lower environmental impact than conventional crystalline cells. The researchers considered single-junction cells with high and low bandgaps and similar, multi-junction devices with two and four-terminal structures.

The demonstrated device, according to the academics, is built with interfaces between the active cell layers that improve the top cell carrier collection. The cell was built with texturing and a hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) passivation of a silicon back surface.

Startup SunDrive has secured US$2.2 million in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to help scale its low-cost, high-efficiency solar cell manufacturing process.

The U.S. based researchers have developed a new wide-bandgap perovskite layer – called Apex Flex – which they claim is able to withstand heat, light, and operational tests, and at the same time provide a reliable and high voltage. With this material, they built tandem solar cells with 23.1% power conversion efficiency on a rigid substrate, and 21.3% on flexible plastic.

Scientists at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne have developed a new ‘chemical innovation’, for the deposition of perovskite solar cells onto a substrate. The method is shown to produce cells at better than 23% efficiency, that remained stable after 500 hours testing at a raised temperature.

And module manufacturer Trina Solar announced on Monday afternoon that the company has signed an agreement with the government of Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, for the construction of a 10 GW solar module factory.