Solar Cells

TotalEnergies had the biggest amount of utility-scale PV projects in its swag from July 2022 to June 2023, according to United States (US) research firm Mercom. The French energy company had 12 GW of solar projects operating, 3.8 GW under construction and 25.5 GW in the pipeline, according to Mercom’s hotly anticipated “Annual Global Report.”

Solar Energy Corp. of India Ltd. (SECI) has started accepting bids to supply 400 MW of domestically manufactured solar modules built with made-in-India cells. The modules must be rated a minimum of 540 W each. Bidding ends on Dec. 23.

Sharp’s new IEC61215- and IEC61730-certified solar panels have an operating temperature coefficient of -0.30% per C and a bifaciality factor of over 80%.

A group of scientists in Korea has a hot-air technique instead of atomic layer deposition to fabricate a perovskite absorber that reportedly shows a higher film quality. They applied this film in a perovskite-organic tandem solar cell, which exhibited low open-circuit voltage losses and high efficiency levels.

The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero says the latest round for its Boiler Upgrade Scheme – an initiative awarding GBP 7,500 ($9,500) to families in England and Wales to replace traditional boilers for heat pumps – “surged” with a threefold increase in applications.

Delhi-based Bluebird Solar, which currently operates 400 MW of annual panel manufacturing capacity, says it will ramp up capacity to 1.2 GW by March 2024 and to 2 GW by March 2025.

Scientists in Spain have proposed to combine anaerobic digestion plants with photovoltaic-thermal panels and have found that this combination may achieve an LCOE of $0.045/kWh across several locations in Europe and North America.

Tongwei is planning a cell and module factory in the Sichuan province, while Canadian Solar is setting up a new wafer factory in the Jiangsu province.

Scientists from Trina Solar, Longi, Fraunhofer ISE, and other entities have looked at light and elevated temperature-induced degradation (LeTID) in gallium-doped Czochralski silicon (Cz-Si:Ga) PERC cells. They have found little relevant degradation.

Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is inviting proposals for the development of 1 MW (AC) to 5 MW (AC) solar projects across half a dozen locations in the South Asian country.