Chinese wafer prices stable-to-soft amid high inventories
In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, offers bite-sized analysis on solar PV module supply and price trends.
US to upgrade power transmission infrastructure
As the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) ramps up clean energy efforts across the United States, the government has outlined a plan to expand transmission lines to accommodate more power.
Improving solar panel recyclability with lasers
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory developed a proof of concept for a method to remove polymers from solar panel manufacturing to enable more efficient recycling.
European Parliament votes in favor of Net-Zero Industry Act
The European Parliament has approved the Net-Zero Industry Act, which now awaits formal adoption by the European Council to become law. The European Solar Manufacturing Council has welcomed the decision, saying that it “gives a green light for procurement of sustainable European-made solar panels.”
First silicon solar cell celebrates 70th birthday
On April 25, 1954, US researchers presented the first prototype of a usable solar module. The efficiency at that time was around 6%. A lot has happened since then.
PV module fault detection technique based on convolutional neural network
An international research team has used the convolutional neural network (CNN) deep learning algorithm to identify faults in solar panels. Its work showed the proposed technique has a high degree of accuracy, especially if combined with transfer learning models.
Reducing photovoltaic-thermal module temperature with iron, copper oxide
An international research team has proposed using iron oxide and copper oxide to lower photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) solar module temperature. Their analysis showed that the two compounds were able to lower the panels’ operating temperature by 23.49% and 34.58% respectively.
Indian startup develops sand-based gravity energy storage system
Baud Resources, a clean-tech startup, has developed a gravity energy storage mechanism that uses locally available materials such as sand and industrial waste as its payload. The company is building a 100 MWh pilot plant that will reportedly offer a levelized cost of storage of around INR 2.5 ($0.03)/kWh.
Norwegian startup unveils CO2 water-to-water heat pump
Tequs said its new plug-and-play heat pump can deliver up to 90 C of heat for space heating, air conditioning, and domestic hot water. The new product is available in eight versions with capacity ranging from 17 kW to 268 kW.
Huasun presents ‘zero busbar’ heterojunction solar modules with 23.8% efficiency
The Chinese manufacturer launched two new module series for utility scale applications. The new products feature a temperature coefficient of -0.24% per C and a bifaciality factor of over 85%.
