France may reach between 70 and 208 GW of PV by 2050
French grid operator RTE has outlined six scenarios on how France’s energy system may achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. In the most optimistic one, solar is expected to reach a cumulative capacity of 208 GW.
New process to recycle silicon, silver and glass from end-of-life PV panels
A €4.8 million EU-funded research project is aiming to develop a process that allows recovering all components of a photovoltaic module.
French PV companies set up agrivoltaics association
Sun’Agri, REM Tec, Kilowattsol and Altergie Développement et Râcines have announced the creation of France Agrivoltaisme, the world’s first association for the promotion of agrivoltaics.
Australian PV system owners look at off-grid options amid talk of tariffs
Q Cells Australia says many residential solar customers are contemplating exiting the grid entirely as policymakers grapple with how to integrate small-scale renewables like rooftop solar PV and batteries into the electricity system.
Netherlands allocates 3.53 GW of PV
The fall 2020 round of the Dutch SDE++ program awarded 75 MW of heat pumps and 310 MW of electric boilers to developers. About €2.12 billion of state funds will also be used to support a CO2 capture project that an international consortium is building in Rotterdam.
First Solar to add 3.3 GW of capacity in a new $680 million US factory
The 1.8 million-square-foot facility is projected to create 500 jobs and produce an enhanced thin-film PV module for the utility-scale solar market in the U.S.
Perovskite solar panel with 16.1% efficiency via ambient air blade-coating
The panel, fabricated by scientists in Italy, is composed of five series-connected cells, each with an area of 2.01 cm² and has an aperture area of 11 cm². It showed a power conversion efficiency of 16.1%, an open-circuit voltage of 5.59 V, a short-circuit current of 37 mA, and a fill factor of 72.5%.
New walkways for the installation of rooftop PV systems
Spanish mounting system provider Alusín Solar has developed a solution to enable the transit of installers on roofs. It has recently commissioned a production line for this product, which it dubbed Carex.
Solar module cooling technique based on multiple phase-change materials
Academics have utilized three PCMs, known as RT26, RT35, and RT42, and decided to pack them ascendingly depending on their melting points and heat-flow direction. The system is claimed to allow lower melting rates and longer thermal management of the modules.
‘More room” remaining for small, medium PV projects in Spain
pv magazine recently spoke to Asier Ukar, managing director & senior consultant at PI Berlin in Spain, about the Spanish solar market, PV module prices, the most common failures in installations, and PV manufacturing in Europe.
