solar modules

Dean Solon of Shoals Technologies Group: “The short version is that it’s been a damned good year.” An interview with Shoals covers the growth of large solar projects in the U.S., high AC/DC ratios and the real costs of using cheap components.

International researchers have developed data quality routines to ensure data fidelity in O&M practices. They reconstructed invalid data through a sequence of filtering stages and inference techniques.

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.

Moroccan scientists have tested reverse osmosis paired with PV generation to maximize chlorophenol rejection in wastewater treatment. They said the tech combination can help to reduce energy consumption.

As the world accelerates toward decreasing carbon emissions, so too should the solar industry’s supply chain. This was the idea that has led to the establishment of the Ultra Low-Carbon Solar Alliance this week.

The South Korean authorities plan to introduce new rules for PV waste recycling in 2023. Several recycling facilities are already being built, including one by the government, with a combined capacity of 9,700 tons.

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.

Scientists led by China’s Nanjing University discovered that a chemical commonly used for bleaching in the textile industry can also serve as a performance-boosting additive to mixed lead/tin perovskite thin films. Using this additive, they were ultimately able to fabricate a two perovskite tandem cell measuring 1.05cm² that achieved 24.2% efficiency.

German developer Next2Sun has completed a 4.1 MW solar plant built with roughly 11,000 bifacial panels provided by Chinese manufacturer Jolywood.

In a move that’s sure to pan out well for the Granny Smith gold mine in Western Australia, Aggreko has installed one of the country’s largest renewable energy microgrids, with 7.7 MWp of solar to be integrated with the site’s existing power station. pv magazine recently sat down with Karim Wazni, Aggreko’s managing director of microgrids and storage solutions, to discuss how microgrids and energy storage can help transition Australia’s resource sector.