The impact of wildfire smoke on rooftop PV
While investigating on the effects of wildfire smoke on rooftop PV installations, a group of scientists in Australia has discovered that solar arrays, due to their sensitivity to smoke, could serve as an early warning detection of wildfires by providing temporal and spatial information on the presence and approximate concentrations of smoke.
India focuses on residential rooftop PV, EV infrastructure in new budget
Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has submitted an interim national budget for fiscal 2024-25 to parliament, with a focus on residential rooftop solar, funding for offshore wind, and support for EV manufacturing and charging infrastructure.
Solar waste to provide material supply security
Researchers from the University of New South Wales have rejected suggestions that end-of-life solar panels could create a “waste mountain” in Australia, saying instead that they could serve as valuable material reservoirs for future production.
Solar PV technical and vocational training in Africa: best practices from the field
Training and capacity-building become fundamental to effectively support the deployment of renewable energy technologies in Africa. For this reason, RES4Africa Foundation, under the umbrella of the RES4Africa Academy, provides multi-level capacity-building to guarantee open access, inclusivity, youth and women empowerment, linkages with industry and the labour market, and customization to local requirements, among others.
U.S. researchers testing dual-use solar snow fence
Pairing electricity production with snow drift barriers to protect roads is being evaluated by the Minnesota department of Transportation.
Chinese PV Industry Brief: Shenzhen Hiking PV to set up GW-level factory
Shenzhen Hiking PV has unveiled plans to set up a joint venture with a state-run company to build gigawatt-level perovskite/polysilicon tandem cell and panel production capacity in Guangdong province, while Hoshine has announced progress at its PV integration park in Xinjiang.
TSUN releases new series of microinverters
Chinese manufacturer TSUN says its Titan series of microinverters can handle 15 A of continuous input DC current. They also feature a 97.2% efficiency and four maximum power point tracking (MPPT) channels.
Sunrun solar-plus-storage powers the grid during peak demand
In partnership with utility Pacific Gas and Electric, the residential solar installer enrolled distributed batteries to serve the grid during times of peak demand.
China’s new PV installations hit 216.88 GW in 2023
China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has revealed that China’s cumulative PV capacity reached 609.49 GW at the end of 2023.
2023 delivers best year this century for irradiance
In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that, last year, large regions were 10% or more above long term trends for solar radiation, including Western and Northern Europe, Eurasia, much of China, Southern Australia, the Midwestern and Southern US, Central and most of South America.
