Solar Power

Growatt’s new AXE LV battery covers a wide range of capacities, from 5kWh to 400kWh, and can support off-grid systems with power outputs of 3kW to 30kW.

Through the procurement exercise, the power utility is seeking proposals to deploy around 600MW of capacity that will have to start providing power in February 2026, and another 250MW to begin commercial operations in February 2027.

US researchers suggest that by 2050, when 94% of electricity comes from renewable sources, approximately 930GW of energy storage power and six and a half hours of capacity will be needed to fully cover demand for electricity in the United States.

Germany-based Linde Engineering has started up a full-scale pilot plant in Dormagen to showcase how hydrogen can be separated from natural gas streams using its membrane technology. Furthermore, Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy developer Masdar has teamed up with French energy giants Engie and Totalenergies on two separate hydrogen projects and Sweden’s nuclear power company OKG signed its first contract with an external buyer to enter the hydrogen market as a producer and supplier.

A research team has outlined an optimized array topology for agrivoltaic projects built with bifacial modules. According to its findings, the benefits of bifacial PV arrays are most prominent in stilt mounted projects, where modules are elevated considerably off the ground at over 2 m, thus allowing plenty of light to be absorbed by the rear PV side as well.

The National Energy Administration (NEA) reported this week that the newly installed PV capacity for the Chinese market reached around 53 GW last year. Of this capacity, around 29 GW comes from distributed generation projects. The country’s cumulative installed power reached 306 GW at the end of December.

According to Asia Europe Clean Energy (Solar) Advisory (AECEA), this huge capacity may not be met by actual demand in the global market. Furthermore, the consultancy reveals that solar module prices should reach a price level of up to RMB 1.75 ($028)/W by the second half of the year, and that in 2021 new PV additions totaled 53 GW with more than half of this capacity being delivered by distributed generation.

Researchers in India have built the 4T device with top and bottom cells based on large-area semi-transparent perovskite cells with copper metal contacts. Copper has been used instead of expensive gold with the aim of reducing the cell’s overall cost.

Developed by Chinese specialist SolarMaster, the panel is sold in four different versions with photovoltaic output ranging from 340 to 545 W and solar thermal output of 910 to 1,436 W.

Solar farm operators are turning to AI-powered inspection to speed up the inspection process and improve accuracy. They use algorithms that can automatically detect solar panel defects from images.