How Covid-19 is affecting the French solar sector
Franc Raffalli, president of the Photovoltaic Professions Group of the French Building Federation spoke to pv magazine about the impact of the coronavirus on the French PV industry.
An organic solar cell with 25% efficiency
The ‘best conversion performance in the world in a dark room’ is how the developers of a new organic PV device have described it. Such cells could be used as a wireless source of energy for internet of things applications or in gadgets such as temperature-humidity and motion sensors.
Can a transparent solar window harvest enough power to be economical?
Can an organic solar cell material finally be commercialized? Last year, Ubiquitous Energy claimed a world record for efficiency of a “transparent solar cell” with a “certified” 9.8% efficiency.
Energy communities are now allowed in France
A footnote in France’s energy legislation had been holding back the development of collective self-consumption in the country, limiting such projects to ‘experimental’ status with terms of no more than five years. The removal of this footnote at the beginning of March means that energy communities for self-consumption are now permitted across the country.
Floating PV learning from aquaculture industry
The CEO of Norwegian floating solar company Ocean Sun has spoken to pv magazine about his company’s innovative design for floating PV projects in near-shore locations and semi-sheltered waters. A pilot project built in the Philippines last year, said Børge Bjørneklett, is providing better-than-expected power output.
Italian PPA-linked solar portfolio sold
Chinese-Canadian module manufacturer Canadian Solar and Italy’s Manni Energy have sold five PV plants with a total generation capacity of 17 MW to Dutch independent power producer Sonnedix. The Sicilian projects are among Italy’s first operational unsubsidized PV facilities.
Solar project to more than double Guinea-Bissau generation capacity
Chinese business Sinohydro has secured the contract for a 20 MW solar plant in Gardete, near the city of Bissau. The tender for the project was launched a year ago.
Predicting the I-V characteristics of PV systems under partial shading
Researchers in Tunisia have proposed a method of determining the characteristic I-V profile of a partially shaded PV module, and to extrapolate it into a string profile.
Australian government stimulates PV in the face of Covid-19 threat
The federal government’s ‘economic response to the coronavirus’ legislation encompasses the installation of commercial and industrial solar.
Bad vibes for organic solar cells
Researchers in Germany and Belgium have discovered ‘zero point vibrations’ are responsible for performance limitations in organic solar cells. New strategies to minimize such vibration-induced voltage losses in organic PV should be investigated, say the scientists.
