Solar PV

The United Kingdom’s cumulative installed solar capacity reached 15.13 GW by the end of May, with 480 MW added between January and May 2023.

Kaneka and Itochu have switched on a solar microgrid in Japan. It is powered exclusively by 2.2 MW of PV and 6 MWh of storage capacity. It will sell power to the eight companies operating at the site via a power purchase agreement.

Enfoil is developing a CIGS thin film custom manufacturing business, targeting building-integrated PV applications, such as powering sensors or track & trace sub-systems in trucks. The company is a spinoff of Hasselt University and imec, the Belgian research institute.

The novel heat pump, developed by a research group in Israel, consists of a loudspeaker, a resonator, and a thermoacoustic core placed inside the resonator. The core includes a cold heat exchanger, a stack, and an ambient heat exchanger.

CVE, a French developer, has deployed a solar plant based on PV modules ballasted on the ground. The installation will cover nearly 10% of the overall consumption of an industrial site in Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne, France.

The high temperatures registered in the third week of July caused demand record peaks in Spain and Italy on July 19 and demand increases in other markets. In France, the weekly photovoltaic energy production was the highest in history, but in most markets, solar and wind energy production fell. All these factors, together with the increase in CO2 prices, favored electricity markets prices to be above those of the previous week in most markets.

Scientists from India conceived a new system for crop growth in remote areas with no connection to the power grid. It consists of a PV panel, add-on module hardware (AOMH), a battery, step-down DC-DC converters, system power devices, automation, and sensor elements. For climate control, it also comprises a water pump, a ventilation fan for CO2 assimilation, sprinkler foggers, and drop irrigation solenoids.

Soške Elektrarne Nova Gorica is working with Slovenia highway operator Dars to build several PV arrays along Slovenia’s biggest motorway.

Burgerland Energie has deployed a redox flow storage battery from German battery manufacturer CMBlu in the immediate vicinity of a PV-wind power hybrid power plant.

Scientists in Ireland investigated the effect of shunt resistance on a PV cell’s electrical performance. The group says its finding could potentially lead to the development of models for early detection of various forms of cell degradation, allowing for intervention to repair or replace components before major power losses occur.