Solar

A floating, reverse-osmosis-based unit turns seawater into potable drinking water through the power of the sun and waves. Oneka developed the product, which requires no external electricity source and no land.

The US Department of Commerce’s anti-circumvention probe has essentially shut down US procurement of PV modules, and the government is expected to take its full allotment of 150 days to make a ruling, says Philip Shen, managing director of ROTH Capital Partners.

US researchers have proposed the use of hydraulically fractured oil and gas wells to store renewable energy via compressed natural gas, with the levelized cost of storage potentially coming in at $70/MWh and $270/MWh. They said wells could also be used to store other renewable gases such as carbon dioxide or hydrogen in the future.

Researchers have developed a PV module with with an efficiency of 20.72%, based on tin oxide (SnO2) as an electron transport layer,  an organometal halide perovskite layer, organic halide salt phenethylammonium iodide (PEAI) as a passivation agent, and Spiro-OMeTAD as the hole transport layer (HTL).

A group of international scientists has investigated the potential use of radiative cooling in PV systems, in a newly published review focusing on challenges and opportunities for the passive cooling technology.

Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske (ERS), a utility in the Republic of Srpska – one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina – will introduce a net-metering scheme for residential PV before the end of this year.

A startup incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur has introduced ZincGel battery tech, which could offer significant savings for owners of two-wheel electric vehicles.

Everfuel has signed a deal to build a hydrogen refueling station in Germany, while the European Hydrogen Backbone initiative has accelerated its own program to produce 20.6 million tons of renewable, low-carbon European hydrogen. Separately, the UK government published its hydrogen investor roadmap to 2030.

Scientists in Canada fabricated a perovskite solar cell based on an inverted structure that achieved 23.9% efficiency, and maintained 92% of its initial performance after 500 hours of accelerated aging tests. By carefully controlling the thickness of the perovskite layer, the group was also able to gain control of “quantum mechanics” properties such as the movement of electrons within the layer and the wavelengths of light absorbed.

In other news, Shuangliang is planning to set up 20 GW of solar module production and Longi has said higher electricity prices may have an impact on its financial results.