Solar

German and Swedish researchers calculated the supply of materials to produce perovskite tandem PV at a multi-terawatt-scale, flagging the difficult supply of gold, indium and cesium, well as a need to streamline production of certain materials used for hole-transport layers. “In essence, we might be able to go post-fossil fuels, but we can’t go post-minerals,” the research’s corresponding author, Lukas Wagner, told pv magazine.

Researchers in China have designed a two-stage, solar-assisted thermochemical heat pump system that uses caustic soda and water as a working pair. The system is reportedly able to achieve an energy storage density of 363 kWh/m3 and is considered by its creators an ideal solution for residential buildings with limited space.

Singapore-based renewables developer Vena Energy has launched commercial operations of a 125 MW solar project in the Australian state of Queensland. It is backed by a long-term offtake agreement with global tech giant Amazon.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, offers bite-sized analysis on solar PV module supply and price trends.

As the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) ramps up clean energy efforts across the United States, the government has outlined a plan to expand transmission lines to accommodate more power.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory developed a proof of concept for a method to remove polymers from solar panel manufacturing to enable more efficient recycling.

The European Parliament has approved the Net-Zero Industry Act, which now awaits formal adoption by the European Council to become law. The European Solar Manufacturing Council has welcomed the decision, saying that it “gives a green light for procurement of sustainable European-made solar panels.”

The Irish authorities have presented a new plan to allow homeowners to borrow between €5,000 ($5,350) and €75,000 for up to 10 years, with low interest rates. Heat pumps, solar electricity and solar water heater installations are all eligible under the scheme.

On April 25, 1954, US researchers presented the first prototype of a usable solar module. The efficiency at that time was around 6%. A lot has happened since then.

An international research team has used the convolutional neural network (CNN) deep learning algorithm to identify faults in solar panels. Its work showed the proposed technique has a high degree of accuracy, especially if combined with transfer learning models.