Solar

Scientists in India have proposed to design new tandem solar cells using transition metal dichalcogenide as an absorber material for the bottom PV device. Their simulations showed these tandem cells may reach an efficiency of over 35%.

The U.S. company held the first test deployment of its solar arrays designed to power solar-electric propulsion systems for the Gateway space station.

A giant solar-plus-vanadium flow battery project in Xinjiang has completed construction, marking a milestone in China’s pursuit of long-duration, utility-scale energy storage.

This week Women in Solar+ Europe gives voice to Maria Ardila, construction engineer at UK-based Cubico Sustainable Investments. She says that progress remains slow in the energy industry because gender matters are often viewed as personal choices rather than the systemic issues they truly are. “Until society challenges the outdated norms and organizational structures that penalize mothers, meaningful advancement toward gender equity in leadership will continue to be constrained,” she states.

French engineer André Buhart has published the plans and open-source software to create a DIY “solar energy router” to manage PV overproduction. Depending on the configuration, the device can direct excess photovoltaic energy to water heaters, pool motors, or underfloor heating, among others.

AleaSoft Energy Forecasting’s latest analysis finds weekly average electricity prices dropped across most major European markets last week, driven by lower gas and CO2 emissions prices and in some cases, an increase in solar energy production.

New research on the PV markets of the four countries forming the so-called Visegrad Group has confirmed that solar prosumers are driven primarily by economic interests rather than environmental concerns. The scientists coined the concept of “energy self-defense” to define all those behaviors that push homeowners to resort to PV in attempt to address price shocks.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick look at the main price trends in the global PV industry.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that solar irradiance in June was impacted by Mexico’s earliest major hurricane on record, while wildfire smoke and persistent cloud suppressed irradiance over most of central and eastern U.S.

Scientists in Iran have developed a novel framework to optimize the capacity of PV and battery storage in smart homes, using a two-stage stochastic programming model. They considered the uncertainties in the grid, market price, and PV output, while also looking at different operation cases.