South Africa’s sixth renewables auction concludes with lowest bid of $0.02689/kWh
South Africa selected five solar projects with a combined capacity of 860 MW in its latest auction. However, the authorities did not select any wind projects from the 4.1 GW of bids that were submitted. The final average price for PV was ZAR 0.490 ($0.02808)/kWh.
US startup develops solar-powered agricultural dehydrator
UA Technologies has developed PV-powered crop dehydration products that don’t require oil and gas fuel.
Australian researchers patent additive for perovskite’s stability problem
University of New South Wales (UNSW) researchers in Australia have discovered a low-cost way to stabilize perovskite solar cells with a triple function additive. Perovskite cells have shown the best stability results with it so far.
EU aims for 30 GW of solar module production by 2025
The European Commission has launched the EU Solar PV Industry Alliance. SolarPower Europe has already joined the new entity, while EIT InnoEnergy said it will act as its secretariat.
Portugal cuts environmental approvals for utility-scale solar projects
Portugal’s new environmental rules will apply to PV projects built on sites spanning less than 100 hectares, but they will not apply to installations in protected areas.
General Electric switches on 600 MW of pumped hydro storage in China
General Electric said one of its subsidiaries has deployed two 300 MW pumped storage turbines at a 1.2 GW hydro battery complex in China’s Anhui province.
Greenko wins 3 GW storage tender in India with pumped hydro bid
Greenko has won NTPC Renewable Energy’s tender for 3 GWh of energy storage capacity. Its pumped storage bid was the lowest in the tech-agnostic tender.
Energetica resumes solar module production
Austrian module manufacturer Energetica has restarted production, following its acquisition by IRMA Power.
MIT scientists produce new organic photovoltaic fabrics
US researchers have developed a thin-film organic solar module on a vapor-deposited releasable substrate made of parylene. The device could be used as a wearable fabric, or to bring solar generation to remote locations.
Inverted perovskite solar cell with 22.15% efficiency, 83.92% fill factor
Chinese scientists have used daminozide as an interlayer and additive to make a perovskite solar cell with a p-i-n structure. It has the highest efficiency and highest fill factor for a polycrystalline, MAPbI 3-based inverted perovskite solar cell to date.
