Technology

The hail storms that occurred recently in northern Italy damaged several photovoltaic systems. pv magazine Italy retrieved a report from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam from 2019 which tried to shed light on the damage caused to solar installations by hail by analyzing the effects of a severe hailstorm that occurred in the Netherlands in 2016. According to their assessments, damages to PV modules are mostly derived from hailstones of at least 3 cm in diameter.

Researchers in Canada have found that nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEBs) with on-site solar energy generation should not exceed an energy use intensity (EUI) of 50 kWh/m2a, which they said corresponds to a maximum of 10 floors. They also ascertained that the maximum permitted EUI by net-zero energy status is 17–28 kWh/m2a.

Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory and the US National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) have found that renewable energy can reduce the cost and emissions of electricity in remote parts of Alaska.

South Korea’s SDN has developed new bifacial solar modules based on M10 wafers. The new products feature a power conversion efficiency of 21.46% and, according to the manufacturer, are the world’s most efficient floating PV panels.

Vaulta, an Australian battery tech company, has developed its first dedicated residential battery. The small-scale energy storage system can purportedly operate for 4,000 cycles, with an 80% depth of discharge.

The SeaVolt consortium says it will launch an offshore floating PV demonstrator off the Belgian port of Ostend. The main companies – Tractebel, DEME, Equans and Jan De Nul – say the anchored floating array will collect data for at least a year to scale up the tech.

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.

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.