Technology

The efficiency of the cell, made with a standard M2 wafer, was raised around 0.7% by using an improved busbar-free screen printing metallization process based on heterojunction processes developed with manufacturing equipment provided by Swiss specialist Meyer Burger.

The English company says its modular solutions are due to undergo flight testing in the U.S. and are ‘three to five years’ from commercial production for aircraft.

The proposed model is said to perform better at energy prediction than software tools such as PVWatts, PVSyst or RetScreen. The approach was validated on two 5 MW PV plants in the same district of the Indian state of Rajasthan.

Researchers from Hungary have analyzed the thermal behavior of different types of PV module via thermography, and claim to have shown that theoretical models are insufficient to measure the maximum, minimum, and average temperatures of the panels. According to their analysis, glass-glass modules without frame showed the highest temperatures, while the lowest temperatures were measured for polycrystalline glass-backsheet panels with frame.

French water management agency Société du Canal de Provence (SCP) is planning an innovative floating project to test its combination with a solar tracking system. The 250 kW project was awarded a fixed tariff in a special tender for innovative PV projects held by The French Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) in February 2018. The plant will be deployed on a water surface managed by SCP in Southern France.

An international research team is proposing a fuzzy logic approach for optimal site selection of large-scale wind, solar and hybrid wind-solar power projects. The new methodology is based on criterial components for energy optimization through climatological, topographic and human factors.

US researchers have unvelied a new manufacturing process to produce cadmium telluride (CdTe) PV panels, which they claim is 45% cheaper than current industry standards. The technique relies on the use of a high-pressure Bridgman furnace, which is a kind of industrial furnace utilized for crystal growth and directional solidification of polycrystalline ingots.

UK scientists are proposing a new approach to calculating the optimum angular-tilt of PV panels for a planar surface at a particular site. In their view, the new technique may unlock innovative yield optimization methods for the installation of PV systems.

Chinese researchers have developed a pure EVA film, which they claim can enhance the conversion efficiency of conventional crystalline solar cells by around 0.50%. The film is able to convert UV light into strong visible light.

UK researchers claim to have proved the viability of wearable photovoltaic devices as an integrated part of regular clothing. A solar-powered fabric textile was created by embedding micro-crystalline silicon solar cells within the fibers of a textile through thin copper wires. The scientists claim that the device can maintain its performance even after 15 domestic machine cycles, 25 hand wash cycles, and 6000 abrasion cycles.