UNSW

The government of the Australian state of Queensland says it has committed AUD 2.5 million ($1.6 million) to progress the development of an “Australian first” solar-panel recycling scheme, in preparation for “thousands” of PV modules installed on rooftops and in large-scale solar farms that are approaching end of life.

University of New South Wales (UNSW) researchers have looked at energy losses in South Australia and have identified average curtailment of 1.5% for distributed PV sites and 0.2% for distributed PV coupled with batteries, but some locations experience generation losses of up to 25%.

From zero to hero in 20 years, China’s PV industry has undergone an extraordinary journey. Vincent Shaw considers the reasons for the nation’s solar success and the challenges ahead.

New research from UNSW in Australia outlines the need for solar cell and module makers to reduce or eliminate the use of silver in their products. Based on expected PV growth, in line with climate change commitments, solar manufacturers would require at least 85% of global silver reserves, according to the new study.

Researchers from the University of New South Wales have been chosen to work with Airbus Defence and Space on a strategic research program to fast-track the development of high-efficiency solar cells for space applications.

A solar-powered electric vehicle, designed and built by students of Australia’s University of New South Wales, has claimed a provisional Guinness World Record by going 1,000 km on a single charge in under 12 hours.

GoodWe has released a new solar-powered smart EV charger for residential use, Envision AESC has broken ground on a 12 GWh battery plant in the United Kingdom. and PG&E has invited customers to pre-enroll in its three upcoming vehicle-to-everything (V2X) pilot programs.

A team of researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has proposed a novel cost-effective way to recycle silicon solar panels. Their process consists of module deframing, laminate shredding and material concentration using electrostatic separation, reducing their original weight by 2% to 3%.

New research from renowned PV scientist Martin Green and colleagues at UNSW reveals that perovskite solar cells may struggle to deal with reverse-bias caused by uneven shading or other issues likely to appear in the field. Both the reverse-bias itself and resulting build up of heat can cause several of the materials commonly used in perovskite solar cells to degrade, and these issues have received only limited attention in research published to date. Solutions, however, are at hand.

This week sees new technoeconomic analysis published on different aspects/materials for heterojunction: Important to consider as Europe in particular looks to be betting big on this technology for its manufacturing comeback. And a new report from NREL in the United States examines progress in degradation and durability to increase module lifetimes.