Solar Technology & PV R&D News

An EU funded solar-plus-storage project has been tendered in the Philippines. The United Nations is seeking bids for the system, to support the for the seaweed industry on the island of Tawi-Tawi. Combining PV with aquaculture brings many advantages for both, including water conservation, a more controlled aquatic environment, and ecosystem restoration.

A vision of a decentralized, renewable-powered electricity grid is being brought a step closer by scientists at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Their project, Autonomous Energy Grids, aims to take an overarching look at the solutions that will power this grid of the future, and to fill any gaps that appear between them.

Researchers have built a tool to use cheap satellite imagery – like Google Maps – to automatically create solar designs with a 91% accuracy rate.

Global retail brand Gap moved one step closer to its goal of fully renewably-powered operations by 2030 after signing a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Enel Green Power North America. It has purchased 90MW of energy from the renewables giant's North Dakota wind project for a period of 12 years.

China-based PV module manufacturer, Wuxi Suntech Power Co has been ranked seventh highest in the latest Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BloombergNEF) ‘Solar Module & Inverter Bankability 2019’, report.

Scientists at the Australia National University have observed a key stage in the process of photosynthesis which could be copied to greatly increase the efficiency of sunlight-powered water splitting processes used to produce hydrogen.

The weight of a thin-film rooftop PV installation at Netherlands football club AZ Alkmaar has been highlighted in media reports as a possible cause of a stadium roof collapse. However, a full investigation is yet to be launched and one German specialist said studies have shown flush-mount PV panels do not increase static wind loads on rooftops.

By considering use of the metal in charging infrastructure, analyst Wood Mackenzie has found higher demand from the mobility sector than is the case if only the volume of the material required for vehicle construction is examined.

Researchers in the US have published a study that brings 20 years of renewable energy (solar PV and/or wind plus storage) generation into line with historical energy-demand profiles, to ascertain at what storage cost point renewables can cost-effectively consistently meet 100% demand.

A U.S. research team has found the most efficient locations for agrivoltaics include western America, southern Africa and the Middle East. The researchers found crop land, grasslands and wetlands were the best environments for PV projects linked to agriculture. Conditions suitable for crops are ideal for improving solar module efficiency.

Michael van der Gugten, Sales and Marketing Executive at Smit Thermal Solutions, is convinced that perovskite solar cells have reached maturity, and that they are ready to make the step from the lab to production. He is leading the organization of a conference on this topic and expects that the perovskite community, production equipment suppliers and crystalline silicon cell manufacturers will discuss the implementation of perovskite-silicon tandem cells or the production of standalone perovskite modules.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS) have developed a method for automatically assessing rooftops for solar potential.

Chinese thin film producer Hanergy has set a new record of 24.85% module efficiency for silicon heterojunction technology. The record was achieved at the company’s research & development center in Chengdu, China, and has been confirmed by the Institute for Solar Energy Research in Hamelin, Germany.

The MNRE has invited proposals for high-efficiency perovskite solar cells, solar panel recycling, hybrid inverters and new applications that combine solar and storage, among others.

The researchers have developed a new manufacturing process by using an ultra-thin absorbing layer made of 205-nanometer-thick gallium arsenide (GaAs) and a nanostructured back mirror.