Doping perovskite solar cells with potassium is said to eliminate interface trapping defects and mobile ion migration. ‘Hysteresis suppression’ is key for more efficient cells based on the promising material.

Europe’s most important scientific research institutes have joined forces to make perovskite solar applications more than just a dream. The European Perovskite Initiative consortium is planning to draw up a perovskite white paper.

The European solar trade body expects 128 GW of new PV capacity in 2019, with China likely to bring around 43 GW online and Europe experiencing enough demand to deploy about 20.4 GW. In 2020, global solar demand is expected to reach 144 GW, while in the following three years new PV additions are forecast to total 158 GW, 169 GW and 180 GW, respectively.

The device, conceived for large scale solar, is said to solve the instability issues associated with the two-modules-in-portrait structure and to have the largest south-north slope seen in the tracker industry.

Solar could meet approximately 68% of global energy demand with other renewables making up the rest, according to a new report. A 100% renewable energy system could also create 22 million solar jobs by 2050, the study claims. Keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees C, though, would require FITs for projects up to 40 MW in capacity, auctions for bigger systems, removing fossil fuel and nuclear subsidies and providing more education and R&D and less red tape.

New global PV additions reached 94.2 GW in 2018, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Asia is the region with the largest share of cumulative PV capacity, with around 274.6 GW, followed by Europe and North America with 119.3 GW and 55.3 GW, respectively.

A recent Australian National University study shows that newly developed geographic information system algorithms can identify prospective sites for off-river pumped hydro projects throughout the world. The researchers, who identified around 530,000 potential sites, said pumped-hydro installations could enable large-scale energy time-shifting, as well as a range of ancillary services such as frequency regulation, which could help to integrate high levels of PV and wind into electricity systems.

The Solarville project, by Ikea’s Danish research and design laboratory, has seen the participation of blockchain companies such as Bloc, Blocktech, WeMoveIdeas India and Temporal. It was conceived to help create cooperative community micro-grids to enable homeowners to become clean energy traders.

Open-source blockchain platform Energy Web Foundation has revealed the number of its affiliates has risen from 37 last month to 100. New members include EnBW, Total and the State Grid Corporation of China. The platform was conceived to create an energy-blockchain ecosystem and to accelerate the energy transition.

According to new figures released by SolarPower Europe, last year saw 1.4 GW more new solar generation capacity than trade body had expected. Lower demand in China was compensated for by stronger developments in emerging markets.