Manufacturing

A new wireless, Wi-Fi-connected solar solution featuring three Sungrow 100 kW inverters is now allowing more than 300 kW of solar generation to be dynamically balanced across distribution boards throughout a school on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, significantly offsetting grid electricity use.

With silver prices rising, more large solar manufacturers are expected to switch to copper for cell metallization. Radovan Kopecek of ISC Konstanz tells pv magazine that he expects the entire industry to follow. Ning Song of the University of New South Wales says a small efficiency tradeoff may be acceptable if the cost savings are significant and do not introduce new reliability risks.

The Chinese firm has unveiled its latest energy storage solution, the ENERpro-LFP48300, equipped with a 48V, 300 Ah lithium battery. The company boasts a lifespan of more than 9,500 cycles at a high 95% depth of discharge.

South Australian remote and off grid clean energy specialist MyEnergy Engineering has completed an off grid 100 kW solar and 256 kWh battery system for a large-scale energy hungry piggery, north of Adelaide.

Chinese manufacturer Sungrow has introduced a new utility string inverter, a three-phase hybrid inverter for commercial and industrial applications, and a liquid-cooled energy storage system.

Researchers have used multivalent amidinium ligands to boost perovskite solar cell efficiency to 25.4%, achieving over 95% stability after 1,100 hours at 85 C. The proposed approach enables controlled low-dimensional passivation layers, offering a practical route for durable, large-area perovskite devices.

Researchers at the University of New South Wales have achieved a record-setting power conversion efficiency with solar cells made from antimony chalcogenide, an emerging PV material regarded as a strong candidate for next-generation solar technology.

Researchers in China developed a novel two dimensional seeding agent to regulate crystallisation in a 1.80-eV wide-bandgap perovskite film. A perovskite-silicon tandem device made with the resulting optimised subcell achieved an efficiency of 31.13%, outperforming a control device.

University of New South Wales researchers found that some POE encapsulants can trigger severe corrosion in TOPCon solar modules, causing up to 55% power loss under damp-heat conditions. Their study highlights that module reliability depends on the exact encapsulant formulation, not just the polymer type.

The launch of the new product suggests United States-based manufacturer Tesla could renew its focus on residential solar and expand lease options with its Powerwall residential battery energy storage offering.