First cathode precursor plant opens in WA university in move to capture battery value chain
As Australia seeks to move beyond its global quarry status, the country’s first Cathode Precursor Production Pilot Plant launched on Monday in Western Australia’s Curtin University.
No let-up in sight for polysilicon price hikes
A prominent analyst in China expects the price of the solar panel raw material to pass CNY 300 (AU$65.5) per kg soon and says the sky-high prices will continue at least through September.
Study shows solar panel output exceeds energy input by 100 times
The green credentials of solar PV technology have been reinforced with Singapore-headquartered manufacturer Maxeon Solar Technologies releasing details of an independent study that shows the energy output of its Maxeon 3 panels is more than 100 times greater than the input required to make the solar panels.
IEA warns one-third of global PV manufacturing capacity at risk of bankruptcy
A new report from the International Energy Agency stresses the importance of geographically diversifying the global PV supply chain. This would prevent supply chain vulnerability to bankruptcies and underinvestment.
Thin film solar may have carbon intensity advantage over silicon
Thin-film cadmium telluride panels may have a US$0.02 to US$0.04 per watt carbon cost advantage over traditional polysilicon, said the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in an analysis of embodied carbon, embodied energy, and energy payback.
ESI begins work on ‘Australian first’ flow battery manufacturing facility
Construction has commenced on Australia’s first large-scale iron-flow battery manufacturing facility in Central Queensland, one of a series of projects the developer says has the potential to deliver 20% of the nation’s renewable energy storage needs.
JinkoSolar commissions 20 GW n-type ingot fab
In other news, DAH Solar announced a 5 GW TOPCon solar module factory in Anhui province and Tongwei further raised the prices of its solar cells.
Solar cells integrating power electronics
Researchers in the Netherlands investigated the potential for integrating power electronics in solar cells in the form of diodes, transistors, capacitors, and inductors. They believe that this kind of PV cell may initially find applications in PV-powered Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices and later, as the economy of scale kicks in, in large-scale applications.
Perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell with TOPCon structure hits 27.6% efficiency
A research group led by Chinese manufacturer JinkoSolar has developed a tandem perovskite-silicon cell with a subcell based on TOPCon tech. The group succeeded in reducing voltage losses in the silicon sub-cell by minimising the shunting probability during device fabrication.
Longi’s heterojunction solar cell hits 26.5%
Germany’s Institute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin has confirmed that Longi’s new n-type heterojunction solar cell has achieved a power conversion efficiency of 26.5%.
