Manufacturing

The European Patent Office says China has overtaken other countries in photovoltaic patent filings over the past 15 years, while European startups and universities retain a lead in agrivoltaics and niche solar applications.

Transgrid has chosen grid-forming batteries and synchronous condensors as its preferred system strength technologies, as coal generators retire over the next decade and renewable energy supplies the state.

Printed solar technology startup Kardinia Energy, photoluminescence imaging specialist BT Imaging, and modular solar array manufacturer 5B are among 13 companies awarded more than $26 million in funding by the New South Wales government to support the commercial development of their clean energy tech.

Australian resources company Graphinex has officially launched its battery anode manufacturing hub in north Queensland, a facility capable of taking graphite from mine to battery-ready material using full-scale commercial equipment.

Researchers in Singapore have milled solar panel glass waste for use in cathodes in solid-state lithium metal batteries. When used as a functional filler in solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) material, the resulting battery performance was maintained over 80 charge cycles with an 8.3 % improvement over the reference device.

Li-S Energy has produced Australia’s first lithium metal foils at its cell production facility in Victoria, a milestone the company says supports its broader mission to commercialise high-performance lithium-sulfur and lithium metal batteries.

Chinese companies made up nine of the 10 largest global inverter suppliers in 2024, with total inverter shipments reaching 589 GW (AC), according to Wood Mackenzie.

A United States-based collaboration between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and CubicPV has yielded a perovskite minimodule with certified efficiency of 24.0%. The two noted that it is the first time a U.S. effort has set a record in the perovskite mini module category.

Testing conducted by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin in Germany has shown that perovskite solar cells operating at high latitudes in Europe may suffer from higher performance losses in winter compared to conventional PV devices. The scientists warned, however, that at lower latitudes this seasonality may be less pronounced.

In a new scientific paper published in nature, the Chinese manufacturer presented a new tandem perovskite-silicon solar cell based on a bottom cell with a heterojunction design. It also used a new type of self-assembled monolayer that reportedly reduces non-radiative recombination and increases cell efficiency.