Technology

Belgian institute Imec will be the coordinator of a project involving many of Europe’s leading research organizations, which will focus on developing stable, scalable, low cost PV modules based on perovskite technology. The project, named ‘ESPResSo’ has received more than €5 million in funding from the European Union.

German research institute Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) and equipment supplier Schmid have jointly developed a production for customizable modules for building-integrated projects. According to Fraunhofer ISE, the concepts developed by joint study could reduce the production cost for BIPV modules as much as 35%.

Scientists at European solar research organization, Solliance have announced the achievement of 14.5% conversion efficiency on a perovskite module. The module uses a glass substrate, and the efficiency was measured on an aperture area of 144 cm².

Scientists from the University of Wollongong have developed prototype battery cells based on sodium-ion technology, which the university says can achieve excellent cycling stability and easily be scaled up to mass production.

The first commercial deployment of Power Ledger’s P2P energy trading platform will take place in partnership with energy solutions business Greenwood Solutions, which will be in charge of installing solar across strata units.

A $7.7 million funding initiative for energy retailer Simply Energy to build a second virtual power plant across Adelaide was announced by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced it is looking for expressions of interest for trialling short-term forecasting projects from large scale wind and solar farms across Australia.

Scientists from the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) have announced the development of a new wet chemical process to allow multi-cSi wafers to be cut with diamond wire saw technology, and subsequently textured to reduce their reflectivity.

Scientists at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) have demonstrated the first working example of a ‘proton battery’, which utilizes a carbon electrode and reversible hydrogen fuel cell for the storage of energy. The scientists say that their small prototype has already demonstrated similar storage capacities to commercially available lithium-ion batteries, with plenty of potential for further optimization.

Scientists led by the University of Braunschweig have developed a new type of solar concentrator, which can concentrate light from any direction onto a small area, such as a solar panel. The researchers say that funnels can be tuned to different light wavelengths and stacked, allowing for conversion of the entire light spectrum into electricity.