South Korea

The continuous rise in solar panel prices may affect PV projects of up to 1 MW tendered by the Korea Energy Agency and the domestic solar module industry may not be able to provide the necessary production capacity to respond to the recent supply bottleneck.

The record efficiency was obtained thanks to an interlayer placed between the electron-transporting layer and the perovskite layer, which eliminated the need for passivation. The cell was also able to retain around 90% of its initial efficiency after 500 hours under standard illumination.

The US$1.28 billion (AU$1.7 billion) plan includes a 3.1 GW production capacity expansion in South Korea, where the company’s solar module capacity will reach 7.6 GW by 2025.

Developed by the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), the “non-destructive” technology is claimed to enable the recovery of 100% of a module’s glass and to allow the reuse of silicon for producing new solar cells with an efficiency of 20.05%.

LG Energy Solution has agreed to take 100% of the cobalt and nickel from the proposed Sconi Project in Queensland. The company says the deal will give it an “upper hand” in EV battery production and improve its ESG competitiveness.

Developed by a Vietnamese-Korean research group, the complex PV device was built with a bottom bifacial crystalline silicon perovskite-filtered heterojunction sub-cell that is able to absorb all solar spectra in the short-wavelength range.

Hydrogen vehicle maker, Hyzon Motors, has signed an agreement to deliver five fuel cell-powered heavy-duty trucks to Ark Energy Corporation, the Australian subsidiary of the world’s largest zinc, lead, and silver producer, Korea Zinc Ltd.

Wood MacKenzie’s energy transition modelling is predicting a primacy in the future low-carbon hydrogen economy for Australia. Thanks to the country’s solar irradiance and renewable energy expertise, as well as its relative proximity to major off-taker markets, Australia could be looking at export revenues of up to US$90 billion by 2050.

The Q.Peak Duo XL-G10.3 panel is currently the largest and most powerful product manufactured by the South Korean module maker. It is based on 156 monocrystalline ‘Q.antum’ half cells and is the company’s first panel relying on M6 wafers.

The Northeast Asian nation has included PV projects exceeding 20 MW in size for the first time in its solar energy procurement scheme. Selected projects will be awarded a fixed rate under a 20-year contract under the country’s renewable energy certificate (REC) scheme and will sell electricity to local power distributors.