Sweden

Swedish start-up Clean Motion is seeking to commercialise an electric delivery van that is also powered by IBC solar modules placed on its roof. The vehicle is claimed to have a 400 km range, of which up to 130 km are provided by the PV array.

Conventional incentives such as renewable portfolio standards, feed-in tariffs or feed-in premium payments may lead to a price cannibalisation scenario for wind and solar, according to a new study from a German-Swedish research group. CO2 pricing is, however, considered an efficient tool to maintain their market value high enough to ensure new investments. A total system cost approach, rather than an LCOE perspective, is needed to understand the strong dependence of market value on policy choice though.

An international team of scientists fabricated perovskite solar cells which retained almost all of their initial 21% efficiency after 1,000 hours under continuous operation at their maximum power point. The researchers credit this performance to their discovery of an additive that served to ‘block’ ions that cause device degradation, and also hope their work will contribute to an improved understanding of the relationship between efficiency and stability in perovskite PV.

A prototype of a cement-based battery has been developed in Sweden for potential applications in buildings. Its creators claim it could become a solution to store electricity from rooftop PV and they do not exclude that it could also be used for the storage of large-scale renewables.

Vattenfall, SSAB and LKAB are building a rock cavern storage facility in a coastal city in northern Sweden. The 100-cubic-meter facility will be built 30 meters below ground and will begin storing green hydrogen next year.

A new type of carbon fibre and electrolyte matrix stunned scientists when they tested its properties. Their ‘structural’ battery could be used in electric vehicles and could even address the weight problems that bedevil devices planned for electric-powered flight.

Lithium-ion batteries can not only improve self-consumption in commercial PV systems but are also able to efficiently perform peak shaving and price arbitrage, according to an international research group which has proposed a new strategy to calculate the best system configuration in terms of costs and revenue. The scientists specified, however, that the novel strategy may become effective only if storage system prices will drop under $250/kWh.

Not all rooftops can bear the weight of glass PV modules. Some others have curves and shapes ill-suited to uniform, bulky panels. Flexible modules have long been advanced as the solution here, however the keys to unlocking this potential have proven elusive.

Looking back over years of research into the topic of hybrid systems based on different combinations of solar, wind, hydro and other renewables, an international group of scientists found strong potential for strategies to exploit complementarity between the different sources integrate more intermittent renewables onto regional and national grids. The scientists present a series of conclusions and recommendations that aim to push research in hybrid renewables forward.

The 18-meter long solar cell-clad trailer is said to enable fuel savings of 5-10% in Sweden. Swedish thin-film manufacturer Midsummer is a partner on the project.