United States

United States-based solar tracker provider Array Technologies is planning to set up manufacturing operations in Australia after being awarded a contract to supply trackers for a 102 MW solar farm being developed in Victoria’s northeast.

Enphase’s new bidirectional EV charger enables vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid applications, and can be integrated with its home energy systems.

Form Energy will install two 10 MW / 1,000 MWh batteries on the sites of Xcel Energy’s former coal-fired plants.

Researchers from the University of Adelaide, along with international partners, have successfully used seawater with no pre-treatment to produce green hydrogen. The team did this by introducing an acid layer over the catalysts in situ. “We have split natural seawater into oxygen and hydrogen with nearly 100% efficiency… using a non-precious and cheap catalyst in a commercial electrolyser,” University of Adelaide’s Professor Shizhang Qiao said.

The drivers for PV supply-chain traceability could rub against a solar industry enjoying a true seller’s market, with demand outstripping supply. However, supply-chain auditing services are gaining support in increasingly regulated environments. pv magazine’s Tristan Rayner has spoken to a number of auditing experts about how they shine a light on often-opaque operations.

US-based Salgenx has developed a scalable redox flow battery with two separate tanks of electrolytes, one of which is saltwater. Unlike other flow batteries, the new device is membrane-free, promising big gains at the levelised cost of storage level.

Canadian scientists have developed a new way to measure the energy yield of bifacial PV systems. They said they considered the spectral albedo of ground cover like snow and sand to predict energy gains of up to 2%, in comparison with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard.

California-based Yoshino Technology has developed portable batteries using solid-state Li-NCM cell technology. The four variants come with power outputs of 330 W, 660 W, 2,000 W, and 4,000 W.

Singapore-based electronics giant Flex announced that its subsidiary, Nextracker, has publicly filed a registration statement for an initial public offering.

The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board has issued a favourable decision for Hanwha Q Cells over REC Solar’s patent claims. The court has ruled that the contested claims of REC’s U.S. patent were not patentable. The decision is similar to those in courts in China and Europe, according to Q Cells.