New ways to feed world’s lithium habit
Amid significant environmental concern about the impact of more widespread lithium mining, various methods of extracting the battery material from brine could offer a cleaner solution – and reignite a historic Cornish industry.
Solar module installations could hit 592 GW in 2024
BloombergNEF says the global solar industry will install 592 GW of modules this year, up 33% on 2023. The consultancy has also lowered its estimate for 2024 polysilicon production, as manufacturers are temporarily scaling back output.
All-perovskite tandem solar cell based on tin-lead perovskite achieves 28.8% efficiency
Conceived by Chinese scientists, the cell was built with new surface reconstruction strategy based on the use of 1,4-butanediamine (BDA) and ethylenediammonium diiodide (EDAI2) as surface modifiers. The device was able to retain 79.7% of its initial efficiency after 550 h.
Meyer Burger cancels US solar cell plant, announces restructuring
Swiss-German PV manufacturer Meyer Burger has announced company restructuring plans, put an end to a proposed United States solar cell plant and put on hold plans for capacity expansion at an existing module production plant in the US. Existing cell production site in Germany to remain part of Meyer Burger operations.
Research sheds new light on shade effects for rooftop PV
Researchers have covered part of a rooftop solar plant with varying numbers of shading cloth layers and continued to measure the power, current, and voltage of the system. They have been able to identify a point after which the value of system current and maximum power is no longer sensitive to shading heaviness.
Aggreko launches two new C&I battery storage systems
Aggreko has introduced two new mid-sized battery storage solutions – 250 kW / 575 kWh and 500 kW / 250 kWh, looking to meet a variety of on and off-grid applications.
East-west vertical PV as antidote for soiling in desert regions
New research shows that east-west-oriented vertical PV installations can significantly help reduce soiling in desert environments. The scientists found that PV power generation can be up to 9% higher in vertical systems compared to conventional arrays.
PV module fault detection tech based on deep learning of electroluminescence
The novel technique is based on the VarifocalNet deep-learning object detection framework, which was reportedly tweaked to achieve quicker and more accurate results. Compared to other such methods, the new approach was found to be the most accurate and third quickest.
PV systems can now support grid as fossil fuels decline, says IEA-PVPS
A new report by the International Energy Agency’s Photovoltaics Power Systems Program (IEA-PVPS) says that existing PV systems have the technical capabilities to provide various frequency-related grid services.
Bifacial tracking systems dominate utility-scale PV market
The latest report from the International Energy Agency’s Photovoltaic Power Systems Program covers best practices for the optimisation of bifacial PV tracking systems and discusses key areas for improvement.
