Taiwanese consortium develops easily recyclable solar module
The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and United Renewable Energy (URE) have developed a solar panel that can be easily dismantled to simplify the recycling process. They claim 96% of the materials in the panel can be recovered, including all of the solar cells and front glass.
India, China, US rated world’s most attractive solar markets
Australia features prominently in the top 10 but the latest edition of Ernst & Young’s renewables attractiveness index rates India as the top market for solar investment while Spain, Germany and the United States are the top three markets for corporate power purchase agreements.
Forced labour concerns prompt U.S. ports to block over 1,000 shipments of solar components
Panel shipments collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars are blocked from entering the United States market as they have failed scrutiny under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, said Reuters.
Hydrogen-producing rooftop solar panels nearing commercialisation
KU Leuven researchers have developed rooftop panels that capture both solar power and water from the air. Like traditional PV modules, hydrogen panels are also connected, but via gas tubes instead of electric cables. The researchers are now preparing to bring the tech to the mass market via a spinoff company.
Rooftop PV performance during heatwaves
Chinese researchers have assessed the impact of residential rooftop PV arrays on energy use and surrounding air temperatures during extreme heatwaves. They found that panels with higher conversion efficiencies achieved the best results.
Quantitative methodologies to assess technical risks in PV
Researchers led by Germany’s TÜV Rheinland have created a database of technical risks and mitigation measures for PV installations. Their broad overview of quantification methods has shown that further standardization is required.
New study looks at Sundrive’s 25.54% silver-free heterojunction solar cell
A new scientific paper takes a closer look at the record-breaking efficiency that Australia’s Sundrive announced for a silver-free heterojunction cell in September 2021, as certified by Germany’s Institute for Solar Energy Research.
Most new solar panels retain 80% production after 30 years
A five-year Sandia Labs study on solar module degradation shows that 13 out of 23 tested module types have effective lifetimes exceeding 30 years.
Standardised measurements for solar water-splitting for green hydrogen
NREL and Berkeley Lab have proposed efficiency and stability best practices for solar water-splitting to make hydrogen, while a team of researchers from Malaysia and Pakistan have revealed their findings on the feasibility of hydrogen-based incineration.
Novel redox flow battery paves way for low-cost storage
US researchers have facilitated the decoupling of power from energy design by incorporating a conducting carbon slurry in the negative electrolyte of an all-iron flow battery. In a new study, they describe the design considerations for slurry iron redox flow battery scalability.
