Research & Development

The next five years will witness a transformative shift in India’s energy landscape, positioning the country as a global leader in energy storage innovation, says Saurabh Kumar, vice president-India, GEAPP (Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet), in an interview with pv magazine.

Spread across 6.3 lakh sq.ft. and built with an investment of INR 200 crore (EUR 22 million), the new campus in Bengaluru will host a global innovation hub, training center, R&D center, skill center and digital hub with a capacity to accommodate over 8,000 professionals.

The Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, and the Innovation Fund Denmark (IFD) have collaborated to fund Indian and Danish researchers on the joint development of green fuels including green hydrogen. 

All eyes are drawn to China every year for SNEC, the world’s biggest solar PV expo, as it invariably features a large number of new products from the key Chinese manufacturers. Vincent Shaw was on the scene in Shanghai this year and took the opportunity to take the industry’s pulse.

Every year, chemical and energy companies produce $15 billion worth of commodities such as carbon black, silicon oxide, and aluminum oxide, for manufacturing purposes. Engineers do this by pumping chemicals into a flame and collecting material formed in the fire, in an approach known as flame spray pyrolysis. This approach, according to scientists at Argonne National Laboratory, has the potential to create more advanced materials for use in next-generation storage batteries.

Low-cost batteries and novel perovskite materials are among the topics selected for joint research and development.

Swiss-based SmartHelio claims to have witnessed a near 200% jump in demand for its deep-data driven solar asset management solution, which plugs into solar panels or energy storage systems. Sales of the internet-of-things enabled, cloud product have leapt in the last six months.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have developed a new kind of thermal battery that can greatly increase the energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness of many industrial processes and shows great promise for use in the solar industry. Liz Thompson reports that Argonne’s Thermal Energy Storage System (TESS) can rapidly capture and store surplus heat so that it can be used as needed. With its pioneering modular design and material advancements resulting in greater efficiency, TESS is a big step forward in thermal battery technology.

Scientists measuring air pollutants and PV performance in the city have found the lockdown conditions imposed since late March have brought about a significant reduction in air pollution which has led to an 8% increase in solar irradiation reaching rooftop arrays.

As a remedy for light-induced degradation (LID) in crystalline silicon cells, gallium-doped wafers are showing considerable promise. With reports that ingot growth productivity can rival that of boron doping, it seems that gallium doping may now be able to meet the cost, integration and performance criteria that have informed solar manufacturing technology adoption, writes Alex Barrows, senior research analyst at U.K.-based consultancy Exawatt.