World

Silicon carbide (SiC) has promised inverter makers higher power density, higher efficiency, and a total bill of materials that comes in closer to its more established rival in silicon. Has SiC finally arrived? Tristan Rayner spoke to the people at the forefront of the wider-bandgap material to find out the back story and what’s next.

French start-up Rosi Solar has developed an industrial solution claimed to be capable of recovering high purity silicon, silver and copper contained in end-of-life PV modules. The company’s technology is based on a pyrolysis process that makes it possible to isolate the different metals from the cells.

Scientists in the United States developed a lithium-sulfur battery using a commercially available carbonate electrolyte, that retained more than 80% of its initial capacity after 4000 cycles. The group used a vapor deposition process which unexpectedly produced a form of sulfur that did not react with the electrolyte, overcoming one of the key challenges for this battery chemistry.

British analyst GlobalData has predicted residential and commercial rooftop panels will not return to a declining price trend until next year, with post-Covid logistics headaches the cause, rather than a polysilicon shortage.

Soluna’s new generator can be combined in a two-unit system to reach a capacity of 2.5kWh. It features built-in 120V(AC) output, continuous AC output power of 1,200W, and peak output of up to 2,400W.

Recent BloombergNEF research shows that corporations procured a record 31GW of renewable energy in 2021, and LevelTen Energy says that growth occurred despite more than a year of price increases.

Verdagy has secured a $25 million investment for its new electrolyzer technology, which provides hydrogen fuel for heavy industrial applications. The membrane-based technology uses large active area cells, high current densities, and broad operating ranges to deliver hydrogen at scale.

Norwegian analyst Rystad Energy has warned the solar industry could suffer the same effects of rising input prices as onshore wind developers grappling with ever more costly steel, with much hinging on how much solar panel raw material polysilicon can be manufactured.

Residential-based energy storage will become the new ‘Boiler 2.0’ and could form part of a virtual power plant, providing a viable solution to the global energy crisis and helping us to achieve our net-zero goals.

Germany’s Sunfarming is testing the new project design in cooperation with research centers Jülich and the Fraunhofer ISE.