World

The title of Martin Schachinger’s October market commentary was “Module prices set to rocket back to 2019 levels.” This month, he writes that prices have already reached December 2018 levels and notes that there is no reversal in sight. Prices for all module technologies have once again risen by an average of 3 percentage points since last month.

Scientists at the Nankai University in China have provided a comprehensive overview of current research on silicon heterojunction-based tandem solar cells (SHJ-TSCs) and shared their expectations of future developments in this field.

The 52 kW containerized solution is being developed by German start-up Solarbakery. The bakery’s production process was adapted in such a way that the majority of electricity consumption is already incurred during the day and is only baked briefly in the dark before dawn.

Germany’s TÜV Rheinland is investigating how photovoltaics could be used for powering railway traction networks in a 14-month research project.

Advances in solar power and other clean energy technologies have failed to keep up with demand for electricity as economies rebound from the Covid crisis and China and India’s fossil fuel appetite will ensure the world stays well short of what is needed for a net zero 2050 for at least the next three years.

The device was designed by scientists in Portugal to optimize light absorption by the semiconductor and ensure an effective diffusion of redox species while offering minimal electronic and ionic transport resistance. The cell has a 25cm2 photoactive area and relies on ferrocyanide/anthraquinone redox flow chemistry and a nanostructured hematite photoelectrode.

An international research team has examined combining solar power generation with energy-intensive hydroponic horticulture and has found that this may be a viable solution depending on project size and available incentive policies. Their approach considered various factors impacting PV system efficiency, including environmental factors, the type of solar array, and the electricity demand from the hydroponic farm.

There is a threshold at which big becomes too big when it comes to PV module sizes, argues Hongbin Fang, the director of product marketing at Longi Solar. Fang recently said at pv magazine’s Roundtables USA event that despite size limits, there is still a lot of efficiency and cost-reduction potential to come.

Conceived by French solar company Mecojit, the solar carport solution can be deployed without excavation work and can be coupled with EV recharging stations.

Developed by Canada-based Hydrogen Optimized, the electrolyzer can be used to stabilize electrical grids and optimize energy recovery from intermittent renewable power sources such as solar and wind. Furthermore, this week four more big international partnerships for developing green hydrogen were announced across Germany, the Middle East, and Australia.