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Solar power plants not only need to be built, but also operated, monitored, and maintained. Many approaches to digitalization promise to make these plant management processes significantly more efficient – up to a factor of 10.

pv magazine interviewed Ricardo Arias González, who holds a PhD in Physical Sciences and introduced the Optical Tweezers applied to biology in Spain. It is one of the tools of photonics for which Arthur Ashkin received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018, together with Donna Strickland and Gérard Mourou.

In another ambitious announcement, SoftBank Group CEO, Masayoshi Son has said he will give free power from solar power projects after 25 years of PPA to all ISA member countries. He was speaking at the Indian Government organized RE Invest 2018.

A new report published by business consultants Frost & Sullivan expects around 90 GW of new solar installations by the end of 2018, in line with the predictions of other leading analysts. It further notes that PV remains the world leader in renewable energy capacity, and that markets are moving away from feed-in tariffs to make increasing use of auction models and private PPAs.

A team of researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) has developed a new process for the production of perovskite solar devices; and reports a 5x5cm² device with an efficiency above 15%. The researchers worked with a 1 micron thick active layer, considerably thicker than in many other perovskite devices, and state that this helped achieve better long-term stability.

As backsheet manufacturers aim to keep up with cost reductions up and down the PV supply chain, new processes and materials are appearing, with claims to offer better performance as a moisture barrier, as well as better acetic acid permeability and higher reflectivity, among other features. pv magazine examines the state of the market for PV backsheets, and takes a look at some of the new material innovations that are gaining ground with module manufacturers.

Although the “solar flow battery” is currently considered too expensive by its own creators, a further improvement of its design and the use of emerging solar materials and new electrochemistry may open new opportunities for this kind of technology.

This means that this promising material, contrary to common belief, is able to form domains of polarized strain to minimize elastic energy. The research team made its discovery by using multimodal imaging.

The Belgian research institute developed its cell in partnership with EnergyVille, Solliance and German research center, ZSW.

DNV GL has issued its annual Energy Transition Outlook. It reports that global electricity demand is set to grow by a factor of 2.5. Over half of this demand is expected to be met with renewable energy by 2050, while storage will play a key role. It adds that grid infrastructure expenditures are less related to variable renewable energy assets than to increasing energy demand. In the current scenario, meanwhile, global warming is likely to reach 2.6°C.