March 2022

German and Swiss researchers have published a new study that questions the idea of a continual decrease in renewable energy costs, given the reality of rising interest rates and higher carbon prices. They outlined a scenario in which interest rates could rise by up to 5% and public incentives for renewables would be gradually phased out. This could result in a loss of 535GW of new renewables capacity, compared to a scenario in which interest rates remain at current levels.

The government of the state of Victoria will fund a floating PV array and an initiative to locally manufacture solar batteries and install a portable renewable energy system for community services during emergencies, as part of its Latrobe Valley program.

NASA has said that it will explore a large, metal-rich asteroid with a remotely operated craft powered by two cross-shaped solar arrays.

This year International Women’s Day focuses on #BreakingTheBias and celebrating women’s achievements and increasing visibility in schools, universities, communities, and workplaces. One of the sectors where the participation of women needs a boost is the energy sector, says Evrydiki Fekka, Head of Lithium Batteries Product Management at Sunlight Group Energy Storage Systems. In this article, she argues that women are key to unlocking a greener future for our energy needs.

The US Energy Information Administration says that over the next two years, 60% of new capacity additions in the United States will be solar or battery energy storage.

The London-based analyst has published a series of clean tech predictions for the year which also highlighted the rising proportion of sub-5MW solar projects in the global market, and cheaper clean energy financing costs even as panel prices continue to rise.

The nation imported solar cells worth more than $633 million from April to the end of last year, a figure higher than the value imported during the whole of the 2020-21 fiscal year.

Solar energy has many strengths, and impactful characteristics witnessed at varying levels around the world. While homes and industries in the western sphere are using solar power to diversify their current energy sources and add some renewable to their existing mix, families and entire communities across Africa are using much smaller solar systems to get electricity in their homes for the first time. That vast gap is noticeable in every aspect of life, including education, income, health, and more. Solar energy already has life-changing effects when looking to bridge gaps between developed and developing countries.

The Korean manufacturer and the German research center were able to improve the performance of their jointly developed tandem solar cell by almost one percentage point.

A German research group has used spectroscopic methods based on terahertz or microwave radiation and has discovered that they might help with more precise assessments of the characteristics and performance of solar cells. Their proposed approach purportedly enables the evaluation of maximum possible efficiency levels for emerging materials such as perovskites in solar cells.