2024

Imeon, a French hybrid inverter manufacturer, has partnered with École Nationale Supérieure de l’Électronique et de ses Applications (ENSEA) and engineering school CentraleSupélec to develop new silicon carbide inverters.

Data center specialist AirTrunk has signed a virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) under which it will procure energy from a 29.99 MW solar farm that ib vogt is now developing. Construction on the project is set to begin later this year.

German manufacturer Viessmann says its new heat pumps have a coefficient of performance (COP) of up to 4.57 and a seasonal coefficient of performance (SCOP) of up to 4.4. The pumps have a heating output ranging from 32 kW to 128 kW, and a cooling capacity of 34 kW to 139 kW.

Denisa Sakova, Slovakia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minster of Economy, has signed an agreement with Japanese plastics manufacturer Sekisui Chemical, which is developing flexible photovoltaic panels. Sakova says the aim is to explore the possibility of producing the panels in Slovakia.

Pixel Voltaic, a spinoff of University of Porto, has launched a laser system to hermetically seal glass-glass and glass-steel perovskite PV modules up to 30 cm x 30 cm. The company’s technology roadmap is to increase capacity to accommodate larger device areas of up to 1 m2, and to modify the process to operate within a roll-to-roll line.

LG has developed two versions of its new enblock E storage system, each with usable energy capacities of 12.4 kWh and 15.5 kWh. It says the two models, sized at 451 mm x 330 mm, can be easily deployed in small spaces.

Swiss hydropower company Engadiner Kraftwerke said the new PV system went into service in the Swiss Canton of Graubunden to generate 230,000 kWh per annum. The array utilizes solar modules provided by Lithuanian manufacturer Solitek.

Scientists have proposed to use PV energy and heat pump-driven HVAC system in greenhouses conceived to grow tomatoes in the Mediterranean area. The system was found to have a payback time of only 2.9 years in southern Spain.

Scientists from Pakistan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have conceived a new experimental setup to conduct hail impact tests for photovoltaic modules. The first tests showed that monocrystalline panels lose less efficiency than their polycrystalline counterparts with the same number of busbars.

As rooftop solar racks up records in Australia, price cannibalization has resulted in a “struggling” large-scale market segment. Bruce Mountain, head of the University of Victoria’s Energy Policy Centre, says that increasingly depressed wholesale electricity prices during the day are squeezing out big PV.