Portugal offers remuneration boost to solar auction winners
The Portuguese government said in a new legal decree that it will adjust the prices, according to inflation, of winning bids from its record-breaking solar auctions in 2019 and 2020. It will also extend the period during which projects can sell electricity at spot market prices by 12 months.
High-voltage solar panel for narrow roofs
Japan’s Xsol says its new monocrystalline PV modules offer 275 W of power output and an efficiency rating of 20.3%. They measure 1,760 mm × 768 mm × 30 mm and can be installed in two-panel rows.
Poland installed 3.3 GW of solar in January-August period
Poland hit 11 GW of installed PV capacity at the end of August. The distributed-generation PV segment continues to drive the growth of the Polish solar market, despite recent changes in legislation.
Impact of vertical PV on grasslands
A French consortium has commissioned an 89 kWp pilot project featuring 252 vertically installed solar panels. The companies are now trying to assess the impact of vertical bifacial solar panels on grasslands.
TotalEnergies, Marubeni switch on 800 MW of solar in Qatar
TotalEnergies, QatarEnergy, and Marubeni have switched on Qatar’s first large-scale solar plant in Al Kharsaah, west of Doha. The Siraj-1 plant features 2 million Longi Hi-MO 4 bifacial modules mounted on single-axis trackers.
Solinteg unveils compact single-phase inverters for residential PV
Solinteg has released new inverters with nominal power ranging from 1.5 kW to 3.3 kW, an efficiency rating of 97.5%, and a European efficiency of 97.0%.
World’s largest single-phase battery goes online in California
Axium Infrastructure and Canadian Solar have developed a 350 MW/1400 MWh energy storage system in California.
TOPCon solar cell achieves 24.2% efficiency via new plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition tech
A team of international researchers has simplified the deposition of thin film layers in the commercial production of TOPCon solar cells. Via a tube-type industrial plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition (PEALD) technique, they were able to achieve a power conversion efficiency of 22.8% in a 60-cell, 613 W TOPCon module.
Solar Calculator estimates residential solar potential
SolarReviews provides customized solar savings and design estimates for homeowners in just a few clicks, with no utility bills, paywalls, or registration required.
PCM-based thermal battery to store solar power via heat pump
Norway’s SINTEF has designed a heat storage system based on phase change materials (PCM) that can support PV generation and peak shaving. The battery’s container hosts 3 tons of liquid biowax based on vegetable oil and is now beating performance expectations at a pilot facility.
