solar modules

Finnish scientists have developed a four-junction solar cell based on III-V semiconductor materials that is said to be able to achieve a wide spectral coverage. The cell was monolithically grown on gallium arsenide by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).

AGL has revealed plans to acquire Epho and Solgen Energy Group, which will make it Australia’s largest climate polluter and its largest commercial solar provider.

Sumitomo Mitsui Construction has used its PuKaTTo proprietary tech for a 2 MW floating PV project in Japan’s Kagawa prefecture. It said its durable, easily deployable floats can host 60-cell and 72-cell solar modules.

Lithium-ion batteries can not only improve self-consumption in commercial PV systems but are also able to efficiently perform peak shaving and price arbitrage, according to an international research group which has proposed a new strategy to calculate the best system configuration in terms of costs and revenue. The scientists specified, however, that the novel strategy may become effective only if storage system prices will drop under $250/kWh.

Rio Tinto plans to spend nearly $3 million on a facility in Utah to recover tellurium, a critical mineral used in solar panels.

A British-Egyptian research group has tested the use of hydrogels beads for PV module cooling. The micro-sized particles were saturated with aluminium oxide (Al2O3) water-based nanofluids and placed below the simulated PV panels. The experiment showed, according to the scientists, that the hydrogels beads were able to significantly reduce the temperature by between 17.9 and 16.3 degrees Celsius.

According to French financial newspaper Les Echos, EDF, the main shareholder of PhotoWatt, is considering closing the production in Bourgoin-Jallieu. The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional council is mobilizing to save the company and announces that a regional company may acquire the module manufacturer.

The country’s Ministry of Environment has revealed that five dams have already been identified for a total of 147 MW of projects. The new target is part of South Korea’s plan to become carbon-neutral by 2050.

A cleaning robot optimized for floating PV installations was developed by German manufacturer TG hyLIFT. Also suitable for ground-mount PV, it uses only water without any type of detergent, and is powered by batteries. The robot is now being tested at a floating PV array in Spain.

PV Infolink reported a considerable increase in prices for polysilicon and wafer prices for last week. Both products saw their average price increase by over 9% compared to the previous week.