solar modules

Solar is regaining speed in Spain after the Covid-19 crisis. Iberdrola is now building 150 MW, while Foresight recently acquired a 26.1 MW project. FRV has secured financing for a 136 MW array, Audax plans to issue green bonds to finance its pipeline, and an 800 MW solar park is expected to provide with power Alcoa’s aluminum plant in Galicia.

A UK-German research team analyzed solar auctions in India between 2014 and 2017 and has determined that local content requirements have driven up PV costs by an average of 6% per kilowatt-hour.

Indian and Malaysian scientists have developed a new cooling system featuring an assembled back-channel attached on the rear sides of solar panels, to channel flows of titanium oxide and water. They used a 0.6% nanofluid concentration – the optimum value of nanoparticle concentration in water.

The transnational West African Power Pool is seeking consultants for an environmental impact study as well as transaction advisors for a project under development since October.

Scientists at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) have used intense pulsed light (IPL) processing for the development of a busbarless silicon heterojunction solar cell. ILP processing is roll-to-roll technique for rapid thermal processing of various thin films.

In a national park in Chile, a hydropower plant has been combined with a solar system and battery storage to replace diesel generation.

Jolywood is one of the few PV manufacturers, who has placed its bet on TOPCon technology. Instead of focusing on the simplicity of the production process, Jolywood believes the conversion rate is more critical. With years of efforts, the company has established its leading position among TOPCon players. During the SNEC 2020 in Shanghai, pv magazine had the opportunity to interview Liu Zhifeng, Vice General Manager of Jolywood, and listened to his views on some hot topics, especially the cell tech route.

Researchers in Taiwan have developed an organic PV module with an active area of 216 sq cm. The panel is said to have open circuit voltage of 10.6 V and short circuit current of 1.82 mA. It also features the highest efficiency reported for a panel of its kind which has an active area of more than 100cm2

Brazil now has 12  GW of underperforming hydropower capacity, according to U.S. researchers. Large-scale floating PV is an ideal solution to offset this shortfall, due to its high capacity factor, load correlation, and high potential output during periods of high demand.

The lower projected costs for PV could help guide some utilities to plan for more PV capacity, as the utilities develop their long-term resource plans.