New process to recover PET and EVA from recycled solar panels
Researchers in China are proposing a new technique to recover polyethylene glycol terephthalate (PET) and ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) in solar panels at the end of their lifecycle. The two materials represent around 15% of the total material in a wasted solar cell, with a share of 10% for EVA and 5% for PET, respectively.
pv magazine video: US storage market under spotlight
In pv magazine’s second roundtable session, Advanced technologies, the U.S. storage market came under the spotlight – in particular, the lessons that can be learned from solar as the market moves towards greater maturity. Also under discussion was the trend among PV manufacturers to producing ever larger cells and modules in the continuous drive to bring down LCOE. But is big necessarily better?
Array Technologies ends 2020 with one more 1 GW solar tracker supply contract
The tracking industry’s second-largest player has signed an agreement to supply RP Construction Services with 1 GW of single-axis solar trackers just 20 days after coming to a 1.4 GW agreement with Lightsource BP.
Update: Form Energy’s stealthy ‘aqueous air battery’ with 150-hour duration lands $76 million funding round
The holy grail of energy storage has always been low-cost and long-duration. Form Energy intends on deploying a 1 MW/150 MWh system with a Minnesota utility before 2023, an unprecedented energy storage duration if successful.
If I were Secretary of Energy
If you recognize that energy is most of the problem with climate change, you’d like the DOE not to be the bastard child of a weapons organization. (Warning/TLDR : You can’t fix the DOE in 1,000 words.)
Chinese PV Industry Brief: JA Solar sells solar farms while Tongwei announces lower cell prices
JA Solar has agreed to sell three solar farms to China Power Investment Corporation, while Tongwei announced lower prices on a number of cells. Eight leading players are calling for the standardization of PV products with 210 mm wafers.
Aurora Solar raises $50M for remote photovoltaic sales and design
This substantial investment signals software’s critical role in driving the mainstream adoption of solar.
The once obscure, derided financial product that just might transform deep tech venture capital
Many of my VC compatriots in Silicon Valley still sneer at the SPAC, and several I know actively encourage their portfolio companies to avoid SPAC sponsors.
“A product for also-rans who can’t go public the normal route.”
“Frankenstein financial engineering for speculators and amateurs.”
To which I say, BALDERDASH!
Morning Brief: Ambri deploying its calcium-antimony battery? China could install 75 GW of solar next year
Also: Despite a rosy forecast, creating energy storage projects with competitive economics has been an elusive endeavor. Plus, rate design innovations are boosting the energy transition and Plug Power raises $1 billion for U.S. green hydrogen infrastructure build-out.
How does the US retire 236 GW of coal and 1,000 gas peaker plants?
Victory in the economic realm (increasingly the case with solar, solar-plus-storage and wind) is no guarantee of market victory if the regulations are stacked against renewables.
