An international research team explained that, although inverter clipping is initially effective in mitigating soiling losses, these losses could become more visible with time, as solar module degradation makes clipping less frequent. They also warned that inverter under sizing alone may not be enough to mitigate soiling losses and suggested cleaning as an additional way to reduce them.

Chinese manufacturer JinkoSolar says its solar module shipments reached 78.5 GW in 2023. This year, it says it hopes to sell up to 110 GW of panels.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) released a new report on the sidelines of the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue this week describing the actions needed so the world complies with targets set at the recent COP29 conference in the United Arab Emirates. IRENA President Francesco La Camera says renewables are the only energy sources with the speed and scale to achieve the ambitious targets set in Dubai.

Researchers in the United States have identified zintl-phosphide (BaCd2P2) as a new potential high efficiency absorber material for thin-film PV applications among 40,000 promising inorganic materials. The selected compound has a potential energy bandgap of 1.45 eV and a carrier lifetime of up to 30 ns.

The hybrid system has a cooling power of 63.8 W/m2 and a photovoltaic power output of 159.9 W/m2. According to its creators, the cooling capacity provided by the system can be used in buildings or refrigerators.

Researchers in Bangladesh have designed a dual-junction tandem solar cell with a bottom device based on iron disilicide (FeSi2), an emerging absorber material know for its high thermal stability and good optoelectronic properties. Their simulation showed the advantage of combining the larger bandgap of the top cadmium telluride cell and the smaller bandgap of the bottom FeSi2 cell.

The module has a size of 143 mm x 143 mm and an active area of 204.11 cm². The result was certified by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE).

The new solar cell achieved a maximum power conversion efficiency of 23.75% and a certified efficiency of 23.64%, thus beating the previous world record of 23.35% achieved in 2019 by Japan’s Solar Frontier. The result was confirmed by the Fraunhofer ISE.

Developed by the University of Toledo, the cell achieved the highest efficiency ever reported for flexible cadmium telluride solar cells to date. The device reached an open-circuit voltage of 861 mV, a short-circuit density of 27.8 mA/cm2, and a fill factor of 71.7%.

Developed by scientists in Canada, the 0.049 cm2 solar cell was built in ambient air fabricationand with a reactant known as phenyltrimethylammonium chloride (PTACl). It achieved an open-circuit voltage of 0.95 V, a short-circuit current density of 23 mA cm−2, and a fill factor of 80%.