Large-scale PV wafers are poised to dominate the industry
Making wafers larger as a cost optimization strategy is not an entirely new idea. But it has quickly gained ground this year among all of the leading manufacturers, turning the market on its head.pv magazine takes a look at how we got to this point.
First Solar’s PV module technology completes 25 years of testing at NREL
“Determining how many years a solar panel will last can take, well, years.”
Energy Transition Jobs: Plug Power readies for M&A with new VP, plus Solaria, Samsung SDI, Aurora Solar, QuantumScape
Executive jobs and job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy transition finance.
Morning Brief: Swell raises $450M for VPPs, Terra-Gen and Mortenson start on world’s largest standalone solar and storage project
Also in the brief: CPS Energy opened bidding last week on a contract that will double its solar capacity and add 500 MW of backup power to the grid.
Relectrify gets the most out of second-life battery systems
After more than a year of testing, Relectrify has released interim results of a pilot that combines repurposed batteries from Nissan Leaf vehicles with proprietary inverter technology to create a battery system that has exceeded expectations.
Morning Brief: Brookfield to buy Exelon’s solar business for $810 million, NRG Energy issues $900 million in sustainability-linked bond
Also in the brief: Panasonic’s new solar modules
QuantumScape finally unstealths — with breakthrough performance in solid state batteries
After ten secretive years, several hundred million dollars spent, and the efforts of hundreds of scientists and engineers, QuantumScape went public on a video call today with the performance results of its solid-state battery — and its potential impact on the electric vehicle industry.
Solar needs aluminum, but the metal has a carbon problem
Few doubt that aluminum frames will be a part of the solar module for some time to come. And with PV manufacturing continuing to scale, the carbon footprint of this versatile metal may prove a sustainability challenge.
SPAC, the final frontier: QuantumScape raises $680M for advanced EV batteries, TJ Rodgers raises $200M in SPAC IPOs, plus EVs galore and Stem
Once sort of disreputable, the SPAC is now a “financial innovation” and a “funding mechanism for ambitious companies who are in the midst of a growth phase-change,” in the eyes of some investors. Here’s a roundup.
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?
