National battery fire standards being pushed for consideration
The American Clean Power Association is pushing for greater safety standardization in the energy storage industry, guided by the National Fire Protection Association, and their under development NFPA 855 standard.
Long-term issues found in warehoused solar panels
Clean Energy Associates (CEA) is receiving more calls from solar developers concerned about warehouse panel damage. CEA senior engineering manager Claire Kearns-McCoy explains how improper handling, stacking, and storage conditions can lead to long-term issues.
U.S. solar facilities lost $5,720 per MW to equipment underperformance in 2024
A report from Raptor Maps said solar power losses from equipment failures, extreme weather damage and more contributed to losses.
UL Solutions expands testing for heat pumps
UL Solutions says it will expand heat pump testing at its facilities in Texas and Italy to meet rising demand in the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) industry.
Incidents similar to Moss Landing battery fire are unlikely but stricter regulations proposed
Battery safety has come a long way since the construction of the 300 MW first phase of Vistra Energy’s Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California, which caught fire on January 16. The vast majority of today’s large-scale battery energy storage systems does not have much in common with the affected project deployed in a former turbine hall.
Fraunhofer ISE warns of risk from higher than expected UV-induced degradation in TOPCon, PERC, HJT cells
The researchers of the German institute explained that UV-induced degradation may cause larger than expected efficiency and voltage losses in all dominant cell technologies, including TOPCon devices. The scientists expect that silicon nitride layers could be used to enhance TOPCon UV stability compared to PECVD layers typically utilized in PERC and heterojunction cells.
All solar cell efficiencies at a glance – updated
The research group led by Professor Martin Green has published Version 65 of the solar cell efficiency tables. There are 17 new results reported in the new version.
Hail-prone Texas solar project cuts insurance costs 72%
A case study by kWh Analytics demonstrated the value of building a resilient, weather-hardened solar facility.
Future-proofing battery energy storage investment
Energy losses and advances in battery technology can affect utility-scale storage asset performance over time. Jordan Perrone, senior project development engineer at Depcom Power, explains how planning for battery storage augmentation from the start can simplify future upgrades down the line.
‘TOPCon technology comes with three or four relevant risks that should be known’
The results of this year’s Kiwa PVEL scorecard have shown that TOPCon technology is more vulnerable than PERC, and the failure rate at BOM level has increased to 41%, the highest in history, according to the testing lab.
