Technology

Research indicates that most neighbors of solar power facilities maintain positive attitudes toward these plants until they exceed 100 MW in capacity or approximately 400 acres.

Also on the rise: Allow solar developers to choose “connect and manage,” says DOE roadmap. Massachusetts city that mandates solar on new buildings celebrates latest success. And more.

To speed interconnection of utility-scale renewables and storage projects, a U.S. Department of Energy roadmap sets forth 35 solutions and proposes actions to implement the solutions. The roadmap was developed through a DOE stakeholder process known as i2X.

Trends spotted in the NC Clean Energy Technology Center report include legislation to enable community solar, net metering reform considered by new states and states clarifying time of use rates for net metering customers.

A U.S.-based team developed a vapor deposition technique to fabricate outperforming all-inorganic perovskite thin films in under 5 minutes in a continuous process. The adoption of the proposed approach may also result in higher perovskite solar cell power conversion efficiencies.

Dismissed by many in the solar industry as an overly complex, outdated technology, concentrated solar power (CSP) is set for a comeback thanks to a scaled-down, modular approach.

Also on the rise: Renewables and storage interconnection backlog grew about 30% last year. California’s electricity multi-crisis can be aided by virtual power plants. And more.

Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory published an open access guide to rooftop solar and battery energy storage that covers costs, incentives, policies and more.

The new material consists of an heterostructure combining germanium, selenium, and tin sulfide, which also integrates atoms of zerovalent copper. It features an average photovoltaic absorption over 80% and could help photovoltaic cells break the Shockley-Queisser efficiency limit, according to its creators.

The wait for transmission interconnection studies constitutes a “major bottleneck” for solar, storage and wind projects, which accounted for over 95% of all active capacity awaiting studies at the end of 2023, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has reported.