Iowa researchers explore how solar panel height, design affects crop yields
Iowa State University is using a $1.8 million grant to study whether higher solar arrays create better growing conditions for horticultural crops and beekeeping production.
Module reliability scorecard reveals widespread quality risk
Independent testing laboratory Kiwa-PVEL today published the 11th edition of its PV Module Reliability Scorecard, having extensively tested PV modules from 50 different manufacturers.
Leading threat to farmland is real estate development, not solar, agricultural analysts say
Arkansas could double its total energy generation with solar and still only require a very small fraction of the land to do so, according to analysis by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
Department of Energy axes $3.7 billion in clean energy demonstration funding
DOE said the projects “failed to advance the energy needs of the American people.”
U.S. scientists build antimony sulfide solar cell with 7.69% efficiency
Researchers at University of Toledo produced antimony sulfide (Sb2S3) thin film solar cells with 7.69% power conversion efficiency after determining optimal hydrothermal deposition, post annealing, and light soaking conditions. Stability tests showed more than 95% of initial efficiency after ten months.
How agrivoltaics could solve Nevada’s groundwater crisis
Installing agrivoltaics on previously irrigated land could help minimize the losses from reducing groundwater use, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association.
Solar power curtailment rises in California
Curtailment – or intentional reduction in power production – continues to rise for both solar and wind power in California.
MIT scientists developing silicon solar cell based on singlet exciton fission
Scientists in the United States have designed a microwire solar cell that could reportedly enable the coupling of singlet fission with silicon. Key to their achievement was an interface that transfers the electrons and holes sequentially into silicon instead of both at once.
U.S. defense research agency achieves optical power beaming record
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said a project team testing new optical wireless energy receiver technology was able to transfer 800 W of power to a receiver 8.6 km away in a 30 second transmission. It claims is a distance and power record amongst optical power beaming demonstration results.
All solar cell efficiencies at a glance – updated
The research group led by Professor Martin Green has published Version 66 of the solar cell efficiency tables. There are 17 new results reported in the new version.
