Above: Orbital and Ascent Solar receive federal grant for orbital thin-film panels
The companies received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program Phase I award from the Air Force to develop a solar-heated crucible.
Solar on industrial rooftops could meet 35% of electricity demand of manufacturing facilities
Northeastern University researchers looked at energy use in manufacturing sectors and found great potential for facilities to generate a portion of their own power with on-site rooftop solar installations.
Prologis, Lineage Logistics, Blackstone top list of on-site real estate solar procurement
A list of the top on-site solar procurers among real estate asset owners was compiled by Black Bear Energy, a renewable commercial buyers representative.
Sunrise brief: Federal agents raid JinkoSolar factory in Florida
Also on the rise: U.S. solar installers list Qcells, Enphase as top brands. Silicon Ranch plans to appeal $135 million ruling in solar property damage case. And more.
Fold-out NASA satellite solar array undergoes successful test deployment
The NASA/NOAA satellite, part of the GOES-R series, operated as-expected in its terrestrial test, making it one step closer to launch.
Machine learning method to identify residential PV adopters, reduce soft costs
Researchers have defined a new machine learning-based methodology that reportedly reduces customer acquisition costs by about 15% or $0.07/Watt. It is based on an adapted version of the XGBoost algorithm and considers factors such as summer bills, household income, and homeowner’s age, among others.
Solar testing group warns of degradation risk for TOPCon
The Renewable Energy Test Center (RETC) raised the issue of ultraviolet-induced degradation of the trending technology in its PV Module Index 2022.
Big PV plants may have positive climate impact in deserts, say researchers
Chinese researchers have discovered that solar plants might reduce evaporation and wind speeds in the Gobi Desert, while also increasing soil relative humidity, according to a series of simulations with different emission scenarios.
Solar for dryland soil health
Biocrusts are microbe-rich deposits in soil that are crucial to ecosystem sustainability in arid environments. Researchers are restoring biocrusts with the help of shade from solar.
Researchers look beyond silicon to potentially double solar cell efficiency
A team at Colorado State University proposes making thin-film solar cells from naturally abundant molybdenum disulfide.
