First Solar commissions 1.3 million square-foot R&D facility
The Jim Nolan Center for Solar Innovation in Lake Township, Ohio includes a high-tech pilot manufacturing line allowing for the production of full-sized prototypes of thin film and tandem PV modules.
Peak Energy secures $55 million Series A funding to manufacture sodium-ion batteries
The company plans to deliver its first systems in 2025 and open a full-scale production facility in 2027.
Elastocalorics could replace heat pumps, air conditioning systems
Elastocalorics have the potential to replace current air conditioning and heating systems, offering significant energy savings when paired with technologies such as photovoltaics.
All-perovskite tandem solar cell based on tin-lead perovskite achieves 27.8% efficiency
Scientists in the United States have fabricated an all-perovskite tandem solar cell that reportedly shows reduced interfacial energy loss in the cell’s top device. It was built with a hole transport layer based on a compound known as P3CT that was doped with lead iodide.
Residential PV power forecasting method based uniquely on direct radiation
Researchers in Spain have created a novel PV forecasting method that uses only direct radiation as a parameter. They found it to be “comparable, if not superior” to four established forecasting techniques. The method could help homeowners with PV systems decide when to use electricity-intensive appliances and cleaning systems.
Researchers build 16%-efficient mini perovskite solar module resistant to UV light-induced degradation
A U.S. research team has built a 15 cm2 perovskite solar module with improved stability and efficiency thanks to a polymer hole transport layer that reportedly improves the panel stability and efficiency.
World’s first anode-free sodium solid-state battery
Researchers at the Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion have created a new sodium battery architecture with stable cycling for several hundred cycles, which could serve as a future direction to enable low-cost, high-energy-density and fast-charging batteries.
All solar cell efficiencies at a glance – updated
The research group led by Professor Martin Green has published Version 64 of the solar cell efficiency tables. There are 19 new results reported in the new version.
Rutgers University studies co-locating solar energy with crop production
The university is working with SolarEdge to study the practices of agrivoltaics, or co-located solar and farming.
Solar startup claims doubled energy per acre with terrain-following array
California startup Planted Solar uses construction robots and high-density arrays to deliver what the company says are higher energy outputs and lower balance of system costs.
