In case you missed it: This week’s top five solar news stories
pv magazine USA spotlights news of the past week including market trends, project updates, policy changes and more.
Sodium-ion battery cell cost could drop to $40/kWh, says IRENA
A report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) notes that while it is still uncertain whether sodium-ion batteries will become a disruptive alternative to lithium-ion technology, they could offer significant cost-saving opportunities in applications such as electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage.
Nextpower partners with Solar Energy International to support building the solar workforce
Nextpower partnered with the solar jobs training firm to expand scholarships.
Cold storage units incorporate solar to help achieve a 55% reduction in power usage
TITAN Containers’ ArcticStore Horizon have a solar-grid power management system and cleaner refrigerants.
Two approaches to prevent queue-jumping by thermal generation
A study from Grid Strategies and ACORE finds evidence that priority transmission access offered by three grid operators has yielded generating portfolios “heavily weighted” to thermal resources. The study favors transmission planning followed by recruitment of projects that can use planned transmission capacity to enter the interconnection queue. A limited non-discriminatory “fast path” could meet near-term reliability needs.
Perovskite tandem solar panels selected for utility-scale installation pilot
Solar developer Plenitude will validate Swift Solar’s 28% efficiency perovskite-silicon tandem technology in a utility-scale project.
New Jersey energy master plan calls for 750 MW annual solar installations
Solar is a core element in the state’s energy planning, which calls for 300 MW of net metered solar, 250 MW of community solar and 300 MW of grid-scale solar per year.
California natural gas use declines as solar generation rises
California’s natural gas generation declines as solar generation doubles and battery storage fills evening gaps, said data from the Energy Information Administration.
FEOC compliance and stranded energy storage assets
The looming threat of Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) compliance is set to create stranded energy storage assets by jeopardizing tax credits for projects reliant on certain Chinese-sourced components after 2025.
Community-based energy trading system for home solar-plus-storage
A research team led by Washington State University has developed a cloud-based system for trading and sharing energy from solar panels and batteries within a neighbourhood. The concept displayed potential energy cost savings of around 12% over a five-day test period.
