Morning brief: Oil billionaire pursuing perovskites, energy storage market to grow to $546 billion
Also in the morning brief: Arizona mandatory solar panel recycling bill, Sumitomo invests $46 million in long-term energy storage from Highview Power, and more.
Oil giant Total increases stake in solar efficiency leader SunPower
Total will be acquiring 676,000 shares worth about $31 million, according to SEC filings.
Tesla can continue to cut trees for German ‘gigafactory’
Tesla has secured approval from the Berlin-Brandenburg administrative court to start clearing 91 hectares of forest for its first European “gigafactory,” which is scheduled to start operations in summer 2021.
German PV tender delivers record low solar power price of $0.038/kwh
The 100 MW tender was five times oversubscribed.
Solar electronics leaders Enphase and SolarEdge post strong Q4 and massive 2019
The leaders in solar module-level power electronics are profitable and making enormous jumps in revenue. All signs point to a strong 2020 for residential solar — which could keep the momentum going.
The inner workings of a lithium battery
An international group of scientists has developed a method to track the microscopic processes at work in lithium batteries. Employing a ‘virtual unrolling’ model developed for ancient manuscripts too sensitive to be opened, the group peeked inside the layers of a commercial battery to gain a better understanding of the processes at work and the degradation mechanisms affecting them.
Silicon heterojunction solar cell hits 23.5% efficiency with new hole-selective contact
Researchers from Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne have used molybdenum oxide as the hole-selective contact in a heterojuction silicon cell. The scientists claim the compound can compete with traditional contacts despite a lower level of optimization.
Job moves: Engie fires CEO, plus Enphase, Sunrun, Sol Systems, Nautilus, Sage Energy
Executive and boardroom moves in solar, storage, project development, cleantech, utilities and venture capital.
Italian PV panels destined for recycling were instead smuggled to Syria and Africa
Illegally re-badged panels were sold to Senegal, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Turkey and Syria. Italian authorities found 60 tons of panels.
French solar institute and Enel announce 24.63% efficiency for heterojunction solar cell
The efficiency of the cell, made with a standard M2 wafer, was raised 0.7% by using an improved busbar-free screen printing metallization based on heterojunction processes developed with manufacturing equipment provided by Swiss specialist Meyer Burger.
