NREL

The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory examined five-year data to observe the most common system failure points and how to prevent them. Researchers considered residential, commercial and utility scale plants and found interesting results. While failures cannot be avoided completely, a key takeaway was that close monitoring and timely repair can effectively mitigate the financial effects of failures.

“Electricity providers will have to treat renewable energy customers as cost-conscious customers once these customers can look at data across the board.”

Getting the most out of a bifacial module requires a rethink at almost every level of system design and the industry is hungry for field data generated by such systems to better inform energy yield modeling and define the best approaches to maximizing yield at minimal cost. NREL’s three-year study into bifacial performance is beginning to yield results.

Although, the author of this article sees a path below 15¢ per watt. Researchers at MIT, working with financial modeling teams at NREL, have projected the electrical losses and financial gains of thinning solar cells from the current 160 micrometers to 50 micrometers.

A team at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory has come up with a new process that would reduce the production cost of highly expensive – and highly efficient – gallium arsenide cells.

Researchers at the American Institute of Physics have used the clear-sky irradiance model developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to measure the degradation rates of solar panels at a testing field in Germany over five years. The scientists say the model, when combined with real-world data, offers an efficient tool to evaluate the aging of PV technology.

NREL’s 2019 Standard Scenarios Report looks at 36 models to project what energy sources the USA might use going forward, and what variables might drive that – with the mid-case projections suggesting wind+solar power meeting 28% of all electricity demand.

Certain articles at pv magazine catch fire and capture the imagination of our solar colleagues as well as a wider, equally nerdy, audience. Here are the most widely read pieces of the year at pv magazine USA.

Elon Musk is back at his favorite projection – powering the U.S. with a 10,000 square mile solar project in the middle of the desert, but by combining projections of various research groups, we see a better way.

NREL has published a paper showing an experimental solar cell, with a unique technique for wiring two separate solar cells into one, that increased the cell’s efficiency by 4%. As well the document offer a respectable review of other technologies being developed.