California replacing nuclear with solar plus storage
Clearway Energy has secured financing for the 200 MW Luna Valley Solar & Storage facility and the 113.5 MW Dagget energy storage project in California. These projects have signed PPAs that are part of a collection of projects being developed across the state intended to replace the potentially retiring Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant.
U.S. engineers develop ChatGPT algorithm to design solar cells
OptoGPT is a new algorithm that harnesses the computer architecture underpinning ChatGPT. Its creators say that it will enable researchers and engineers to design optical multilayer film structures for a wide range of applications, including solar cells.
Energy storage opportunities in Mid-Atlantic region await clear state policies
Panelists at RE+ in Philadelphia said storage deployment in the PJM region lags others, but doesn’t have to.
A path to 20 GW of distributed solar in New York
Accelerating deployment of rooftop and community solar with supportive policies would help New York meet its goal of 70% renewable power by 2030 at lower cost, says a solar trade group.
Bigger is better as module makers power ahead
Larger wafer and module sizes have had a profound influence on module power output in recent years but standardization appears to have taken hold, with no further increases evident in module data, according to Molly Morgan, a senior research analyst at Exawatt, which is now part of the CRU Group.
Perovskite-CIGS tandem solar cells have technical potential to achieve 26.69% efficiency
A Dutch and U.S. research team performed optical and electrical simulations to understand loss mechanisms in two terminal (2T) tandem cells based on perovskite and commercially available copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) cells, and subsequently established a roadmap to increase efficiency via four key modifications.
New model to identify optimal power sizing ratio for solar inverters
Researchers in Malaysia have proposed a new approach to identify the optimal power sizing ratio to balance PV energy capture with inverter costs. The calibrated model is said to accurately reflect the relationship between inverter efficiency and real-world system behavior.
PV module manufacturer financial stability rankings
The third edition of the Sinovoltaics financial stability report ranking lists India-based Abhishek Corp, Insolartion Energy, Waaree Renewable Technologies, and Solex Energy, all based in India, followed by U.S.-based First Solar as the top five. Six additional manufacturers entered the global ranking.
U.S. Senators introduce comprehensive energy permitting reform act
Joe Manchin (I-WV) and John Barrasso (R-WY) released the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024, promising to accelerate the permitting processes for energy and mineral projects of all types in the U.S.
Reducing solar project timelines and costs with integrated switchboards
Utility-scale solar projects can be developed more rapidly and cost effectively through the use of integrated switchboards, said a report from Castillo Engineering, Recon Corporation, EPEC and ReBoSS.
