Author: solarenergy

Recently imposed trade tariffs on aluminum extrusion imports were reversed by the U.S. International Trade Commission on Wednesday afternoon. Credit: Michael Pointner/Pixabay After a yearlong investigation by the Commerce Department, in which the department found that 14 countries were dumping and/or receiving foreign government assistance to produce cheaper aluminum extrusions, a majority of the ITC determined that the U.S. market was not being harmed by the countries investigated. According to U.S. Trade, all fourteen countries—China, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates—imported aluminum extrusions in quantities harmful to U.S. market.…

The EU’s additional tariffs of up to 35.3% on Chinese electric vehicles anger Beijing The EU’s decision to impose heavy tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars sparked anger in Beijing on Wednesday after an anti-subsidy investigation found that Chinese support was undermining European carmakers. The additional taxes are controversial, with strong opposition from Germany and Hungary, for fear of provoking China’s ire and sparking a bitter trade war. Beijing denounced the European Union’s decision, saying it did not “agree or accept” the tariffs and had filed a complaint under the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism. “China will take all…

Solar cycle today announced details of the solar panel recycling facility that will be built adjacent to the glass factory in Cedartown, Georgia. The 255,000 feet2 The recycling facility will have the capacity to recycle 2 million solar panels every year – almost 5 GW in total. SolarCycle will employ more than 1,250 workers in the recycling facility and glass manufacturing unit once both locations reach full capacity. “As Georgia continues to lead the nation in attracting jobs from emerging industries, we are grateful that SolarCycle is ramping up the creation of these opportunities in northwest Georgia, benefiting that entire…

Developed by Spanish scientists, the proposed model aims to reduce yield losses caused by the fact that north-south aligned single-axis trackers are often deployed on uneven east-west slopes. October 31, 2024 Emiliano Bellini Researchers from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) has developed a two-dimensional (2D) modeling tool for deploying large-scale bifacial PV installations using single-axis trackers over terrain with arbitrary orientation and slope. The proposed model aims to reduce yield losses caused by the fact that north-south aligned single-axis trackers are often deployed on uneven east-west slopes. “This article first outlines some relevant assumptions that standard PV software relies…

Researchers have analyzed how wind speed and direction affect the cooling of a rooftop PV installation with 10,806 panels. They say wind from behind was less effective due to the roof slope and the minimal gap between the panels and the roof, but wind from other directions could contribute to a cooling effect of up to 7 degrees Celsius. October 31, 2024 Lior Kahana Researchers from Turkey’s Bursa Uludağ University investigated the cooling effect of wind on rooftop PV installations. They measured temperature changes on a 57-hectare rooftop facility in the summer of 2023 and found that wind could have…

At 8MSolar, we’re always excited to explore cutting-edge solar technologies that could shape the future of renewable energy. Today, we’re learning about thin-film solar technology – an innovative approach to harnessing solar power that’s been gaining traction. What is Thin-Film Solar Technology? Thin-film solar technology represents a departure from traditional silicon-based solar panels. Instead of using thick layers of crystalline silicon, thin-film solar cells are made by depositing one or more thin layers of photovoltaic material onto a substrate. These layers are incredibly thin – often just a few micrometers thick, which is about 100 times thinner than traditional solar…

First Solar has released its version third quarter earnings for 2024, missed revenue expectations and a slight reduction in expectations for the full year 2024. The US solar panel maker reported revenue of $887 million, 17.6% less than expected, and earnings per share of $2.91 – about 8% lower than expected. The company adjusted its full-year revenue guidance to $4.25 billion from $4.1 billion, down from the previous range of $4.4 billion to $4.6 billion. First Solar reported a record quarter for production with 3.8 GW produced, and said it has a backlog of more than 73.3 GW of orders…

CSIRO facility launches flexible solar technology for broad real-world use Australia’s CSIRO has inaugurated a new $6.8 million facility in Clayton, Victoria, with the mission to take its flexible, printed solar technology from the laboratory to practical, real-world applications, meeting the growing need for sustainable energy solutions in various industries. Unlike traditional silicon-based solar panels, CSIRO’s flexible solar cells are printed on ultra-thin plastic films. This innovative approach results in solar cells that are both lightweight and portable, ideal for a range of applications including urban infrastructure, space exploration, defense, mining operations, emergency response, disaster recovery and wearable technology. Professor…

Researchers have developed a new deep learning method to predict ultra-short-term PV power using an optimization method based on the behavior of dung beetles. The proposed approach reportedly outperformed seven other conventional forecasting methods over a one-year period. October 30, 2024 Lior Kahana Scientists from China’s Hubei University of Technology have proposed a new deep learning model for ultra-short-term PV power prediction. The new technique combines temporal convolutional networks with self-attention (SATCN), bidirectional long-short-term memory networks (BiLSTM) and dung beetle optimization (DBO) and is therefore called DBO-SATCN-BiLSTM. “Existing methods for predicting photovoltaic energy generation have several shortcomings. Meta-heuristic learning methods,…

A team from Jeonbuk National University in South Korea used slot die coating (SDC) to produce uniform, high-quality perovskite films, which they used in a perovskite solar cell that achieved 19.17% efficiency and laboratory cell-sized modules that achieved an efficiency of 17.42%. October 30, 2024 Valerie Thompson A team from Jeonbuk National University in South Korea explored the use of slot die coating (SDC) to create high-quality uniform perovskite films as a step toward large-area production of perovskite devices. The scientists found that SDC increased the interface roughness of the hole transport layer (HTL), which improved the wettability of the…