Author: solarenergy

An Australian-made, 10kW renewable hydrogen generator has been installed 120km east of Melbourne as part of a pilot project to provide backup to telecommunications towers knocked out by faults. July 5, 2024 Ev FoleyBy pv magazine AustraliaManufacturer of hydrogen fuel cells Energy Australia has had one of its 10kW renewable hydrogen generators installed in Neerim North, 120km east of Melbourne, as part of a AUD1.1 million ($740,000) pilot project with Telstra.The generator is installed with a Telstra mobile tower and equipped with enough renewable hydrogen to provide a capacity of at least 72 hours when the tower is switched off.…

This week, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu) gives the voice to Olga Kovalchuk, Head of Finance and Investments – Managing Director at Germany’s Goldbeck Solar. She says the under-representation of women in STEM fields is impacting the pipeline of women entering both the renewable and traditional energy sectors, although this is gradually improving thanks to more targeted education initiatives. “The gender pay gap is ever-present and given the extent to which pay is linked to performance in senior roles, under-representation has a knock-on effect on the gender pay gap in the sector,” she said. July 5, 2024 Women in Solar…

Giant clams could provide the answers to making solar energy more efficient Designers of solar panels and biorefineries could learn a thing or two from iridescent giant clams that live near tropical coral reefs, according to a new Yale-led study. This is because giant clams have precise geometries – dynamic, vertical columns of photosynthetic receptors covered by a thin, light-scattering layer – making them perhaps the most efficient solar energy systems on Earth. “It’s counterintuitive to a lot of people because clams work in bright sunlight, but they’re actually very dark inside,” says Alison Sweeney, associate professor of physics and…

From Heat to Electricity Did you know that the global solar energy capacity reached over 760 gigawatts in 2023, making it one of the fastest-growing sources of renewable energy? With an increasing number of homeowners and businesses turning to solar power, understanding the different types of solar technologies is more important than ever. Solar Thermal Energy captures and uses the sun’s heat for various applications like water heating, space heating, and electricity generation through concentrated solar power (CSP) systems. On the other hand, Solar Panels convert sunlight directly into electricity using photovoltaic cells, which can be used for residential, commercial,…

Researchers in Italy have developed a low-temperature encapsulation technique that reportedly improves the stability of perovskite PV devices. They said the new technique reduces thermomechanical stresses caused by both the encapsulation process and the temperature gradients that occur during accelerated aging stresses. July 5, 2024 Valerie ThompsonA group of researchers led by Tor Vergata University of Rome in Italy has developed a new perovskite solar cell and module encapsulation process that reportedly increases device stability without the need for advanced perovskite chemistry with high internal stability or specific edge sealants.The team said their new encapsulation reduces thermomechanical stresses at the…

From pv magazine 24/06Some regions have a lot of industry but limited renewable energy sources, while other regions have the opposite. Securing community acceptance of the infrastructure to get power where it is needed can be both enormously complex and remarkably simple.“Talk and listen. It’s that simple,” says Nancy Kluth, spokesperson for the Amprion project for the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. “Go in, talk to the people, really listen to what makes sense for them, and then find a way to compromise, if you can, or to adapt and adapt what you hear and what you learn your…

Researchers in China have built an inverted perovskite solar cell for the first time, based on a high-entropy hybrid perovskite material. The result is a device with improved open-circuit voltage and fill factor, thanks to reduced non-radiative recombinations and an optimized interface. July 5, 2024 Emiliano BelliniResearchers from Zhejiang University in China have developed for the first time an inverted perovskite solar cell based on a high-entropy hybrid perovskite material that reportedly improves device stability while offering excellent efficiency levels.“Our work highlights the potential of a type of high-entropy structure, namely high-entropy hybrid perovskite (HEHP), in improving the efficiency and…

AUSTIN, TX / ACCESS WIRE / July 5, 2024 / David Goodnight, resident of Austin, Texas, and founder of Comnet International, emphasizes the need for unquestionable credit to restore industry confidence. David highlights the ongoing challenges within the carbon credit market and the four key principles that new projects must embrace to revive the industry.The once respected and well-intentioned voluntary carbon credit market is evolving into a deeply criticized system that governments and companies are increasingly reluctant to support due to the endless backfire of publicly failed projects. The underlying problem is that the industry is based on a broken…

In a new weekly update for pv magazineSolcast, a DNV company, reports that while Western Europe experienced below-average insolation in June, Eastern Europe and the Balkans in particular saw a notable increase, due to persistent and static weather patterns. July 5, 2024 SolcastJune witnessed relatively static weather patterns that created a stark geographic divide that deviated from typical summer weather, according to an analysis using the Solcast API. While most of Western Europe experienced below-average insolation, Eastern Europe and theThe Balkans in particular saw a notable increase due to persistent and static weather patterns. Western Europe was hit by a…

At SNEC 2024 in Shanghai, pv magazine spoke to Puzant Baliozian, chief advisor of the photovoltaic equipment sector group for the German Machinery and Equipment Manufacturers Association (VDMA). He says tunnel oxide passivated contact technology (TOPCon) will dominate the solar market over the next decade and expects module manufacturers to compete to develop more creative product designs. He also believes that copper metallization will gain market share in heterojunction (HJT) module manufacturing in the coming years. “Over the next decade, less than mg/W of silver will be used for both TOPCon and HJT technologies,” he stated. July 5, 2024 Eckhart…