Author: solarenergy
The Treasury Department and the IRS will release soon proposed guidance on the updated Production Tax Credit (PTC) and Investment Tax Credit (ITC). The Inflation Reduction Act repeals the existing PTC (Sec. 45 of the Tax Code) and ITC (Sec. 48) by limiting their availability to projects that begin construction before 2025. Instead, they will switch to the technology-neutral ‘clean electricity production credit’. (Sec. 45Y) and “Clean Electricity Investment Credit (Sec. 48E) for projects commissioned after December 31, 2024. The recognized technologies include wind, solar, hydro, marine and hydrokinetic, nuclear fission and fusion, geothermal and certain types of waste energy…
InstaGroup has been in the energy efficiency industry for almost 45 years, supplying materials to SME installers and gaining access to financing such as the Energy Company Obligation. Image: InstaGroup. Midsummer, a wholesale distributor of renewable energy systems, has partnered with InstaGroup to enable the company to launch its first fully connected solar PV system, InstaGen. In addition to panels, battery storage and inverters, InstaGen offers a user-friendly app. Consumers can use the technology to monitor their InstaGen system and energy consumption. InstaGroup has been in the energy efficiency industry for almost 45 years, supplying materials to SME installers and…
Scientists in South Africa have proposed a new design of a chalcogenide perovskite solar cell based on a compound known as barium zirconium sulfide. They tested different hole transport materials in the new device and found that a polymer known as P3HT provided the best performance. May 29, 2024 Emiliano BelliniA team of scientists led by the University of Fort Hare in South Africa has designed a perovskite solar cell with an absorber made from a chalcogenide perovskite material known as barium zirconium sulfide (BaZrS3).Metal chalcogenide perovskites, with their non-toxic elemental composition, are known to provide greater thermal and aqueous…
Researchers in Italy have found that combining residential air-source heat pumps with air-geothermal heat exchangers can reduce energy consumption by up to 30%. They tested the proposed combination using Matlab in a passive single-family building in Valtellina, northern Italy. May 29, 2024 Emiliano BelliniResearchers from the University of Padua in Italy have proposed improving the performance of residential air source heat pumps with air-geothermal heat exchangers and found that this combination can reduce energy consumption by up to 30%.The scientists assessed how the proposed combination would perform in a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system deployed in a passive…
Scientists in India have proposed using a multi-layer neural network to find line-to-ground, line-to-line and bypass diode faults in PV module strings. They tested the new approach on a 22.5 kW solar panel and reportedly achieved “competitive” accuracy results. May 29, 2024 Lior KahanaA group of researchers from India have proposed a new PV string error detection technique for PV strings that uses multi-layer neural network (MLNN), a machine learning technique that can handle complex relationships by learning their hierarchical representations.“Line-to-ground (LG) and line-to-line (LL) faults are detected, classified and located using the proposed technique,” the academics said. “The proposed…
The Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), held every ten years since 1994, kicked off this week in St. Johns, Antigua and Barbuda with a strong message: that major changes in international finance are needed to achieve a to create a level playing field for sustainable development in the world’s island nations, and that larger countries and industries bear responsibility for the impacts of climate change, and do more to fulfill their commitments to mitigating it. May 28, 2024 Mark Hutchins“We recognize SIDS’s need for access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy, especially renewable energy. SIDS…
Today, the Treasury Department and other federal agencies (including the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy) issued a joint statement identifying seven principles to be applied to voluntary carbon markets (VCMs), i.e., carbon credits. (Simply put, a carbon credit reflects a payment to a supplier in exchange for guaranteeing that a certain amount of carbon has been removed from the atmosphere – a crucial action to combat climate change.) There has been a lot of controversy surrounding carbon markets, as “researchers , journalists and other observers have found that several popular credit methodologies and activities relying on them…
India’s solar panel exports stood at $1.9 billion in the 2023-2024 financial year, with shipments to the US market accounting for the lion’s share of the total. May 28, 2024 Uma Gupta By pv magazine IndiaIndia’s solar panel exports rose 91% to $1.9 billion in the 2023-2024 financial year. The US market was the largest destination, accounting for 98.5% of India’s total PV module exports. According to data from India’s Ministry of Trade and Industry, exports to South Africa amounted to $4.73 million.India’s imports of solar panels stood at $4,353.51 million in FY 2023-2024, up 361% from $943.52 million in…
A Chinese research group, including scientists from module maker Tongwei, has designed a perovskite solar cell with remarkable perovskite film quality via the so-called self-disintegrating seed strategy. The device not only achieved one of the highest fill factor values ever measured for perovskite solar to date, but also exhibited remarkable stability. May 28, 2024 Emiliano BelliniResearchers in China claim to have achieved one of the highest fill factor values for a perovskite solar cell by reducing non-radiative recombination and residual stress through what they called a self-disintegrating seed strategy.“This strategy achieved a synergistic effect of morphology optimization, interface modification and…
Brazil added 6 GW of new PV capacity between January and April. ABSolar, the Brazilian PV association, says the country has now deployed a cumulative 43 GW of solar capacity, of which around 24 GW is from PV systems of less than 75 kW. May 28, 2024 Livia Neves Image: Samuel Costa Melo, UnsplashBy pv magazine BrazilAccording to PV association ABSolar, solar energy in Brazil has surpassed 43 GW of installed capacity.About 29.2 GW of this capacity comes from PV systems with distributed generation of less than 5 MW, while 13.8 GW comes from large-scale PV installations of more than…