Panasonic has launched a solar-powered hydrogen fuel cell project at its factory in Cardiff, Wales, with the microwave assembly now operating on renewable energy.

Scientists have designed a PVT-driven direct contact membrane distillation system for off-grid applications. The system is intended for desalination purposes in remote areas.

Scientists in Egypt have created an anti-soiling coating for solar panels by mixing ethanol, deionized water, ammonium hydroxide and tetraethyl orthosilicate. They tested a coated panel outdoors for ten months and found that the panel showed a 64.7% higher current compared to reference modules without coating.

Harvard University researchers say hydrogen costs are underestimated due to unaccounted storage and distribution variability across sectors, while Kore Infrastructure has told pv magazine that it aims to reach a levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) of between $1/kg and $2/kg.

New research shows that rooftop PV system may have “unintended” consequences on temperartures in urban environments. Rooftop arrays, for example, may potentially lower nighttime temperatures by up to 0.6  C.

Scientists from Singapore have designed new floating breakwaters integrating wave energy converters that can be used to reduce the impact of waves on offshore PV systems. Their analysis showed that the wave energy systems can achieve the highest additional power output when the wavelength is shorter.

Researchers in Spain have created a novel method to select within a set of water bodies those where the investment in floating PV could be most beneficial. They combined geographic information systems, multi-criteria analysis, and intelligent optimization. The new approach reportedly results up to 8.4% better LCOE compared to conventional methods.

Scientists have proposed a new system that uses surplus PV energy in the spring and the autumn to charge up underground thermal energy storage for later use in the summer and winter. They have simulated it on a school facility in Seoul, with a few optional configurations for thermal storage. Power savings were up to 39%.

Researchers have conducted a field study across two growing seasons, growing different kinds of vegetables under three types of modules with 40%, 5%, and 0% transparency. Their work is the first replicated research experiment that evaluates module transparency in an irrigated vegetable field setting.

The US Navy has funded Danish research on preventing biofouling while maintaining visible light transmission on underwater solar cells. The top solution uses ultra-low concentrations of nano-sized, seawater-soluble pigments. Power generation stayed close to 100% after 13 weeks underwater.