Perth-based ClearVue is making significant strides as its transparent solar windows demonstrate tangible outcomes following a two-year study and published paper.

US-based energy tech company Enphase Energy appears to have overcome the adversity it faced in the mid-2010s, when it was grappling with competition from string inverters and slower growth in the residential segment. Now that rooftop solar is hot again, Enphase’s co-founder and chief product officer, Raghu Belur, sat down with Tristan Rayner to discuss the microinverter pioneer’s approach to quality in a time of rapid change and the growing utility of connected devices.

The Genap Energy Cover uses HyET Solar Powerfoil thin-film solar modules, rated at 12.0% efficiency, for agricultural water storage and reservoirs, with an initial focus on the greenhouse and horticulture markets in the Netherlands. Genap said a 12kWp test setup had a generation density of 60W/m2, rising to 120W/m2 within a year, with an eventual target of 165W/m2.

Silicon carbide (SiC) has promised inverter makers higher power density, higher efficiency, and a total bill of materials that comes in closer to its more established rival in silicon. Has SiC finally arrived? Tristan Rayner spoke to the people at the forefront of the wider-bandgap material to find out the back story and what’s next.

Rising efficiencies and the plummeting cost of solar modules over the past few years, recent months notwithstanding, are leading innovators toward ideas that may look unusual in the current tracker-dominated world of large-scale solar parks. Advocates of the new approaches argue that they leave traditional models looking decidedly flat by comparison.

Thermal energy storage is dense, efficient, and suitable for greenfield and brownfield projects, with a potentially long lifespan. It can also be built with recyclable or low-impact storage materials. So why is it taking so long to achieve widespread commercial success? Tristan Rayner explores the latest developments.