Highlights

The two nations together supply 96% of India’s lithium-ion cell and battery imports and almost 70% of non-rechargeable lithium products.

Scientists in Germany have developed two kinds of solar cells based on n-type doped electron-collecting poly-Si on oxide (POLO) junctions with aluminum-alloyed p+ contacts. Both devices are claimed to be possible upgrades of PERC technologies. The best-performant cell is an IBC device showing a power conversion efficiency of 23.71%, an open-circuit voltage of 711.5mV, a short-circuit current of 41.3mA/cm2, and a fill factor of 80.9%.

Rystad Energy has joined BloombergNEF with a significant forecast for gray and blue hydrogen off the back of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. According to the analysts, the impact of the war has sent prices of fossil fuel-tied forms of hydrogen production surging, leaving the gradual but consistent downward price trend of green hydrogen now looking remarkably competitive.

The Indian electric mobility player, which plans gigawatt-scale battery cell manufacturing, has embraced Israel-based StoreDot’s extreme-fast battery technology that charges from 0 to 100% in just five minutes.

The developer shall use the senior debt facility to initially finance its 450MW hybrid portfolio of solar and wind renewable projects in the Indian state of Rajasthan.

Renewable energy developers have until April 25 to lodge interest in developing a hybrid facility combining 1.5MW of hydroelectric generation capacity and 100MW of floating solar and the successful bidder will secure a 25-year power purchase agreement.

Under their clean energy partnership, both countries also agreed to cooperate in the disposal, recycling, and reclamation of valuable materials from batteries, solar panels, turbine blades, and electronics.

Danish BIPV specialist Dansk Solenergi has added two more tiles to its product range – an 18.15%-efficient dark grey panel and a 16.7%-efficient terracotta product. Both panels have an operating temperature coefficient of -0.34% per degree Celsius.

“We’re not talking about incremental improvement, this is a really giant leap,” Hysata CEO Paul Barrett told pv magazine Australia. Hysata is commercializing a breakthrough made at the University of Wollongong which effectively, Barrett says, invented a “brand new category of electrolyzer,” vastly improving efficiency.

The potential advantages of n-type technologies have long been known to solar manufacturers, and such applications have been the focus of much of their research and development activities. Recent developments see 2022 shaping up as the year when n-type goes into mass production, led by tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) cells. pv magazine takes a closer at this cell technology and its route to the mainstream.