Manufacturing

Vikrant Singh, co-founder and CTO of BatX Energies, told pv magazine that the company would use the funds to scale up its capacity, with plans to launch material production from end-of-life lithium batteries on a commercial scale. It will also set up recycling units in different geographies to locally produce black mass – a mixture of battery anode and cathode materials – and ship it to its India facility for battery material extraction.

A research team in Hong Kong has built a solar window that can generate power on the external side via a luminescent solar concentrator and thermal energy on the internal side via transparent solar absorbers.

Rajasthan-headquartered Natural Battery Technologies has developed lithium-based inverter batteries that can be charged with solar power. The batteries are designed for residential and commercial use, with storage capacities typically ranging from 1.5 kWh to 20 kWh. The company can offer other sizes, too, according to customer requirements.

A new report shows that renewable energy companies will continue to compete in upcoming auctions in India, undeterred by challenges such as rising materials costs and surging interest rates.

Tongwei has also secured another massive polysilicon order and Golden Glass has invested in more heterojunction solar cell capacity. Furthermore, China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) said 23.7 GW of new solar was deployed in China in the first five months of the year.

Alsym will produce its new batteries – made of readily available materials, without lithium or cobalt – for electric vehicles, stationary storage, and marine applications.

Enovix has shown that its US-made silicon anode lithium-ion batteries can charge from 0% to 80% in just five minutes.

Hinduja Group, an Indian multinational, has invested GBP 15 million (($18.4 million) with four other investors in Connected Energy, a developer of energy storage systems based on second-life electric vehicle batteries. The investment will help Connected Energy to scale up its operations and move into utility-scale project development. 

French solar energy institute INES has developed new PV modules with thermoplastics and natural fibers sourced in Europe, such as flax and basalt. The scientists aim to reduce the environmental footprint and weight of solar panels, while improving recycling.

A couple of weeks ago, Goldman Sachs sent shockwaves through battery metals markets, issuing a prediction that cobalt and lithium in particular were due for a sharp price decline in the next two years. But London-based Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is loudly pushing back, outlining its reasons why it believes the call on lithium was wrong. Meanwhile, US analyst Wood Mackenzie says that the battery raw material chain will remain tight, but notes that recycling could help to ease the supply deficit.