Technology

The clean energy arm of Reliance Industries Limited will invest US$ 50 million in MIT-incubated Ambri. As part of the transaction the two companies will also partner to develop and manufacture liquid metal batteries in India.

The battery operates at 230 degrees Fahrenheit, opening what researchers said could be “a whole cascading cost savings” including everything from less expensive materials to less insulation.

Mónica LiraCantú leads a research group investigating nanostructured materials for photovoltaic energy at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2). Recently, her group led a project that looked deep into the crystalline structure of a perovskite solar cell, revealing new information about the formation of defects in the material and how they could be engineered to improve both efficiency and stability. pv magazine caught up with the Barcelona-based scientist to discuss the state of the art in perovskite solar cells and remaining challenges on the road to commercialization.

German researchers developed a lattice arrangement of three different layers of ferroelectric crystals that created a powerful photovoltaic effect.

Scientists in India fabricated a redox flow battery based on zinc and iron that showed strong storage characteristics and no signs of degradation over 30 charge-discharge cycles. The battery also showed no signs of dendrite formation, overcoming one of the key hurdles for redox-flow batteries based on these low-cost, abundant materials.

A British-Australian research team has assessed the potential of liquid air energy storage (LAES) for large scale application. The scientists estimate that these systems may currently be built at a cost between €300 and €600 per kilowatt-hour and that a positive business case could be favored by certain conditions, including a determined price structure in the energy market and the presence of a grid unable to support high levels of renewable energy penetration.

Developed by a Vietnamese-Korean research group, the complex PV device was built with a bottom bifacial crystalline silicon perovskite-filtered heterojunction sub-cell that is able to absorb all solar spectra in the short-wavelength range.

The Swiss group has acquired an integrated solar roof system solution from an unidentified German engineering service provider for this purpose. The aim is grow this sector from a niche market.

The energy payback time of a silicon PV rooftop system mounted in India is only 0.44 of one year (160.6 days), compared to 0.53-0.67 year in Africa, 1-1.3 years in Europe, and 1.42 years in Canada, reveals a world map by German research body the Fraunhofer Institute of Solar Energy Systems (ISE). For the calculation, the report authors considered the installation used a typical, Chinese-made, 60-cell, PERC, 19.9%-efficient solar module.

Australia-based Fortescue Future Industries has partnered with JSW Energy arm on green hydrogen production and application in India.