Technology

KU Leuven researchers have developed rooftop panels that capture both solar power and water from the air. Like traditional PV modules, hydrogen panels are also connected, but via gas tubes instead of electric cables. The researchers are now preparing to bring the tech to the mass market via a spinoff company.

French developer VSN Energies Nouvelles was able to almost double the capacity of one of its PV projects due to technological advances such as high-powered panels and new plant design concepts.

Automating utility-scale solar facilities is now a standard consideration of independent power producers (IPPs), with robotics representing a relatively small portion of total investment. Despite this, offers from technology suppliers should be thoroughly scrutinized, as wrong choices can pose a significant risk to a power generation asset that is expected to last 25 years or more.

A five-year Sandia Labs study on solar module degradation shows that 13 out of 23 tested module types have effective lifetimes exceeding 30 years.

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, and Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) have developed a two-dimensional (2D) anode material for lithium batteries by using nanosheets derived from titanium diboride. They found the new anode material leads to a discharge capacity of 174 mA h/g within 10 minutes at a current rate of 1 A/g.

A new report by Arthur D. Little presents an integrated blueprint for India to achieve its true potential in the power sector with a focus on renewables.

Radovan Kopecek, an expert on interdigitated back-contacted (IBC) tech, says that IBC solar panels could capture more than 50% of the global market by 2030, potentially pushing TOPCon products out of competition. He told pv magazine how this transition might materialize and discussed the tech advancements that could make it possible.

An Israeli scientist has proposed a way to achieve uninterrupted PV power on the moon without using energy storage. The proposal involves the installation of PV panels around a 360-degree latitudinal ring close to one of the moon’s poles. There would be no inter-array shading, and static vertical PV arrays and arrays mounted on single-axis vertical trackers could be viable mounting structures.

The company already has a state-of-the-art lithium battery recycling plant in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, with a recovery efficiency of more than 98% across various battery materials. It said the new plant in Telangana will increase its Li-ion battery recycling capacity to 19,500 MT by the end of 2023 from the current 4,500 MT.

Bengaluru-based Metastable Materials has developed a 100% chemical-free process for extracting metals out of scrap Li-ion batteries. It has set up an ‘Urban Mining Unit’ on the outskirts of Bengaluru, which is capable of processing up to 1,500 tonnes of dead batteries per annum. This unit will start production early next year. Shubham Vishvakarma, founder and chief of process engineering at Metastable Materials, speaks to pv magazine about the role of urban mining in meeting India’s electric mobility ambitions and the advantages of the process developed by them.