Technology and R&D

The U.S. headquartered inverter company has mentioned that the new Enphase IQ microinverter enables faster installation and reduce maintenance costs for installers. Moreover, new technology will produce 18% more power and will be 31% lighter and 15% smaller than the current M-Series microinverters.

Scientists from the University of Wollongong in Australia have developed battery cells based on sodium-ion technology which the university says can achieve excellent cycling stability and easily be scaled up to mass production.

Scientists from the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) have announced the development of a new wet chemical process to allow multi-crystalline Si wafers to be cut with diamond wire saw technology, and subsequently textured to reduce their reflectivity.

Lamination innovation: The ongoing ambition of laminator manufacturers is to develop machines that can deliver high output through a faster lamination process, while simultaneously reducing their footprint by combining several machines into one. However, an in-depth process know-how is essential in order to produce defect-free modules. Which players possess such knowledge?

Cell degradation: LID in p-type monocrystalline PERC cells has caused serious issues in PV plant performance. Now, it can be prevented with regeneration processes or by replacing boron with gallium. The cause of LeTID in multicrystalline PERC cells, meanwhile, is still a mystery, but researchers have proposed an industrial solution to address it.

Ahead of its upcoming webinar, on March 27, JinkoSolar’s Head of Technical Service Europe, Andrea Viaro, discusses the company’s new Half Cell (HC) Series, the benefits of multi-busbar and bifacial technology, and upcoming innovations, in a Q&A with pv magazine.

Vikram Solar and CEA will look to enhance research and development on high-efficiency crystalline silicon cells, modules and systems. A host of high-efficiency generation and storage technologies for French and Indian markets are also in the planning.

Researchers in the U.S. have confirmed the existence of a novel state of the element manganese, first proposed in a journal dating from 1928, which could allow for the development of low-cost, high performance batteries for grid level, and other energy storage applications.

Su-kam Power Systems Ltd, Managing Director, Kunwer Sachdev speaks to pv magazine about the latest developments in Inverter technology. Moreover, he talks about the solar market in India from the inverter perspective, Su-Kam products Solarcon and Brainy, and he explained why DC electricity is superior to AC.

Only one month after announcing a PERC module efficiency of 20.41%, the Chinese solar manufacturer announced it has now achieved a 23.6% efficiency for its PERC monocrystalline cells, thus beating its own previous records.