Technology and R&D

Zendure has developed a residential storage system using a semi-solid state battery with 6.438 kWh capacity. Each unit is scalable with up to four batteries, bring the capacity of one unit to 32 kWh and of two units to 64 kWh. The system can be used with solar panels.

Sharp is developing a zinc-air battery tech for renewables storage. The device will be reportedly safer than their lithium-ion counterparts, with high energy densities.

Reliance Industries says that production will begin at its 10 GW factory for solar cells and modules by 2024. It plans to double the facility’s capacity to 20 GW by 2026 and is aiming for 50 GWh of annual cell-to-pack battery capacity by 2027.

Belinus has released a new solar panel with a power conversion efficiency of 22.0% and a temperature coefficient of -0.25% per degree Celsius.

Nine partners from seven European countries are involved in the €3.6 million ($3.7 million) “Reveal” research project, which says buildings could be heated in the future by storing energy from PV, wind and water in aluminum.

Indian researchers have developed a new hybrid system featuring a conventional rooftop PV system, a solar tree, two gravity power modules for building (GPMBs), and a vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB), with power exclusively provided by the two solar installations.

Australian-born vanadium redox flow technology and new homegrown electrolyte sources are set to bulk up renewable energy storage options in the Pacific region and plug the gap left by lithium supply-chain issues. Natalie Filatoff reports from Sydney.

A new report form analysts at IHS Markit notes that the market for module-level power electronics (MLPE) grew by 33% between 2019 and 2021, with around one-third of new residential solar installations now taking advantage of MLPE’s promise of improved safety, energy yield and fault detection. And with smaller, distributed generation systems expected to represent 43% of global PV installations between now and 2025, the opportunity for MLPE will only get larger.

Laser contact opening (LCO), a standard process in PERC cell production, has seen little market development in the past few years. Stiff competition from equipment suppliers in Asia, combined with the fact that most new n-type manufacturing doesn’t make use of LCO, has kept the level of interest here quite low. However, as the PV research community increases its focus on reducing silver consumption, new approaches to cell contacting and metallization provide impetus for a second look at laser processing.

India’s national hydrogen mission includes the development of hydrogen as a fuel for transportation. Toward that objective, state-run oil and gas companies are engaged in a number of projects, including the blending of hydrogen with compressed natural gas for use as a transportation fuel, and the use of green hydrogen for fuel-cell-based mobility.