European Investment Bank lends €150 million for renewables in Bhutan
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to lend €150 million ($160.2 million) for renewables in Bhutan, in order to fund solar and hydropower installations in remote regions. Solar facilities are expected to reduce Bhutan’s reliance on energy imports during the dry months of the year and diversify the nation’s electricity mix.
JLR, Allye Energy partner on 270 kWh portable battery energy storage system
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and Allye Energy have agreed to collaborate on a 270 kWh portable battery energy storage system (BESS) built with second-life Range Rover batteries. The system, which is set to become the first commercially available BESS with JLR battery packs, can fully charge up to nine Range Rover PHEV vehicles at once.
A new twist on thermal storage
Power Panel offers a PV and thermal storage solution that combines simple, safe and easy to manage hot water with advanced thermoplastic technology and architecture.
Bifacial panels, representing 98% of U.S. solar imports, may soon be subject to tariffs
The Biden Administration is expected to revoke tariff exemptions on bifacial solar modules following a petition led by Qcells, a company with a multi-billion-dollar investment in U.S. manufacturing.
Solar module cooling tech based on waste neem oil
An international research team has placed a neem oil tank on the back of solar modules for cooling purposes. The proposed solution reportedly improves PV panel performance by up to 17.8%.
Australian solar manufacturing through the looking glass
The Silicon to Solar report, partly funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, outlines ways to restore solar manufacturing to the nation with a little help from the country’s major trading partner – China.
How much polysilicon is enough
TU Delft researchers have proposed a new approach for solar cell manufacturing that implies gauging wafer thickness depending on the regions where the cells and modules will be deployed. They also suggested to adopt test conditions that are representative of the outdoor working condition of solar cells in an alternative to standard testing conditions.
Indian researchers develop solar cell from living algae
The researcher team, from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham university in Coimbatore, India, sandwiched macroalgae between a carbon-coated copper electrode and a titanium oxide-coated fluorine-doped tin oxide electrode. The 1 cm2 device exhibited a 1.25 mA photocurrent and 0.5 V photovoltage under UV light.
Solar cell prices fall for 3rd consecutive week
In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick look at the main price trends in the global PV industry.
CATL unveils first mass-producible battery storage with zero degradation
China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. (CATL) has launched its new TENER energy storage product, which it describes as the world’s first mass-producible 6.25 MWh storage system, with zero degradation in the first five years of use.
