UAE utility announces selected bidders for 1.5 GW solar tender
Emirates Water and Electricity Co. (EWEC ) has announced the bidders for a tender to develop the 1.5 GW Al-Ajban solar project.
Japan’s 16th solar auction concludes with lowest bid of $0.065/kWh
Japan’s latest procurement exercise was open to PV projects above 250 kW in size. The lowest price came in at JPY 9 ($0.065)/kWh, with 119.7 MW of allocated capacity.
Italian startup offers solar kits packed in barrels
Italy’s Barrel claims that solar kits packed in barrels are ideal for remote areas and conflict zones. Its standard packages consist of 6 kW solar modules, 5.6 kW single-phase hybrid inverters, and 3.55 kWh lithium batteries.
Fully printed carbon electrode perovskite solar cell achieves 19.2% efficiency
German scientists have fabricated a carbon electrode perovskite solar cell with a hole-transporting bilayer made of organic semiconductors instead of a conventional hole transport layer. They claim this approach improves the device’s fill factor and open-circuit voltage.
Tongwei plans 16 GW PV cell factory
Tongwei says it will build a new 16 GW solar cell factory in Meishan City, China’s Sichuan province.
Chile releases bidding terms for 5,400 GWh renewables, storage auction
The Chilean authorities want to contract 5,400 GWh of power from renewable energy, while also including battery storage. The selected developers will secure 20-year power purchase agreements (PPAs).
The potential for floating solar in Southeast Asia
The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and its partners have assessed the technical potential for floating PV throughout Southeast Asia.
Dutch government mulling PV ban on agricultural sites
Dutch Economy Minister Micky Adriaansens said that she aims to make it impossible to install solar farms on agricultural land, with some unspecified exceptions. The plan has raised concerns at Holland Solar, with the trade group warning of potential damage to farmers and solar project developers.
Using existing fences as near-zero-cost racking solution for PV deployment
American researchers are proposing to use steel zip ties to attach solar modules to fences in animal farms as a low-cost racking solution for agrivoltaic applications. They found the proposed approach is technically and economically viable, provided careful wind load tests are conducted on the fences.
Indoor perovskite PV solar cells with 32.0% efficiency
Scientists in Thailand built an indoor perovskite solar cell with low-cost carbon electrode architecture. The manufacturing process is based on antisolvent deposition and vacuum thermal annealing (VTA) and reportedly results in higher perovskite film quality.
