Illinois-based ELM Solar, the US reseller of UK-based Naked Energy's solar thermal and photovoltaic thermal (PVT) systems, has installed 240 of the British company's TÜV-certified collectors at a student dormitory at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

The university student residence installation is claimed to generate solar heat up to 120 C, with an annual peak capacity of 69.9 kW thermal energy. It is the first North American project for the British company.

The VirtuHOT HD collector uses a heat plate to absorb the sun’s energy and transfers it to the solar fluid to a high-efficiency heat plate. The absorber plate has a low emissivity coding reducing radiative heat loss. The vacuum in the glass tube reduces additional heat loss, resulting in a maximum of efficiency.

Naked Energy also makes PVT systems in a vacuum tube form with an absorber plate, conventional silicon solar cells, a borosilicate glass tube, and an integrated reflector in a mounting system with a 25.4 cm profile.

The absorbers can be tilted towards the sun optimising performance on pitched roofs, flat roofs, and vertical facades. A single tube unit measures 2,165 mm x 300 mm x 265 mm and weighs 20.9 kg. Its aperture area is 0.64 m2 and the absorber area is 0.331 m2. Its peak thermal output is 275 W and the electrical output is 70 W.

“The business development teams at ELM Solar and Naked Energy are currently in conversations with a variety of leads in the United States,” Christophe Williams, Naked Energy CEO, told pv magazine, noting that potential customers in the US range from paper and pulp manufacturers, health care facilities and restaurants, to pilot projects with international utility companies.

“Solar heat technology has enormous potential because it takes the task of heating water, a major energy cost in any building, either off the power or gas grid, resulting in financial and carbon savings for the building owner,” said Lee C. Graves, chairman, ELM Companies, owner of ELM Solar.

According to its CEO, Naked Energy is developing a software platform to ease the planning and modeling of new PVT installations, including cost, performance, and return on investment calculations for PV-generated electricity, solar heating and cooling. Williams also said that a first German project is slated to start construction in January, without providing further details.

Naked Energy claims that its technology quadruples the reduction of greenhouse gases per square meter compared to traditional solar PV panels.

The article was amended on October 20, 2023 to reflect that it was a thermal system and not a PVT system as originally reported.

EKO Instruments has introduced the PV Blocks performance measurement system, developed by Dutch engineering specialist ReRa Solutions.

The measurement system is purportedly capable of testing off-grid and grid-connected solutions with support for standard tests as defined in IEC 60891 and IEC 60904-1.

“Users can define the number of PV modules to connect to a variety of solar and meteorological sensors,” Kees Hoogendijk, EKO Instruments CEO, told pv magazine, who noted that the PV Blocks system has an integrated “rugged” PC, equipped with software to support data acquisition and data storage, a web-based interface, and an application interface (API) for Python programming packages.

The company is responding to the need to test under real-world conditions new types of PV modules for applications, such as building integrated PV (BIPV), agrivoltaics, and floating solar, as well as bifacial modules and perovskite solar cells.

“All of these need on site testing and research in diverse geographical regions, under varying environmental and atmospheric conditions,” said Hoogendijk. “It is difficult to test performance of the cells and modules in the lab under static conditions without verification outdoors.”

PV Blocks supports up to 32 PV test modules. Measurement loads range from 450 W to 900 W for IV-current voltages, maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and positive voltage biasing. The measurement of IV curves can be set from 200 ms up to 30 seconds. The system also features an optional IP55 weatherproof enclosure for outdoor deployment.

As the name suggests, individual modules or blocks can be added to the “base” system, which consists of a PC, a systems controller block, application software, a 24 VDC power supply unit, and a 10 m ethernet cable.

The optional measurement modules are equipped with cables, connectors, sensors, and optical components for the following tests: temperature, MPTT, power, voltage, irradiance, and IV curves. The optional Modbus unit has 4 channels to digitally connect external equipment, such as pyranometers, reference cells, or weather sensors.

Linköping-based Epishine has launched a developer kit for the evaluation of its organic PV (OPV) technology, which it claims can replace or augment batteries in small indoor environmental sensing, information displays, and monitoring devices. The kit is targeted at innovators and original equipment manufacturers (OEM) considering embedding organic solar cells as a power source in new products.

Optimized for indoor lighting conditions and wireless low-power applications, the developer kit contains a supercapacitor, or energy buffer, that can be reconfigured to act as a battery, as well as embedded maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and a management system to handle charging, output voltages, and energy storage mechanisms.

“The evaluation kit highlights the power of Epishine’s indoor solar cells, demonstrating their ability to power low-power wireless devices. It combines our solar cells with a supercapacitor and allows for a fast replacement of primary batteries to evaluate light energy harvesting,” Jonas Bergqvist, CTO, Epishine told pv magazine.

The unit has sufficient current to support low-power data communications protocols, such Zigbee and LoRa, with output voltage ranging from 1.8 V to 3.3 V in 0.1 V steps, up to 300 mA output current, according to the company. It is purportedly safe for operation at -20C to 40C and a humidity range of 0 to 85%. Illumination intensity ranges from 20 lux to 1,000 lux.

The company claims that if the supercapacitor is empty, the circuit is able to start up with an input voltage of 38 mV. The maximum charge voltage of the capacitor is limited to 4.5 V.

Epishine recently subjected its LEH3_50x50_6_10 product to a lifecycle assessment (LCA) by Swedish environmental consultancy Miljögiraff and third-party reviewed by Sweco, a Stockholm-based engineering firm, resulting in a carbon footprint measurement of 0.86 g CO2eq/cm2.

The low carbon footprint is attributed in part to the company's patented production process, which avoids high temperatures and excludes certain materials. According to Bergqvist, it is cost-efficient too. “Roll to roll printing aligns well with these design rules with a very high degree of automation and comparably low process temperatures. Further, we have chosen to not use transparent conductive oxide electrodes, but all our solar cell layers are deposited from solution, thereby enabling a fully roll to roll printed solar cell with a high and very robust performance for indoor low light applications,” said Bergqvist.

Epishine offers customized cell sizes, supporting cut-outs in the cell surface, in sizes ranging from 20 cm2 to 300 cm2, to make the technology available to a wider range of sensor devices and internet of things (IoT) end nodes

In July, the six year old, company raised SEK 60 million ($5.43 million) in a round led by Jula Miljö & Energi, which belongs to Jula Holding, a diversified retail, real estate, and energy holding company based in Sweden, to fund product development and scaling up production in order to increase its market share in the indoor solar cell market.

DMEGC Solar says that its new cell manufacturing facility in Yibin, Sichuan province, will commence mass production of n-type TOPCon cells this month, with advanced automation, wireless data, and robotics. The module and cell manufacturer operates five production hubs across four Chinese provinces, with a cumulative shipment record exceeding 30 GW, including 14 GW of cells and 12 GW of modules distributed worldwide.

TCL Zhonghuan says it plans to generate CNY 13.8 billion ($1.92 billion) via a private share placement to build a 35 GW super-thin polysilicon wafer factory and a 25 GW n-type TOPCon cell plant in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. All solar cells produced at the factory will be supplied for Zhonghuan's PV module products.

Haitai Solar says it has canceled an investment deal in the city of Yancheng, Jiangsu province, for a 10 GW TOPCon cell factory, citing uncertainty over land-related concerns. Separately, it has signed an agreement with the city of Chuzhou, Anhui province, to construct the same 10 GW TOPCon cell factory, with the investment amount unchanged at CNY 5 billion (equivalent to $695 million).

German equipment supplier 4JET unveiled a new laser system for thin film scribing.

Called TOPAZ P1/P2/P3, the new laser system can be equipped with a wide range of laser sources, including nanosecond, picosecond, and femtosecond lasers in the infrared, green or ultraviolet wavelength ranges from can be done from either the substrate-side or from the film-side. The company claims a throughput of greater than 10,000 substrates per day with 10-second cycle times for 300 scribe lines.

The working area is said to go up 2,400 mm x 1,300 mm, supporting substrate thickness in the range of 2 mm to 4 mm. “Customers can, of course, request specific dimensions within the working area range,” Benjamin Bopp, sales director at 4JET, told pv magazine.

The system has a laser sub-system design featuring “individual path tracking,” which Bopp said is related to the other features, such as individual auto-focus, and individual power-balancing for every single processing beam.

“In other concepts, there is only one sensor for a multitude of laser beams, for example, which causes inaccuracies by design. The laser beams from the source are split into multiple laser beams in the processing head. Since beam splitting is never perfect in real life, this leads to uneven power distribution, and therefore uneven scribing results,” said Bopp.

The laser units each have their own sensors, power level settings, and focus optics. These features result in more precise measurement and a higher number of measurement points, according to Bopp, which in turn means more precise, consistent scribing, and the potential to reduce unproductive areas between scribing lines, te so-called dead zones.

According to the manufacturer, the system design has also the benefit of being able to bring the scribes closer together without increasing the risk of crossing, which leads to fewer inaccuracies in terms of focus position, and fade out lines, especially at the edges of the modules.

The new solution has a power requirement of 400Vac, 63 A and a factory-floor footprint of 7,500 mm³ x 5,650 mm³ x 2,300 mm³, including peripherals.

First customers are using the new systems in pilot line production with several systems on order for mass production purposes, according to Bopp.

Oxford PV, a UK developer of perovskite solar technologies, annouced its partnership with Top Dutch Solar Racing for the upcomig Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in Australia.

The Dutch team is driving a so-called Challenger Class vehicle, which limits solar PV plate to 4 m2 size, according to the race’s regulations limits. “There are about 400 tandem cells in the entire solar deck array,” Stewart Hooper, manager of Product Realisation and Advanced Products, Oxford PV, told pv magazine.

“The tandem cells are a custom size, cut from our regular M6 size production cells,” said Hopper, adding that the standard Oxford PV cells were cut down to 100 cm2 for the vehicle's solar plate. In addition, to keep the weight in check the solar deck array is not enclosed in glass.

This is the first time that Oxford PV is participating in the competition. It has been making efficiency progress in recent months with heterojunction-perovskite tandem cells made at its production facility in Brandenburg, Germany.

“Over the past year our team has been studying how to capture the sun's energy as best as possible using new, innovative technologies that will allow us to compete against teams with over 10 years of experience. Tandem silicon solar cells from Oxford PV can outperform traditional silicon solar cells by at least 20% and represent the next big leap forward for solar power, as silicon cells approach their theoretical limits,” said Laura de la Fuente Esteban, PV Engineer at Top Dutch Solar Racing.

The Bridgeston World Solar Challenge will be on 20-27 October 2023. There are 32 entries in the Challenger Class from 18 locations around the world. Competitors participate from schools and universities around the world. In the The competition was last held in 2019. The  2021 event was cancelled due to the travel restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Flexwave, a Taiwan-based developer of PV solutions for indoor-outdoor applications, has launched a solar PV unit intended to provide 10 years of self-sustaining solar power to remote small-sized electronics devices, such as wildfire detectors or gas monitors, as well as to Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

Dubbed Arc-Solar Box, the monocrystalline module relies on passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) cell technology and is available in two versions with a power output of 1,250 mW and 3,050 mW, respectively.

The smallest device is embedded in an enclosure that measures 166 mm x 86 mm x 55 mm and hosts a PV module with a size of 110 mm x 60 mm. The larger version has an enclosure measuring 187 mm x 147 mm x 75 mm and contains a solar panel with dimensions of 134 mm x 104 mm.

The enclosure utilizes a waveguide technology that does not rely on conventional encapsulation, such as ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA). “We use an optical encapsulant to substitute the traditional Glass/EVA, which shows good waveguide behavior and helps to collect the light from wider angles, just like a concentrator,” Daniel Chou, CEO, told pv magazine.

It also features maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and a charge control system that reportedly enables 10,000 mWh on a sunny day and 980 mWh on a cloudy day, based on measurements made in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

Furthermore, it has IP67 protection and includes a 5.0 V solar charge/battery controller. Optional features include a terrestrial and satellite communications module, environmental sensors, a rechargeable battery, and asset-tracking packaging.

The Flexwave technology is purportedly suitable for other cell technologies, such as organic photovoltaics (OPV), dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC), and gallium arsenide (GaAs) cells.

In February, the Flexwave module was validated with 14.48% efficiency under LED and 19.44% under a fluorescent lamp (TL84), by Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).

Referring to a study presented in September at the EU PVSEC event in Portugal that relied on a Real-Time One-Sweep (RTOS) method for I-V measurements and an indoor lighting simulator, Chou said, “With our technology, a mono-Si module could reach over 20% efficiency under fluorescent lamp for the very first time.”

The ArcBox is one of several original development manufacturing (ODM) products from the Taiwanese startup. It also offers a developer kit, Micro-EH, to original equipment manufacturers (OEM) for evaluation and prototyping. “The test kit helps our customers to understand the works of energy harvesters and quickly evaluate their system,” said Chou.

Design-in wins include the geo-location and user-access consoles in bicycles belonging to a leading Taiwanese bike-sharing fleet and the power modules inside Taiwan-based GlobalSat Worldcom’s GPS and terrestrial low range livestock asset trackers.

“As a young company, we keep looking for business that can solve problems and make profit, IoTs and distributed electronics are the major targets,” said Chou. “Although most of our business is ODM, more business connections on distribution will be welcome.”

A Spanish research team developed a measurement method to measure standard test condition (STC) of PV module power in the field with lower levels of uncertainty compared to conventional methods, which may have implications to improve productivity for operations and maintenance (O&M) teams performing quality control assessments.

The new approach eliminates the need for removing and reinstalling the tested PV modules from their operating positions, which the scientists describe as a “cumbersome and expensive task and represents a risk for the physical integrity of the modules.”

The procedure entails using a reference module and taking into consideration the temperature differences between the reference and the tested module. It involves two radio-linked I-V tracers to simultaneously measure I-V curves and temperature measurements at the centers of both the reference and the tested modules.

The scientists conducted seven testing campaigns at commercial PV plants. Measurements were carried out on over 7000 I-V curves on 600 PV modules. The resulting estimated uncertainties are slightly higher than those corresponding to high-quality solar simulators, but still low enough to meet strict quality control requirements, according to the researchers.

“We are able to apply very low-uncertainty measurements of PV modules in the field, which paves the way for accomplishing degradation measurements directly by the O&M teams of PV plants and on a regular basis,” Rodrigo Moretón, CEO of Spanish photovoltaic engineering and consultancy firm Qualifying Photovoltaics (QPV), told pv magazine.

The results from these testing campaigns suggested that four testing rounds, delayed at least 2 hours, resulted in average expanded uncertainties in STC power of about 1.3% for the average power of a sample of modules, according to the researchers.  The uncertainty in single module values was twice as large but still sufficient to detect anomalous defective or underrated modules.

“The results have been validated against those obtained by an accredited lab with a mobile flash, obtaining similar standard deviation values (<1%), which entails a further confirmation of the procedure validity,” said the research team.

The researchers also claimed the instrumentation allowed over 500 measurements to be taken per day, provided the modules were previously cleaned and disconnected from the PV array so that terminals could be easily accessed. “This represents more than twice the numbers currently achieved with mobile solar simulators,” stated the researchers.

The research team comprised scientists from QPV, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) and Spanish renewable energy company Acciona Energia. Its findings are available in the paper “On outdoor testing procedures of large samples of PV modules,” published in Progress in Photovoltaics.

Swedish startup Green14 is planning to produce polysilicon by using novel green hydrogen technology.

The company is currently cooperating with Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in the development of a pilot reactor process where hydrogen plasma acts as a quartz reductant to remove oxygen from the silicon dioxide.

“It also acts as a refining step because of the very high temperatures in the plasma section,” Green14 CEO, Adam Podgorski, told pv magazine, noting that green hydrogen represents an alternative to the use of coal and chlorine as the processing reactants in conventional solar silicon production.

Green14 used a plasma spray process that requires an output of 85 kW in a lab-scale setup with the aim of simulating bulk silicon production from quartz in the presence of hydrogen plasma as a reductant and refining mechanism. The process collects silicon on plates in the plasma plume.

According to Podgorski, the process is able to deliver silicon at 5N to 6N purity levels (99.999% to 99.9999%). He said these results were validated by Norwegian research institute SINTEF and Czech plasma technology provider PlasmaSolve.

“Our pilot aims to repeat this 6N purity at scale and push it even further before integrating it into post-processing steps,” said Podgorski.  The hope for the pilot reactor is to achieve “high purities on timescales of seconds rather than the hours that it takes for Siemens polysilicon.”

The startup plans to build a 25-kilotonne plant in Northern Sweden, equating to an annual wafer capacity of 10 GW. “We have a letter of intent (LOI) in place from key customers and we are working on more,” said Podgorski, without providing further details.

When asked about green hydrogen sources, he said that Sweden has several large renewables-driven hydrogen electrolysis projects underway, such as H2 Green Steel.

Enovato GmbH, a Munich-based company operating the online energy retrofitting platform 42watt, has raised an undisclosed sum in a seed financing round led by Lithuania-based investor Contrarian Ventures.

The company said it will use the funds to expand the business and its services that support homeowners with retrofitting advice. Existing investors include social impact investor, BonVenture, real estate-oriented Proptech1, and private investors, such as Felix Jahn, founder of McMakler, and Christoph Behn, founder of impact-oriented business angel club Better Ventures.

The 42watt technology platform has an algorithm that uses ten data points, such as electricity consumption, or year of construction, to drive the modeling and information modules.

“The algorithm, developed in collaboration with the Technical University of Munich, provides information on the right measures, investment and subsidy amounts, energy cost savings, return on investment and payback period,” Marcus Dietmann, co-founder of 42watt, told pv magazine.

Measures and investments related to items like solar PV, heat pumps, new windows, or better insulation are some of the things that the company offers. Furthermore, there are savings calculators, and guidance on grants at the local, regional, and federal level.

“The data points are used to create a 3D model of the house to simulate energy potentials, such as heating load and PV coverage. In addition, other information such as transmission heat losses (U-values) are calculated over the age of the building,” said Dietmann.

In the future, 42watt plans to offer specialized energy advice modules. “Energy retrofitting a building must become as easy as subscribing to Netflix,” said the company's CEO, Jörg Überla. “That’s why our services will help millions of homeowners on their way to a carbon-neutral home and help Germany achieve its climate goals.”

The name 42watt refers to the goal of reducing energy consumption of existing buildings to less than 42 kWh per year and m2 on average to meet Germany’s climate targets in the building sector by 2045.

Estonian BIPV specialist Solarstone said this week that it has built a new 60 MW factory in Viljandi, Estonia. The site has the capacity to assemble 13,000 integrated solar panels per month, according to the company, enabling the supply of 6,000 homes with 10 kW solar roofs.

“The 2000 m2 new facility is made up of various complex precision CNC cutting and milling machinery,”

Janari Võrk, a Solarstone spokesperson, told pv magazine that the new facility, which spans 2,000 square meters, features a range of complex precision CNC cutting and milling machinery. The new equipment enables Solarstone to apply its proprietary Click-on BIPV installation technology to a wider range of top-tier solar panels to meet design specifications and performance requirements, according to Võrk.

Solarstone, which was founded in 2015, has a patented aluminum technology that enables direct integration of solar PV tiles  and rooftop PV systems. It also has a range of carport kits. The company claims that it has installed 1,000 solar roofs as of September in 10 markets.

Its production line includes a multi-functional, customized A+ rated PV-testing station.

“It means from now on, we can provide above TÜV level testing results for every single panel,” said Võrk.

Solarstone, which employs 50 people, recently raised €10 million ($10.5 million) in a funding round led by Biofuel OÜ, an Estonian family office investing in renewable technologies. Sunly, an independent energy producer, was an early backer.

Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) have developed new low temperature manufacturing processes for perovskite silicon tandem cells and heterojunction solar cells. The novel techniques are reportedly able to reduce silver consumption and avoid lead-containing soldering materials.

“We show that with a deep understanding of the processes and material behavior, low-temperature metallization and interconnection with the established equipment of solar cell and module production lines is possible,” the research's lead author, Angela De Rose, told pv magazine.

The scientists developed two different processes: front-side metallization at very low temperatures for full-size perovskite silicon tandem solar cells; and the interconnection to high-efficiency full-format demonstrator modules with an output power of more than 400 W.

The metallization step used fine-line screen printing. The selected paste was shown to be suitable for high-speed printing reliable at widths of 20 μm, resulting in a printed width of 26 μm. The process translated into 43% less silver consumption compared to a layout with finger widths of 35 μm. For curing at 150 C, “good electrical properties were reached” and high throughput production is possible due to fast curing times down to 2 minutes per wafer, according to the researchers.

For interconnection, the group used electrically conductive adhesives (ECA), screening several pastes and methods. “There are many commercially available ECAs on the market, allowing the processing at different temperature ranges, including less than 200 C and less than 150 C,” it explained, noting that most of ECAs use silver particles to ensure more electrical conductivity.

Their techniques achieved silver reduction by using finer line printing and less ECA than conventional methods and avoiding lead-containing materials in the low temperature screenprinting pastes and lead-free solder alloys.

The researchers claim they have been able to use 50% less ECA compared to the conventional continuous application patterns, noting that the proposed solution offers sufficient joint adhesion for string handling and stable module powers on the cells, also for ECA curing temperatures of 130 C. “The major challenge for this approach is to keep the curing time as short as possible to enable high throughput,” they said.

The solar modules made with a soldered wire interconnection and ECA ribbon interconnection have a total area of 1.8 m2, an output of more than 400 W, consisting of full-size perovskite silicon tandem half cells. The solder-coated wire enabled low-temperature processing and damage-free fabrication, said the researchers.

“By optimizing the involved processes and materials hand-in-hand, we were able to build highly efficient perovskite silicon heterojunction modules in full-format with different interconnection technologies,” said De Rose.

The team claimed the process enables high-throughput production at stringing speeds of 1600 to 1800 cells per hour. The cell matrix, either silicon heterojunction or tandem, was embedded into a commercially available encapsulant for a lamination process within a conventional process window between 140C and 160C. The full-size modules were built as glass-glass modules with edge sealing.

The processes were described in the study “Low-temperature metallization & interconnection for silicon heterojunction and perovskite silicon tandem solar cells,” published in Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells.

The group’s future research activity includes lead-free and low-temperature soldering, shingling interconnection using ECA, as well as long-term stability of tandem cells and modules.

Thin-film perovskite solar cells made with carbon electrode back contacts, instead of metal ones, provide the opportunity to use low-temperature cell processes, with fewer steps, while ensuring stability. However, the advantages have always come at the cost of power conversion efficiency – until very recently.

“This year carbon electrode-based devices broke the psychological barrier of 20%, efficiency with several teams in several different locations announcing they had crossed the threshold,” Lukas Wagner, a researcher at Philipps-University Marburg, told pv magazine.

With  stability and efficiency on an upwards trajectory, there are now enough c-PSC companies and research teams exploring the technology to merit a conference – the First International Conference on Carbon Electrode-based Perovskite Solar Cells. It has attracted 34 speakers and more than 220 participants to participate in October, according to Wagner.

The ability to print the all or most of the cell stack is also a big part of the appeal of carbon electrodes.

“The cell stacks can be printed which eases upscaling and process with low capital expenditure,” said Wagner.

Sunmaxx has started building a highly automated factory on the site of an existing production facility in Ottendorf-Okrilla, near Dresden, Germany.

The German photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) module manufacturer said that the factory has an annual capacity of 50 MW, or 120,000 modules per year. It claimed that it is currently the world's largest PVT production facility.

Sunmaxx plans to switch on the first production line this year. It said that it aims to reach a capacity of 3 GW at an unspecified later stage.

“The remodeling of the production site and the preparation of the hall for the production machinery is currently taking place,” said CTO Jiri Springer. “But the demand for our modules – including for the construction of ground-mounted systems – is growing rapidly and we want to scale up our production as quickly as possible. We plan to open the first line this year, but the location allows us to implement further expansion opportunities up to several hundred megawatts per year in the near future.”

In March, Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) certified that Sunmaxx's PVT PX-1 solar modules have an overall efficiency of 80%. They measure 1,750 mm x 1,140 mm x 38 mm and feature 108 PERC half-cells in the M10 format. The electrical output is 400 W, which corresponds to an electrical efficiency of about 20%.

Germany-based Webasto, a developer of vehicle-integrated PV (VIPV) solutions and an automotive industry supplier, has launched a solar panel system for car roofs that can slide open.

The company said it has already incorporated the module into an electric sports utility vehicle produced by an undisclosed US-based manufacturer.

“The system integrates 120 passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) cells and has a power output of 300 W,” a company spokesperson told pv magazine, adding that the US automaker calculated an additional range of up to 3,000 kilometers per year, depending on environmental conditions and the battery management system used.

The encapsulated PERC cells are laminated between two safety glass (VSG) panels in a two-part system, a front panel and a rear panel.  The PV units are rigid, they neither roll nor fold. They feature a top-loading outer slider mechanism, a proprietary Webasto Stockdorf design, which raises the front panel part a few millimeters and then slides it over the rear part, according to Webasto’s spokesperson.

The front sliding panel weighs 21 kg, measures 1.2 m2, and has blue decorative detailing. The rear panel is 0.9 m2 and has the same blue decorative detail. A frame supporting the weight of the front and rear panels integrates the unit’s motor.  The spokesperson added that Webasto has incorporated a tow cable design to ensure solar energy harvesting even when the panel is in the open position.

The complete sunroof assembly, including panels, tow cables, drive cable, and motor, is assembled and quality-checked at the Webasto Velky Meder facility in Slovakia, ready for integration in the factory at the stage where welded and fixed automobile frames are ready for installation of parts, such as engine, doors, and fenders.

“This solar sunroof option is an original equipment offering and is seamlessly integrated directly by the manufacturer, eliminating the need for aftermarket solutions,” the spokesperson said.

VIPV systems like this can deliver power to the high-voltage battery that drives motors or to onboard sub-systems, such as air conditioning. “The utility factor is by no means the only benefit. The appealing design of a modern solar roof from Webasto is a statement of sustainability, also demonstrating the owner’s environmental awareness,” said Jan Henning Mehlfeldt, responsible for the global roof business at Webasto.

HyET Solar, a thin film solar PV foil, startup has raised €29 million ($31 million) to accelerate the completion of its 40 MW manufacturing facility in Arnhem, Netherlands.

Invest-NL, an impact investor, said it contributed €14.5 million debt financing in the round. This sum is meant to push forward the completion of the company's 40 MW production factory in Arnhem.

“This investment is an important step in reshoring solar production to the Netherlands and Europe. Furthermore, it sets the tone for a more sustainable, material-efficient future in the solar energy sector,” said Wouter van Westenbrugge, Senior Investment Manager, Invest-NL.

HyET Solar plans to scale up its capacity to 300 MW and go public within two years.

Hyet Solar uses hydrogenated amorphous silicon in its light and flexible solar foils. It has two module types based on single junction and tandem junction design. The manufacturer said the panels are available in custom lengths.

The foils have a bending radius of 7.5 cm, with a weight of  600 g per m2. Power density is 110-150 W/kg. The cells are encapsulated in a polymer package that the company claims is durable and low cost.

Staubli, known for supplying electrical connectors for solar plants and energy storage applications, has invested in a financing round for California-based OnSight Technology. The Swiss components manufacturer did not reveal the size of the investment in the two-year-old US startup, which develops autonomous ground vehicles to provide PV plant monitoring, including inspections of the rear sides of installed PV modules.

The financing round is meant to finance further development of the algorithms and artificial intelligence technology that OnSight Technology uses in its robots. They are equipped with computer vision systems, thermal cameras, and heat sensors to provide surveillance, detect anomalies, and record the status of infrastructure at PV plants.

The units can purportedly detect electrical problems that could threaten plant safety. The unmanned, remotely controlled units are solar-powered and can move at a speed of 1.6 km per hour for up to 12 hours a day.

It lists several reference customers on its website, including Duke Energy, a public utility, Enerparc, a German solar PV plant specialist, and McCarthy, a utility-scale solar and energy storage project company.

Staubli was joined by a second lead investor, Moneta Ventures, an early-stage investor based in California, along with an earlier investor Growth Factory Ventures, a startup accelerator based in California.

Staubli said the investment is closely aligned with its area of expertise.

“With our proven track record in the photovoltaics industry and our longstanding experience, we feel that it’s our responsibility to invest in the future of safer solar farms,” said Matthias Mack, vice president of renewable energy at Staubli. “We are very excited to participate in the development projects of OnSight Technology's innovative solutions.”

Rystad Energy says China may have another record year for new PV installations in 2023, driven by the addition of 150 GW of PV capacity. The company cites data from China’s National Energy Administration as showing CNY 134.9 billion ($15.8 billion) of investment in domestic PV construction in the first half of 2023 – the highest among all power generation sources. The Norwegian market research company also predicts 165 GW of potential installations in 2024 and 170 GW in 2025. It expects China's installed solar PV capacity to double over the next three years, from 500 GW in 2023 to 1,000 GW by the end of 2026. Yicong Zhu, senior renewables analyst at Rystad, attributes this anticipated growth to a “significant boost in large-scale projects” under a national program that was launched in June 2021. “Although most distributed PV systems are installed on rooftops, not all of them are used for residential purposes,” says Zhu. “Around two-thirds of the distributed PV capacity in China is utilized by the commercial and industrial sectors and these projects can vary from tens to more than 100 MW.”

GCL says that one of its subsidiaries, Henan GCL Energy Technology, has signed an investment agreement with the municipal government of Luohe, Henan province. The CNY 6 billion ($833 million) deal involves the construction of a lithium factory with a capacity of 100,000 tons.

Canadian Solar Inc. says will have 50.4 GW of ingot casting capacity and 60 GW of wafer cutting capacity by the end of 2024. It also expects to expand solar cell production to 70 GW and PV module production to 80 GW.

Mingyang Group has signed a CNY 10 billion investment agreement with the municipal authorities in Maanshan, Henan province. The wind power specialist says it plans to build a 10 GW heterojunction (HJT) solar cell and module factory in the city. In May 2021, Mingyang invested in 5 GW of HJT cell production capacity in Yancheng, Jiangsu province. It also set up a separate 2 GW HJT cell capacity factory in Shaoguan, Guangdong province.

Three Gorges Group has announced the results of its 2023 PV module framework centralized procurement exercise, with winning bids from JA Solar, Das Solar, Tongwei, Trina Solar, and JinkoSolar. JA Solar secured a contract to supply up to 3 GW of P-type 182 mm modules, with power outputs of 545Wp or higher. Tongwei has been chosen to supply 500 MW of P-type 210 mm panels, with power outputs of 660 Wp or higher. JinkoSolar a deal to supply N-type TOPCon panels, with 182 mm wafers or higher.

Xinyi Solar Holdings says it plans to issue ordinary and new shares, representing up to 10.00% of company shares, pending shareholder approval, as it shifts from the ChiNext Market to the main board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The company plans to allocate about 30% the funds for the fifth phase of investment in a solar glass production line in Melaka, Malaysia. It will use 25% for solar glass production in China's Yunnan province, and 15% to set up a solar glass production line in Jiangsu province. The remainder will be used as general working capital.

Stryten Energy, a US-based battery technology company, recently installed a pilot-sized version of its vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) at a facility operated by Snapping Shoals EMC, an electricity cooperative in Georgia, United States.

The battery is a 20 kW/120 kWh VRFB with a recharge time of 7.5 hours and connected to the grid at 480V. It is made of several modules with built-in safety features, each operating independently at 6.67 kW/40 kWh per cycle.

“We specifically designed and sized this system for an initial evaluation phase with Snapping Shoals where we will conduct long-duration testing that is six hours or more,” Scott Childers, Vice President, Essential Power, Stryten Energy, told pv magazine.

The vanadium electrolyte aqueous solution is a proprietary combination of sulfuric acid and vanadium oxides. It is stable up to 50 C, but the system can be designed to mitigate external temperature effects beyond this range, according to Childers. Furthermore, the VRFB system is supported by remote management software, and the ability to track and store performance data.

“As product commercialization matures, Stryten Energy’s VRFB will be highly scalable in order to serve kW to MW to meet the needs of commercial and industrial customers through to full-scale utilities,” said Childers.

The VRFB technology, originally developed with Storion Energy, a US-based startup that Stryten acquired last year, is not yet used by a solar PV customer, but a prototype VRFB system is installed at a PV plant in the Colorado test facility, known as Solar Technology Acceleration Center (SolarTAC). It has already dispatched 30 MWh of energy over 1,100 cycles, demonstrating that the system is capable of storing solar energy to be deployed on demand as needed, according to Childers.

Stryten Energy anticipates the VRFB will be commercially available in January 2025. The company plans a complete US-based supply chain and manufacturing of all components of the VRFB system, including the vanadium electrolyte. A manufacturing location has not yet been selected.