From pv magazine 10/23

Farmers are under pressure. Cost pressure, environmental pressure, regulatory pressure. There are obvious reasons to diversify income streams but there’s also every reason to avoid additional risk.

For most farms, agrivoltaics means fixed installations, often on rooftops – well-established technology with predictable costs and returns. But things are changing. Pilot schemes for farm-based solar projects are popping up across the European countryside, testing the mounting industry’s latest innovations in the process.

Land demand

Cormac Gilligan, a director at analyst S&P Global with a focus on solar and energy storage, told pv magazine that mounting system development is in lockstep with land scarcity. In mature solar markets, the best utility-scale sites have been snapped up, fueling demand for cost-efficient ways to install solar on more rugged terrain.

Gilligan said most of the tracking systems the solar mounting industry has brought to market recently have been designed with undulating terrain in mind. That enables trackers to be installed at higher gradients, reducing the need for costly soil levelling on undulating sites. From the land developer’s perspective, cutting capital expenditure is a win. In the agricultural sector, things get much more complex.

Making the business case for farm-based PV is not a simple calculation. There’s a balance to be struck between farming yield and energy output. That’s why projects that experiment with different mounting systems in different locations and with different crops are so important. Gilligan’s colleague Joe Steveni, a research analyst at S&P Global, said that these schemes will help to paint a more general picture of what works well in
different agricultural settings.

“If you have a successful pilot in northern France, you’ll have a good understanding for the south of France,” Steveni said. “It will spread.”

In the field

In North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, a new pilot scheme promises to provide data on how solar installations affect crop yield and quality while investigating potential auxiliary benefits ranging from improved irrigation to a reduced need for crop protection. By the end of this year, three different types of mounting system will be installed at the site. Research will start at the beginning of 2024 and is set to run for at least five years.

Located on seven hectares of recultivated land at the Garzweiler opencast mine, near Bedburg, the pilot scheme is a partnership between energy giant RWE and the national research institute Forschungszentrum Jülich, with financial support provided by the state government. The demonstration plant will have a peak generation capacity of 3.2 MW.

Berries on the farm will grow beneath PV modules elevated on a high structure created by Zimmerman PV-Stahlbau. It is predicted that the steel company’s mounting system will be a good fit for berry cultivation as crops including raspberries and blueberries can tolerate shade.

Vertical-aligned solar mounting systems from Next2Sun are also being installed at the site, spaced at intervals wide enough to allow harvesting machinery between the module rows. On the tracker front, Schletter Group’s 2P Tracker System is being installed in rows that both follow the sun and deliver additional benefits.

Alongside investigating crop suitability and cultivation methods, research will focus on how the solar installations can be optimized so that standard components can be used as much as possible. RWE said this would reduce the levelized cost of energy and should lead to an “acceleration of the market ramp-up of agri-PV.”

On the agricultural side, there is a lot to learn. Matthias Meier, project leader for agrivoltaic activity at Forschungszentrum Jülich, told pv magazine that the scheme could provide the kind of insights that farmers need to invest with confidence.

“Farmers are asking about the costs of these kinds of systems,” he said. “They are used to making quite big investments with their machinery, and a lot also have rooftop PV. They know how to deal with that but agri-PV is an uncertain technology for them. I cannot say ‘if you put it on your sugar beet field you can harvest as much as without agri-PV’, or ‘you can calculate this kind of factor.’ This we cannot say at the moment and this is the most uncertain point.”

Proven tech

There may be unknowns for farmers but there’s real certainty coming from solar mounting system suppliers. Christian Salzender, the head of project sales at Schletter Group, said pilot schemes are not really trials for his business, so much as demonstrations.

“We know the system works but we also want to show it to our clients in small sample installations,” he said.

Salzender said trackers offer more efficiency and therefore leave more space for farming and growing. Schletter’s system can also move to 60 degrees from the horizontal, creating space for harvesting machines and the potential to dump snow from modules during the winter.

Operation and maintenance costs have also been improved in the latest generation of tracker systems, Salzender added. “Mechanical failures are as likely as in cars,” said the Schletter representative. “The overall components are well proven throughout different industries.”

From pv magazine USA

Enphase has announced the launch of its IQ EV charger for charging electric vehicles at home. The microinverter and home energy storage provider said that the chargers offer between 31 miles (49.8 km) and 61 miles of range charging per hour on its fast chargers.

The EV charger can be paired with Enphase solar and energy storage systems. It handles Wi-Fi connections and includes smart control and monitoring capabilities.

The devices can be coordinated to help solar and battery owners maximize electricity cost savings by charging directly from solar production. With a home battery, the Enphase system enables vehicle charging even when there is a grid power outage.

IQ EV chargers come in 32 A, 48 A, and 64 A configurations, which offer 7.7 kW, 9.6 kW, and 15.4 kW max power respectively.

Each charger has NEMA 6-50P, and 14-50P rated input cables, which are hardwired. It has a ruggedized J1772 connector for universal compatibility and a 25-foot charge cable. The device is rated for both indoor and outdoor use. They come with a five-year warranty from Enphase and is backed with a 24-7 customer support line from Enhpase.

“As a solar contractor that has installed Enphase microinverters for my customers since 2009, I’m glad to see the IQ EV Chargers join Enphase’s product ecosystem,” said Louis Woofenden, owner and engineering director, Net Zero Solar. “I was excited to try out this improved smart charger on the Enphase platform with ClipperCreek heritage. It’s so helpful to be able to easily schedule charge times, manually start and stop charging my EV, and monitor my EV energy use – all from the Enphase App on my phone.”

The 32 A device starts retail at $732 while the 64 A device retails at $1,176 on the Enphase site. Enphase is positioning its charger, microinverter and home battery as a “one-stop-shop” for home energy solutions.

“Installing an EV charger with a solar and battery system simply makes sense and can reduce overall installation costs,” said Jayant Somani, president and general manager, digital business for Enphase Energy.

Chinese solar cell and module maker Aiko Solar has introduced three new solar modules at the Fintec tradeshow, which took place this week in Barcelona, Spain.

The company said its AIKO-A-MAH72Mw, AIKO-A-MAH54Mw and AIKO-A-MAH54Mb modules all rely on its proprietary all-back-contact (ABC) solar cell technology.

“The main advantages of our technology are the entirely illuminated cell area, the electrodes behind, the all passivated rear contacts and silver-free metallization,” Carolina Calisalvo, Head of Marketing Iberia, told pv magazine.

The manufacturer offers the AIKO-A-MAH72Mw in five versions with power output ranging from 600 W to 620 W and efficiency spanning from 23.2% to 24.0%. The open-circuit voltage is between 53.94 V and 54.34 V and the short-circuit current is between 13.44 A and 13.76 A. It has a size of 2,278 mm x 1,134 mm x 35 mm and a weight of 28.2 kg.

The AIKO-A-MAH54Mw module is offered in four versions with an output of 450 W to 465 W and an efficiency of 23.0% and 23.8%. The open-circuit voltage is between 40.50 V and 40.80 V and the short-circuit current is between 13.44  A and 13.7 A. It measures 1,722 mm x 1,134 mm x 30 mm and weighs in at 20.5 kg.

As for the AIKO-A-MAH54Mb panel, it is an all-black product featuring an efficiency ranging from 22.8% to 23.6% and an output of 445 W to 460 W. The open-circuit voltage is between 40.60 V and 40.90 V and the short-circuit current is between 13.86  A and 14.04 A. It has dimensions of 1,722 mm x 1,134 mm x 30 mm and a weight of 20.5 kg.

All products are built with 3.2 mm tempered anti-reflective glass and aluminum alloy frames. They also feature an IP68 enclosure and a maximum system voltage is 1,500 V. The panels have a temperature coefficient of -0.26% per degree Celsius and an operational temperature ranging from -40 C to 85 C.

Aiko Solar provides a 30-year performance warranty, with a purported 1% degradation in the first year and a guaranteed end power output of no less than 88.85% of the nominal power after 30 years.

From pv magazine Australia

While 2023 is still trailing 2021 for small-scale solar installations, the difference is now only 150 MW, or 7%, according to data from Sunwiz. In 2021, the fourth quarter was the most tumultuous three-month period. On the other hand, elevated lead levels and a spike in Google searches suggests that the fourth quarter of this year will contend for the strongest period in 2023.

“I think there’s already a good deal of momentum backed in and that we are going to see elevated levels [of sales],” Warwick Johnston, managing director of Sunwiz, tells pv magazine Australia. “I suspect we are going to have a strong October, so we’re up for a record year.”

Lead volumes this September were up 78% compared to the number of quote requests in September 2021, Sunwiz has found. Many customers are npw turning to Google to find out about installing solar.

“I’m seeing consumer interest levels 10 to 20% up on what they were in the same time of previous year. All this hasn’t yet flowed through to leads proposals and sales,” Johnston said of the spike in Google trends for “solar” and “solar panel.” He said that it's “the highest level it's been … and paybacks [on solar systems] are all improving now, so that bodes well for 2024 as well. My prediction is that we are going to have a strong finish to the year and have a record year for 2023.”

The average size of solar systems in Australia is also at record high, with especially strong growth in 10 kW to 15 kW systems. “The reason is because you’ve got commercial doing really, really well. Record year for commercial.”

Falling prices

Another interesting trend is that while Australian solar system prices are now falling after the pandemic hike, this has not translated to customers spending less overall.

This is demonstrated in the above two graphs, with the total dollar customer spend on top and dollars per watt below.

“If you look at the dollar total spend, it’s pretty consistent and flat. So this to me is saying as panels are getting cheaper, people are putting more of them on,” Johnston said.

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.

China Mono Grade, the OPIS benchmark assessment for polysilicon prices in the country, fell 4.22% to CNY79.5 ($11.07)/kg week-on-week for the first time in more than three months on the back of weakening demand across the solar supply chain, which has finally impacted the upstream polysilicon sector.

Domestic polysilicon prices were assessed in the range of CNY75-83/kg. While major polysilicon makers hold their price quotes at the higher end of the range, tier-2 producers have cut prices to their lower end, pulling overall market prices down.

Weakening polysilicon demand – driven by lower solar installation rates in the fourth quarter of 2023 – contributes to the move downward, with trade volumes light in the week to Tuesday. Wafer makers have cut their operating rates as module inventories build and solar installations face delays in the fourth quarter. Expecting polysilicon prices to fall further, wafer makers adopting a wait-and-see approach when purchasing the material.

High inventories in both the polysilicon and wafer segments also weigh on prices. According to a solar market veteran, China’s wafer inventories are estimated at 20 GW and polysilicon inventories at around 50,000 MT.

China polysilicon prices are expected to bottom out in the fourth quarter as more polysilicon capacity comes online and building inventories contribute to a supply glut.

OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides energy prices, news, data, and analysis on gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, LPG/NGL, coal, metals, and chemicals, as well as renewable fuels and environmental commodities. It acquired pricing data assets from Singapore Solar Exchange in 2022 and now publishes the OPIS APAC Solar Weekly Report.

According to Siemens Energy, hydrogen is produced on site with a 1 MW electrolyzer, stored in a 1 ton tank to power a Siemens Energy SGT-400 industrial gas turbine.

From pv magazine Australia

REC said the Alpha Pure-RX series, which is based on the company’s heterojunction solar cell technology (HJT), is the highest power class residential solar panel that it has yet produced with a power density of 226 W/m2.

The Alpha Pure-RX is available in three versions, with power ratings ranging from 450 W to 470 W, and efficiencies of 21.6% to 22.6%. The modules are made with 80 heterojunction, half-cut monocrystalline solar cells and have a maximum system voltage of 1,000 V.

The modules have open-circuit voltages ranging between 65.1 V and 65.6 V, short-circuit currents ranging from 8.81 A to 8.95 A, can operate within a temperature range of -40 C to 85 C, and have a power temperature coefficient of -0.24% per degree Celsius.

All three panels in the series measure 1,728 mm × 1,205 mm × 30 mm and weigh 23.2 kg. They feature a 3.2 mm solar glass with anti-reflective treatment, a black polymer backsheet, an anodized aluminium frame, and an IP68-rated junction box.

REC said the four-part junction box design makes the module a good performer in shady conditions and it is also designed to withstand weather extremes – including Australia’s hot climate.

“These panels perform better under low light and hot days offering higher power generation with a guaranteed power output of at least 92% at year 25,” the company said.

REC said the Alpha Pure-RX series will be showcased at the All-Energy conference in Melbourne next week when the manufacturer will also unveil its Alpha Pro M panel, a HJT solar panel targeted at commercial and industrial projects.

Gus Paviani, REC’s head of Asia Pacific and Japan, said the Alpha Pro M is the highest power class solar panel available in the market with a power output of up to 640 Wp and efficiencies of 21.8% to 22.9%.

“The REC Alpha family delivers top-quality, high-performance solar panels for homeowners, businesses and now for commercial and industrial project markets,” he said.

The manufacturer said the Alpha Pure-R panels are available to order now with the Alpha Pure-RX and Alpha Pro M panels expected to be available in Australia and New Zealand in the first quarter of 2024.

From pv magazine USA

Whether taking a weekend excursion or living the increasingly popular “van life,” shoppers for class B camper vans and RVs have a new all-electric vehicle option from Detroit-based Grounded.

The G2 van was developed on GM’s BrightDrop Zevo 600 electric vehicle platform. It was developed by ex-SpaceX senior software engineer and Grounded CEO Sam Shapiro and his team. The G2 van offer 250 miles (402 km) or more of range, 615 square feet (57 square meters) of living space, and 640 W of solar. It is powered by a 165 kWh battery, while a 10 kWh solar-charged battery supports its interior.

Electrical features in the van can be controlled via the Grounded+ app. The app can also be used to monitor energy usage, operate appliances, and monitor battery and water levels.

Features in the van include a queen-sized bed, bench seating with a flip-up table, a kitchen with a refrigerator and freezer, a sink, and induction stove. It has a “garage” for storage, under-seat storage, and overhead storage areas. It also has an outdoor shower and dry-flush toilet.

Grounded supports its electric camper van with an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty, whichever comes first. The warranty also covers the interior appliances for one year. The camper van starts retailing at $195,000.

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.

From pv magazine France

From pv magazine USA

Qcells announced the successful completion of the expansion of its solar module factory in Dalton, Georgia where it added 2 GW of solar capacity, bringing the factory’s output to more than 5.1 GW.

The company said its Dalton factory is the largest manufacturing plant of its kind in the Western Hemisphere and the first solar panel plant expansion since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

The expanded factory will manufacture nearly 30,000 solar modules a day, focusing on the new Q.TRON G2 residential solar module and a bifacial module for the commercial and utility markets. The company expects both products to achieve an ecolabel known as EPEAT, which is intended to help customers identify sustainably made products. QCells says the expanded factory will create 510 new jobs.

“Completing this factory marks the third expansion we’ve made in Dalton, and it’s just the beginning of Qcells’ larger mission to build a fully integrated solar supply chain in America,” said Justin Lee, CEO of Qcells. “The Inflation Reduction Act and the efforts of Georgia’s economic development team helped make these ambitious plans possible, and with it thousands of careers in clean energy. As we build new solar technology from Dalton and prepare for the start of Cartersville, it is critical that our local to federal leaders continue to work not only with us, but the larger industry to ensure our collective investments deliver for communities for decades to come.”

In January, QCells announced that it would invest more than $2.5 billion to build a complete solar supply chain in the U.S.. Considered the largest investment in U.S. solar history, it also made QCells, a subsidiary of Hanwha Solutions, the first company to establish a fully-integrated silicon-based solar supply chain in the U.S.  Qcells intends to break ground on a new, state-of-the-art facility in Cartersville, Georgia, where it will manufacture 3.3 GW of solar ingots, wafers, cells and finished modules.

By 2024, between the Dalton and Cartersville facilities, Qcells anticipates its solar production capacity will reach 8.4 GW a year, or enough to power 1.3 million homes annually with clean energy.

Qcells opened its first factory in Georgia in 2019 and hired 750 people to manufacture 1.7 GW of solar. This initial investment was made possible in part by the Section 201 tariffs imposed on solar cells. Last year, Qcells announced a second expansion, which would add 1.4 GW to its manufacturing output and hire 535 more people. This now completed third expansion as well as the new facility that will manufacturing cells, wafers and ingots, follow the passage of the Solar Energy Manufacturing for America Act (SEMA) within the IRA and are made possible with support from Georgia’s economic development team.

Upon completed construction, Qcells estimates that its production in Georgia could avoid more than 12 million metric tons of CO2 equivalents per year while expanding domestic manufacturing of solar products amidst the push for Made-in-America clean energy solutions.

Researchers from Spain have simulated the effect building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) will have on the energy consumption and the economics of high-rise office buildings in the Mediterranean area.

They presented three different BIPV integration scenarios for the GESA building, an office building built in the 1960s in Palma de Mallorca, in Spain's southern archipelago of the Balearic Islands.

“Despite of its iconic and protected status, the GESA building has been abandoned for several years, hence it requires a refurbishment that will also update its skin to the current energy efficiency standards,” the scientists explained. “The inefficient envelope, location (isolated and in a sunny climate), and representability of a typology of office building make it a good reference for studying the impact of refurbishing with BIPV.”

Via the TRNSYS simulation software, which is commonly used to simulate the behavior of transient renewable systems, the group simulated the impact of BIPV taking as reference a representative floor. As in the physical building, among the parameters inserted are the GESA building’s curtain wall structure, which is 77% composed of semi-transparent windows and 23% of non-window opaque areas. As the building, although abandoned, is protected by a local heritage commission, the façade design has to keep its original characteristics.

The reference scenario was based on the existing double-glazing Parsol Bronze window. It was compared to four other scenarios, one with only solar control windows; the second with solar control windows and BIPV modules in the opaque area; the third with only transparent BIPV windows; and the fourth with BIPV windows and opaque BIPV in non-transparent areas.

“The data for the transparent PV used in this study is based on a prototype currently in development, hence there is room to improve the thermal, optical, and electrical properties to better fit the building needs, as well as to increase the PV conversion efficiency,” the research group emphasized.

According to the results, the final energy consumption in the existing reference case was simulated at 51.3 kWh/m2. In the case of only solar control windows, this value reached 45.8 kWh/m2, with very similar results with the addition of opaque BIPV. However, in this case, the building will be able to use 5.8 kWh/m2 and export 2.6 kWh/m2 to the grid.

In the case of only transparent BIPV windows, the energy consumption will be higher, as that module will block more of the solar radiation and, therefore, result in higher heating and lighting demands. Overall, that system will require 49.8 kWh/m2 while consuming 5.1 kWh/m2 and exporting 2.2 kWh/m2. In the case of using window BIPV and opaque BIPV, the demand will reach 47.6 kWh/m2, while self-consumption will take 10.9 kWh/m2 and 5 kWh/m2 will be exported to the grid.

“The results show the potential of the BIPV solutions for improving the energy balance of the building. The transparent PV reduced the energy demand by 6.9% and the total energy balance by 21%,” the scientists added. “The opaque PV further improved the results of the two glazing system solutions, the energy balance improving to 28.1% and 38.3% with the solar control and transparent PV solutions, respectively.”

The researchers also conducted an economical analysis, which they claim showcases the “relevance of the electricity pricing schemes into the promotion of BIPV.” The components and installation cost of the components were mostly obtained from a construction materials database, while the cost of the prototype window BIPV was assumed at €200 ($210.65)/m2.

They looked into two tariff levels. The first is based on current Spanish tariffs and demand, while the second assumes a high penetration of PV into the national grid. In this case, the net load of high-penetration photovoltaics presents a very low price. Another variable was the compensation for the electricity sold to the grid by the building, which they estimated at either 0%, 30%, or 100% of the electricity price.

Currently, 30% of the electricity price is the typical export value in Spain. Under this assumption, with the current price profile, the discounted payback time for solar control will be 24 years, for solar control and opaque BIPV it will be 14 years, for window BIPV only it will be over 50 years, and the combination of both BIPV technologies will result in a payback time of 24 years. In the assumption of high PV penetration and 30% electricity price, however, the payback time in all systems may exceed over 50 years.

“The lower average electricity price and, more importantly, the timing of the generation in the ‘high PV’ scenario explain the significantly worse payback periods,” they concluded.

Their findings are available in the paper “Impact of building integrated photovoltaics on high rise office building in the Mediterranean,” published in Energy Reports, which also included an economic evaluation. The research group comprised academics from The Technical University of Catalonia and the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research.

From pv magazine USA

LG Energy Solutions is set to launch a new residential energy storage system in the US market in November. The enblock S products are stackable, modular lithium-ion batteries designed for easy installation. 

A list of LG installers can be found here.

From pv magazine Australia

Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has harnessed sub-millimeter ceramic particles to store energy in a concentrated solar thermal system. Its pilot plant in the state of New South Wales has successfully reached temperatures of 803 C through this method.

The agency said the novel concept increases temperatures in the process from 500 C to 800 C, and possibly more than 1,000 C. This holds promise for decarbonizing heavy industry, which can require extreme heat for processing. It also overcomes some of the limitations of heat transfer fluids traditionally used in concentrated solar thermal (CST) technologies, said the CSIRO.

To continue reading, please visit our pv magazine Australia website. 

North American manufacturer Ecoflow has launched a “retrofit” residential battery solution that it claims can be easily integrated with existing rooftop PV arrays.

“Unlike conventional DC-coupled or AC-coupled battery systems, PowerOcean DC Fit uses EcoFlow's PV-coupling technology to directly connect with existing home solar energy systems on the PV side – meaning users don't need to install additional storage inverters,” the manufacturer said in a statement.

The battery uses lithium iron phosphate (LiFePo4) as the cathode material and is based on a self-adaptive algorithm that the manufacturer said makes the system compatible with most of the existing solar single-phase and three-phase inverters that are already in use in existing PV installations.

“Using EcoFlow's unique PV-coupling technology, the PowerOcean DC Fit connects its batteries directly with solar panels. Users can leave the AC wiring as it is and don't have to apply for an on-grid permit,” the company stated.

The storage system measures 680 mm x 183 mm x 479 mm and weighs 59.2 kg. It has a capacity of 5 kWh and is expandable to 15 kWh. It also features an output voltage range of 150-800 V and a maximum output current of 20 A.

The new product is IP65-rated and reportedly has a lifecycle of more than 6,000 cycles.

“Each battery pack is connected parallelly and equipped with the EcoFlow BMS (Battery Management System) to prevent one battery's issues from affecting other packs,” the manufacturer said, noting that the new product comes with a 15-year warranty.

German PV manufacturer Technaxx has introduced a new solar table for residential use.

The table embeds on its surface monocrystalline solar panels with 410 W of output and a power conversion efficiency of 20.97%. Its pre-assembled micro-inverter allows for 400 W of output.

“We use PERC technology for our solar modules, which feature high-efficiency cells and are equipped with three bypass diodes,” a company spokesperson told pv magazine.

The product can be purchased for €699-951.00 ($736.52-1,000), according to the company's website.

When not used as a tabletop, the table panel can be tilted to 20, 30 or 35 degrees for energy generation. Its activity can then be tracked via an app, remotely, as the table transmits the data via Wi-Fi. The table measures 173 cm x 114 cm x 84 cm and is suitable for up to eight people.

“Our solar modules are TÜV certified for mechanical stress, including 2400Pa wind load and 5400Pa snow load,” the company said. “However, single-point stress can damage the module and hail.”

Researchers led by the German University of Technology in Oman have looked into the effect of dust accumulation on PV systems and claim to have identified an optimal cleaning cycle in economic terms.

The scientists have conducted the research on an experimental setup located in an area next to their campus. “The research might be valid to countries with dry weather, humidity during summer, and high temperature,” the research's corresponding author, Ali Al Humairi, told pv magazine. 

“Photovoltaic energy is considered the most viable renewable energy source in the Middle East and North Africa region due to the high solar irradiation level and the number of clear sky days during the year,” the group said. “However, environmental factors such as dust limit the optimum utilization of the source.”

The experimental setup included two identical strings of nine PV modules connected in series, with one string being dry-cleaned daily and the other not. The 5.85 kW ground-mounted system was south-oriented and had a tilt of 17 degrees. The modules were based on polycrystalline cells, and each had a peak power of 325 W. The system included an inverter with 98.5% efficiency.

The observation of electrical and weather parameters began in November 2020 and ended in April 2021. “The experiment was conducted in the winter and spring seasons, which generally have less soiling rate and air contamination,” the researchers explained.

Comparing the cleaned string to the non-cleaned string, the academics found that dust led to up to a 28% reduction in the PV current performance and up to a 24.2% reduction in the PV power. Overall, the average difference in the current performance was 14%, and in PV output it was calculated at 11%.

“The difference between the uncleaned and the cleaned modules’ output current has increased exponentially during this period,” they said regarding the current. “In November, the difference in current is about 2%, which increased with time; in December and January, it is about 5% and 10%, respectively. The momentum intensity slightly dropped in February and recorded a difference of 18%. This was followed by a less momentum increment in March and April, resulting in a difference of 22% and 28%, respectively.”

As for the PV power output, they found no substantial effect in the first three months, with the difference being 0.1% in November, 1.9% in December, and 7.7% in January. However, it was much more noticeable in the next three months – with a 14.7% difference in February, 19.3% in March, and 24.2% in April.

For its economic analysis, the team used a fixed rate tariff of $0.11 per kWh. The cleaning rate was set at $1.30 per hour per worker, and according to the paper, one person could clean the whole system in one hour. Using this data, they have found the recommended cleaning interval to be once every one or 1.5 months, resulting in 8 to 12 cleaning cycles per year.

The group presented its findings in the paper “Experimental Investigation Of The Soiling Effect On The PV Systems Performance And The Cleaning Intervals In Oman,” published in Solar Energy Advances. It also included scientists from the Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat University, and Germany’s Duisburg Essen University.

“The effect of the accumulated dust was evident in the third month of the experimental period, indicating the necessity of conducting a cleaning cycle for fewer than three months to avoid losses,” the researchers concluded. “However, the results could vary depending on the location, season, geographical and meteorological conditions.”

The team has partnered with international logistics company Gebrüder Weiss for the mission.

“Due to its limited payload capacity, this solar-powered vehicle cannot yet replace a conventional truck, but it shows a completely new direction in which we will be able to move with alternative drives in the future,” said Frank Haas, head of corporate brand strategy at Gebrüder Weiss.

The project has been under development for four years, with the Swiss group modifying an Aebi Schmidt multi-purpose truck.

“Our vehicle makes it possible to perform even the most demanding transport tasks, whether in mining or when erecting high-altitude solar power plants, in an environmentally compatible and economically efficient manner,” said Patrik Koller, head of finance and co-developer of the Peak Evolution Team.

MVV Energie AG has switched on an industrial heat pump at a coal-fired power plant operated by Grosskraftwerk Mannheim AG (GKM) in Mannheim-Neckarau, Germany.

The German energy supplier said the new system is integrated into a district heating network and is one of the largest such systems in Europe. The heat pump uses water from the Rhine River and has a thermal output of 20 MW. It will provide heating for 3,500 households. Siemens Energy supplied the heat pump technology and GKM integrated it into the infrastructure of the large power plant for MVV Energie.

MVV Energie said that the water of the Rhine River in Mannheim is up to 25 C in summer and only around 5 C in the winter. This thermal energy is sufficient to evaporate the refrigerant in the heat pump and reduce the temperature of the Rhine River water by around 2 C to 5 C.

The refrigerant vapor is then compressed using an electrically powered compressor to increase the pressure and temperature. The heat generated by the refrigerant vapor is transferred to the district heating water through condensation in a heat exchanger, producing hot water at temperatures ranging from 83 C to 99 C.

The refrigerant liquefies and expands again in the heat exchanger. It then cools down and absorbs thermal energy from the river water at a low temperature to restart a new cycle.

“The heat pump works on the same principle as the home refrigerator,” MVV Energie said in a statement. “While the heat energy of the refrigerator is released from the inside to the outside, the heat pump uses the heat to heat the district heating water.”

The project is part of the “Large heat pumps in district heating networks” initiative, which is funded by the Germany Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK),

“The MVV project shows that heat pump technology also works in XXL format to provide climate-neutral supply to entire city districts,” said Thekla Walker, the minister of energy for the German state of Baden-Württemberg. “The river heat pump is an important building block for our country in reducing its dependence on fossil fuels step by step.”

From pv magazine Australia

A team of researchers from Monash University’s Faculty of Engineering have developed a new lithium-sulphur (Li-S) battery design featuring a nanoporous polymer-coated lithium foil anode that “significantly” improves the number of times the battery can be cycled.

Lead researcher Declan McNamara said when compared with similar coated lithium anode systems, the polymer coating cell has exhibited outstanding performance across a range of metrics.

“This coating is a step towards highly efficient, easily manufactured Li-S batteries,” he said.

Li-S battery technology continues to prove popular among researchers and commercial developers, with the potential for the metallic lithium and sulphur combination to deliver more energy per gram than lithium-ion batteries.

The technology does however have its limitations. Typically, Li-S batteries contain a lithium anode (negative electrode) and sulphur cathode (positive electrode) with a separating layer. When the battery charges and discharges, the lithium and sulphur react which leads to the formation of polysulfides, rapidly reducing the battery performance.

“Metallic lithium is a bit of a double-edged sword,” McNamara said. “Lithium is packed full of energy, but in a bad battery, this energy is wasted on side reactions. On the other hand, if the energy is channelled correctly, it can make some incredible energy storage devices that are easier to make.”

In this new battery configuration, the researchers at Monash have coated a lithium foil anode with a nanoporous polymer which they say allows the lithium ions to move through while protecting the anode from corrosive sulphur compounds.

“The polymer contains tiny holes less than a nanometre in size, one billionth of a metre, which allow lithium ions to move freely while blocking other chemicals that would attack the lithium,” McNamara said. “The coating also acts as a scaffold for lithium, and helps it charge and discharge repeatedly.”

In their paper, the researchers said that the polymer coated anode had exhibited improved capacity retention over 275 cycles, adding that the new design reduces the amount of lithium required in a single battery and does not require nickel or cobalt, removing the need for minerals that have a significant environmental and social cost.

Mainak Majumder, from Monash’s Faculty of Engineering, said these developments are promising steps toward more widespread adoption of Li-S batteries and other lithium metal-based energy storage systems.

“The study establishes a new framework to protect Li-metal from rapid decay or catastrophic failure which has been an Achilles heel for Li-S batteries,” he said.