Category: Solar News

Erdogan opens ingot-to-module solar factory in Ankara

The $1.4 billion cost includes a 1 GW solar field 260km away in Konya. The factory will be developed solely by Kalyon Solar Technologies after development partner Hanwha Q-Cells walked away from the project. Turkish PV manufacturer Kalyon Solar Technologies held the opening ceremony for its Ankara gigafactory this week with president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in attendance. The vertically-integrated…
Read more

Plans for Norwegian graphite battery factory

Norwegian polysilicon maker and silicon business Elkem is planning to build a manufacturing facility in Herøya. Norwegian polysilicon manufacturer and silicon product provider Elkem has announced plans for a graphite battery factory at the Herøya Industrial Park in Porsgrunn, 150km south of Oslo. The Northern Recharge manufacturing facility is intended to help create a strong European battery industry, said…
Read more

Enphase and Sonnenstromfabrik unveil AC solar panel

The US microinverter producer and the German panel maker have launched a residential glass/glass PERC module equipped Enphase IQ 7+ device. The 60-cell PERC module is available in three versions with power output ranging from 320 to 330 W and efficiencies of 18.8% to 19.4%. US-based microinverter maker Enphase and German PV panel manufacturer Sonnenstromfabrik have launched a new…
Read more

Toshiba’s power and heating hydrogen solution

The Japanese electronics giant has deployed a 3.5 kW hydrogen fuel cell system for at its Michinoeki-Namie site in the Fukushima prefecture. The fuel will be provided by the company’s 10 MW Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field nearby. The Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation unit of the Japanese electronics giant has deployed a 3.5…
Read more

Powerhouses: nanotechnology turns bricks into batteries

The humble house brick has been turned into a battery that can store electricity, raising the possibility that buildings could one day become literal powerhouses. The new technology exploits the porous nature of fired red bricks by filling the pores with tiny nanofibres of a conducting plastic that can store charge. The first bricks store…
Read more

New PV cell architecture creates resistively bounded subcells

Solar Inventions, the winners of the first American-Made Solar Prize, plan to commercialize their newest product, which is claimed to reduce silver content and increase module power, while potentially saving manufacturers up to $1 million per year. While PV system costs are falling faster than anticipated, there is one module component that isn’t following this…
Read more

Facebook announces nearly 1 GW of new energy deals

As Facebook races to meet its goal of becoming 100% powered by renewables by the end of this year, it has made another massive investment in clean energy by signing contracts for 806 MW of new solar and wind capacity, with projects in Ireland and the US states of Utah, Ohio, Illinois, and Tennessee. Facebook…
Read more

Texas approves 12 GW of solar projects in seven months

The Texas grid operator has more than tripled its pace of completing utility-scale solar interconnection studies since 2019. Yet the battery backlog continues to grow. The ERCOT grid operator that serves most of Texas has completed full interconnection studies for 58 solar projects totaling 11.9 GW of capacity so far this year. The completed studies…
Read more

Bosch buys more solar power

German utility RWE will sell solar electricity to the German conglomerate under a 16-year power purchase agreement. The electricity will be generated by a 50 MW solar plant in southern Germany. Bosch has also sealed power supply deals with Statkraft and Vattenfall. The RWE Supply & Trading division of German electric company RWE will supply Bosch’s sites in…
Read more

Low-cost catalysts for hydrogen production

Researchers in Singapore have taken a deep dive into spinel oxides – a class of materials known to act as a catalyst in the production of hydrogen through water electrolysis. Better understanding of how the materials work enabled the scientists to develop a machine learning model to predict their efficiency. While many analysts believe hydrogen…
Read more