• April 22, 2024

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) of India has released draft guidelines for the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana program, which aims to support the installation of rooftop solar (RTS) power plants for 10 million households with subsidies from the central government. The main goal of this plan is to help 10 million households provide free or low-cost electricity of up to 300 kWh per month by installing rooftop solar energy. The plan will be implemented until March 31, 2027. MNRE stated that the budget for the second phase of the grid connected rooftop solar energy plan is INR 118.14 billion (USD 1.4 billion) and will continue until the new plan is launched from 2025 to 26. The Central Financial Assistance (CFA) portion of this plan will be implemented through the Prime Minister's national portal website - Surya Ghar. Suppliers will register and upload their detailed information on the national portal website, including system products, price points, system design, and specifications. The beneficiary will apply on the national portal website and will receive a unique application ID. They will select suppliers for rooftop solar installation with the assistance of various decision-making tools on the portal website. The beneficiary and supplier will jointly determine the rate, system specifications, customized design based on location, and value-added services, but must comply with the minimum technical specifications specified in the plan. To ensure that customers are not overcharged, MNRE publishes benchmark prices for solar modules, inverters, and other important equipment on its portal website every year.

• April 18, 2024

German investment firm Hansainvest Real Assets has launched a 605 MW solar power plant in Witznitz, near Leipzig, Germany. The facility is currently the largest operational photovoltaic project in Europe. At the site of the new plant, project developer Move On Energy plans to install an additional 45 MW in the summer of 2024. The groundbreaking ceremony for the Witznitz project was held in June 2022 and was successfully completed in less than two years. Move On Energy has deployed about 1.1 million solar panels on the 500-hectare site of the Witznitz II open-pit lignite mine. New cycling lanes were also built as part of the project. The large power plant is also surrounded by hedges. Hansainvest Real Assets also plans to test "parallel agricultural uses in the area below the solar module" and has set up a test area of five to 10 hectares for this purpose. In 2023, the investment company entered into a long-term power purchase agreement with Shell Energy Europe to purchase solar power from the plant.

• April 15, 2024

At first, many people overlooked the use of solar energy - it was seen as a cool space science experiment. Then, when solar started to develop and the technology matured, they scoffed at the small volumes being installed versus the vast amounts of coal, gas and oil being extracted every day. Solar and, more recently, energy storage installations now outnumber any energy source, and opposition has sometimes taken the form of spreading misinformation from centralized, fossil-funded sources to influence local acceptance of solar. And it is already having an impact. The Sabin Center on Climate Change at Columbia Law School collected 14 false solar claims in its document "Refuting 33 False Claims about Solar, Wind, and Electric Vehicles." The Law School previously launched the Renewable Energy Legal Defense Program in 2019 and published discussions on legislation that could slow the deployment of renewable energy.

• April 11, 2024

Malaysia's Ministry of Energy Transformation and Water announced a program to encourage residential photovoltaic installations. The National Solar Incentive Scheme (SolaRIS) will provide rebate subsidies ranging from 1,000 to 4,000 ringgit per kilowatt for new net metering users. Rebates will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. To qualify for the rebate subsidy, applicants must ensure that their photovoltaic system is in operation by March 31, 2025, and that the government's rebate quota has not been used up. Applications opened on April 1 and will be closed by the end of the year. State-owned utility company Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) administers the rebate subsidy scheme. Applicants must be both a residential customer of TNB and a Malaysian citizen to be eligible for the rebate subsidy. The SolaRIS project will support Malaysia's goal of generating 70% of its electricity supply from renewable energy by 2050 and help reduce carbon emissions in the power sector, according to the Malaysian government website.

• April 08, 2024

Huawei has launched a new storage solution for rooftop photovoltaic systems. "The Huawei LUNA S1 continues Huawei's unique Module+ architecture, with a built-in energy optimizer and an industry-first use of the leading large cell (280Ah), far exceeding the industry level," Huawei said in a statement. The statement. "Optimized at the battery pack level, it has increased its energy throughput over its lifetime by more than 40 percent and achieved an industry-leading 15-year limited warranty thanks to its high quality and reliability, providing users with a longer service life and superior return on investment." The Luna2000-7/14/21-S1 storage system is available in three versions with 1, 2 or 3 battery modules with available energy ranging from 6.9 kWh to 20.7 kWh. The maximum charge and discharge power range is 3.5kW to 1.05kW, and the operating voltage range is 350V to 560V for single-phase systems and 600V to 980V for three-phase systems. The single-module version measures 590 mm x 255 mm x 510 mm and weighs 80 kW, while the three-module system measures 590 mm x 255 mm x 1,230 mm and weighs 216 kg. The operating temperature range of the new storage system is -20°C to 55°C and the protection level is IP66.以上翻译结果来自有道神经网络翻译（YNMT）· 通用场景

• April 01, 2024

A new survey conducted by Fraunhofer ISE in Germany shows that 72.4% of farmers in the country are considering the deployment of agricultural PV projects. Among the main factors behind this choice, the researchers identified additional sources of income from solar power generation and the practicality of the technology. The core question of the survey was "in principle, would you be willing to use an agricultural PV system on your farm?" It is also based on a technology acceptance model, which considers the "perceived usefulness" and "perceived ease of use" of a given technology. The former describes the extent to which a person believes that a certain technology has improved their job performance, while the latter describes the extent to which a person believes that using a certain technology is effortless. The survey also considered factors such as risk tolerance, innovation, knowledge level, environmental awareness, climate change impacts, energy price impacts and subjective norms. The latter refers to the social pressure felt by influential people. The scientists explained that the survey was conducted in February 2023 and based on the responses of 214 valid respondents, the survey completion rate reached 66.7%. "To find out which factors influence the likelihood of farmers wanting to use agPV on their farms, we applied binary logistic regression," they stress. "The eight factors extracted from the factor analysis were used as independent variables to explain farmers' decision-making behavior."

• March 28, 2024

The heat wave that swept through Brazil earlier this month pushed the country's energy consumption to record levels, raising questions about how the heat will affect the growing share of solar power systems. Caetano Mancini, head of marketing and communications solutions strategy at Tempo OK, a Brazilian weather data provider, estimates that, given the heating effect of photovoltaic systems, efficiency losses during the last heatwave could reach 15%. The ideal operating temperature of solar panels is about 25 C. At least that's the case with industry testing and evaluation standards. On average, when the panel temperature exceeds 25 degrees Celsius, the efficiency of the photovoltaic system decreases by 0.4 percent for every degree [Celsius] increase. Despite the loss of efficiency caused by high temperatures, the popularity of solar power in meeting load demand is still increasing, because photovoltaic power generation coincides with the peak demand associated with high temperatures.

• March 25, 2024

The Global Solar Council and the Global Wind Energy Organization are working together to develop standardized basic training for PV technicians, starting with utility-scale solar. The Solar Training Standards Program will set industry-wide standards to ensure the safety, quality and growth of the solar PV workforce. It will begin work on standardized training modules that include learning objectives covering the most common workflows as well as hazards and risks for utility-scale solar technicians. The Global Solar Council says the training will be closely aligned with guidelines and job role definitions already issued by representative bodies such as the American Clean Energy Council's Entry Level Solar Technician Training Guide. Assessments conducted by the Global Solar Council and stakeholders of the Global Wind Energy Organization indicate that the training standards will avoid large-scale duplication across the industry and may reduce transaction costs and increase productivity. The initiative is expected to help asset owners and developers recommend industry-approved safety training for their engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors.

• March 21, 2024

Researchers at Penn State University in the United States have created a hybrid energy system prototype that integrates solar cells for electricity generation and radiative cooling for external cooling. Radiative cooling occurs when an object's surface absorbs less radiation from the atmosphere than it releases. As a result, the surface loses heat and the cooling effect can be achieved without the need for electricity. "The photovoltaic power generated by the dual system can be used either for energy storage or converted to alternating current by an inverter," the scientists said, "the low temperatures obtained on the transparent radiant cooler can be used to cool air or liquid, which can be driven by a fan or pump respectively to interact with the thermal system to save energy." The system consists of a transparent low-iron glass radiant cooler capable of transmitting 91% of sunlight, a transparent infrared opaque layer, and a 125 mm × 125 mm cross-back contact (IBC) photovoltaic cell supplied by US manufacturer Maxeon. There is no direct radiant heat exchange between the radiant cooler and the photovoltaic unit.