Solar power developments |
Caelux announces $12 million funding for perovskite innovation
Caelux, a pioneer in using perovskites for solar power applications, has announced the closure of a $12 million Series A3 funding round led by Temasek, with participation from Reliance New Energy Limited, Khosla Ventures, Mitsui Fudosan, and Fine Structure Ventures.
This round brings the company’s total amount raised for the Series A to $24 million. The funding will be allocated primarily to support the company’s factory ramp, research and development, and product launch, “allowing Caelux to bring its more powerful, efficient, and affordable solar
solution to market at a critical time of pressing environmental challenges.”
The company’s full-release product, Caelux™ One will be a major step forward in realising the industry goal of greater than 30% efficient commercial tandem solar modules while meeting market requirements for durability.
Combining CSP and pyrolysis
PYSOLO is an EU funded research programme aiming to develop a decarbonisation route for industry and transport based on combining concentrated solar power (CSP), renewable energy and biomass (wood) pyrolysis. The CSP technology under consideration in PYSOLO employs particle receivers, in which the concentrated sunlight is used to heat up solid particles to high temperatures. This heat can be used directly to drive downstream industrial processes, to produce electricity or to be stored for subsequent use. By applying
CSP for the heat supply necessary for the pyrolysis process and by upscaling two key units (the particle receiver and the pyroliser), the PYSOLO technology aims to deliver valuable products from wood (bio-oil, pyrolysis gas and biochar).
A major innovation of the PYSOLO technology is that the pyrolysis process can be operated in different modes: it can run with CSP during sunny hours, or by burning pyrogas and biochar when heat from CSP (produced or stored) is not sufficient. The PYSOLO
China Energy couples PV with the pastoral
China Energy reports that it has successfully connected the 200 MW fourth and final phase of its 1000 MW ‘Photovoltaic Pastoral Storage’ project to the grid. This marks the full capacity grid connection of the company’s second 1000 MW PV facility in 2023.
This project is one of the first batch of large- scale wind-and-PV projects in China, located within the Talatan PV and Thermal Power Park, Gonghe County, Hainan Prefecture, Qinghai Province – one of the country’s most solar-rich regions.
The project represents a total investment of about 4.5 billion yuan.
It is split into 315 sub-arrays and includes what is currently the largest single energy storage facility under construction on the Chinese domestic grid.
“Leveraging the rich agricultural and pastoral resources of the local area,” says China Energy, “the project adopts a “power generation above the panels and sheep grazing below” approach, with grass reseeding under the PV installation.
China Energy’s 1 GW ‘Photovoltaic– Pastoral Storage’ project, Gonghe County
This has paved the way for what China Energy calls a new ‘Photovoltaic–Pastoral Integration’ model, which couples renewable energy development with animal husbandry.
Arctech shines in Uzbekistan
Arctech, solar tracking, racking, and BIPV (building integrated photovoltaics) provider, has signed a 240 MW solar tracker supply contract with China Energy Engineering Corporation Limited (CEEC) for a solar photovoltaic generation plant project in Uzbekistan’s Tashkent region. This is the third project recently won by Arctech in Uzbekistan,
previous ones being the Qashqadaryo Viloyati and Buxoro 1 GW PV facility and the 500 MW Sherabad PV installation.
SkyLine II solar tracking system (source: Arctech)
Arctech’s SkyLine II solar tracking system will be deployed for this latest project. Among the benefits is an increase in post span, leading to a more than 30% reduction in posts, with less than 180 posts per MW, resulting in a reduction in engineering, procurement and construction cost of about 2%. Through an innovative “multi-drive” mechanism, the SkyLine II tracker can safely stow horizontally, which is vital for lowering the wind pressure experienced by the new large-format modules and prevention of cracking and delamination. The
34 | October 2023|
www.modernpowersystems.com
increased tracker stiffness also enables the wind stow speed threshold to be increased and thus extends the operational wind speed range. These optimised stow parameters can also help prevent energy losses and increase power generation and revenue “to a considerable extent”, says Arctech. Currently, over 85% of Uzbekistan’s electricity comes from coal and natural gas, with most of its natural gas coming from Russia. To solve the problem of energy shortage and reduce dependence on fossil energy, the Uzbek government has encouraged the development of renewable energy in recent years. It plans a 5 GW increase in solar installed capacity by 2030.
technology can also provide balancing services to the electric grid: If required, the generated pyrogas can be converted into electricity and fed into the grid. On the flipside, when low- cost excess electricity from the grid is available (eg, from wind or PV), it can be converted to high temperature thermal energy to maintain the pyrolysis process.
The PYSOLO research programme is being carried out by a consortium of nine organisations from four EU countries under the lead of Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
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