Category: Solar Systems

The Tesla Powerwall is the most popular home battery of all time.  This high-powered battery pack is riding the dual waves of the Tesla brand’s widespread automotive recognition and a boom in residential solar adoption that’s been reinforced by numerous incentives, including a federal tax credit that allows you to claim 30% of the total cost of your storage system back on your tax return.   Tesla itself has also offered rebates in the recent past that can be combined with other incentives.  Can solar panels save you money? Interested…

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Smart Photovoltaic Systems SL Friday, 2 February 2024, 12:01 Copiar enlace WhatsApp Facebook X LinkedIn Telegram Photovoltaics are hugely popular in southern Spain. There are several reasons for this; firstly, a photovoltaic system in one’s own home or business makes an active contribution to climate protection. Secondly, the payback period for a PV system in Spain is much shorter than in Germany, for example. What is the reason for this? The many hours of sunshine in the south. The Costa del Sol, for example, has an average of 320 sunny…

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Representational image. Credit: Canva Rhovan, a vanadium mining and processing facility managed by Glencore Ferroalloys, is embarking on a transformative initiative by commencing the construction of a 25MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant near Brits in the North West province of South Africa. This forward-looking project is anticipated to supply approximately 30% of Rhovan’s annual energy demand, significantly reducing the plant’s reliance on grid-supplied electricity and leading to an estimated annual saving of over 48,000 tonnes of CO2e emissions. Japie Fullard, CEO of Glencore Ferroalloys, expressed excitement about this development, emphasizing…

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Representational image. Credit: Canva The project to equip 405 school buildings in Cyprus with Photovoltaic Systems has been successfully concluded, boasting a total investment of €6.6 million. In a press conference held in Nicosia to mark the completion of the initiative, Minister of Education, Sports, and Youth Dr Athena Michaelidou, along with Despina Panayiotou Theodosiou, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC), revealed that the project led to substantial energy savings for schools, resulting in a 30% reduction in overall energy consumption. The comprehensive…

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New research from Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) has shown that combining rooftop PV systems with battery storage and heat pumps can improve heat pump efficiency while reducing reliance on grid electricity. February 2, 2024 Emiliano Bellini Fraunhofer ISE researchers have studied how residential rooftop PV systems could be combined with heat pumps and battery storage. They assessed the performance of a PV-heat pump-battery system based on a smart-grid (SG) ready control in a single-family house built in 1960 in Freiburg, Germany. “It was found that the…

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Germany’s auction to install 1.61 GW of ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) systems was oversubscribed by 240%, setting a new record, according to data released by the federal network agency Bundesnetzagentur. The auction received 574 bids, the highest ever, with a volume of 5,485 MW, the largest ever for a ground-mounted solar auction. A total of 124 bids with a volume of 1,613 MW were accepted. The bids quoted in the auction ranged from €0.0444 (~$0.043)/kWh to €0.0547 (~$0.054)/kWh and were below the ceiling tariff of €0.0737 (~$0.076)/kWh. The tariff quoted is…

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Climate change-induced extreme weather events like hail, flooding, and high winds are accelerating solar module damage above certain thresholds, causing greater long-term losses in system performance, according to researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Researchers compared photovoltaic (PV) system performance against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s weather maps and studied how performance was affected when extreme events occurred within 10 kilometers of the systems. They found that flooding and hail caused most short-term solar outages, where the median outage length after an extreme weather event was two…

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UK-based solar cell manufacturing company Oxford PV, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE), has reported a 25% conversion efficiency for its perovskite solar modules. The company said that its silicon perovskite tandem solar modules delivered an output of 421 watts on an area of 1.68 square meters, making it one of the most efficient modules in the industrial format. “Our record-breaking solar panels demonstrate that we are on the cusp of the next solar revolution, which will be delivered, in part, by our tandem cell…

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San Francisco residents face some of the highest electricity bills in the US — in fact, energy costs for San Franciscans were 86.2% higher than the national average in September 2023, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. To tamp down some of these rising costs, it’s worth considering if going solar is the right choice for you.  All homeowners in the US have access to certain incentives at the federal level that make installing solar panels more appealing — the federal tax credit included in the Inflation Reduction…

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3,499 at Anker Anker Solix F3800 Best extra-large portable power station $749 at Vtoman Vtoman FlashSpeed 1500 Fastest charging portable power station Show more (4 items) Which is the best portable power station? While the options are numerous, the Jackery 2000 Plus is the best portable power station I’ve tested overall. That’s because Jackery’s offerings are usually solid in this arena. I have felt in the past that some models have been lacking, or omit features like wireless charging options, but the company has now added the ability to expand…

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