Solar Energy

China’s solar goes from supremacy to oversupply

Published

2 months ago

October 10, 2024

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China’s solar goes from supremacy to oversupply

By Oliver HOTHAM

Beijing (AFP) Oct 10, 2024

Strong state support and huge private investment have made China’s solar industry a global powerhouse, but it faces new headwinds, from punitive tariffs abroad to a brutal price war at home.

Officials meeting in Baku next month for the COP29 summit hope to agree on new finance targets to help developing countries respond to climate change, including ditching fossil fuels.

Last year, countries agreed to triple global installed renewable energy capacity by 2030.

China is installing almost twice as much solar and wind power as every other country combined.

And it dominates the market.

It makes eight out of every 10 solar panels and controls 80 percent of every stage of the manufacturing process.

It is also home to the world’s top 10 suppliers of solar panel manufacturing equipment, and its related exports hit a record $49 billion last year, according to Wood Mackenzie.

That supremacy is not accidental: Chinese state support has been key, analysts say.

Beijing invested over $50 billion in new solar supply capacity from 2011 to 2022, according to the International Energy Agency.

The industry has also benefited from access to cheap raw materials, readily available capital from state-owned banks, and huge engineering manpower.

“Chinese producers were ahead of everyone else on cost,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, co-founder of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a climate think tank.

“That meant new investment takes place in China, because that’s where it’s most competitive,” he told AFP.

The focus has driven a “steep learning curve… both in solar cell technology and manufacturing know-how”, added Johannes Bernreuter, a longtime solar industry analyst.

That in turn has created “an efficient industry ecosystem”, he said.

– ‘Overcapacity’-

As countries around the world race to convert their power systems, China’s solar supremacy has become a growing concern.

The United States and other Western countries have accused Beijing of deliberate “overcapacity” and flooding global markets with cut-price solar exports intended to undercut competition.

Washington has doubled tariffs on Chinese panels to 50 percent, part of a broader package targeting $18 billion worth of Chinese imports in strategic sectors including electric vehicles, batteries, critical minerals and medical products.

The European Union is also probing Chinese-owned solar panel manufacturers for allegedly receiving unfair subsidies.

Most US solar panel imports now come from Southeast Asia, but Washington says Chinese manufacturers have relocated operations there to circumvent barriers.

China also accounts for almost all of Europe’s imports of solar panels from outside the bloc.

That means many markets will struggle to catch up “with two decades of very forceful and very successful industrial policy in China”, said Myllyvirta.

China’s solar industry faces its own struggles though, beyond trade barriers in the West.

The sector’s supersonic expansion has overleveraged the domestic industry, overloaded China’s grid and sparked a brutal price war, experts say.

Industry leaders have reportedly warned of an “ice age” and urged government intervention to stem slumping prices, but there has been little sign of relief.

This year saw a wave of bankruptcies, and new solar projects fell by over 75 percent in the first half of 2024, an industry group said in July.

– ‘Lots of companies will fail’ –

The price wars, which are so fierce that solar export earnings fell last year despite volumes hitting a new high, are like a “snake eating its own tail”, warned analyst David Fishman.

Companies get stuck “in this circle of competition where whoever is able to endure the pain for longest comes out as the victor,” said Fishman, a senior manager at the Lantau Group specialising in China’s power sector.

“Lots of companies will fail along the way.”

And while the manufacturing glut has helped China hit a wind and solar installation target nearly six years ahead of schedule, the country’s grid is struggling to keep up.

Increasingly, renewable supply is being blocked to prevent the grid from becoming overwhelmed, a process known as curtailment.

Solar curtailment rose four percent in the first quarter of 2024 from a year earlier, according to Fitch Ratings.

Authorities will soon be forced to “stop approving new projects or allowing projects to connect to the grid if it means curtailment rates are at risk of going higher”, Fishman said.

“They’ve got to build,” he added. “They have to catch up.”

Blocked in the West and running out of track at home, China’s solar is seeking new markets, and this year, Europe was overtaken by Asia as the biggest export market for solar products, according to an industry body.

Exports to Africa also soared 187 percent year-on-year in 2023, though the continent still buys a small fraction compared to Europe, according to energy think tank Ember.

The industry is now in a “restructuring and shakeout phase”, said Bernreuter.

After that, “the Chinese solar industry will march on with unperturbed pace and a more global manufacturing footprint”.

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Solar Energy

Buried interface engineering drives advances in tin-lead perovskite solar cell efficiency

Published

2 days ago

December 20, 2024

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Buried interface engineering drives advances in tin-lead perovskite solar cell efficiency

by Simon Mansfield

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Dec 20, 2024

A team led by Prof. Meng Li from Henan University’s School of Nanoscience and Materials Engineering has unveiled an innovative approach to overcoming stability and efficiency challenges in tin-lead (Sn-Pb) perovskite solar cells. The researchers’ work focuses on optimizing the buried hole-selective interface using a specially designed self-assembled material, offering major implications for single-junction and tandem solar cell technologies.

Tin-lead perovskites are valued for their narrow bandgap properties, which position them as key materials for producing high-efficiency solar cells. However, energy level mismatches and degradation at the buried interface have constrained both their performance and long-term stability. Addressing these issues, Prof. Meng’s team designed a boronic acid-anchored hole-selective contact material, 4-(9H-carbazole-9-yl)phenylboronic acid (4PBA).

Compared to conventional materials, 4PBA demonstrated superior stability and compatibility at the substrate surface. Its high adsorption energy of -5.24 eV and significant molecular dipole moment (4.524 D) improved energy level alignment between the substrate and perovskite layer, facilitating efficient charge extraction. Additionally, the interface engineered using 4PBA improved perovskite crystallization and substrate contact, reducing defects and non-radiative recombination.

These advancements enabled Sn-Pb perovskite solar cells incorporating 4PBA to achieve a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 23.45%. The material’s reduced corrosiveness also mitigated the degradation effects typically caused by PEDOT:PSS, a widely used hole-transport material, enhancing chemical stability and storage durability. The cells retained 93.5% of their initial efficiency after 2,000 hours of shelf storage.

“This approach offers a practical path to enhancing both the efficiency and stability of Sn-Pb perovskite solar cells, addressing energy level mismatches and interfacial stability concerns,” the research team commented.

The findings provide a foundation for advancing efficient and stable Sn-Pb perovskite solar cells and highlight the importance of interface engineering in next-generation photovoltaic technologies.

Research Report:Buried Hole-Selective Interface Engineering for High-Efficiency Tin-Lead Perovskite Solar Cells with Enhanced Interfacial Chemical Stability

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Solar Energy

New solar material advances green hydrogen production

Published

2 days ago

December 20, 2024

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New solar material advances green hydrogen production

by Simon Mansfield

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Dec 20, 2024

Researchers in nano-scale chemistry have made a significant stride in advancing the sustainable and efficient production of hydrogen from water using solar energy.

A collaborative international study led by Flinders University, with partners in South Australia, the US, and Germany, has identified a novel solar cell process that could play a crucial role in photocatalytic water splitting for green hydrogen production.

The research introduces a new class of kinetically stable ‘core and shell Sn(II)-perovskite’ oxide solar material. Paired with a catalyst developed by US researchers under Professor Paul Maggard, this material shows potential as a catalyst for the essential oxygen evolution reaction, a key step in generating pollution-free hydrogen energy.

The findings, published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, offer new insights into the development of carbon-free hydrogen technologies, leveraging renewable and greenhouse-gas-free power sources for high-performing and cost-effective electrolysis processes.

“This latest study is an important step forwards in understanding how these tin compounds can be stabilised and effective in water,” said Professor Gunther Andersson, lead author from the Flinders Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology.

Professor Paul Maggard, from Baylor University, added, “Our reported material points to a novel chemical strategy for absorbing the broad energy range of sunlight and using it to drive fuel-producing reactions at its surfaces.”

Tin and oxygen compounds like those used in the study are already applied in diverse fields such as catalysis, diagnostic imaging, and therapeutic drugs. However, Sn(II) compounds are typically reactive with water and dioxygen, limiting their technological potential.

Global solar photovoltaic research continues to focus on developing cost-effective, high-performance perovskite-based systems as alternatives to conventional silicon and other existing technologies.

Hydrogen, often touted as a clean fuel, can be produced through various processes, including electrolysis powered by renewable energy, thermochemical water splitting using concentrated solar power, or waste heat from nuclear reactors. While fossil fuels and biomass can also generate hydrogen, the environmental and energy efficiency depends largely on the production method.

Solar-driven hydrogen production, which uses light to initiate the process, is emerging as a promising alternative for industrial-scale hydrogen generation.

This study builds on earlier research led by Professor Maggard, initially at North Carolina State University and now at Baylor University, and includes contributions from University of Adelaide experts such as Professor Greg Metha and collaborators from Universitat Munster in Germany. Professor Metha’s work explores the photocatalytic activity of metal clusters on oxide surfaces for reactor technologies.

Research Report:Chemical and Valence Electron Structure of the Core and Shell of Sn(II)-Perovskite Oxide Nanoshells

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Solar Energy

University of Houston scientists solving meteorological mysteries on Mars

Published

2 days ago

December 20, 2024

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University of Houston scientists solving meteorological mysteries on Mars

by Bryan Luhn for UH News

Houston TX (SPX) Dec 20, 2024

A groundbreaking achievement by scientists at the University of Houston is changing our understanding of climate and weather on Mars and providing critical insights into Earth’s atmospheric processes as well.

The study, led by Larry Guan, a graduate student in the Department of Physics at UH’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, under the guidance of his advisors, Professor Liming Li from the Department of Physics and Professor Xun Jiang from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and several world-renowned planetary scientists, generated the first-ever meridional profile of Mars’ radiant energy budget, or REB, which represents the balance or imbalance between absorbed solar energy and emitted thermal energy across the latitudes. On a global scale, an energy surplus leads to global warming, while a deficit results in global cooling. Furthermore, the meridional profile of Mars’ REB fundamentally influences weather and climate patterns on the red planet.

The findings are in a new paper just published in AGU Advances and will be featured in AGU’s prestigious science magazine EOS.

“The work in establishing Mars’ first meridional radiant energy budget profile is noteworthy,” Guan said. “Understanding Earth’s large-scale climate and atmospheric circulation relies heavily on REB profiles, so having one for Mars allows critical climatological comparisons and lays the groundwork for Martian meteorology.”

The profile, based on long-term observations from orbiting spacecraft, offers a detailed comparison of Mars’ REB to that of Earth, uncovering striking differences in the way each planet receives and radiates energy. While Earth exhibits an energy surplus in the tropics and a deficit in the polar regions, Mars displays the opposite configuration.

“On Earth, the tropical energy surplus drives warming and upward atmospheric motion, while the polar energy deficit causes cooling and downward atmospheric motion,” Jiang explained. “These atmospheric motions significantly influence weather and climate on our home planet. However, on Mars, we observe a polar energy surplus and a tropical energy deficit.”

That surplus, Guan says, is especially pronounced in Mars’ southern hemisphere during spring, playing a critical role in driving the planet’s atmospheric circulation and triggering global dust storms, the most prominent feature of Martian weather. These massive storms, which can envelop the entire planet, significantly alter the distribution of energy, providing a dynamic element that affects Mars’ weather patterns and climate.

“The interaction between dust storms and the REB, as well as with polar ice dynamics, brings to light the complex feedback processes that likely shape Martian weather patterns and long-term climate stability,” Guan said.

Earth’s global-scale energy imbalance has been recently discovered, which significantly contributes to global warming at a magnitude comparable to that caused by increasing greenhouse gases. Mars presents a distinct environment due to its thinner atmosphere and lack of anthropogenic effects. The research team is now examining potential long-term energy imbalances on Mars and their implications for the planet’s climate evolution.

“The REB difference between the two planets is truly fascinating, so continued monitoring will deepen our understanding of Mars’ climate dynamics,” Li said. “This research not only deepens our knowledge of the red planet but also provides critical insights into planetary atmospheric processes.”

Research Report:Distinct Energy Budgets of Mars and Earth