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Utility network and cyber security provider EMR Integrated Solutions has announced a collaboration with Stern Energy, which will see it enhance cyber security and improve operational visibility at Stern Energy’s solar farm clients across the UK, Italy and the Netherlands.

EMR will deploy UniCAS, its secure communications platform, which provides standardised control and secure access with an eye to NIS2 compliance at each solar site, ensuring greater operational visibility and uninterrupted flows of grid-connected data back to its clients’ SCADA systems.

Alan Feenan, director of sales, EMR Integrated Solutions.

Revamping of photovoltaic systems across Europe

UniCAS complements Stern Energy’s technical services in the construction, management, maintenance and revamping of photovoltaic systems across Europe.

Andrea Muncivi, managing director at Stern Energy, said: “As an operations and maintenance [O&M] provider, we have a duty to our solar energy clients to act as their trusted advisor. This includes making them aware of potential weaknesses in the cyber security posture of their field-based assets. Working closely with EMR helps us to address those weaknesses and keeps our clients compliant with industry regulations. 

“The EMR team has a high level of competence around secure communications. We’re very happy with the results and keen to strengthen our service portfolio with their assistance.”

EMR’s UniCAS solution includes a managed service delivered through its network operations centre, which alerts in response to service interruptions or communications outages, allowing for swift problem resolution and maximum network uptime. This is a critical part of the service as Mr Muncivi explains.

Unauthorised site access

“Network uptime is critical for us as we guarantee response time. For example, with a temporary communications failure we lose connectivity to the CCTV system so the risk of unauthorised site access increases or similarly an alert might be indicative of a system bypass attempt. Without this visibility we’re running blind but EMR’s monitoring service fulfils our commitment to safe operation of our systems and consistent generation of grid data as required.”

“European directives such as NIS2 are forcing a more robust response from critical national infrastructure providers to the threats posed by malicious actors,” according to Alan Feenan, sales director with EMR Integrated Solutions.

“UniCAS has the benefit of allowing renewable energy asset managers to consolidate and control access to field assets for O&Ms, telecoms and data providers, CCTV providers and other third parties. Onboarding and offboarding to the network is easy while centralised security policy enforces access parameters. Our service has clearly tapped into the need for risk mitigation in cyber security and sales are growing strongly in the utility sector.”

EMR has a strong track record of working with providers across renewable energy. Its clients include Greencoat UK Wind, Schroders Greencoat LLP, Enerco Energy and Greater Gabbard Ofto.

In a significant clean energy breakthrough, scientists from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have spearheaded international research to achieve a new efficiency record for fully roll-to-roll printed solar cells.

This revolutionary technology, featuring lightweight, flexible solar cells printed onto thin plastic films, promises to expand the potential applications of solar energy significantly. 

A new era in solar cell flexibility and deployment

Unlike traditional silicon solar panels, which are rigid and heavy, printed solar cells boast exceptional flexibility and portability. This revolutionary technology opens up a wide array of previously unimaginable applications, allowing for deployment in previously unimaginable ways across urban construction, mining operations, emergency management, disaster relief, space, defence, and personal electronics. 

The team with thin and lightweight roll-to-roll solar cells. Image: CSIRO.

CSIRO’s Renewable Energy Systems group leader, Dr Anthony Chesman, highlighted the culmination of CSIRO’s extensive years, almost a decade of research: “CSIRO’s thin and lightweight solar cells are now on the cusp of emerging from the lab to create clean energy in the real world…We’ve solved several engineering problems to achieve record results across a large surface area of interconnected modules.” 

Roll-to-roll printing: The key to scalability

The record-breaking efficiency was realised through roll-to-roll printing, enabling large-scale production. “Roll-to-roll printing allows for the cells to be manufactured on very long, continuous rolls of plastic, which can dramatically increase the rate of production,” said Dr Chesman.

“As these methods are already widely used in the printing industry, this makes their production more accessible for Australian manufacturers. The successful commercialisation of printed flexible solar cells has the potential to create significant economic and environmental benefits for Australia and the world.” 

Schematic illustration of the workflow of this work. Image: Nature Communications.

Advanced materials and machine learning

In addition to roll-to-roll printing, CSIRO’s innovative approach incorporates an advanced material called perovskite. Dr Doojin Vak, CSIRO principal research scientist, said: “Perovskites are a class of emerging cell material. They’re remarkable because they can be formulated into inks and used in industrial printers.” 

The optimisation process also leveraged automation and machine learning. “We developed a system for rapidly producing and testing more than 10,000 solar cells a day – something that would have been impossible to do manually,” said Dr Vak. “This allowed us to identify the optimal settings for the various parameters in the roll-to-roll process and quickly pinpoint the conditions that deliver the best results.” 

The future of printed solar

Researchers acknowledge that perovskite solar cells currently trail silicon solar panels in terms of efficiency and lifetime. However, CSIRO envisions a unique role for its printed solar technology.

“As these perovskite solar cells are printed onto plastic films, they are very lightweight, highly flexible, and portable,” said Dr Chesman. “The rigidity and weight of conventional silicon solar panels can make moving them difficult. Our thin, lightweight solar can be easily transported anywhere there is sun.” 

CSIRO is actively seeking industry partners to refine this revolutionary technology further and bring it to market.

The University of Cambridge, Monash University, the University of Sydney, and the University of New South Wales collaborated to achieve these results, which they published in the journal Nature Communications.

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About Sungrow

Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd. (“Sungrow”) is the world’s most bankable inverter brand with over 405 GW installed worldwide as of June 2023.

Founded in 1997 by University Professor Cao Renxian, Sungrow is a leader in the research and development of solar inverters with the largest dedicated R&D team in the industry and a broad product portfolio offering PV inverter solutions and energy storage systems for utility-scale, commercial and industrial, and residential applications, as well as internationally recognised floating PV plant solutions, NEV driving solutions, EV charging solutions and renewable hydrogen production systems.

With a strong 27-year track record in the PV space, Sungrow products power over 150 countries worldwide.  For more information about Sungrow, visit www.sungrowpower.com.

The new energy technology emerged from a research project that received EU funding to make use of all buildings’ external surfaces rather than just rooftops to generate power. Called Envision, the project ran for five years through September 2022.

The initiative reflects stepped-up EU efforts to reduce buildings’ emissions of greenhouse gases as part of the fight against climate change. Buildings account for around 36% of emissions in Europe and are part of an EU renovation wave.  

In the EU, roughly half of buildings’ facades are unused.

Infrared band

The bands of radiation that reach the Earth’s surface from the Sun include visible light, infrared and ultraviolet.

 

'With our panels and photovoltaic cells on the roof, you can have sufficient energy to make the house energy-positive.' Bart Erich, Envision

Whereas regular solar panels make use of visible light, those on Crone’s home relied on the infrared spectrum and did not require the external wall to be orientated in any particular direction. Visible light constitutes roughly 43% of solar radiation while infrared accounts for 50%.

Retrofitting homes so they use both visible light and infrared radiation promises big advances in the harnessing of energy from the Sun. Any external walls can be retrofitted with the Envision technology.

"With our panels and photovoltaic cells on the roof, you can have sufficient energy to make the house energy-positive," says Bart Erich, a research associate in applied physics at Eindhoven University of Technology.

One of the Envision leaders, he says the total surface area of building facades in Europe is roughly the same as that of roofs. 

Tangible progress

Using facades to absorb energy from the Sun would bolster Europe’s already-expanding solar thermal industry, which grew 12% in 2022.

The thermal panels are coupled to a heat pump. In the case of social housing, where space is relatively limited, making room for the heat pump can involve building a shed outside – as was the case for Crone.

With the further addition of a battery that retains heat, the thermal energy can be stored when there is an excess. 

The prices of such facades range from €150 to €500 per square metre, depending on the type, according to Erich, who said the lifespan is typically 30 years and the return on investment seven to 10 years.

During Envision, the researchers conducted laboratory research, built a site at Eindhoven University of Technology to test the idea and ran demonstrations at homes including Crone’s.

In 2022, the team were a finalist in the innovation category of the European Sustainable Energy Awards, which recognise projects and people advancing the transition to cleaner energy.

Since Envision ended, the technology has gathered momentum. Erich is the chief technology officer of a spin-off company called Calosol that is commercialising the panels.

IKEA-style DIY

Calosol aims eventually to build 1 200 square metres of panels, a jump from the 250 square metres produced during Envision. In Crone’s apartment, the 15 square metres were sufficient to meet all her year-round heating needs, according to Erich.

"In total, the panels produce about the same amount of energy as – or a little bit more than – the house actually uses," he says.

Because putting the panels in place is currently a complex undertaking, current research is also seeking to make that step a lot easier. The ultimate goal is to make installation akin to IKEA furniture, according to Erich.

"That’s where we are – still struggling to get the installations to the point where everybody can install them," he says.

Solar windows

To help buildings extract every possible bit of energy from the Sun, other EU-funded researchers are exploring the option of transparent solar windows to produce electricity.

 

'We need to use our best science to combat climate change and that means researching technologies like transparent solar cells.' Professor Aldo Di Carlo, CITYSOLAR

This project, called CITYSOLAR, began in December 2020 and is scheduled to run through April 2024.

CITYSOLAR aims to deploy photovoltaic technologies that absorb radiation in both the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum. The researchers are trying to minimise the absorption of visible light because windows need to transmit it to the building’s interior and visible light causes panels to take on colour.

But because infrared and ultraviolet light are less efficient at generating electrical energy, a degree of visible light is useful even for solar windows. The trick for the CITYSOLAR researchers is to find the right mix of efficiency, transparency and colour.

Aldo Di Carlo, a professor of nanoelectronics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata who leads the project, cites a greenhouse as an example of where the technology could be especially useful.

Plants mainly need visible light in the red part of the colour spectrum to grow but can do without most other colours. As a result, semi-transparent photovoltaic cells with a red tinge could absorb energy from the Sun while allowing the red visible light through so plants thrive.

Beyond the lab

So far, the technology has been tested only in the lab. A prototype is due to be created in early 2024 at South Denmark University.

The prototype will play a central role in testing the technology for further development on the way to possible eventual commercialisation.

In the longer term, the CITYSOLAR researchers want to make zero-energy buildings as much a reality as possible. That requires the full-scale retrofitting of transparent or semi-transparent surfaces with the technology being developed.  

For residential buildings, a further challenge will be figuring out the right efficiency-to-transparency ratio – a task that will require yet more research.  

"We need to use our best science to combat climate change and that means researching technologies like transparent solar cells," says Di Carlo.

To address the growing energy needs concerning renewable, clean, and sustainable solar energy, organic solar cells (OSCs) have garnered considerable scientific attention. This is due to their distinct advantages in the development of flexible and portable devices, including affordability, lightweight design, and the feasibility of large-scale, printable fabrication.

Research in this regard has now led to the development of reliable organic solar cells that use wood materials. A collaborative effort by a team of scientists from Linköping University and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden, have demonstrated the potential of utilising untreated kraft lignin derived from wood pulp to enhance solar cells' environmental sustainability and reliability. 

The details regarding the team's study were published in the journal Advanced Materials. 

Sustainable solution

Researchers utilised one of the most prevalent organic materials found in nature, lignin, which proves to be a viable means of developing organic solar cells that are both stable and environmentally friendly.

At present, sunlight stands out as a primary source of sustainable energy. While traditional silicon-based solar cells are effective, their manufacturing involves a complex and energy-intensive process that poses the risk of potentially hazardous chemical spills, according to researchers. 

Organic solar cells are a rising research field due to their cost-effectiveness, lightweight, flexibility, and versatile applications, including indoor usage or integration into clothing for powering personal electronic devices. However, the sustainability quotient of such methods was questionable as organic solar cells are made of plastic or polymers derived from oil, which makes them organic but not environmentally friendly.  

"We want to build efficient, reliable, cheap, and environmentally friendly solar cells. This study enables us to show that this is possible and a first step towards replacing today's oil-based materials with wood-based alternatives," said Mats Fahlman, professor at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics (LOE) at Linköping University, in a statement. 

Kraft lignin

As a solution, scientists developed an organic solar cell in which a section of the electron transport layer, linking to the cathode, is crafted from kraft lignin directly extracted from wood pulp. While lignin currently constitutes a minor portion of the solar cell, the ultimate objective is to develop a solar cell predominantly composed of wood-derived materials, according to the team. 

Prior research has employed chemically modified wood-based materials to enhance the reliability and stability of organic and perovskite solar cells. In a recent study, Linköping researchers utilised unaltered kraft lignin directly extracted from wood during paper manufacturing. Collaborating with KTH, they examined the optimal molecular composition of lignin for this purpose.

"We have created a material, or composite, from kraft lignin which is to constitute the cathode interface layer. It turned out that this made the solar cell more stable. The advantage of kraft lignin is that it can create many hydrogen bonds, which helps to stabilise the solar cell," said Qilun Zhang, principal research engineer at LOE, in a statement.  

Organic solar cells are currently employed indoors and can replace batteries in low-energy devices and sensors. This marks the initial foray of organic solar cells into the market, with potential scalability for broader applications like large-scale energy supply.

Researchers say that constructing these cells from wood materials enhances their environmental friendliness. While organic solar cells may not achieve peak efficiency, their non-toxic, sustainable, and cost-effective nature, coupled with an efficiency range of 15% to 20%, proves ample for various applications.