Finlay Colville

PV Tech is to hold the first ever conference, dedicated specifically to heterojunction (HJT) solar cell technology in manufacturing. The event will occur over two days, on 11-12 June 2020, in St. Petersburg in Russia.

The new Q1 2020 bankability analysis has now been completed by the PV-Tech market research team, ranking PV module suppliers within the PV ModuleTech Bankability Ratings. The listing reveals that LONGi Solar now commands AAA-Rated status, the highest grade achievable. A further seven module suppliers are in the AA and A bands and four suppliers fall into the B levels.

During the past few years, the migration from multi to mono, replacing Al-BSF p-type cells with rear passivation layers (PERC), and having the capability of bifacial light absorption, have been the very obvious technology shifts seen within the PV industry.

Capital expenditure (capex) for c-Si manufacturing (covering ingot/wafer and cell/module stages) is forecast at approx. US$9 billion in 2019, consistent with levels seen during 2017 and 2018.

The forthcoming PV CellTech 2020 event in Penang, Malaysia on 10-11 March 2020 is to feature a special session topic on thin-film solar PV, and review the prospects of this technology being the subject of another round of global investments.

Finlay Colville, head of market research at Solar Media, unveils significant growth in the UK’s utility-scale solar pipeline as the market looks set to return to gigawatt-level demand in 2020.

The latest release of PV-Tech’s unique PV ModuleTech Bankability Rankings report confirms the exclusive status today afforded to just four PV module suppliers (JinkoSolar, LONGi Solar, Canadian Solar and First Solar), in being the only companies to have AA-Rating module bankability status within the industry today.

The fifth PV CellTech event takes place in Penang, Malaysia on 10-11 March 2020, and will be happening at a time when PV is going through its most dramatic realignment yet, in terms of manufacturers dominating the cell supply landscape, and the technologies being deployed in mega mass-production.

Recently, during part of travels to Asia region, I took the opportunity to meet up with Q CELLS CTO Daniel Jeong, to discuss new developments at Q CELLS and also share some thoughts on the industry and manufacturing trends today.

At the recently held 2019 PV ModuleTech conference, held in Malaysia, PV Tech talked with Frédéric Dross, VP Technology Americas with DSM after his presentation that highlighted PV module materials for performance and reliability.