Last week, French PV startup Carbon announced plans for an integrated European PV manufacturing facility to produce an initial capacity of 5GW of cells and 3.5GW of modules. The company spoke to PV Tech Premium about its short and long-term plans, and why Europe needs a PV manufacturing ecosystem.
A provision under the US Inflation Reduction Act allowing for federal tax credit transfers for solar projects is creating whole new market, giving developers flexibility to sell such credits to third parties to capture maximum value or reduce risk, says a legal and commercial advisor.
During 2022, capex for solar PV manufacturing fabs reached a record high - at more than US$27 billion - with spending dominated by Chinese companies building out new fabs in China and across Southeast Asia.
US PV incentives should be entirely focused on solar cell manufacturing in the short term, with maximum incentive rates given to domestic solar cell production that ultimately has a risk-free supply chain of materials and equipment, writes Finlay Colville, head of research at PV Tech.
The recent swathe of announcements from US policymakers – coupled with growing geopolitical unrest regarding Chinese manufacturing dominance and the role of solar PV from an energy security standpoint – has the potential to redefine PV technology, manufacturing and component supply chains in a way that the industry has never seen before, writes Finlay Colville, head of research at PV Tech.
