Finlay Colville summarises the updated analysis by our in-house research team at PV-Tech, where we have adjusted our models and forecasts for the 20 companies active in Taiwan today producing ingots, wafers, cells and modules.
With the multi to mono transition largely a fait accompli in the PV industry, the buzzword for 2019 will certainly be on bifaciality. This has been brewing for some years, but the sheer weight of capacity and production will finally impact on large-scale utility solar in ways most appear to be grossly unprepared for.
For all intents and purposes, 2018 may be remembered as the year that Taiwanese solar manufacturing moved from its former cell-making glory days of the past (Taiwan solar 1.0) to adjust to the new reality as defined by China’s bulldozing annihilation of cash-struck overseas manufacturing regions in recent times.
While India’s solar market is still heavily weighted on the lowest possible costs, the price difference between monocrystalline and polycrystalline PV module technologies is beginning to fade. PV Tech caught up with major module suppliers at the REI Expo in Greater Noida, India, to discuss the future of Mono in this heavyweight global market.
India's government has made clear its intentions to cultivate a solar PV manufacturing base at home, but interest from foreign players has yet to be translated into major capacity expansions. PV Tech gathered views from various players - both foreign and domestic - about what steps need to be taken, while at the REI Expo 2018 exhibition in Greater Noida, India.
Much has been written and voiced over the past couple of months in the PV industry, following the so-called China-531 policy announcement that finally provided a wake-up call to Chinese manufacturers that their domestic end-market was not going to be allowed to maintain its near-exponential growth characteristics.
In the hotly contested Californian residential solar market, new data compiled by ROTH Capital Partners highlights, amongst many data points, that Tesla’s solar panel supply base and suppliers is undergoing a major transition and that it has been changing for several years.
Major PV inverter manufacturer Sungrow Power Supply Co, recently reported a relatively strong rebound in revenue (up 10%) in the first half of 2018 but on a quarterly basis the second quarter sales increased 29% from the previous quarter, indicating that greater dependence on China and the utility-scale market with central inverters, creates a ‘solarcoaster’ ride.
