The second day of our inaugural PV CellTech conference in Kuala Lumpur on 17 March 2016 turned out to be equally informative, engaging and thought-provoking as day one. Among the many takeaways from the two-day event in general, the final session addressed head-on one of the most hotly debated issues in the industry today – the technology roadmap!
Recent shipment guidance from two leading members of the ‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL), Trina Solar and JinkoSolar highlighted that the US solar PV market in 2016 was expected to show considerable growth but raised concerns over the possibility of a module oversupply situation when compiling a list of suppliers with their own US ambitions.
In common with every other PV market in the world as it matures, attaining grid parity for the technology is the ultimate goal for Japan. As an electricity market in general, meeting electrical supply with demand will of course become ever-more important.
The chairman and CEO of Trina Solar, Jifan Gao, has raised the spectre of module overcapacity in 2016. Mark Osborne asks if the global solar industry should be worried.
Japan's PV industry is changing fast. The feed-in tariff has brought about over 30GW of installed capacity, with large-scale solar outnumbering residential by about 10 to one. Ahead of this week's PV Expo in Tokyo, Andy Colthorpe takes a look at some of the issues expected to dominate.
As another big US CSP project bites the dust having previously rejected the suggestion that it should re-apply as a PV project, John Parnell explores whether CSP, especially power towers, risk becoming the Betamax of solar energy.
The forthcoming PV CellTech conference in Malaysia, 16-17 March 2016, is poised to unveil the key issues that will underpin c-Si solar cell manufacturing over the next few years.
GCL Systems has claimed several important shipment and capacity metrics that would catapult the company into the top-10 manufacturer rankings for 2015. Mark Osborne takes a closer look at the figures.
Despite record low polysilicon prices seen in January 2016 marking a clear oversupply, PV manufacturing capacity expansions and projected end-market demand could reverse the situation by the end of 2016, specifically in China.
