Carrie Xiao speaks to Wen Zhou, president at Heraeus Photovoltaics, about how the paste manufacturer intends to grow alongside its customers and the wider solar manufacturing sector, with a staunch focus on R&D.
Visibility on the performance of almost all leading PV module suppliers to the end of the first quarter of 2020 (31 March 2020) is now known, providing a first glimpse of what impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the sector, as most countries started to impose varying degrees of lockdown impacting businesses and ongoing operations.
An increasing number of banks are turning away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy financing. As Catherine Early reports, despite the chilling effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the industry, hopes are high that a tipping point is nearing.
LONGi Solar has introduced its next-generation series of large-area high-performance modules for utility-scale PV power plant markets globally, offering up to 540Wp performance.
A total of seven China-based PV manufacturers have officially started efforts to establish a new ‘M10’ (182mm x 182mm p-type monocrystalline) large-area wafer size standard to reduce manufacturing costs throughout the entire solar industry supply chain as the number of large-area wafer sizes have emerged in the last few years.
PV inverter specialist, Huayu New Energy, has launched its ‘HY 2000 Plus’ microinverter, which has the highest recorded power density on the market and has four (4) MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) and quad-module-level monitoring as standard. The HY-2000-Plus is also the first commercially announced microinverter that is compatible with the latest 500-580Wp high-performance large-area solar panels that are entering the global market.
The era of subsidy-free solar is well underway in a growing number of markets, with Europe leading the way. As Solarcentury’s Peer Piske explains, the greater sensitivities around modelling zero-subsidy projects mean new approaches to design and planning are required by developers
GoodWe has launched its new HT series string inverters - 100kW to 136kW - which are the company’s most powerful and intelligent devices to date for the Commercial & Industrial as well as the utility-scale PV markets.
Trina Solar has announced the global launch of ‘TrinaPro Mega,’ the latest version of its PV utility-scale complete turnkey product solution featuring modules with power output exceeding 500W, notably its ‘Vertex’ ultra-high-power module, launched earlier in 2020.
By Aline Kirsten Vidal de Oliveira, Mohammadreza Aghae, Ricardo Rüther
The use of unmanned aerial vehicles in solar operations and maintenance can reduce costs and save hours of painstaking labour, but only if applied correctly. Aline Kirsten Vidal de Oliveira, Mohammadreza Aghae and Ricardo Rüther explore the optimal use of aerial inspections and emerging methods for analysing the data they gather to identify faults.
