Recent history has not been kind to PV manufacturers that climb the rankings chart to become the global leader. Since 2007 when the industry really started to breakout of being a cottage industry and scale production, Sharp began a slow fall from the top, Suntech and First Solar both had short stays at the top and more recently, Yingli Green. After two years as the leading PV manufacturer, measured by module shipments, the company lost the top spot to Trina Solar in 2014.
John Grimes, chief executive of the Australian Solar Council, explains to PV Tech what impact the recent political compromise on the country's Renewable Energy Target will have on its solar industry.
Frank Haugwitz explores the opportunities for China's solar industry at home abroad as the country's new five-year solar development plan is finalised and manufacturers look to expand their global footprint.
Some of the smaller players in Latin America’s solar market appear to be taking off this year, leaving some of the bigger names in their wake, according to the latest GTM Research forecasts. PV Tech spoke to GTM's Adam James about the countries to watch in 2015.
Array Technologies (ATI), has announced the introduction of its latest single-axis tracking system, the ‘DuraTrack’ HZ v3 for utility-scale PV power plants. After nearly 2 years of development and testing, Array recently commissioned the first 1.2MW DuraTrack HZ v3 site in northern New Mexico.
With the spectre of trade disputes showing no signs of going away, Asian PV manufacturers need to develop effective strategies to cope with future anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations, says Matthias Grossman.
The solar trade rows have so far largely played out in the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy arena but a particular set of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules applied to China are set to expire, casting doubt on future punitive tariffs.
If India were to grow its electricity system based on coal as China has done, the results for the global climate could be catastrophic. Tobias Engelmeier believes this leaves the country with little choice but to go solar.
An extension and gradual phase out of the investment tax credit would help the US solar industry on to a more sustainable footing in the long term, argues James A. Mueller
centrotherm is launching the ‘c.REG’ conveyor belt furnace for monocrystalline p-type solar cell regeneration, which is claimed to achieve a reduction in light induced degradation (LID) from 6% to 1%, within less than a one minute processing cycle time. The company is showcasing the regeneration technology at SNEC 2015, being held in Shanghai, China.
