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.
TUV Rheinland has hosted a delegation from China at its officials at the headquarters of TUV Rheinland Academy in Cologne, Germany that will support a strategic cooperation framework agreement for the Sino-German Industry 4.0 Demonstration and Training Center project.
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.
‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member Hanwha Q CELLS has revealed its ‘Made in America’ product strategy ahead of the 2018 Solar Power International (SPI) Exhibition being held at the Anaheim Convention Center in California next week.
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.
US-headquartered high-efficiency PV module producer SunPower Corp has said that its interdigitated back contact (IBC) solar cells and modules have been granted exclusion from the US Section 201 import tariffs that were imposed by President Trump in early 2018.
Specialist PV manufacturing equipment supplier Amtech Systems has secured over a US$6 million order for its ‘Quantum’ diffusion system for the mass production of high-efficiency N-type solar cells.
China-based merchant solar cell producer Guangdong Aiko Solar Energy Technology Co (Aiko Solar) said that it had entered volume production of its P-type monocrystalline PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Cell) solar cells with conversion efficiencies of 22%.
