Cell Processing

PV manufacturing capacity expansions planned this year are expected to push production levels beyond anticipated demand in 2016, creating further cost pressures for suppliers.

PV tool maker Amtech Systems has received US$27 million of new solar orders since the turn of the year.

A solar auction in the Indian state of Rajasthan has seen the lowest bids so far in the Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) category, which requires project developers to source solar equipment from local manufacturers.

Panasonic has joined a perovskite research project looking to develop a manufacturing-scale roll-to-roll process.

Imec's Bart Onsia outlines some of the research efforts underway to tackle the issue of cell-to-module losses, including a new tool for calculating the output of a variety of module configurations in different conditions.

PV wafer and module manufacturer ReneSola reported lower than expected PV module shipments and revenue in 2015, while expanding wafer shipments.

PV module manufacturer SolarWorld has started producing its first bifacial Bisun modules at its US manufacturing facility in order to test their capability against standard modules using advanced p-type mono-PERC cell architecture.

Novel epitaxial wafer technology start-up NexWafe a spin-off from Fraunhofer ISE has raised €6 million in Series A funding from Swiss-based Private Equity firm Lynwood (Schweiz) AG.

Major PV metallization paste producer Heraeus Photovoltaics has launched a new family of low-temperature Ag-pastes at the PV Expo show being held in Tokyo.

‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member JinkoSolar is adding 1GW of solar module capacity per quarter through to the end of the first-half of 2016 to meet the ‘minimum’ expected demand for its products.