As the world leans on solar PV to decarbonise its power supply, so to must the solar industry clean up its act. Jules Scully charts the industry-wide efforts for a greener solar PV industry.
Kontron AIS is supporting PV manufacturers with a standardised Manufacturing Execution System (MES) for production control, material track and trace and equipment performance tracking, covering all processes from crystal growing over wafer and solar cell production to module assembly.
Battery storage manufacturer NGK Insulators has invested in EneCoat Technologies, a spin-out of Kyoto University involved in the development of of perovskite solar cells.
India is set to fall well short of its 2022 solar target of 100GW of installed solar capacity due to the slow uptake of rooftop solar, according to a new report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and JMK Research.
LONGi Solar has warned of reduced profits after Yunnan Province, where a significant portion of its manufacturing output resides, cancelled a previously-struck power pricing agreement.
Solar, wind and energy storage will do much of the heavy lifting in decarbonising the energy sector, with fossil fuel assets left stranded, however time is running out to realise that shift and limit global warming.
Risen Energy has launched a range of new heterojunction (HJT) and building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) modules that are said to boast a reduction in carbon use and improved power generation performance compared with previous products.
US solar manufacturers can compete with Chinese companies for US PV projects given additional import costs and modules making up less than half a project's costs, while also ensuring a secure supply to the US market, lowering the carbon intensity of products and exploiting strong market demand, says Michael Parr, executive director of the Ultra-Low Carbon Solar Alliance (ULCSA).
Major polysilicon and merchant cell producer Tongwei Group is to invest in an additional 32GW of solar cell capacity through a RMB12 billion (US$1.9 billion) investment in partnership with the government of Meishan City, in Sichuan Province, China.
Pressure is mounting on the policymakers in the US to push through incentives to stimulate domestic clean energy manufacturing in the country after a turbulent week for US solar.
