Fab & Facilities

The second day of our inaugural PV CellTech conference in Kuala Lumpur on 17 March 2016 turned out to be equally informative, engaging and thought-provoking as day one. Among the many takeaways from the two-day event in general, the final session addressed head-on one of the most hotly debated issues in the industry today – the technology roadmap!

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister has said he believes it will be impossible to keep fossil fuel resources “in the ground” even in the next 50 years but nonetheless sees his country as an ideal potential manufacturer-exporter of PV panels.

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 video purporting to show a North Korean solar panel factory has been circulated by authorities in the country.

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

The chairman and CEO of Trina Solar, Jifan Gao, has raised the spectre of module overcapacity in 2016. Mark Osborne asks if the global solar industry should be worried.

Meyer Burger has introduced the DW288 Series 3 diamond wire cutting tool that has been specially designed for use with extremely thin wires.

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.