'Silicon Module Super League' member Canadian Solar is to allocate around US$401 million in capital expenditures through the end of 2016 to significantly increase in-house wafer, cell and module production capacity and locate new plants in multiple countries.
According to PV Tech’s preliminary analysis of global PV manufacturing expansion plans for the month of October 2015, new announcements reached 1.1GW in relation to thin film, c-Si solar cell and module assembly.
Polysilicon producer REC Silicon has been forced to make further cuts to production output and shed more jobs as it reacts to the current US/China trade tariff war and subsequent lower polysilicon sales to China.
A heterojunction c-Si solar cell with a conversion efficiency of 25.1% has been showcased by its maker at an event hosted by the Japanese government to exhibit technological innovations in “new energy”.
Solar Frontier is not only targeting a widely reported reduction in costs around US$0.40 per watt within two years, but is also hoping to reach grid parity in Japan for residential PV systems with integrated battery storage in the next three to four years.
SolarCity is looking to hire as many new employees in just one day as it does on average every month, targeting the hire of 500 workers across 10 US states.
Major PV metallisation paste producer Heraeus Photovoltaics has said its new manufacturing plant in Taiwan would be operational at the beginning of November 2015.
Following a week in which SolarCity and then Panasonic both claimed to have achieved record efficiencies, SunPower has hit back, saying its products are “the most efficient solar panels commercially available today”.
