Industrial gases firms Linde and Praxair have announced plans to merge that would create a US$29 billion global business dominating many regional industrial sectors around the world. The major merger is not expected to be completed in the second half of 2018, subject to anti-trust agencies in Germany and the US.
In its tenth year of organisation, the Intersolar AWARD proceedings reflected a niche but high-profile sector of the downstream PV industry, floating solar. The coveted prize in the ‘Photovoltaics’ category went to project developer Ciel & Terre International, regarded as a pioneer of floating solar with around 43 projects completed.
Swiss-based PV manufacturing equipment specialist INDEOtec SA has secured a new order for a combined OCTOPUS II – PECVD/PVD deposition system for high-efficiency and heterojunction solar cells.
Major PV inverter manufacturer Sungrow Power Supply Co is building a 150MW floating solar plant in China in close proximity to its recently completed 40MW floating PV project - currently the world’s largest.
Guangdong Aiko Solar Energy Technology Co., Ltd (Aiko Solar), merchant solar cell producer has launched a high-efficiency P-type mono-PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Cell) bifacial solar cell with front-side cell efficiency >21% and rear-side >15%. The company showcased the bifacial cell at SNEC 2017.
The vast number of announcements related to P-type mono PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Cell) production in the last 18 months have primarily related to integrated cell and module producers shifting in-house production to the high-efficiency cells, as conventional multicrystalline Al-BSF (Aluminium-Back Surface Field) solar cells reach efficiency limitations.
China-based integrated PV module manufacturer Shanghai Aerospace Automobile Electromechanical Co (HT-SAAE) has established a 300MW solar cell and 600MW module assembly plant in Turkey to meet local demand as well as supply Europe and the US.
The US-based solar module assembly operations of China-based Seraphim Solar is ramping capacity to meet demand. Seraphim Solar USA has also been approved by residential financing firms, including Sungage Financial and Sunnova as an approved vendor.
