November was a bumper month for PV capacity expansion announcements, with the big-six Silicon Module Super League players once again in the headlines, writes Mark Osborne.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and a Saudi Arabian prince are among the names signed up to support the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, an initiative launched as COP21 climate talks begin today in Paris.
PV Nano Cell announced its plans to enter the US solar market with its ‘Sicrys’ silver and copper inks. The inks are expected to accelerate the adoption of solar photovoltaics (PV) by reducing the cost of silicon solar cell production, using an efficient process that produces sustainable inks without the use of hazardous wastes, and by increasing solar cell efficiencies at a mass production scale.
Leading CIS thin-film producer Solar Frontier is building a 5MW power plant with TSK in Kuwait as part of a benchmarking project with c-Si technology for the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR).
Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE has made a modest, 70-panel installation of new crystalline PV cell and module technologies produced by the institute on the outside of one of its laboratories.
The big-six Silicon Module Super League (SMSL) members face manufacturing pressures over technology migration meaning big advances may not happen in 2016, writes Finlay Colville.
Trina Solar this week announced a US$45 million settlement in an ongoing lawsuit with Solyndra, but a hearing with Yingli in the same case could yield the bigger story, writes John Parnell.
In only the last two quarters of 2015, PV module shipments and full-year guidance from the six ‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) players has changed significantly. Mark Osborne reveals the manufacturers set to take the top spots this year.
Struggling ‘Silicon Module Super League’ member Yingli Green Energy has missed shipment guidance for the third quarter and will take a non-cash impairment charge of US$581.3 million on long-lived manufacturing assets, due to lower utilisation rates.
