‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member JA Solar has placed an order with module assembly equipment specialist Suzhou Horad New Energy Equipment Co for a 300MW turnkey module assembly line destined for an as-yet unannounced facility in Brazil.
German equipment supplier Singulus’ efforts to head off insolvency have received a boost after bondholders approved proposals for the financial restructuring of the company.
The Indian government has sought industry feedback on the concept of establishing a polysilicon manufacturing hub in the country. Matthias Grossman looks at how such a proposal would fare in the currently unsettled global poly market.
Indebted PV module manufacturer Yingli Green Energy has been rumoured to be securing over US$500 million in new debt financing from a Chinese state bank and a provincial government where it operates manufacturing facilities.
Despite record low polysilicon prices seen in January 2016 marking a clear oversupply, PV manufacturing capacity expansions and projected end-market demand could reverse the situation by the end of 2016, specifically in China.
Researchers at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the US have completed the development of a new international quality standard for PV module manufacturing.
Specialist PV manufacturing equipment supplier Singulus Technologies has said that it is close to closing a major contract after a customer signed an order late last year for a new advanced selenisation system, based on its ‘CISARIS’ platform for CIGS thin-film production.
Leading CIS (copper, indium, selenium) thin-film producer Solar Frontier reported that its main manufacturing plant ran at almost full capacity in 2015.
The production of crystalline Silicon (c-Si) solar cells and thin-film modules has moved from a small quantity niche product to global volume markets and mass production scale. A review of the evolution in process technology of this young industry reveals laser processing to have played an ambiguous role in the last 15 years.