PV Tech recently met up with Christian Buchner - Vice President of the Photovoltaics BU at leading PV equipment supplier SCHMID Group - ahead of the forthcoming PV CellTech 2018 meeting in Penang, Malaysia on 13-14 March 2018, an event SCHMID has been strongly supporting for the past few years.
Major PV module materials and N-type mono IBC (Interdigitated Back Contact) bifacial module manufacturer Jolywood has reported preliminary unaudited 2017 financial results, posting an increase in revenue of 133.68%.
Leading into the forthcoming PV CellTech 2018 meeting in Penang, Malaysia on 13-14 March 2018, PV Tech caught up with Gordon Deans P.Eng, founder & COO of Aurora Solar Technologies Inc., the inline solar cell measurement equipment specialist that is currently going through a rapid growth phase in new order intake from the PV industry.
China-based polysilicon producer Daqo New Energy has announced plans for expanding production by at least 12,000MT in less than 18-months that will be dedicated to supplying high-efficiency monocrystalline wafers producers, due to continued strong demand.
The third PV CellTech event takes place in Penang, Malaysia in just two weeks from now, on 13-14 March 2018. The schedule of speakers and companies lined up this year is set to be both fascinating to hear, and essential to dissect, when looking at exactly how the PV industry will evolve beyond the 100GW of solar cells produced in 2017.
The major manufacturing transition by First Solar to its large-area Series 6 CdTe thin-film module format is well underway and, going by recent management commentary in its fourth quarter 2017 conference call with financial analysts, has increased its tempo slightly, not least due to updated spending plans for the second time in a few months.
Inline solar cell measurement equipment specialist Aurora Solar Technologies (AST) is expecting 2018 to be a record year for new orders, as major PV manufacturers continue to migrate and ramp high-efficiency solar cells such as monocrystalline PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Cell) and bifacial cell technologies.
Consumption of polysilicon used by the solar industry will decline to below 4g/W during 2018, hitting 3.92g/W at the end of Q4’18, according to a new value-chain model developed by the in-house market research team at PV Tech.
As PV Tech previously reported, Taiwan’s solar industry supply chain failed to recover lost revenue in 2017, despite strong global demand growth and expectation that installations topped 100GW.
Swiss-based PV manufacturing equipment specialist INDEOtec SA has successfully gained tool acceptance for its PECVD process tools from both Fraunhofer ISE and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia for next-generation heterojunction solar cells.
