Materials

The largest solar investment in US history, a pivot to a vertically integrated PV manufacturing facility in the state of Georgia by Qcells, was enabled by a combination of state support, federal government investment and related benefits coming from the Inflation Reduction (IRA), according to the company.

LONGi has drawn PV industry attention and speculation after revealing plans for a large-scale wafer and cell manufacturing expansion.

German chemical group Wacker Chemie posted new sales and earnings records in 2022 as the polysilicon division benefited from strong demand and higher prices.

Chinese module manufacturer JA Solar has announced its plan to invest RMB40 billion (US$5.9 billion) to construct a vertically integrated PV industry hub in Inner Mongolia.

A new initiative, the Africa Renewable Energy Manufacturing Initiative (AREMI), has been launched with the aim to scale up renewable energy manufacturing capabilities in Africa.

PV Tech Premium spoke to Neil Spann, CEO of Power Roll, about the UK company’s new architecture designed to house solar-absorbing materials such as perovskite and the vision of a gigafactory in northeast England.

Polysilicon prices have continued their downward slump, with a weekly decrease of 20%, now nearing the US$20/kg mark.

A group of key stakeholders in the PV industry has called for measures for a competitive domestic European PV upstream value chain.

The downward pricing trend in the upstream of the PV industry has been transmitted to wafer and cell prices and extended to modules.

As Europe struggles to build a domestic solar manufacturing industry, start-up Swedish Algae Factory is working on improving the efficiency of solar panels with a coating product that only needs to be applied once and is made in an eco-friendly environment.