This year saw Ghana not only install the largest solar project in East and West Africa, but also a major 30MW module manufacturing facility near its capital, Accra, in what is a major milestone for the upstream solar sector across Africa. PV Tech visited the plant to understand some of developer 3SIL's thinking behind location and business.
Major Photovoltaics Energy Provider (PVEP) SunPower has achieved has set a new PV module conversion efficiency record of 24.1%, using laboratory made IBC-based solar cells that has been verified by the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Leading thin-film module manufacuturer First Solar revealed its new-to-the-market and highly-anticipated Series 5 thin-film PV module at Intersolar last week.
The prospect of the ‘commoditisation’ of lithium-ion batteries is not likely to be as clear-cut as has been seen in the PV industry, one manufacturer has said.
Stringent energy efficiency rules for buildings would make it “almost a no-brainer” to integrate PV at time of construction and would “change the whole cost equation”, solar analyst Finlay Colville has said.
Solar PV installations are expected to surpass 60GW worldwide in 2016, up from the 50.6GW deployed last year, according to the latest figures from SolarPower Europe.
