The Silver Institute, a trade association for leading silver producers expects overall industrial demand to increase by 27% through 2018, with demand from the PV industry increasing around 24% in that time frame.
A Soitec multi-junction solar cell for use in concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) systems has become the company’s latest cell to reach a world record for conversion efficiency at 46%, according to Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy (Fraunhofer ISE).
GCL-Poly Energy Holdings, the largest polysilicon and wafer producer in the PV industry has confirmed the sale of its wafer production assets for approximately US$1.3 billion in cash.
Taiwan Polysilicon Corp has filed for corporate restructuring after a court ruled that it had failed to fulfil its obligations on NT$940 million (US$30.6 million) bonds.
Trina Solar has produced n-type and p-type monocrystalline and p-type multicrystalline solar cells with new record conversion efficiencies. Trina Solar expects the technologies used to become part of its future production roadmap.
The largest polysilicon producer, GCL-Poly Energy Holdings and a group of other investors are to take a majority shareholding in bankrupt PV module manufacturer, Shanghai Chaori Solar. The company also announced plans to dispose of its wafer production business, which has recently been expanded to a nameplate capacity of 13GW.
Chang Zhou Almaden a major PV glass manufacturer in China is establishing a new manufacturing plant in Dubai to produce 400,000 PV glass substrates per annum.
REC Silicon is to expand polysilicon production at its Moses Lake facility and silane production at its Butte facility, while restarting Silane I production. The company is also undertaking a feasibility study to establish a 20,000MT joint venture polysilicon plant in Saudi Arabia with IDEA Polysilicon.
