Leading solar thin-film manufacturer First Solar is to build a 200MW (AC) PV power plant for Georgia Power’s REDI Program, using over half a million CdTe modules.
PV capital expenditure (capex) in 2018, covering investments into ingot, wafer, cell and module capacity, will grow by almost 25% compared to 2017, passing through the US$10 billion mark, returning to levels last seen back in 2010 and 2011 when investments in turn-key thin-film fabs were a key contributor.
Asset management firm Capital Dynamics, which has just acquired the First Solar and SunPower solar yieldco firm, 8point3 Energy Partners is to own and operate a planned 1GW PV power plant in Nevada, which includes technology infrastructure firm Switch as a major customer for the renewable energy and is based in the state.
Russia-based integrated PV manufacturer Hevel Group, which has switched production from amorphous silicon thin-film technology to silicon heterojunction (HJ) has said it has been successful in ramping to its 160MW nameplate capacity and achieving cell conversion efficiencies of 22.8%.
According to China’s National Energy Administration (NEA), solar PV installations reached 52.83GW in 2017, up from 34.54GW in 2016, and accounting for around 50% of expected global solar demand last year.
An initial five-year R&D program is starting between the German-based Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) and the Institut Photovoltaïque d'Île de France (IPVF) in Paris to develop next-generation flexible photovoltaics featuring copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS) solar cells.
Multinational construction firm Skanska AB is to test semi-transparent perovskite solar modules from start-up Saule Technologies on commercial office buildings with the first applications planned to be installed in Poland in 2018.
