A spate of extreme natural disasters in 2017 have highlighted the vulnerability of PV
power plants to damage. Becky Nace-Grover looks at how the PV and insurance industries should
ready themselves for a future where such events are likely to become more frequent
Welcome to the first 2018 edition of PV Tech Power. The focus of our cover story is an area that has been exciting the editorial team here at PV Tech Towers for some time. Floating solar presents an entirely new pillar of solar deployment, as discussed at length by the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS). In our Market Watch section we have expert coverage from Apricum of the booming Chinese market, exploring how the country’s vast demand, the so-called ‘hungry dragon’, will be satisfied in 2018 and beyond. With PV Expo returning to Tokyo this quarter, Japan’s RTS consultancy provides an update on a market that, despite its challenges in recent years, continues to represent a multi-GW opportunity and so much more.
Having all manufacturing stages – from raw materials to finished modules – located under one roof in the same factory offers the scope to optimize module quality and reliability.
Optical confinement is essential in order to increase the amount of photogeneration in a crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cell. Fraunhofer examines the compatible options for wafers created using diamond wire sawing.
The deployment of renewable energy, especially solar, is becoming ever more popular. It is estimated that with every 1% increase in PV cell efficiency, electricity costs would decrease by 7%; therefore, improving solar cell efficiency is very important for reducing the average electricity-generating cost of solar and driving it towards grid parity.
Bifacial PV technology raises new challenges for the characterization and modelling of solar cells and modules, as well as for the yield predictions of power plants, as the contribution of the rear side can significantly affect the performance of these types of device.
Nowadays, there is a worldwide production capacity of about 5GW of thin-film module technology. In total, an estimated cumulative installed capacity of 15 to 24GW exists (5-8% of 300GW installed
worldwide in 2016). But how serious is the threat of PID in this thin-film fleet?
By the end of 2017 it is expected that boron-doped multicrystalline silicon (p-type mc-Si) wafers will have been used in more than 60% of the world’s manufactured solar cells.
Since its first publication in 2015, the PERC+ cell concept, which is based on a passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) design with a screen-printed Al finger grid on the rear, has been rapidly adopted by several solar cell manufacturers worldwide.
