Construction | Automated systems to speed up the construction of PV power plants have become a
key tool in building bigger and cheaper projects. Some of the state-of-art technologies helping the industry drive down system costs are discussed.
Forecasting | Predicting the power production of a PV plant offers a multitude of benefits to plant
owners and grid operators. The challenges of accurate forecasting across different timescales and in different climate zones are discussed.
System design | Despite the decline of subsidies in the UK, well designed commercial PV systems still offer potentially attractive financial benefits to businesses. Some of the key considerations in designing and executing a commercial solar system
that will deliver maximum return on investment are detailed.
Data | The collection of inaccurate data at any point in the life cycle of a solar plant will undermine
almost every aspect of the investment accounting. The importance of precision data
gathering in mitigating risk for builders, operators and financiers is discussed.
Quality | The speed of solar deployment in India has raised concerns that quality maybe sacrificed
for expediency. Although there are warning signs of a potential quality problem, efforts are underway to nip it in the bud
Risk mitigation | The EU-funded Solar Bankability Project has developed a framework for managing
the potential legal, technical and economic risks associated with PV projects. These risks need to
be quantitatively and qualitatively assessed,managed and controlled.
N-type high-performance multicrystalline silicon (HP mc-Si) has proved to have an excellent material quality.
This paper presents details of the growth of HP mc-Si, as well as the properties of this material and its use in
the fabrication of high-efficiency solar cells.
Combined R&D expenditures of 12 major PV module manufacturers in 2016, tracked since 2007, decline by approximately 4.4% in 2016 to US$519.3 million (see Figure 1), compared to US$542.9 million in 2015.
As always we have a selection of technical papers from some of the industry’s leading minds. Radovan Kopecek and Joris Libal from ISC Konstanz tackle one of the biggest issues impeding the rollout of bifacial cell and modules, how to standardise their measurement. As long as there is no commercially available means to measure their gain, bifacial modules will struggle to improve their market penetration.
The materials section includes an excellent paper from Fraunhofer THM examining the optimization of diamond wire sawing. The method is becoming increasingly predominant with some equipment manufacturers shelving their slurrybased tools. Here Fraunhofer assesses how to squeeze even more efficiency out of diamond wire saws.
CSEM meanwhile explores the required metallization and interconnection process changes required to enable a production-scale shift to silicon heterojunction PV.
Mark Osborne provides his latest capacity expansion report as upgrades to higher efficiency lines continue to drive planned investments.
Today, silicon solar cells are still produced in almost equal shares from mono- and multi-crystalline silicon wafers. The authors here look at the scope for efficiencies in the wire sawing process for multi-crystalline silicon.
