c-si manufacturing

Tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar cell and module technology will dominate the mainstream of the solar PV market in 2024-25.

ARENA’s Silicon To Solar study seeks to outline a “credible pathway” for Australia to establish 10GW of polysilicon (poly-si) purification capacity and 5GW of ingot, wafer, cell and module production capacity from 2030.

Chinese manufacturer Tongwei is to invest RMB28 billion (US$3.9 billion) in expanding its silicon production capacity.

Everything seems to be pointing to the solar PV manufacturing sector going into a downturn in 2024, with loss-making potentially rife across much of the upstream sector.

The first phase of GCL System Integration Technology's (GCL-SI) 60GW module factory in Hefei, in China’s Anhui Province, is on track to start production this September.

The solar module manufacturing subsidiary of Italian utility Enel is aiming to scale up annual production capacity to 3GW in the second half of 2023, the company has confirmed.

LONGi Solar has set a record conversion efficiency of 25.09% for its N-type monocrystalline bifacial TOPCon cell that has been independently verified by the Institute for Solar Energy Research in Hamelin.

Following on from our recent piece on what is driving the largest ever wave of manufacturing capacity expansion announcements in the PV industry, a few real-world examples may shine further light on this topic.

The China-based PV manufacturing industry has been in a massive capacity expansion phase since 2019. This intensified in the first quarter of 2020 but had eased off through the year, but the cumulative figures are jaw dropping, which has led to real fears of overcapacity in 2021.