There is no more doubt that PERC is becoming a mainstream technology in standard industrial solar cell production. The question arising is “what is next?”
‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member JA Solar has placed an order with module assembly equipment specialist Suzhou Horad New Energy Equipment Co for a 300MW turnkey module assembly line destined for an as-yet unannounced facility in Brazil.
Indebted PV module manufacturer Yingli Green Energy has been rumoured to be securing over US$500 million in new debt financing from a Chinese state bank and a provincial government where it operates manufacturing facilities.
Despite record low polysilicon prices seen in January 2016 marking a clear oversupply, PV manufacturing capacity expansions and projected end-market demand could reverse the situation by the end of 2016, specifically in China.
Researchers at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the US have completed the development of a new international quality standard for PV module manufacturing.
The production of crystalline Silicon (c-Si) solar cells and thin-film modules has moved from a small quantity niche product to global volume markets and mass production scale. A review of the evolution in process technology of this young industry reveals laser processing to have played an ambiguous role in the last 15 years.
UK-based multicrystalline wafer producer PV Crystalox Solar inferred in a financial statement that it could finally benefit financially from the divergence of polysilicon and wafer prices, after several years of loss making.
Specialist PV manufacturing equipment supplier Singulus Technologies has provided its 2016 sales forecast on the expectation of major orders from the thin-film solar sector.
