Solar cell production in 2018 represented change on many fronts, but may be remembered as a year during which Chinese-owned companies made further strategic moves as part of the current Beijing mandate to position the country as a high-tech manufacturing global powerhouse.
JA Solar announced that it will supply all bifacial mono PERC double glass modules for SolarGrid's 3MW PV project in Brazil. This stands as Brazil’s first bifacial double glass solar project.
JA Solar has entered into an agreement with Shanxi Electric Power Engineering (SEPEC) to supply high-efficiency mono PERC PV modules for a 257MW plant in Phu Yen, Vietnam.
SPONSORED: Chinese manufacturers are forced to expand their market share overseas as a result of the domestic cap on PV deployment. JA Solar reveals how it found success in Japan and how that provides a springboard for further gains in international markets.
PV manufacturing capacity expansion announcements in the second quarter of 2018, were slightly higher than the previous quarter, although activity slumped specifically in June, after China’s decision to suddenly cap utility-scale and distributed generation (DG) projects (531 New Deal). But large-scale multi-gigawatt production plans in the first half of the year may have hidden an inevitable slowdown, despite the impact on downstream demand from the 531 New Deal.
We have tracked the annual R&D spending of 12 key publicly listed PV module manufacturers over the last 10 years. We present our new methodology with a broader scope which reveals record levels of investment in solar innovation.
‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member JA Solar has supplied modules to Bangladesh's first large-scale solar power plant (28MW), which had been connected to the utility grid in September 2018.
While India’s solar market is still heavily weighted on the lowest possible costs, the price difference between monocrystalline and polycrystalline PV module technologies is beginning to fade. PV Tech caught up with major module suppliers at the REI Expo in Greater Noida, India, to discuss the future of Mono in this heavyweight global market.
Much has been written and voiced over the past couple of months in the PV industry, following the so-called China-531 policy announcement that finally provided a wake-up call to Chinese manufacturers that their domestic end-market was not going to be allowed to maintain its near-exponential growth characteristics.
