PV is increasingly becoming the cheapest energy source and therefore has become the energy source with the highest yearly capacity additions! Even in 2018, after some scepticism right after SNEC 2018, due to the announcement of the Chinese Government to stop supporting PV as intensively as in 2017, more than 100GW (109GW) have been installed worldwide (we actually bet a crate of beer on that!) and 125GW has been forecasted to be installed in 2019.
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.
Hanwha Q CELLS became the latest company to make a gigawatt-scale manufacturing commitment in the States but Trump has some way to go to make US solar manufacturing great again.
When JinkoSolar released its third quarter results last week – and guided full year 2017 module shipment figures – the company remained on track to overachieve on final quarter shipments, thereby becoming the first ever PV supplier to ship more than 10 GW of modules in a calendar year. Finlay Colville explores how Jinko has managed to double its market share in the space of four years and where the company might be headed to next.
Acciona Energía and Saudi Arabian firm Swicorp are to build and own three solar PV plants with a combined capacity of 186MW in the Benban solar complex in Aswan, Egypt.
PV modules inspection agency STS-Certified had secured a mammoth contract from major India-based EPC firm, Sterling & Wilson to inspect a total of 1.17GW of JinkoSolar PV modules headed to a planned PV power plant in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Leading Silicon Module Super League (SMSL) member JinkoSolar said it had been collaborating with TUV Rheinland to develop standardized testing methods for bifacial PV module technology.
