PV Tech reached its own little milestone of having reported and analysed the R&D spending habits of the same 12 key PV module manufacturers for 10 years. The results have just been published in sister technical journal Photovoltaics International as part of the annual leaders and laggards of R&D spending for 2016.
The significance of PV-Tech’s forthcoming conference in Kuala Lumpur – PV ModuleTech 2017 – has just moved to a new level, with the key company executives from all members of the Silicon Module Super League (SMSL) giving presentations on stage about the quality, reliability, and performance of their solar modules.
Once upon a time, it was relatively easy to verify a PV module manufacturer’s shipment claims and therefore any market share gains or shipment milestone claims as the majority of leading companies were public listed entities.
China-based PV module manufacturer Sunport Power has officially started production at 1GW assembly plant using Eurotron’s MWT equipment for back-contact PV modules that reduce cell-to-module losses and boost module performance and reliability.
Updated: With the solar industry transitioning to high-performance products backed with innovation, Solar Power International 2017 in Las Vegas is showcasing an ever increasing portfolio of solar modules exceeding 300 watts in the standard 60-cell format. However, 72-cell modules exceeding 360 watts are also entering the mainstream and 400 watts is just around the corner.
Driving the high-performance wave is PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Cell), bifacial and the migration to 5 busbars and beyond, whether with multicrystalline or monocrystalline wafers. The growing use of half-cut and multi-cut cells that reduce cell to module losses, boosting overall performance are also becoming mainstream as well as heterojunction (HJ) modules.
With several MENA region countries expected to become gigawatt solar markets in 2018 and beyond, global certification organization UL has teamed with Saudi Arabian-based government body, GCC Laboratories to provide a suite of services to the downstream PV project sector.
Solar PV recycling firm, PV CYCLE has signed an agreement with solar panel refurbishment experts, Rinovasol to include their product offering to a new ‘Global Membership Certification.’
Spanish energy firm Acciona Energía and the Solar Energy Institute of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (IES-UPM) have claimed a world record for the amount of electricity generated from solar PV modules scientifically measured at one of Latin America’s largest solar plants.
Dedicated N-type monocrystalline module manufacturer Jolywood (Taizhou) Solar Technology Co. Ltd (Jolywood) is the first company to supply its bifacial modules to a decent sized 6.7MW project in India.
