Solar PV manufacturer SolarWorld Americas said it had been given a US$5 million loan to support a return to full manufacturing capacity, which would add around 200 jobs, sometime in the third quarter of 2018.
BP has modelled for solar in the US to deploy at levelised costs of around US5¢/kWh by 2040, despite solar already hitting those prices in much of the country.
Consumption of polysilicon used by the solar industry will decline to below 4g/W during 2018, hitting 3.92g/W at the end of Q4’18, according to a new value-chain model developed by the in-house market research team at PV Tech.
US-headquartered Hybrid Cell Technology (HCT) module producer Sunpreme has supplied 1.62MW of bifacial modules to Blue Sky Utility that have been used on the rooftop of shopping centre Hanford Mall in Hanford, California.
PV capital expenditure (capex) in 2018, covering investments into ingot, wafer, cell and module capacity, will grow by almost 25% compared to 2017, passing through the US$10 billion mark, returning to levels last seen back in 2010 and 2011 when investments in turn-key thin-film fabs were a key contributor.
Major electronics firm Panasonic Corporation of North America is to offer an AC version of its heterojunction modules using the newly launched IQ 7X microinverter from Enphase Energy in the US.
Taiwan-based merchant PV manufacturer and downstream project developer Neo Solar Power Corporation (NSP) said its ‘Glory BiFi’ mono PERC bifacial modules had been selected for the Taipower’s ChangHua 100MW solar system project, potentially the largest plant to use bifacial modules to date.
‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member JA Solar was the sole supplier of PV modules to a 35MW PV plant completed in December 2017, in the Negev Desert using its P-type mono PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Cell) modules.
A research project to identify solar cell conversion losses and provide commercial solutions, which was initiated in December 2017 by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), has attracted ‘Silicon Module Super League (SMSL) leader JinkoSolar.
Tesla reported another major decline in its residential solar installations for the fourth quarter of 2017, while a supply shortage in its energy storage system ‘Powerwall’ has created a customer backlog of solar and storage installs of more than one year.
