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.
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.
PV Tech’s new two-day event PV ModuleTech 2017 – in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 7-8 November 2017 – is set to outline the key issues in new high-efficiency PV modules that will dominate utility-scale solar farms deployment globally over the period 2018-2020.
Solar Media, the publisher of PV Tech, has published Solar & Storage Today, a special preview edition of daily newspapers to be distributed at the forthcoming Solar & Storage Live exhibition.
German-based PV module manufacturer Heckert Solar GmbH said that it had been one of the pioneers using Fraunhofer ISE’s new software that helps reduce cell-to-module losses that have led to module performance gains.