Taiwan has extended PV power project completion dates on component shortages caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in China, while India is expected to advise policy changes soon.
New York State has offered employees of Panasonic working at Tesla’s Gigafactory 2 plant in Buffalo assistance in finding new jobs as the Japanese electronics giant is expected to shut down solar panel operations at the facility.
The new Q1 2020 bankability analysis has now been completed by the PV-Tech market research team, ranking PV module suppliers within the PV ModuleTech Bankability Ratings. The listing reveals that LONGi Solar now commands AAA-Rated status, the highest grade achievable. A further seven module suppliers are in the AA and A bands and four suppliers fall into the B levels.
‘Solar Module Super League’ (SMSL) member, LONGi Solar has signed a framework agreement to buy Vietnam-based solar cell and module OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer), Vina Solar for RMB 1.78 billion (US$253 million).
North American PV module manufacturer, Silfab Solar is investing around US$4 million to boost production at its assembly plant in Washington State that could lead to extra jobs.
‘Solar Module Super League’ (SMSL) member, JA Solar is planning to expand high-efficiency solar cell capacity to 10GW at a recently announced 5GW new solar cell manufacturing plant in China, while also investing in major upgrades at an existing cell plant to provide a further 3.6GW of high-efficiency cell capacity.
There needs to be a comprehensive industrial strategy for the solar industry located in the EU as part of the pending release of the EU’s own ‘Green Deal’ strategy, according to German manufacturing trade group VDMA (Mechanical Engineering Industry Association) and solar trade association, SolarPower Europe.
Coronavirus-driven manufacturing delays and supply chain constraints in China are starting to impact both upstream PV manufacturers and downstream installers across other countries.
With the spin-off of most of its solar cell and PV module manufacturing operations to new entity Maxeon Solar Technologies (MXT) expected in Q2 2019, SunPower shed new light on the planned capacity expansions of the new offspring in its fourth quarter earnings call.
