Swiss-based solar simulator equipment supplier Alfartec has had its new generation of module tester, BlueSky MT240 certified by China’s 3rd party lab, NIM at a ‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member at a c-Si module manufacturing plant in China.
Specialist PV manufacturing equipment supplier Singulus Technologies has secured new tool orders from China and the US for its ‘SILEX II’ wet cleaning batch system, primarily used for high-efficiency heterojunction (HJ) solar cells.
Russia-based integrated PV manufacturer Hevel Group said it had completed construction of a 20MW and a 5MW solar project in the Altai Republic, Russia that become the first to deploy heterojunction (HJ) modules in the country.
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.
Since the first demonstration by Sanyo in the 90s of crystalline silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells with already promising energy conversion efficiencies above 18%, this device architecture has experienced an extraordinary history of development, embodying outstanding scientific findings and efficiency records.
According to brief reports citing Tesla’s CTO, Panasonic has started making its high-efficiency HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer) solar cells at Gigafactory 2 in RiverBend, Buffalo, New York State.
Having just completed its first ‘Solar Roof’ tile system installations in the US, Tesla said in reporting second quarter 2017 financial results that production of the roofing tiles would not enter mass production at its Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo, New York until the end of 2017.
Enel Green Power’s a-Si thin-film module manufacturing subsidiary, 3SUN is hoping to obtain a €14.1 million grant from Italy’s national agency for attracting investment and enterprise development, Invitalia to support the purchase of heterojunction (HJ) solar cell tools to switch production to the higher efficiency silicon technology.
Swiss-based PV manufacturing equipment specialist INDEOtec SA has secured a new order for a combined OCTOPUS II – PECVD/PVD deposition system for high-efficiency and heterojunction solar cells.
Tesla reported first quarter 2017 solar installations of 150MW, down from 201MW in the previous quarter, a 25% decrease, due to selection criteria biased towards customer owned PV systems rather than leased.
High-efficiency PV module manufacturer Jinneng Clean Energy Technology (Jinergy) said it would be starting mass production of its N-type monocrystalline bifacial heterojunction (HJ) modules, which were showcased at its Technology Developer Forum ahead of SNEC 2017 in Shanghai, China.
PV Tech’s preliminary analysis of global solar PV manufacturing capacity expansion announcements in the first quarter of 2017, show a strong rebound compared to the significantly subdued environment experienced in the second half of 2016.
Singulus Technologies has launched its new ‘GENERIS’ PVD inline sputtering system for heterojunction (HJ) solar cells. The system is suited for challenging transparent conductive oxides (TCO) layers like ITO and AZO hat can produce HJ cells with conversion efficiencies of more than 22%, as well as reduce manufacturing costs. New system will be presented at SNEC 2017 in Shanghai, China.
Specialist PV manufacturing equipment supplier Singulus Technologies expects to double sales in 2017 after its new order backlog in 2016 reached €109.9 million, a 310% increase over the previous year.
Specialist PV manufacturing equipment supplier Singulus Technologies said it received a Final Acceptance Test (FAT) from Russia-based Hevel Solar for its SILEX II system, used for wet-chemical processing of heterojunction (HJ) solar cells.
