ROTH Capital Partners has become increasingly bullish on a strong rebound in global solar demand in 2019, led by competitive pricing dynamics with other energy sources and increasing optimism that China will provide good subsidy support for solar in 2019 and onwards.
China-based polysilicon producer Xinte Energy Co, a subsidiary of TBEA has secured a major supply deal with wafer producer Wuhai Jingyuntong New Materials Technology Co, a subsidiary of Beijing Jingyuntong Technology Co (JYT).
Today’s industry standard B-doped monocrystalline silicon still suffers from light-induced degradation of the carrier lifetime. Illumination at elevated temperature leads to a so-called regeneration, i.e. a recovery of the carrier lifetime as well as the solar cell efficiency. However, even though the carrier lifetime on test wafers increases from about 1 ms after processing to 3 ms after regeneration, the corresponding PERC+ cell efficiencies in both states are identical. We discuss possible reasons for this discrepancy. Additionally, we evaluate B-doped Czochralski silicon wafers with an ultra-low oxygen content of 2.6 ppma as well as industrial Ga-doped wafers. Both wafer materials are completely LID-free in lifetime measurements and PERC+ cell efficiencies and enable up to 0.4%abs higher efficiencies than present industry-typical boron-doped wafers.
Major polysilicon producer Wacker Chemie has reported its polysilicon division was heavily impacted by the slump in demand due to China’s ‘531 New Deal’ as a reason for the sharp decline in revenue and profitability which declined significantly in 2018.
Leading polysilicon and solar wafer producer GCL-Poly Energy Holdings has announced that its new Xinjiang polysilicon production plant’s annual nameplate capacity will be increased to 60,000MT, up from the revised plans mid-year to increase the capacity from 40,000MT to 50,000MT.
Major polysilicon producer Wacker Chemie has reported a significant decline in the fortunes of its polysilicon business segment in the third quarter of 2018.
The Chinese government’s decision (531 New Deal) to curtail utility-scale and distributed generation (DG) PV deployments just after the SNEC trade show at the end of May, not only surprised the industry but has since fuelled a significant ASP decline of modules and inverters.
China-based polysilicon producer Daqo New Energy Corp said that its polysilicon production costs were targeted to reach US$6.80 per kilogram in 2020, once the capacity expansion to 70,000MT per annum had been completed.
China-based polysilicon and multicrystalline wafer producer Daqo New Energy has said it would discontinue its solar wafer manufacturing operations in September, 2018.
Much has been written and voiced over the past couple of months in the PV industry, following the so-called China-531 policy announcement that finally provided a wake-up call to Chinese manufacturers that their domestic end-market was not going to be allowed to maintain its near-exponential growth characteristics.
China-based integrated polysilicon and merchant cell manufacturer Tongwei Group expects to begin pilot production of heterojunction (HJ) solar cells by the end of 2018, while the success of its 200MW Industry 4.0 fully-automated solar cell production line will lead to a longer-term migration of all cell production to intelligent manufacturing.
China-based polysilicon and wafer producer Daqo New Energy has guided wafer sales volume down 70%, year-on-year as the caps on utility-scale and Distributed Generation (DG) solar projects in China at the end of May start impacting quarterly business results for many companies dependent on the China solar market.
Leading polysilicon and solar wafer producer GCL-Poly Energy Holdings has agreed with Shanghai Electric Group to terminate a framework agreement announced in early June, 2018 with Shanghai Electric Group to sell a 51% stake in polysilicon production subsidiary Jiangsu Zhongneng Polysilicon.
Leading integrated high-efficiency monocrystalline module manufacturer and ‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member LONGi Green Energy Technology has entered into another major polysilicon supply deal, adding TBEA subsidiary, Xinte Energy Co to its supplier base in a new three-year purchasing agreement.
Chemicals firm Wacker Chemie has painted a rosier picture of polysilicon supply and demand in 2018 than most when reporting a small second quarter decline in polysilicon revenue.
