Featured in Solar springs eternal – 09-2023

Is a standard solar module spec within reach?

PV manufacturers, developers, and component suppliers have spent years negotiating a bewildering array of wafer and panel formats but recent developments in China hold the promise of long-awaited standardization, as Vincent Shaw reports.

By

Vincent Shaw

07 Sep 2023

Tongwei is one of six companies reportedly backing a standard wafer dimension of 182.2 mm by 191.6 mm, but getting the whole industry to agree on this could be challenging. | Photo: Tongwei

When the world’s biggest solar manufacturers finally arrived at a consensus this year for a standard solar module size, the prospects of a similar agreement to unify the array of solar wafer dimensions available appeared far more distant.Just as this article was going to press, however, six major solar companies – Longi, Tongwei, Risen, Canadian …

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