…but cell manufacturer Aikosolar is expecting a reversal in fortune for the first half of the year and has blamed rising solar panel material costs.

According to the China Nonferrous Metals Association, polysilicon prices declined by around 1.4% last week. In other news, Gaoce announced another 20 GW PV wafer factory and Hareon Solar filed for bankruptcy.

Longi’s 25.19% efficiency rating for its new p-type TOPCon solar cells, confirmed by the Institute for Solar Energy Research in Hamelin, is reportedly a world record.

Also, Wafer producer Zhonghuan Semiconductor has further reduced the prices of its products.

The volume of new PV generation capacity added in the first half was higher than expected, given the rising input costs seen in recent months, but solar was nevertheless outpaced by new wind farms in the first six months of 2021.

With the nation having operated seven pilot programs since 2011, a national scheme started trading on Friday, although the first day’s average carbon price of around €6.70 per ton of emissions was significantly below the €50/ton levels currently being seen in Europe.

Preliminary results were published for Solargiga, Zhonghuan Semiconductor, GCL System Integration, JYT Corporation and Akcome Tech.

State-owned China Xinhua Power Development has booked a $53 million discount on seven solar farms as developer Kongsun seeks to pay down debts, and Canadian Solar has landed a 45 MWh energy storage contract in Colombia.

At this year’s 2021 SNEC Expo, GCL System Integration, a part of the Golden Concord Group (hereinafter referred to as GCL), launched a series of new module products which echoed the horn of the returning of this old giant. The company suffered a lot on finance in past few years due to subsidy default from central government to its heavy PV plant assets. After a big sale of these PV plants since late 2018 to China state owned energy enterprises, the liabilities and financial costs was cut off greatly and, the company reloaded with no more burden and came back to the frontline again. pv magazine caught up with general manager Thomas Kun Zhang to see what’s in store for GCL going forward.

A series statements from China PV glass companies showed the entire PV glass industry benefited from the accelerated development of solar PV and achieved outstanding performances in the first half of 2021.