Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

Tesla was once the unquestioned leader in the U.S. residential rooftop market with a market share of around 33 percent, but today, the company is No. 3, and its market share during the first quarter was a little more than 6 percent.

Manufacturers and research institutes from across Europe have announced plans to collaborate on creating improved processes for CIGS module production. Optimistically named SUCCESS, the project targets production line efficiencies of better than 20% for 30x30cm modules.

According to new research, metal chalcogenide perovskites can be used as a thermoelectric material than can convert thermal energy from the sun to usable electric power. These materials, which can also be used to develop perovskite PV cells, are known for their high thermal and aqueous stability, along with their nontoxic elemental composition.

The Chinese module maker will supply Adani Green Energy with 1.2 GW of Hi MO4 bifacial modules, with cell efficiency reaching 22.5% and module power peaking at 430W (72 cells).

An Indian research team has analyzed around 300 scientific studies about PV panel waste containing carcinogenic metals. The researchers said solar module recycling is not economically profitable and policy support is necessary to avoid panels being dumped in landfill.

The U.S. business built and sold record-setting gallium-arsenide solar cells but its parent has seemingly run out of patience. Having failed to give its workers notice of the move, Hanergy is either in contravention of U.S. employment law, ‘faltering’ or subject to ‘unforeseen business circumstances’.

EOn has calculated the number of PV modules that could theoretically be installed on the Imperial space station from the popular film series. It concluded that even a small version of the station would be able to provide enough solar power to supply 2.5 billion households on Earth.

Scientists have observed that the efficiency of an organic PV device decreases by around 50% when it is exposed to 100-h light irradiation. They attributed this loss to increased resistance of the organic semiconductor layer.

A group of scientists is proposing a new metric – the value of efficiency – to calculate the maximum allowable cost to increase a cell’s efficiency and improve the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). The researchers expect that more regional diversification may be seen at the global level in the years to come, with the proposed metric offering higher values in North America, Central and Northern Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

Scientists from Purdue University claim to have created a new material that incorporates both organic and inorganic materials. Its hybrid structure is said to improve the thermal stability of perovskite PV cells without the need to use lead.