Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

Renshine Solar says it will open a gigawatt-scale perovskite PV module factory in Jiangsu province, with a planned investment of CNY 1 billion ($138 million). In January, it reported that its perovskite solar panels had achieved a power conversion efficiency of 18.4%.

The German research institute said the new 120 µm thin solar cell could exceed 25% efficiency with the next optimization steps. The device was metalized via screen-printed contact fingers and calibrated by scientists at the Institute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin.

Scientists in South Africa have proposed a new chalcogenide perovskite solar cell design based on a compound known as barium zirconium sulfide. They tested different hole transport materials in the new device and found that a polymer known as P3HT achieved the best performance.

Scientists in India have proposed using a multilayer neural network to find line-to-ground, line-to-line, and bypass diode faults in PV module strings. They tested the new approach on a 22.5 kW solar array and reportedly achieved “competitive” accuracy results.

Baywa re has commissioned a 54 MW agrivoltaic solar project in Spain. Denmark-based Velux has agreed to purchase most of its 96.8 GWh of annual output under a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA).

The Japanese electronics manufacturer has launched the NU-JC440 and NU-JC430B panels with efficiencies of 22.53% and 22.02%, respectively. Both products are IEC/EN61215 and IEC/EN61730-certified and rely on M10 wafers.

A U.S. research team has investigated the thermomechanical reliability of metal halide perovskite (MHP) modules and cells in an effort to identify the best strategies to improve their stability under thermomechanical stressors. The scientists discussed, in particular, film stresses, adhesion of charge transport layers, and instability under light and heat.

Solarwatt says it will shut down its battery factory in Germany. Battery production at the Dresden facility will halt at the end of this year, and the company will move all battery and solar panel production to China.

Scientists in South Africa have modeled a photovoltaic system connected to a thermoelectric cooling device and have found it may produce around 9.2% more electricity than conventional PV system without cooling. The research team claims the proposed system guarantees a minimum cost saving of 10.56%.

India’s solar module exports hit $1.9 billion in fiscal 2023-24, with shipments to the US market accounting for the lion’s share of the total.