Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

US researchers find that placing agrivoltaic installations along highways to power EV charging stations can reduce both carbon emissions and range anxiety.

According to a third-party study, the projected output over the 40-year warranty period of Maxeon solar panels exceeds the energy demand of manufacturing them by over 100-fold. Plus, more details from the Maxeon 2021 sustainability report.

In other news, DAH Solar announced a 5 GW TOPCon solar module factory in Anhui province and Tongwei further raised the prices of its solar cells.

Scientists from the Fraunhofer ISE built a bifacial heterojunction solar cell with a power conversion efficiency of 21.7% via rotary screen printing. They used a machine that is able to achieve a cycle time of just 0.6 seconds per solar cell and enables a strong reduction in silver use.

Any developers bidding to construct solar plants with more than 300 MW of generation capacity in the latest round of the UK’s clean power auction program will have to draw up a supply chain plan showing how they will address matters ranging from skills gaps to new technology to modern slavery.

Australian company AspiraDAC, which uses solar-powered Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology to remove carbon from the atmosphere, has been selected to be part of the first round of purchases from Frontier, a program backed by Facebook and Google’s parent companies, Meta and Alphabet.

The Tunisian module maker said its new product is based on p-type gallium-doped solar cells and is suitable for both residential and commercial applications. The panel is available in nine versions with nominal power of up to 505 W and an efficiency of up to 21.44%.

A Spanish startup has developed a new pumping system that can operate in DC and AC modes. It can work for direct irrigation and with a water tank.

Tata Power has signed an agreement to invest $380 million to set up 4 GW of solar cell and module production capacity in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Norwegian startup Sunlit Sea has designed a floating array consisting of a single unit float built-in cold-pressed aluminum with a close-to-standard solar panel bonded on the top surface. A 22.7%-efficienct mono PERC photovoltaic panel is bonded to the top of the float, giving a total unit thickness of 85 mm.