Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

Hungary’s Astrasun has announced plans to set up a 1.8 GW wafer factory in Romania, as well as cell and module production facilities with capacities of 1.5 GW and 1.2 GW, respectively.

Indian solar manufacturer Waaree Energies has secured domestic and international orders to supply 5 GW of its bifacial 540 Wp and 600 Wp solar panels.

A new US Department of Energy report describes the challenges of commercializing perovskite technology for the solar energy sector.

Evonik Industries says its new additive series can achieve a significantly better cut quality ratio at higher cutting speeds and smaller wire diameters on large wafers (M12), which means cheaper post-processing work for sliced ​​wafers.

Scientists in the United States have fabricated a triple-junction solar cell that reached 39.5% efficiency – a world record for any type of cell under one-sun illumination. Though relying on materials and processes that are still too costly for most commercial uses, the concept could soon see actual applications in powering satellites and other space-bound technology.

A Spanish-Italian research group was able to improve the efficiency and stability of a standard perovskite solar cell by adding nitrogen-doped carbon dots as an additive. The carbon dots were then blended with the perovskite precursor solution at two different concentration levels and both were deposited by spin coating on the perovskite layer.

Reclaim PV Recycling and the Circular PV Alliance (CPVA) have have agreed to jointly develop standards and testing procedures to support the reuse and resale of solar panels in Australia. Reclaim PV recently discovered that more than 31% of the solar panels collected in the Australian state of Queensland could be considered for reuse, rather than recycling.

This year a record number of manufacturers had one or more model types that were Top Performers in every reliability test – and six of these model types were also Top Performers in energy yield performance.

Scientists in the United Arab Emirates have looked at how off-grid rooftop PV could be combined with batteries, fuel cells or reversible solid oxide cells for energy storage. The modeling assumed a typical commercial building in Los Angeles.

South Korean scientists have built a vertical three-dimensional fiber-optic solar-cell system with greater maximum efficiency than planar solar modules, as well as a lower surface requirement.