Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

Paolo Rocco Viscontini, president of trade association Italia Solare, has spoken to pv magazine about the challenge high system prices pose to Italian solar and discussed the nation’s ‘super bonus’ tax deduction, which remains the main market driver for small scale arrays.

Designed for BIPV applications by scientists in Korea, the solar cell is based on a 100μm-thick n-type silicon wafer and has a bending radius of 3-6mm.

Should heterojunction solar technologies be temporarily shelved? Could copper plating replace screen-printed silver conductive surfaces in cells? Why are tandem cells a likely successor to PERC? Brett Hallam recently sat down with Natalie Filatoff in Sydney to explain the findings of a new study by UNSW that sought to answer these controversial questions.

Furthermore, polysilicon manufacturer Daqo will increase investments in its plans to expand capacity and Canadian Solar closed a strategic co-operation agreement with battery giant CATL.

Manufactured by scientists in Italy, the 3.88%-efficient organic solar panels are able to filter the light from the roofs of greenhouses. They are also capable of supplying a portion of the electricity required to power the greenhouse’s temperature and humidity sensors.

In an update to its annual International Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaics, German engineering association VDMA discusses the readiness level for various technologies in PV cell and module manufacturing, finding that more process development is needed for 210mm wafers – the largest format currently on the market – to match the throughputs that will soon be achievable with smaller formats including 182mm.

The issue now moves to President Joe Biden who will decide whether or not to extend the tariffs beyond their February 2022 expiration.

An Iranian-Canadian-based research group has conceived a nature-inspired algorithm to estimate the model parameters of PV systems. The proposed tool mimics the exploring, exploiting and attacking strategy of the Harris hawk, a bird of prey species that cooperates when hunting.

The solar cell was built with a layer of organic cations between the iodide on top, and lead on the bottom enhanced interactions between the layers. Its creators designed the device after they discovered that, when the sunlight hits a 2D perovskite, it contracts the space between atomic layers in the material.

The kit consists of one or two modules, a microinverter, and a five-meter cable. Thanks to its plug-in technology, it can be connected to any electrical outlet and immediately begin generating electricity.