Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

The former has committed to invest more than $70 million into a 100,000-ton polysilicon production line in Leshan that will then supply it with 30,000 tons of its output annually.

The solar module has an area of 31.5cm² and is relying on perovskite cells with an efficiency of 22.9%. It was encapsulated with a special ionogel that is claimed to enhance the module’s impact resistivity and stability, as well as to reduce the possibility of lead leakage.

Last month, in a pv magazine Webinar held in partnership with Endurans Solar, we took a closer at Endurans’ conductive backsheet for back contact modules, and examined recent progress in back contact cell and module technologies, and their growing market potential over the next few years. Here, presenters Hugo Schoot, Business director at Endurans Solar, and Bram Verschoor, CCO at equipment supplier Eurotron, answer a more of the questions posed by the audience during the webinar.

“Junior” figures at state-owned Sinomec Refinery & Chemical Corp told investigators from then-GCL auditor Deloitte that most of an advance payment made for a granular silicon plant had been passed on, in a bid to dissuade GCL from halting the EPC contract, the solar manufacturer said on Friday.

Given the Withhold Release Order (WRO) and the potential anti-circumvention tariff challenges, U.S. module supply risk is material, the analyst firm said in a note to clients.

The continuous rise in solar panel prices may affect PV projects of up to 1 MW tendered by the Korea Energy Agency and the domestic solar module industry may not be able to provide the necessary production capacity to respond to the recent supply bottleneck.

Scientists in India conducted a techno-economic analysis for a 100 MW production line for carbon-electrode perovskite solar modules, located in Himachal Pradesh, India. The analysis concludes that, even at the smaller scale, this emerging technology could achieve cost levels comparable with today’s silicon solar products.

Developed by cleantech company Verditek, the flexible module has a 20.1% efficiency and a weight of 4.9kg. It can bend up to 35% using standard 160µ-thick crystalline cells.

Scientists in Germany investigated various routes to optimizing cell design for perovskite-silicon tandem products. Beyond the perovskite layer itself, they note several other areas that should be optimized for tandem cells, taking silicon heterojunction processing as a starting point. The research identifies several routes to cut costs in cell production, including a significant reduction in indium consumption.

The Japanese manufacturer decided to close its CIS module production in October and has now launched its first 250 W monocrystalline product for the residential market.