Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

Scientists in Cyprus evaluated six different models used to predict the power losses caused by the accumulation of dust, dirt, and other substances on the surface of PV panels in the island’s arid climate. Results from the various models were compared with soiling loss data from a “test bench” installation at the University of Cyprus in Nicosia, revealing a potential advantage for machine-learning approaches backed by satellite data.

JinkoSolar says that its solar panel shipments reached 30 GW in the first of this year.

In this exclusive interview with pv magazine, Guoguang Chen, President of Smart PV & ESS Business at Huawei Digital Power, in this, discusses company strategy and recent announcements around FusionSolar, latest technology and product innovations in solar and storage, and more.

US scientists developed a monocrystalline solar panel relying on “minicells” based on polysilicon on silicon oxide passivating contacts. The module works with laser light and can reportedly achieve a photoconversion efficiency of over 40% and an open-circuit voltage of 7 V.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has made highly bifacial perovskite cells with a front-side efficiency of 23%.

French eco-organization Soren, which collects and recycles end-of-life solar panels, has published its 2022 annual report. Last year, more than 10 million solar panels were put on the market in France, up 25% from 2021.

A Chinese-Swiss research group has fabricated a 2D-3D perovskite solar cell with a world-record power conversion efficiency. The cell uses a 2D perovskite layer at the interface between the perovskite and the hole transport layer, which the researchers said can improve charge-carrier transport/extraction while suppressing ion migration.

Norsun and Midsummer have both secured financing to support their capacity expansion plans. Norway’s Norsun plans to raise its polysilicon capacity to 3 GW and Midsummer wants to build a 200 MW module facility in Sweden.

CHN Energy has signed a deal to build 1 GW of offshore floating PV in China’s Shandong province, while JA Solar has announced plans to raise around CNY 9 billion ($1.3 billion) to support capacity expansion.

Researchers in Denmark have analyzed the potential of PV systems and their influence on the underlying farmland in three different agrivoltaic projects, including vertical bifacial optimal tilted, horizontal single-axis tracking, and vertical bifacial setups. They also calculated the potential for agrivoltaic in every region in the European Union and found that the eligible areas are unevenly distributed.