Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

The Viperlab project is a European initiative that brings together organizations that are working on perovskite solar. pv magazine speaks with Eva Unger, Viperlab’s scientific coordinator, about the infrastructure needed to facilitate the transfer of information and technology to the industry, as well as the huge database that needs to be created to serve this purpose.

Idemitsu Kosan is leading a four-year demonstrator to assess the viability of solar carports for EV recharging at Tanegashima Airport in Japan. The 54.7 kW solar facility will sell power to airport buildings via a power purchase agreement (PPA) and to EV users under a pay-as-you-go billing system.

The China Academy of Metrology and Science has certified Jolywood’s 26.7% efficiency rating for an n-type tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar cell, which the company claims is a world record. In November 2022, it announced a 26.1% efficiency rating for a similar cell.

Japanese researchers have fabricated a heterojunction (HJT) solar cell with silicon and a polymer material known as PEDOT:PSS under room temperature conditions. It has an efficiency of 10.1%, an open-circuit voltage of 0.57 V, a short-circuit current density of 33.3 mA/cm2, and a fill factor of 0.53.

Chirag Nakrani, the director of Rayzon Solar, told pv magazine that the company’s 500 MW PV module factory in the United States will start producing TOPCon solar modules by June 2024.

The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and First Solar have used cracked film lithography (CFL) to build a bifacial cadmium telluride solar cell with a power density of 20.3 mW cm−2. They claim the cell has a higher bifacial power density than any polycrystalline absorber currently manufactured at scale.

Spanish energy giant Iberdrola has revealed plans to open a second solar module factory in Spain, following its first announcement in February. The initiative will require European funding to ensure its competitiveness.

Shangji Automation has announced plans to invest CNY 5 billion ($726 million) in a new 16 GW factory. Commercial production is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2023.

India’s Kosol Energie is expanding its annual PV module production capacity to 1.1 GW with the installation of a new 850 MW line from SC Solar. It is aiming for 1.9 GW of cumulative PV module capacity by the end of the current fiscal year.

Summit Ridge Energy’s latest order marks the largest domestic community solar purchase of PV modules in US history. It includes 20 MWh of Qcells Geli energy storage systems.