Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

Japan’s Xsol says its new monocrystalline PV modules offer 275 W of power output and an efficiency rating of 20.3%. They measure 1,760 mm × 768 mm × 30 mm and can be installed in two-panel rows.

Japanese researchers have built an InGap-GaAs-CIGS solar cell that purportedly has the potential to reach an efficiency of 35%. The device has already achieved an efficiency of 31.0%, an open-circuit voltage of 2.97 V, a short-circuit current density of 12.41 mA/cm2, and a fill factor of 0.80.

A French consortium has commissioned an 89 kWp pilot project featuring 252 vertically installed solar panels. The companies are now trying to assess the impact of vertical bifacial solar panels on grasslands.

The International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (IEA PVPS) estimates that 173.5 GW of new solar capacity was installed in 2021, and that figure might rise to 260 GW in 2022. pv magazine spoke with the co-chair of the European Solar Manufacturing Council to look into the figures.

Daqo has secured another big polysilicon order and GCL Technology said it expects a profit of CNY 12.7 billion ($1.76 billion) from its solar materials business in the third quarter. Wafer manufacturer Wuxi Shangji Automation, meanwhile, has secured an order from TOPCon panel maker Da-Solar.

India’s RenewSys has released its DESERV Extreme series of bifacial PV modules, with front-side power outputs ranging from 565 W to 590 W. The modules are built with half-cut, monocrystalline PERC cells.

A Chinese-Swiss research group claims to have overcome two major challenges for the development of flexible all-perovskite tandem solar cells – voltage losses and the deposition process for the cell’s functional layers. They built a device with a high open-circuit voltage of 2.1 V.

A team of international researchers has simplified the deposition of thin film layers in the commercial production of TOPCon solar cells. Via a tube-type industrial plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition (PEALD) technique, they were able to achieve a power conversion efficiency of 22.8% in a 60-cell, 613 W TOPCon module.

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Norway’s SINTEF has designed a heat storage system based on phase change materials (PCM) that can support PV generation and peak shaving. The battery’s container hosts 3 tons of liquid biowax based on vegetable oil and is now beating performance expectations at a pilot facility.