Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

“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.

The Solliance consortium has built a solar cell in a four-terminal tandem configuration that combines a 17.8%-efficient highly near-infrared transparent perovskite cell with a prototype of an 11.4%-efficient c-Si interdigitated back contact silicon heterojunction cell developed by Panasonic.

The past 12 months have proved profitable for polysilicon manufacturers, as selling prices have soared to levels not seen since 2011. However, with major new capacity expansions on the horizon from most of the leading manufacturers, and new players planning to enter the scene, the market balance looks set to shift. Exawatt’s Alex Barrows rounds up where the industry stands and what might happen next.

Furthermore, TBEA has announced a plan to invest in four solar power plants and Flat Glass has agreed to acquire two quartz mines.