Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

The airplane is powered by 22 square meters of solar cells with an efficiency of up to 24% and 14 kWh of lithium-ion batteries. According to its creators, it can reach an altitude of 25,000m.

The Al Husainiyah solar plant, 200km south of Jordanian capital Amman, began commercial operations a week ago with more than 200,000 panels manufactured by 30% joint owner Philadelphia Solar.

Researchers in China have analyzed how the marine environment influences the performance of PV modules deployed on ships, and have found that salt particles can be detrimental to their performance as these act as both heating agents and a factor reducing solar irradiance. The temporary cooling effect provided by seawater is not sufficient to offset the impacts of salt spray and ensure increased power yields.

India’s solar capacity growth up to 2030 also means the accumulation of a significant amount of PV module waste due to early failures or damage during transportation, installation, and operation. The waste generation could be 21 kilotons, assuming India’s cumulative installed PV capacity grows to 287.4 GW by 2030, from 40 GW in 2020. This doesn’t include end-of-life panel waste, as PV systems installed in the 2020-30 period are assumed to have at least 30 years of lifetime.

Coal India Ltd. is accepting proposals from parties willing to partner on its proposed 4 GW solar PV ingot-wafer-cell-module manufacturing facility. Applications will be accepted until Sept. 16.

Arctech Solar has announced it will provide trackers for a 2.1 GW project in Dubai and China’s largest state-owned grid operators and power utilities – State Grid of China and China Southern Grid – have established a clean power exchange.

Dutch startup Solarge has developed a 500 W panel that weighs 50% less than conventional glass-backsheet modules. The new product can be fixed to rooftops with roofing anchors, which eliminates the need for ballast, according to the manufacturer.

The result was confirmed by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE). The cell was fabricated through a low-temperature co-evaporation method for the growth of the light-absorbing CIGS semiconductor thin film.

Energy commissioner Kadri Simson has opened the 38th European solar technology conference and exhibition with a positive message for the industry. A week of tech and innovation events have got under way at this year’s event, which is again being held online.

German scientists have built a perovskite solar cell with spiro-TTB as a hole transport material, via the thermal co-evaporation method. The solar cell has an open-circuit voltage of 1.08 V, a fill factor of 83.0%, and a short-circuit current of 21.6 mA cm.