Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

The panel, fabricated by scientists in Italy, is composed of five series-connected cells, each with an area of 2.01 cm² and has an aperture area of 11 cm². It showed a power conversion efficiency of 16.1%, an open-circuit voltage of 5.59 V, a short-circuit current of 37 mA, and a fill factor of 72.5%.

Academics have utilized three PCMs, known as RT26, RT35, and RT42, and decided to pack them ascendingly depending on their melting points and heat-flow direction. The system is claimed to allow lower melting rates and longer thermal management of the modules.

With the solar industry already seeing prices rise because of a shortage of panel raw material polysilicon, an explosion yesterday at the factory of a silicon metal
and silicone producer in Xinjiang could have further repercussions on supply. No casualties have been reported.

pv magazine recently spoke to Asier Ukar, managing director & senior consultant at PI Berlin in Spain, about the Spanish solar market, PV module prices, the most common failures in installations, and PV manufacturing in Europe.

The technology company and inverter maker has created a new unit to operate in the renewables and e-mobility sectors. Elsewhere, China’s largest e-commerce company, JD.Com, has signed an agreement with the world’s biggest wind company, GoldWind, to establish a renewables joint venture.

Scientists in Germany have developed a new process for deposition of silicon dioxide layers during cell production. Without the need for high pressure, flammable gases, or vacuum conditions, the process could lead to cost reductions for cell manufacturers, provided it can be developed and applied in a large-scale production setting.

The metal wrap-through-focused module maker revealed its M series at the SNEC solar conference in Shanghai, claiming a bifacial rate of up to 70%.

Thanks to a carbon dioxide doping technique, the solar cell interlayers exhibited conductivity around five times higher than that of a perovskite cell based on interlayers doped with oxygen. The device also showed an open-circuit voltage of 1.14 V, a short-circuit current density of 21.2 mA cm2 and a fill factor of 0.79. 

The sticker is based on a blockchain technology developed by German start-up Authentic Network. Meyer Burger uses the application for the photovoltaic modules it produces in its new factory that opened in Freiberg at the end of May.

Norwegian researchers have used a year-on-year approach, considering the combined effect of temperature, humidity, and ultraviolet irradiation, to assess the degradation rate of polycrystalline modules with a temperature coefficient of -0.43%, mounted with an approximately 10-degree tilt, and located in eastern Norway. They found that these modules degrade in the range in the range of 0.1-0.19% per year, which is 0.4% less than panels operating in other climates.