Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

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.

German manufacturer Robert Bürkle GmbH has obtained a first instance judgement preventing a rival company from producing equipment that infringes on its patents. The decision of the Intermediate Peoples Court in China is not yet final, and the rival company has already filed a complaint against the ruling.

Gujarat-based solar panel maker Solex Energy will buy the production equipment from China’s Jinchen Machinery. The company also has plans for a cell line.

Backsheet failures have plagued the industry, causing hefty financial burdens to many asset owners. DuPont has launched a product it says allows for easy repair of modules.