Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

Indian Minister of Power RK Singh has revealed interest from manufacturers in developing more production lines, even before newly planned incentive schemes are taken into account.

The South Korean authorities plan to introduce new rules for PV waste recycling in 2023. Several recycling facilities are already being built, including one by the government, with a combined capacity of 9,700 tons.

A US study has suggested the raised energy yield of bifacial perovskite devices effectively means they could have a lower environmental impact than conventional crystalline cells. The researchers considered single-junction cells with high and low bandgaps and similar, multi-junction devices with two and four-terminal structures.

Scientists led by China’s Nanjing University discovered that a chemical commonly used for bleaching in the textile industry can also serve as a performance-boosting additive to mixed lead/tin perovskite thin films. Using this additive, they were ultimately able to fabricate a two perovskite tandem cell measuring 1.05cm² that achieved 24.2% efficiency.

The demonstrated device, according to the academics, is built with interfaces between the active cell layers that improve the top cell carrier collection. The cell was built with texturing and a hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) passivation of a silicon back surface.

The solar manufacturer will expand its annual encapsulant manufacturing capacity by 1.35 GW and backsheet production by 1 GW.

Scientists led by staff from Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE have demonstrated a new laser printing process in pilot production, which could replace silver paste and screen printing in solar cell manufacturing. The system is said to offer much more flexibility in the layout of contact fingers on the cell surface and a wider choice of metallization materials.

Japanese scientists have replaced common pyranometers with PV module irradiance sensors to measure the I-V curves of crystalline silicon PV modules. The sensors provide highly precise outdoor measurements, the researchers said.

A global research team has developed a parabolic trough linear concentrating photovoltaic-thermal system to produce heat and electricity, for both residential and large-scale applications. The PV unit relies on Azure Space’s multi-junction solar cells, based on indium gallium phosphide (InGaP), gallium arsenide (GaAs) and germanium (Ge).

Startup SunDrive has secured US$2.2 million in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to help scale its low-cost, high-efficiency solar cell manufacturing process.