Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

The unfolding effects of the Covid-19 crisis, and fears of a possible second wave, have split analysts trying to guess how the unsubsidized renewables market will emerge as slumping demand continued to distort power markets. pv magazine rounds up the week’s coronavirus developments.

Debt-saddled GCL-Poly’s attempts to renegotiate $809 million of defaulted borrowings have been held up because of the coronavirus crisis unfolding in Europe, where one lender is based. Shareholders are due to vote tomorrow on a project sale which could generate $153 million of benefits.

As a focus of research at leading institutes the world over, new developments in the perovskite field come thick and fast almost every week. From x-ray observations on a nanoscale to financing and plans for mass production, pv magazine is bringing together some of the most exciting developments of recent weeks.

The 11th edition of the German document which tracks solar price falls and efficiency improvements has considered the role bigger wafers are playing in cost reduction.

The Polish solar industry is reportedly planning an offensive to claim a bigger slice of the domestic PV market. The idea was apparently floated by the head of a private renewable energy body.

Russian researchers have improved the efficiency of a thin-fim GaAs‐based solar cell by 0.9% by applying single‐walled carbon nanotubes as the topmost layer. The cell also showed a slight increase in the short circuit current density, from 16.9 to 17.9 mA/cm2.

Chinese manufacturer Amerisolar and Brazilian energy company Nova Renováveis are planning to set up a 200 MW solar module manufacturing facility in Belo Horizonte, in the Minas Gerais state.

Trina Solar has been producing its 500 W modules in series for a month now and plans to increase their output to more than 600 W in the future.

Manufacturer Solargiga referenced our website, rather than official channels, to have a stab at anticipating the possible effects of the public health crisis on the industry as it insisted production lines powered by bargain-basement electricity prices this year would help turn around a $50 million loss for 2019.

As a relatively new and rapidly emerging PV technology, perovskites present an opportunity for the European Union to once again play a prominent role in solar manufacturing. So argues Louis Huber from the European Perovskite Initiative, a group that is trying to coordinate European perovskite PV activities across research, industry and politics.