Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

Industry representatives call for a $59 million, five-year package of grants, loans and tax incentives from the government after Dhaka extended a coronavirus-driven industrial shutdown into the middle of the month.

Chief executive Gunter Erfurt told a German radio station a solar factory in North Rhine-Westphalia could supply high-efficiency panels for a 10 GW floating solar project on the vast Hambach open-cast coal mine.

The Chinese manufacturer will provide Indian developer SunSource Energy with its Vertex panels. Shipments will be made in the fourth quarter.

Measuring the performance of a solar cell is a tricky affair, and even more so for new technologies such as perovskites and tandem cells. In the laboratory, these are measured over a period of several minutes to ensure accurate characterization. But as technology continues its journey toward commercial production, ensuring an accurate power rating without slowing down the manufacturing process presents a new challenge both for suppliers of flash testing equipment and those working on bringing perovskite solar cells and tandem devices featuring them to market.

Chinese solar manufacturers Seraphim and Lu’An Solar will invest around $565 million in the new factory.

Analysts at Bloomberg New Energy Finance say the lowest-cost projects financed in Australia, China, Chile and the UAE in the last six months hit a levelized cost of energy of just $23-29/MWh and the best solar and wind projects will produce electricity for less than $20/MWh by 2030.

Scientists from Singapore have developed semi-transparent perovskite solar cells that can be easily integrated into a range of urban contexts, including building facades, gates and windows. The 21cm2 mini panels are made of perovskite solar cells based on methylammonium lead iodine (MAPbI3), with an efficiency of 20.28% for 0.16 cm2.

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.