Manufacturing

MCPV, a Netherlands based cell manufacturer, has secured €4.2 million ($4.6 million) of Dutch government support for a 4 GW solar cell plant to be built in the town of Veendam. It has also obtained electricity supply commitments for initial production lines and future expansion.

Researchers from Norway and Germany investigated the influence of impurities in fused quartz crucibles used in silicon PV ingot production. The results suggest that the key factors influencing crucible uniformity are sand quality, sand particle size, and aspects of the manufacturing process.

Researchers in Spain have created a new model to accurately estimate oil production and energy generation in agrivoltaic facilities built in hedgerow olive orchards. The proposed approach also allows the generation of mathematical equations estimating the influence of the system design variable.

Heliene has obtained a $54 million investment from Transition Equity Partners to expand its solar cell and module production in the United States.

The Chinese manufacturer says its new frameless heterojunction panels rely on busbarless technology and 210 mm wafers. The new products also feature a temperature coefficient -0.29%/C and weigh only 12.3 kg.

The proposed brackish water desalination system uses photovoltaic electrodialysis to enable direct-drive desalination at high production rates. It already operated for 6 months on real brackish groundwater and was reportedly able to use 94% of the extracted PV energy.

Researchers in France have investigated heterojunction solar module reliability in damp heat environment and have found that sodium ions are the main source of degradation.

New research from India shows that rooftop PV system may have “unintended” consequences on temperartures in urban environments. Rooftop arrays, for example, may potentially lower nighttime temperatures by up to 0.6  C.

India added 11.3 GW of solar module and 2 GW of cell manufacturing capacity in the first half of 2024, bringing the country’s cumulative production capacities to 77.2 GW for modules and 7.6 GW for cells, according to Mercom India.

Truvami has launched an organic PV-powered asset tracker equipped with localization and sensor technology for battery-free use indoors and outdoors, targeting logistics and manufacturing applications.