Manufacturing

The renowned PV-Lab at Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale De Lausanne today announced that it has taken on the role of coordinator for the EU funded research project ‘Be-Smart’, which aims at developing a European industry for building integrated PV components.

The facility is in the Bor organized industrial zone of Niğde, in central Anatolia. The factory was backed by incentives provided by the country’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.

In a report which states utility-scale PV project development in France can cost as little as €600 per installed kilowatt, the CRE has made recommendations including factoring in transport and full supply chain costs into the calculation of how environmentally friendly solar panels are.

The Korean government is planning to introduce new rules for carbon footprint certification, minimum efficiency levels and industrial standards for solar and wind energy. The measures are intended to make the domestic renewable energy industry grow while securing sustainable competitiveness, the administration said.

In December, pv magazine met SolaX Power president Li Xinfu and his team at the company’s headquarters in sprawling Hangzhou, in Zhejiang province. The region is a hotspot for the Chinese PV industry and SolaX belongs to the cutting edge of Chinese inverter and residential battery manufacturers.

Aiming to localize production across the electric vehicle value chain, the government wants to support battery manufacturing at a gigawatt-scale. The initial focus will be on large-scale module and pack assembly plants in the new fiscal year, followed by integrated cell manufacturing by 2021-22.

Almost 5% of the Chinese solar glass manufacturer’s stock will be issued in a bid to generate $167 million towards the cost of two fabs planned in Guangxi next year. Xinyi also wants to expand its successful project development business.

The Chinese panel maker is already producing bifacial half cut modules at its new Anhui fab after the completion of an initial 2.5 GW phase of operations. And the company president confirmed Longi is on track for 45 GW of mono wafer and ingot production capacity next year.

At the Solar Power Summit in Brussels today, the industry group said it is preparing to launch a supply-side oriented industrial policy for the PV sector in Europe. The manufacturing sector on the continent has been hard hit since 2012, and has been buffeted by a range of unfavorable policy decisions.

The Norwegian manufacturer said Hanwha Q Cells’ legal action in Germany has not started yet, and it will take all necessary steps to defend itself against patent infringement allegations.