Quality

Two reports have described how the world’s largest renewable energy market is moving towards maturity. According to the Brookings Institution, the Chinese clean energy market could become more open to Western investors and tech. A report by Fitch claims projects are moving back to inland provinces from coastal regions.

The manufacturer says its Kwafoo product improves efficiency and, if used in the optimal p-type PERC type of panel, could boast a module output of 610 W.

MIT researchers say climate change could reduce the yield of solar modules. Analysis based on the warming scenarios outlined by the IPCC predicts in some areas the annual energy output of PV systems may fall by up to 50 kWh per kilowatt installed.

The Swiss equipment maker is instead preparing to commit its future to PV in its European heartland and will start with plans to help Norwegian module maker REC Solar embark on a gigawatt-scale production expansion.

It is not just the big beasts of Chinese solar that are investing in aggressive expansion as high-efficiency wafer maker NorSun and tracker supplier GameChange Solar make big announcements. The New York company, however, may fall foul of President Trump’s America First trade mantra by opening production lines in the Far East.

At The smarter E Europe trade show, held in Munich in May, pv magazine was invited for another iteration of its Quality Roundtable events. Experts from manufacturing, project planning, finance and testing took the stage to inform the crowd on quality issues with modules, cables and inverters.

While PV module makers are attempting to get the best possible scores for their products on 3rd party tests, 3rd-party testing providers are also offering competing products to rank products. We look at what’s similar and what’s different in the tests.

Tests by U.S.-based PV Evolution Labs (PVEL) show that monocrystalline silicon and polycrystalline silicon PV modules produced by India’s Vikram Solar met and exceeded international quality and performance benchmarks.

In the run-up to pv magazine’s quality roundtable at Intersolar Europe, we look at a case where a production error resulted in cold solder joints in 5% of the solar modules across a 50 MW project portfolio. We consider how to come to an agreement with a manufacturer to replace modules in such a situation and how such a solution compares with a production audit before installation.

In preparation for the next pv magazine webinar “New approach for bifacial modules and yield expectations” on Monday 29 April, 2pm – 3pm (CEST), Andrea Viaro, head of technical service Europe, JinkoSolar and Lucie Garreau-iles, technical manager, EMEA, DuPont, in the following answer the questions by pv magazine on why create an alternative to the bifacial glass-glass-modules