Technology

There was plenty of innovation on display at this year’s SNEC, which closed yesterday afternoon at the Shanghai New International Expo Center. The three-day exhibition ran from Tuesday to Thursday, was well attended and still ranks as the world’s largest solar energy trade show.

That goal could easily be achieved judging by the company’s first-quarter results, Qiao said during an interview with pv magazine at Intersolar Europe. He also pronounced himself happy with Growatt’s performance in TÜV testing and with progress in the hybrid inverter segment.

New modules incorporating American company 1366 Technologies’ 3D direct wafers were unveiled yesterday at the SNEC trade show in Shanghai. The prototype modules are produced by Korean manufacturer Hanwha Q Cells. The two companies have a strategic partnership going back several years, and are ramping up a wafer factory near Q Cells’ module facilities in Malaysia.

At Intersolar Europe, Gamesa Electric’s solar sales director, Enrique de la Cruz explained the key to ensuring high reliability and a low energy price with the company’s new central inverter offering.

The former director of Fraunhofer ISE will be officially elected at a general assembly planned for September. The ESCM wants a strong Europe to be part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and also pay attention to sustainability.

With the Netherlands receiving more than €21 billion worth of orders after launching a ‘€4-6 billion’ exercise last month, Irish utility the ESB is hoping to ride the wave of investors subscribing to ethical schemes.

The Japanese government has issued a policy to reduce 80% of vehicle-related emissions, but high-power charging facilities for e-buses should also be aligned with distributed PV generation. Kyocera is now optimizing its virtual power plant technologies for this use case.

A team of researchers from Manchester University claims to have identified the dominant process causing light-induced degradation in silicon solar cells. The process, termed “trap-assisted auger recombination”, arises from a defect in the bulk of the silicon material which lies dormant until exposed to sunlight.

The two Chinese companies will acquire 30% shares in each other’s respective wafer and silicon businesses and plan to purchase at least 75% of each other’s future output, as part of a complex mutual investment arrangement announced ahead of the SNEC PV Power Expo 2019.

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.