Asia

Japanese glass manufacturer AGC has developed a building-integrated PV (BIPV) panel for different building requirements. It can be installed on facades, canopies, and curtain walls where normal glass can be placed.

Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd. (GUVNL) has issued a tender to procure up to 500 MW of solar power, on top of an additional 500 MW. Bidding closes on May 18.

Hoshine plans to expand PV glass production, while Tongwei is raising PV cell prices, with a particular focus on monocrystalline cells. Maxwell Technology has secured a 4.8 GW production line order from India’s Reliance Industries, while JA Solar has reported a net profit increase of 35% for 2021.

Raslag Corp. has said its Raslag III merchant solar site will be up and running in May.

Japan’s Panasonic claims its new pilot solar-plus-hydrogen facility marks the first attempt to create a factory powered by 100% renewables, via the full-scale use of hydrogen.

Quantum Power Asia and ib vogt have set up a new partnership to build a 3.5 GW solar-plus-storage facility in Riau, Indonesia. The developers say the proposed $5 billion project could export solar electricity to Singapore by 2032.

Chinese manufacturer Eging has unveiled a new line of bifacial TOPCon solar panels based on n-type wafers and 210 mm cells. The modules have a temperature coefficient of 0.31% and efficiencies ranging from 21.24% to 22.05%.

Smarten has released the Superb 3050 hybrid solar power conditioning unit (PCU) for offgrid applications. The 2.4kW product is priced at INR 19,999 ($260).

Academics from MIT and Stanford who have posited a new production method for perovskite solar cells have also developed a machine learning system which benefits from the experience of seasoned workers – and they’ve posted it online for anyone to use.

The solar park will sell power to the Bangladesh Power Development Board at a price of $0.1195/kWh under a 20-year power purchase agreement.