Asia

Wood Mackenzie this week made a slew of predictions for the industry in 2022 and noted the effects the US’ recently announced anti-circumvention investigation is already having on utility scale plans.

The panel measures 1,894 mm x 1,096 mm x 30 mm, weighs in at 22.5 kg, and has a temperature coefficient of -0.34% per C.

Scientists in Japan have developed new processes for CIGS solar cell manufacturing, entirely eliminating the use of cadmium and replacing a waste-intensive wet chemical stage. With a thin film deposited on a flexible steel substrate, the group achieved 16.7% efficiency, which it says is a record for a cell of this type produced using scalable fabrication processes.

The inverter and battery manufacturer says its new Sella 2 factory will produce cells for its residential solar-plus-battery products as well as for other applications.

Scientists in the UK and Japan used the latest imaging techniques to observe the inner workings of a perovskite solar cell at the scale of a few nanometers. Their findings suggest that a single defect is responsible for both limiting initial performance and causing degradation of the cell. By altering chemical compositions and process parameters, the appearance of this defect can be quickly reduced, and the group is confident that its finding could quickly be applied in large-scale processing as well.

India’s cumulative installed solar capacity stood at 52 GW at the end of March.

The authorities in China’s Shandong province have identified 10 offshore sites close to the coastline where 11.5 GW of solar projects could be constructed. Binzhou, Dongying, Weifang, Yantai, Weihai, and Qingdao are some of the preferred areas.

Having warned of in-house solar wafer and cell capacity as recently as the third quarter of 2021, the company has announced it will be adding even more production lines this year.

Automaker Geely has commissioned a new polysilicon factory in northern China, while ET Solar has opened a new 5 GW wafer factory in Vietnam. Poly giant GCL Technology, meanwhile, has confirmed that its board might issue common stock for a Chinese listing.

In other news, Shinshu University researchers developed a graphene-wrapped molecular-sieving membrane that is reportedly 100 times more efficient than that of conventional polymer separation membranes. Topsoe aalso nnounced the construction of the “world’s largest electrolyzer production facility,” and Toho Gas said it would produce blue hydrogen in Japan for local consumption.