China

Wood Mackenzie has made its predictions for the Chinese energy market in 2022 and said the country could install almost 120GW of solar and wind power generation capacity.

An international research team has investigated how solar could be combined with thermoelectric coolers (TECs), which are small solid-state heat pumps used either for heating or for cooling. A system was built with six solar panels, an air duct system, four batteries, a charge controller, TECs, an inverter, heat sinks, a test chamber, and condenser fans.

The Chinese solar developer, which has sold off four-fifths of its PV project capacity to state-owned entities, wants the permission of the holders of $420 million of 2024 senior notes to change the terms of their investment so it can buy Ethiopian natural gas from a connected business.

Allen Cao, General Manager of International Business at Arctech speaks to pv magazine about the solar supply chain challenges experienced in 2021 and how he believes the market will evolve this year. Overall, he says the industry could see a sharp rise in year-on-year PV installation capacity as prices start to come down. BIPV is also discussed as being a hot topic for the Chinese highly power-consuming industries.

The 120MW facility is selling power to State Grid Corporation of China at a price of RMB0.453/kWh ($0.0762). It relies on 21.2%-efficient JT SSh(B) 450W/455W high-efficiency dual-glass panels provided by Chinese manufacturer Jetion.

According to PVInfolink, the top 10 solar manufacturers accounted for over 160GW of shipments or a global market share of 90% in 2021.

The Chinese manufacturer has upgraded its commercial application battery with a dissipative balancing technology that, it is claimed, will make the storage system suitable for different load conditions. Each battery module is sold with a capacity ranging from 100 to 200Ah and a storage capacity of 7.68kWh.

Scientists in China analyzed defective solar cells based on Czochralski (Cz) silicon wafers and found Swirl defects may be responsible for an efficiency drop of up to 4.7%. According to them, the presence of Swirl defects could be mitigated by applying a heat treatment at a temperature above 1,050 degrees Celsius in a clean environment before the manufacturing of the solar cells.

With five public entities having committed RMB1.25 billion into a project to produce copper, indium, gallium, selenide solar modules five years ago, the joint venture has been abandoned at an estimated impairment cost of RMB1.42 billion.

Growatt’s new AXE LV battery covers a wide range of capacities, from 5kWh to 400kWh, and can support off-grid systems with power outputs of 3kW to 30kW.