China

As part of their efforts to bring lithium-ion battery degradation under control, scientists in China have looked to emulate natural defenses many organisms have evolved to reduce oxidation reactions and related damage. With an additive that ‘scavenges’ reactive particles before they can contribute to degradation, the group was able to demonstrate significantly lower electrolyte decomposition in a working battery.

The Canadian Solar chief repeated his belief the trend of ever-cheaper solar panels has come to an end and revealed, at the online BNEF event, his company is set to launch a 700 W module.

Scientists in Sweden and China developed a solution-based process to produce organic solar cells, demonstrating efficiencies better than 17%. The process utilizes paraxylene as a solvent, which the researchers claim is less toxic and more stable than others used to reach high organic solar cell efficiencies, and with more work could be scaled up to produce large area devices.

The company today told pv magazine it did not reduce any of its PV module prices in the July-to-September period.

The solar manufacturer has lowered the prices of its wafers by up to 9%. Elsewhere, Luoyang Glass wants to sell off three information display business units to focus its efforts on solar panel glass.

Furthermore, polysilicon manufacturer Daqo will increase investments in its plans to expand capacity and Canadian Solar closed a strategic co-operation agreement with battery giant CATL.

Elsewhere, Longi has announced it has secured a wafer supply deal from Zhejiang-based TOPCon module manufacturer Dal Solar, and glassmaker Irico New Energy is planning an initial public offering.

Furthermore, China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) said residential PV installations totaling 1.93 GW were deployed in October alone and Heterojunction (HJT) solar new entrant Golden Solar became strategic partner of Gold Stone Energy Co Ltd.

Several black swans have been circling over this year’s solar PV industry: rising raw material and product prices; supply chain issues and international logistics holdups; and power shortages in China, to name but the most disruptive. How is it possible for solar companies to survive under these conditions? According to Dong Shuguang, a PV veteran and President of Talesun Solar, they must focus on solar technologies like PERC, TOPCon and HJT, and product innovations that provide customer value.

While the Sino-Canadian business expects high polysilicon and shipping costs to be a temporary problem, CEO Shawn Qu has acknowledged the company will have overcapacity in cell and wafer production lines by the end of the year.