bifacial

The German solar panel manufacturer – now based in France – says it is in the final phase of constructing a module factory to increase its European production capacity after a plethora of similar announcements across the continent.

The Shanghai-based wafer, cell and module maker appears to be steering a steady course through a tumultuous period for the solar industry and its plans are another sign high-efficiency modules may soon have to do more to earn that label.

The Chinese manufacturer has embarked upon an upgrade of 1.5 GW of its module production lines which is set to be completed this year. Previously used to get around trade restrictions applied by the EU, the Thai facility will now produce output for the U.S. market.

Taiwanese analyst Energytrend saw prices for high power products fall over the past week, but so far only in China. That trend could be replicated around the world next week, however.

The Solar Market Parity Italy 2019 event organized by Solarplaza in Milan last week gave an insight into the Italian large scale PV market by forecasting the trajectory of the segment and highlighting issues investors and developers may encounter.

Bifacial modules are here to stay. But even as manufacturers commit further capacities to two-sided module production spanning a whole range of technologies, there are still challenges to overcome, to fulfill predictions that bifacial will represent almost 40% of all modules produced inside the next decade. Flash testing conducted at the end of cell and module production presents one of these, and there is plenty of debate among equipment suppliers as to how this manufacturing stage should treat bifacial cells and modules.

This year JinkoSolar launched its bifacial Swan module, one of the first to feature a transparent Tedlar backsheet made by DuPont. pv magazine had the chance to catch up with Gener Miao, JinkoSolar VP for global sales and marketing for an update on the module’s innovations, and on how the company sees solar markets this year.

The Chinese PV manufacturer uses TOPCon half cells for the modules. The additional rear side yield is estimated by Trina at 5-30%.

It is not just the big beasts of Chinese solar that are investing in aggressive expansion as high-efficiency wafer maker NorSun and tracker supplier GameChange Solar make big announcements. The New York company, however, may fall foul of President Trump’s America First trade mantra by opening production lines in the Far East.

Federal trade authorities have ruled that bifacial solar modules are no longer subject to the Section 201 ruling, which currently apply a 25% tariff to most solar modules imported to the United States.