bifacial

Chinese solar manufacturer Seraphim has announced plans for a 500 MW cell factory in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The company also plans to expand an existing 300 MW module factory in South Africa’s Eastern Cape region by 200 MW.

The pitch of bifacial trackers is an important design factor in maximizing energy gain, says Soltec, which recently spoke during a pv magazine webinar on how its trackers can help to increase energy yields in large-scale bifacial PV installations. Read on to discover the answers to your questions from albedo to backtracking and everything in between.

On October 25, pv magazine will host a webinar, powered by JinkoSolar, in which the China-based manufacturer will present the case for using bifacial modules in large-scale solar plants, and discuss the influencing factors and their impact on bifacial PV tracking. In the following Q&A, JinkoSolar’s Andrea Viaro, Head of Technical Service Europe, JinkoSolar, and Colin Caufield, VP of Sales North America, Soltec provide a sneak peak into the technology and the advantages tracking can bring to bifacial technology.

Jolywood (Taizhou) Solar Technology has signed a deal with a subsidiary of the State Power Investment Corporation Limited (SPIC) for the supply of 64.6 MW of its n-type bifacial 301 Wp solar PV modules.

The benefits of deploying bifacial solar panels on single-axis trackers are touted like snake oil these days, with promises of anywhere from 5 to 50% gains in energy output compared with a monofacial panel. Unfortunately, the field data that might delineate the actual energy gain of a bifacial panel on a tracker are hard to acquire, and the data that are available typically describe small-scale tests under tightly defined conditions.

Chinese solar PV manufacturer, Seraphim has inaugurated a US$14 million, 300 MW solar PV module manufacturing facility in South Africa. Plans are in place to ramp this up to 1.5 GW over the next three years, and add 300 MW of cell production.

Independent energy analyst, Corinne Lin discusses the fallout of China’s recent solar PV policy decision, including decreasing utilization rates and serious oversupply; and a focus on equipment upgrades, particularly for PERC, SE, half cut and bifiacial technologies. The industry will bounce back in 2019, she concludes.

U.S.-based tracker supplier Array Technologies took part in the panel discussion on bifacial technology at the Future PV Roundtable during Intersolar Europe last week. pv magazine caught up with panelist Caesar Alberte, VP International, to discuss the company’s new CEO and its work on bifacial tracking.

One manufacturer after another has announced bifacial modules, and buyers would do well to consider the benefits. Independent calculations show that increases of up to 15% or more are realistic in countries such as Germany.

The next generation of solar PV modules will see different technologies combined at both the cell and module level. That was the main conclusion of a recent pv magazine webinar, powered by JinkoSolar. Overall, a great deal of interest from participants was generated. Here, Andrea Viaro, Head of Technical Service Europe for JinkoSolar, responds to their questions.