JinkoSolar

“Unprecedented” was a term widely used in 2020, as the world grappled with the Covid-19 pandemic. The same word can be similarly applied to the plans and investments in production capacity announced by Chinese PV manufacturers right across the supply chain. But what shape are these expansions taking and what is driving this renewed confidence? Vincent Shaw reports from Shanghai.

The two solar companies have signed a strategic agreement to jointly finance new manufacturing facilities, Tongwei announced this morning.

In many respects, the past year has been unlike any other. But the innovation and ambition driving the expansion of the solar and energy storage industries is one constant that has remained, Across seven categories, pv magazine’s award winners for 2020 demonstrate high levels of technical expertise, creativity, mass production capabilities, and real market impact from PV and power electronics companies big and small. Following on from the virtual award ceremony held this morning, the winners are….

The PV module relies on Jinko’s TOPCon mono cell technology, for which a record efficiency of 24.9% was announced last week. TÜV Rheinland has confirmed the result.

The result was confirmed by Germany’s Institute for Solar Energy Research (ISFH).

Hong Kong-listed solar company Irico New Energy is preparing to shunt its non solar glass business units into Chinese state-controlled parent Irico Group so it can treble its PV glass production capacity in 2024 with the help of a four-line, $108 million manufacturing facility.

China’s largest PV manufacturers claim limits placed on solar glass production two years ago, to prevent over production, are now causing an industry bottleneck.

Last Friday, the German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) officially released its “RTS – Technical and Administrative Guidelines for Commercial and Industrial Projects” to further support the development of rooftop solar (RTS) in Vietnam. Earlier in the week in a JinkoSolar-organized webinar, Tuan A. Nguyen of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s (MOIT) Institute of Energy provided an update on Vietnam’s growing PV market and especially the RTS segment. Mr. Tuan also coauthored the RTS Guidelines for C&I Projects.

The Chinese solar manufacturer shipped 4.46 GW of modules for turnover of $1.2 billion from April to June and expects to move 20 GW of panels this year.

Scientists in Australia took a close look at the long-term performance of passivation layers in silicon solar cells, and discovered a surprising process of degradation and regeneration at work within the material. The results could have implications on the processes used in industrial scale solar cell production.