Modules

The two-year period of the recommended safeguard duty is very short, discouraging any investment in setting up new solar manufacturing capacity, say analysts and companies pv magazine spoke to. At the same time, for solar project developers, the duty will impact tariffs to the tune of 12-15%, posing an immediate threat to viability of projects under execution, they add.

Jay Lin, CEO of PVGuider discusses why the effects of light induced degradation (LID) in PERC cells cannot be completely eliminated. To explain the difficulty, we first need to understand the LID behavior of the cells, he says.

Chinese manufacturer, JA Solar has secured a long-term buyer credit loan facility worth US$68.4 million for the procurement of equipment for its 1.5 GW wafer facility in Vietnam.

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.

This year, The Smarter E made its debut this June 20 to 22 in Munich, Germany, bringing together existing exhibitions, Intersolar Europe and ees Europe, with two new events, Power2Drive Europe and EM-Power. This change reflects both the strong shift towards storage, and the rapidly changing face of the overall energy industry. pv magazine hit the floors, attended the conferences and held two roundtables to discover the latest trends. Read on to discover our eight key takeaways (and one new buzzword).

On Friday, three Chinese government ministries issued a joint “2018 Solar PV Power Generation Notice.” Its impact has been hotly debated since, with two key conclusions: the largest market segment – utility-scale PV – will take a pounding and not come close to last year’s record installation figure of just under 34 GW; and the expanding distributed generation market segment, which rose 360% from 2016 to 2017, will also be severely impacted by a 10 GW cap on new projects.

The company is pivoting to DG solar and expanding its manufacturing as it continues to struggle with profitability.

Interview: In recent years, customs authorities have repeatedly conducted searches and arrests for companies circumventing the existing PV antidumping and anti-subsidy measures in Germany. In a conversation with pv magazine, legal expert Alexander Rumpf draws on personal experience to explain the current legal situation.

The Asian companies will form a joint venture in India to execute the plan. The project’s total investment is expected to be around US$930 million, which will be used for the production of solar PV ingots, wafers, cells, modules and batteries.

Solar materials producer DuPont Photovoltaics Solutions to cooperate with Internet of Things pioneer in big energy data Envision to develop effective degradation analysis for solar modules.