Panasonic

The annual trade show was not particularly well-attended this year, but market sentiment is still positive in Japan – nobody believes that installations will drop due to the coronavirus outbreak. And the country’s upstream industry – modules, batteries, and hydrogen tech – clearly remains compelling, given the number of brave souls who actually did make the trip out to Tokyo Big Sight this year.

Elon Musk has spoken of an ‘exponential’ ramp-up of its solar glass tile at the facility in New York state. Panasonic’s tiles never made the cut.

Although cells lose much of their power yield when submerged, they may not be useless. Researchers in India say submerged cells could be used in monitoring sensors and for other commercial and defense applications. An amorphous silicon cell from Panasonic was tested in their study.

Electronics corporations Panasonic, Kyocera and LG have filed results for the nine months to December 31. All three reported uplifts because of their solar activity and LG has said it will dive deeper into energy storage. Panasonic is deepening its commitment to automotive batteries through a new joint venture with Toyota.

Storage has long been expected to be the handmaiden of a renewable energy world and its long awaited advances started to finally emerge in the third quarter as researchers posited R&D achievements ranging from potentially potent tungsten disulfide nanotubes to the business case for 10-year solar panels.

Korean conglomerate LG reports increasing demand for its high-efficiency PV products in key markets while Kyocera said its solar business is improving profitability. Panasonic posted a slight increase in sales for its PV segment, including solar manufacturing.

The Japanese electronics manufacturer said the EverVolt storage system is available in the U.S. market in AC and DC-coupled versions, with a storage capacity ranging from 5.7-34.2 kWh, depending on the model chosen.

The 300,000 sq ft factory in Dalton, Georgia has the capacity to produce 12,000 PV modules per day – 1.7 GW worth annually for panels able to produce the same peak generating capacity as the Hoover Dam.

Panasonic offloaded some of its PV interests to Chinese HJT cell maker GS-Solar and Kyocera is advertising further savings from its solar operations but neither business unit acted as a significant drag on wider group figures.

While market experts suggest solid-state battery technology will not play a significant role in the storage industry until 2025, one company may be leading the race. Blue Solutions, electrical energy storage award winner at The smarter E Europe in Munich, Germany, says it has developed the only commercialized solid-state lithium battery. pv magazine caught up with the company around the European trade show to discuss its award-winning technology and unique position in the market.