solar industry

Approximately 76% of silver demand in the solar PV industry was used last year in frontside pastes, while the remaining 24% was used in backside pastes. Comoditization, however, is having detrimental effects on producers’ margins.

Shortly before the announcement of its acquisition by SunPower, SolarWorld’s former U.S. subsidiary commented on the request by its competitors to be exempt from the new U.S. solar PV import tariffs.

The two biggest names in the solar trade fight will now be one company. SunPower will again be a U.S. manufacturer, and SolarWorld will begin producing P-Series modules.

The company’s wafer factory in China was closed in the fourth quarter of 2017. Hanwha Q Cells, however, intends to further produce wafers at its new factory in Turkey.

The Chinese PV manufacturer shipped 3.85 GW of solar PV products last year, including 37.6 MW of wafers, 1,346 MW of solar cells, and 2,475 MW of PV panels. China was still the company’s largest market, accounting for 74.9% of total sales.

Roughly seven months after its new beginning, the German solar PV manufacturer has again filed for insolvency at the District Court of Bonn – the second time in one year. SolarWorld blames the planned phasing out of anti-dumping measures by the EU Commission against Chinese competition and the further drop in prices.

The research team found that sodium, contrary to common belief, does not decrease per se indium and gallium interdiffusion, but instead hinders intergrain diffusion by segregating at grain boundaries.

The company, which was one of Europe’s largest OEM module manufacturers, has decided to close its Polish manufacturing facility, due to an expected drop in demand.

Trina Solar shipped over 9 GW of PV modules in 2017, thus further cementing its leading status in the global solar industry.

The Dutch shipment company and the Singapore-based coal trader will begin providing the global solar industry with specialty metallurgical coals.