Manufacturing industry seeks unity on wafer size
Seven solar manufacturers, including tier-1 players, have signed up to a joint initiative aiming to establish a new standard size for silicon wafers at 182mm x 182mm. Conspicuously absent from the initiative is China’s Zhonghuan Semiconductor, which last year introduced a 210mm solar wafer, the largest seen in the industry so far.
LevelTen Energy opens procurement of up to 500 MW of European renewables capacity
U.S.-based tender platform has invited proposals for projects ranging in scale from 50-500 MW on behalf of an unnamed client which is a member of the RE100 clean energy campaign. European developers have until July 20 to lodge their bids.
Shielding PV against Earth’s magnetic field
Researchers in Kenya are seeking to reduce the influence of the Geomagnetic field on PV panel performance by replacing aluminum module frames with a steel cage. They have specified they have been unable to quantify costs related to the solution, and that more research is needed.
Italy’s largest PV project comes online
A 103 MW solar park built by Danish developer European Energy has been connected to the grid after a year of construction work. The project had been started in 2011 and at one stage appeared doomed, when a national feed-in tariff program ended.
Kenya’s largest dairy producer wants to buy solar
New Kenya Cooperative Creameries has finalized the preliminary phase of a tender to buy electricity from a solar facility that will be built at its new KCC Sotik Factory. The installation is expected to cover around 40% of the site’s power needs.
Algeria’s first mounting system manufacturer
SPS, an Algerian metal sandwich panel manufacturer, has signed a partnership deal with Dubai-based mounting system provider Qi-energy to begin production of mounting structures for PV systems in Algeria.
Significant decline in potentially unsafe PV systems in Australia
A very small number of PV systems installed on Australian rooftops are considered to be potentially unsafe, the nation’s Clean Energy Regulator says in a new report. It identifies water entering DC isolators as the greatest risk and the most common cause of PV system failures.
PV module prices are falling faster than all predictions
New research from Wood Mackenzie shows that overall system costs for installations using mono PERC modules are set to fall by as much as 20% by 2025.
Heterojunction MWT solar module based on 23%-efficient cells
Scientists in the Netherlands have claimed that a heterojunction metal wrap-through solar module they are designing could offer a 4% performance improvement over conventional heterojunction panels.
AES releases 1 GW renewable project solicitation
AES has released a request for proposal to buy up to 1 GW of new renewable projects as part of its partnership with Google.
