Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

Sometimes, progress involves looking backwards. In this case, a return to back contact solar cell architecture has resulted in improved efficiencies and reductions in cost.

NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd (NTPC REL) has invited bids to supply bi-facial PV modules rated 540 Wp each for the 1,515 MW DC solar project in Gujarat. Bidding closes on March 5.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick look at the main price trends in the global PV industry.

Researches in India have used the adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and the grey wolf optimization (GWO) algorithm to develop an MPPT technique that reportedly increases the PV source voltage of an array under partial shading conditions.

The evolution of solar technology in India isn’t solely focused on technical advancements but also on making solar energy more affordable and accessible to a wider demographic.

Pixon Green Energy is expanding its solar module manufacturing capacity to 2 GW per year by adding a 1 GW unit with backward integration into 1 GW of cell manufacturing.

Meyer Burger, a Switzerland-based heterojunction cell and panel manufacturer, says it will stop making PV modules in Germany, but it will continue to produce solar cells in the country to support its panel production operations in the United States.

The costs of transporting a container from China to Rotterdam have already almost tripled due to ongoing tensions in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Houthi militants have been attacking merchant ships there for weeks, preventing them from entering the Red Sea and transiting through the Suez Canal.

New figures from the European Technology and Innovation Platform for Photovoltaics (ETIP PV) show that China can now produce tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) PV modules for between $0.160/W and $0.189/W. Costs in Europe, India and the United States, by contrast, could be as low as $0.243/W, $0.281/W, and $0.195/W, respectively. ETIP PV made the comparison based on production at a 10 GW integrated PV factory.

Gautam Adani, chairman of Adani Group, says vertical integration at scale promises the greatest acceleration towards reducing the cost of green hydrogen from the current $3-5 per kilogram (kg) to the $1/kg mark.