Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

The State government has signed agreements for various giga-scale projects across renewable energy generation, solar manufacturing, pumped hydro storage, and green hydrogen.                                                                                                                

Qatari researchers have looked at the degree to which cleaning robots could threaten the physical integrity of solar panels. They found that cleaning machines have a very minimal impact and that modules of similar sizes tend to exhibit roughly the same amount of vibration.

Japan’s Shintora Kosan has developed a novel water jet technology to recover glass from end-of-life PV modules. It says it can pulverize the solar cells and the backsheets without damaging the glass.

Longi Solar said it will invest CNY 42.5 billion ($6.65 billion) in 100 GW of wafer capacity and 50 GW of solar cell capacity in Shaanxi province, China.

The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has achieved remarkable efficiency and stability for a wide-bandgap all-perovskite tandem solar cell. The scientist developed the device with an inverted architecture and used gas quenching instead of an antisolvent in the manufacturing process.

Corporate decarbonization, value chain integration, wind-solar hybrid projects, battery energy storage, offshore wind, green hydrogen, and value-added offerings such as energy-as-a-service are key trends and technologies shaping up India’s renewable energy sector and offering ample scope for investments.

Swiss startup Sun-Ways has developed a patented solution under which it directly rolls out solar modules between railway tracks like a carpet. The panels can be removed at any time for maintenance work.

SC Solar has secured a $41.78 million PV production equipment supply contract from Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd.

Trina Solar says its industrial tunnel-oxide passivated contact (i-TOPCon) solar cells, based on 210 mm wafers, have started rolling off the production line at its 8 GW factory in China. It will use the n-type cells to produce its new Vertex N modules, with power outputs ranging up to 605 W, and an efficiency rating of 22.4%.

Chinese module maker JinkoSolar has released three new TOPCon solar panel variants, ranging in power from 445 W to 635 W. The most efficient modules have a rating of 23.23%. The bifacial factor is up to 85% across the three panel types, with a temperature coefficient of -0.29% C.