Manufacturing

Silicon carbide (SiC) has promised inverter makers higher power density, higher efficiency, and a total bill of materials that comes in closer to its more established rival in silicon. Has SiC finally arrived? Tristan Rayner spoke to the people at the forefront of the wider-bandgap material to find out the back story and what’s next.

French start-up Rosi Solar has developed an industrial solution claimed to be capable of recovering high purity silicon, silver and copper contained in end-of-life PV modules. The company’s technology is based on a pyrolysis process that makes it possible to isolate the different metals from the cells.

British analyst GlobalData has predicted residential and commercial rooftop panels will not return to a declining price trend until next year, with post-Covid logistics headaches the cause, rather than a polysilicon shortage.

India and Australia have signed a letter of intent to cooperate on scaling up the manufacture and deployment of ultra-low-cost solar and clean hydrogen.

Soluna’s new generator can be combined in a two-unit system to reach a capacity of 2.5kWh. It features built-in 120V(AC) output, continuous AC output power of 1,200W, and peak output of up to 2,400W.

Recent BloombergNEF research shows that corporations procured a record 31GW of renewable energy in 2021, and LevelTen Energy says that growth occurred despite more than a year of price increases.

Norwegian analyst Rystad Energy has warned the solar industry could suffer the same effects of rising input prices as onshore wind developers grappling with ever more costly steel, with much hinging on how much solar panel raw material polysilicon can be manufactured.

The solar panel glass manufacturer expects strong growth in demand for its products at home and abroad with a significant rise expected in the production of PV modules in the USA and Europe.

All stakeholders are expecting the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited (IREDA) to expedite and issue letters of award to balance companies that have bid under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for solar. Most players have already acquired land and some have even done the land development work and basic construction in anticipation of the award pending for the last three months. 

Ashutosh Verma, founder of solar appliance manufacturing company Exalta India, says the key to increasing the uptake of solar products in rural areas lies in improving the access to finance, infrastructure to retain the technology, and awareness on usage.