World

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.

Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance, speaks to pv magazine about the current steep trajectory of solar module prices. He estimates that PV panels prices will end up dropping by 40% this year and predicts the closure of old technology and sub-scale solar manufacturing facilities, both in China and globally.

An international research group has utilized a new porosification technique to build gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar cells that allow the recovery of germanium films. The new cell achieved an efficiency that is reportedly in line with that of other GaAs PV devices, but can be produced at a lower cost thanks to the reuse of germanium.

Germany installed 11.7 GW of new solar capacity between January and October 2023, with 1.23 GW added in October alone, bringing the nation’s cumulative installed solar capacity to 79.2 GW.

From the International Solar Energy Society’s perspective, and the vision of a world with 100% renewable energy for everyone used wisely and efficiently, PV module production should not become an oligopoly and should not be concentrated in one corner of the world.

Statkraft used actual production data from wind and solar farms in Spain to study the feasibility and bankability of hydrogen projects. For a 1 MW electrolyzer to achieve a 40% utilization rate, five times more solar capacity would be needed, it said.

Achieved by scientists led by the National University of Singapore, the result is the highest efficiency ever recorded for a perovskite-CIS tandem solar cell at the research level to date. The researchers used methyldiammonium diiodide (MDADI) to reduce open-circuit voltage losses in the top perovskite cell.

A Spanish-Algerian reserch group has tested how “cool roofs” could help increase power yield in rootop bifacial PV systems. Cool roofs are based on coating materials with high reflectance properties.

Tongwei has developed the G12 TOPcon solar module series, with efficiency ratings up to 23.1% and a temperature coefficient of -0.30% per degree Celsius.

The IQ8-3P solar microinverter enables peak power output of up to 480 W.