Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

Michelle McCann and Lawrence McIntosh, the partners behind the solar panel testing facility, PV Lab, in Canberra think of Australia’s PV installations, large and small, as making up a vast virtual power plant. Their goal is to wring the promised performance from panels being sold into the Australian market and the ACT Government has just boosted their chances.

The SNEC 2020 PV Power Expo opened on Aug. 8 in Shanghai. Unlike previous editions, the world’s largest solar trade fair was mostly attended by Chinese participants this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While the trade fair used to offer insights into global market trends, volumes were low this year due to a buyer/seller standoff amid rising prices caused by the recent accidents at polysilicon plants in Xinjiang. Also, there was little change in technologies. PV InfoLink’s Corrine Lin offers insights into cells and modules at SNEC 2020.

The utility-scale solar pioneer and specialist is going small. After decades of avoiding distributed generation, its distributors will now offer First Solar’s series 6 modules to “projects and customers of all shapes and sizes.”

In the fourth and final article of a series, pv magazine editor Pilar Sánchez Molina analyzes with industry experts challenges and opportunities created by new panels with power output exceeding 500 W.

A Chinese research group has developed a PERC cell on a commercial 180-μm-thick monocrystalline silicon wafer with a standard size of 156 × 156 mm2. The cell has an open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 0.677 V, a short short-circuit current (ISC) of 9.63 A, and a fill factor of 80.30%.

In the third article in a series, pv magazine editor Pilar Sánchez Molina and industry experts continue their discussion on the challenges and opportunities created by new panels with power output exceeding 500 W.

South Australia’s first ten-star home was completed last month, a home that consumes twenty times less energy than the average Australian household, in part thanks to its Fimer React 2 solar hybrid system.

In the second article in a series, pv magazine editor Pilar Sánchez Molina and industry experts keep discussing the challenges and opportunities created by new panels with power output exceeding 500 W.

Endesa, the Spanish unit of Italian power group Enel, is using a new technology in the construction of three solar parks in southern Spain.

In the first article of a series, pv magazine editor Pilar Sánchez Molina analyzes with industry experts challenges and opportunities created by new panels with power output exceeding 500 W.