Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

The Indian government has created a strong balance between industrial policy as well as trade policy, which provides companies like First Solar an ideal opportunity to establish their manufacturing facilities in India, according to First Solar chief executive officer Mark Widmar.

Adani, Reliance New Energy, Jindal India Solar and Shirdi Sai Electricals have been put on a shortlist for India’s production-linked incentive scheme for high-efficiency PV module manufacturing. The list includes 14 other companies vying for the incentives.

The urgent global need for tens of terawatts of solar capacity to replace fossil fuels by 2050 signals it’s time to hone in on developing the most sustainable technologies — before reserves of silver, indium and bismuth dry up.

Solar cell production could consume every ounce of the world’s known silver reserves within a few years. One industry guru and his UNSW colleagues have set out the case for carefully considering what happens next.

Singaporean scientists have developed a special device that prevents the formation of dendrites in lithium-ion storage. The additional layer they created works as an interface on behalf of the negative electrode, to exchange lithium-ions with the positive electrode.

The German research institute has unveiled a novel interconnection technology for shingled PV modules that eliminates the need for electrically conductive adhesives and screen-printed busbars. It consists of an 8-μm-thick aluminium foil that is joined to the silicon nitride (SiNX) passivation via laser metal bond (LMB). When integrated in a solar module, the efficiency of the new interconnector improved by 0.7%.

Rising efficiencies and the plummeting cost of solar modules over the past few years, recent months notwithstanding, are leading innovators toward ideas that may look unusual in the current tracker-dominated world of large-scale solar parks. Advocates of the new approaches argue that they leave traditional models looking decidedly flat by comparison.

Developed by U.S. scientists, the 10%-efficient device is intended for applications in solar windows and promises efficiencies close to 15%. According to its creators, the cell retained 80% of its efficiency after 1,900 hours at 55 degrees Celsius.

Price increases, supply chain disruptions, and a series of trade risks are threatening the U.S.’s ability to decarbonise the grid, warned SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper.

Global hydrogen vehicle maker Hyzon Motors Inc. has confirmed five of its ultra-heavy-duty hydrogen trucks will be used by Korea Zinc’s subsidiary Ark Energy in its Queensland operations from as early as next year.