Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

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.

Manufacturing capacity has been ramping up so quickly that even impressive installation growth cannot keep pace. Molly Morgan, senior research analyst at UK-based research firm Exawatt, explores the relationship between PV supply and demand and assesses the likelihood of overproduction.

Former Sun Cable chief executive David Griffin has been appointed to the top job at Australian modular PV array manufacturer 5B where he will oversee the continued rollout of its solar energy solution.

Scientists from South Korea have designed new photovoltaic modules with both rectangular and triangular shapes and solar cells connected in parallel, which they said have higher partial-shading tolerance compared with cells connected in strings. The panels are reportedly less sensitive to partial-shading geometries than shingled modules.

South Korean technology giant Samsung is reportedly looking to develop a ‘mega scale’ renewable generation, storage, and green manufacturing hub in the Northern Territory, its government has announced. However, no actual details on the size, nor any real specifics, appear to be known.

Scientists in the Netherlands have sought to understand the reason for unexpected gains in vertical PV systems and found that these installations have a much higher heat transfer coefficient than their horizontally deployed counterparts.

With the clean energy transition driving a global increase in demand for critical minerals, the Queensland government has declared Townsville will be home to Australia’s first state-owned processing facility for critical minerals like vanadium.

A Wood Mackenzie report forecasts that China will hold more than 80% of poly, wafer, cell and module manufacturing capacity for the next three years.

Chinese module maker BYD is producing a new bifacial monocrystalline panel at its manufacturing facility in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The module has a power output of up to 355 W and a conversion efficiency of 16.33%.

The US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has confirmed Longi’s achievement of a world record-breaking efficiency rating of 33.9% for a perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell.