Manufacturing

Solar panels are growing to produce higher output, racking needs to evolve in tandem. Industry participants have contributed to a new Australian-manufactured rail that is engineered to ensure safety, longevity and the needs of installers working on residential and commercial rooftop projects.

There’s nothing new under the sun, and this is ever so in PV. So it should come as no surprise that the hottest new cell technology has actually been in mass production for decades. But is now the time for heterojunction to move into the mainstream? There are serious challenges to overcome if so, but momentum is undoubtedly building.

UNSW Faculty of Engineering doctoral researcher Bruno Vicari Stefani won the University’s Virtual 3 Minute Thesis Final by creatively reimagining the fable of the Three Little Pigs to demonstrate how combining hydrogen with low-cost silicon in solar can improve efficiency.

Once an industrial solar giant, Suntech has worked hard to rebuild its foundations and regain a solid footing in the global PV industry, following its financial crash in 2013. pv magazine caught up with CEO Tang Jun at this year’s SNEC 2020, held in Shanghai, China, last month, to find out its plans for the future, and how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected operations. Strong global growth and continued multi-crystalline production are two cornerstones of the business.

Jolywood is one of the few PV manufacturers, who has placed its bet on TOPCon technology. Instead of focusing on the simplicity of the production process, Jolywood believes the conversion rate is more critical. With years of efforts, the company has established its leading position among TOPCon players. During the SNEC 2020 in Shanghai, pv magazine had the opportunity to interview Liu Zhifeng, Vice General Manager of Jolywood, and listened to his views on some hot topics, especially the cell tech route.

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%.