Manufacturing

Brisbane-based Vaulta has developed a lighter, smaller battery casing with fewer parts, which makes it easier to assemble modules and repair faulty components. CEO Dominic Spooner argues that the company’s patented technology has the potential to significantly reduce battery waste.

If demand picks up again toward the end of the year due to the current price situation, the downward trend for PV module prices could be stopped, according to pvXchange’s Martin Schachinger.

Singapore-based PV module manufacturer REC Group has launched in Australia a new series of rooftop solar panels with power ratings ranging from 450 W to 470 W and efficiencies up to 22.6%.

Solax claims its new hybrid inverters can oversize PV systems by 200%, making them an ideal solution for commercial rooftop installations. There are five versions, featuring rated power outputs ranging from 15 kW to 30 kW.

Scientists in the United States have achieved a breakthrough in PV cell tech by creating a 24 cm2 perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell. It positions a lithium fluoride interlayer between a hole transport layer and the perovskite absorber to reduce shunting losses.

Solar panel producer Maxeon Solar Technologies will lay off 750 employees by the end of the year as the company reels from reduced shipments from its largest distributed generation (DG) customer in North America and an ‘industry-wide demand slowdown’ in global DG markets.

The Western Australian government has studied the business case for developing new electrolyser manufacturing facilities in the state, finding a 2 GW manufacturing facility could inject $200 million (USD 128 million) per annum to the local economy.

1Komma5° says it plans to start production at a new TOPCon solar module factory in Germany from next year. The Hamburg-based startup aims to achieve an annual production capacity of 1 GW, with further expansion targets set to reach 5 GW by the year 2030.

Fortescue has become a “lead investor” in, and signed a 1 GW supply deal with, US-startup Electric Hydrogen, or EH2. Fortescue, which is pursuing both green hydrogen projects and electrolyser manufacturing, says EH2’s systems produce hydrogen at “transformational” low cost.

Already 5.8 million tonnes of green hydrogen manufacturing capacity is in different stages of installation in India, said power minister R.K. Singh at a summit in New Delhi recently.