Manufacturing

There’s more to read in the solar world than pv magazine alone, as much as we may hate to admit it. Looking back across some of the industry’s seminal works, leading analyst Jenny Chase’s 2019 book is too valuable, and entertaining, to be ignored.

Leading solar inverter manufacturer Goodwe has doubled the warranty provided with its on-grid inverters to 10 years as the company looks to build on its success in the Australian residential rooftop PV market with an increased presence in the commercial sector.

Forget the beer goggles, settle into the spectacles of a sunny disposition and thank whatever gods may be for beer, solar panels and sunshine. That’s what Melbourne’s Moon Dog Brewing has done with the installation of a near 100 kW solar system atop their brewpub. Inspired by the savings made on emissions and electricity bills, the brewers have released a limited edition solar-powered IPA.

The EV manufacturer with big solar ambitions has finally leveraged its expertise in power electronics technology and launched a solar inverter.

Technical innovation and solar module production at scale bring with them the opportunity to integrate environmental responsibility. One major manufacturer is reaping returns on its investment.

Throughout 2020, a fast-moving story played out in PV module technology, with the introduction of larger wafers and subsequently larger module formats seeing the industry break into two camps, backing either 182 mm or 210 mm wafers. It remains to be seen whether one or the other will become a new industry standard, and both sizes will likely be plentiful on the market for the next few years at least. pv magazine takes a look at how we got to this point.

Solar PV module manufacturer Winaico has added two new products to its range with the first of the company’s innovative Gemini series to be released in Australia later this month.

Dutch company Rads Global Business has developed an anti-soiling coating for solar PV modules that is claimed to reduce cleaning cost by around 60%. The anti-reflective and anti-corrosive coating is also said to mitigate potential-induced degradation (PID).

Having supplied more than 450 MW of residential solar systems in 2020, Chinese inverter giant Sungrow is confident that 2021 will be the year it cracks the utility scale segment. It is also set to introduce a new battery for the distributed market segment, says Sungrow Australia country manager Joe Zhou.

SMA Australia had a bumper year in 2020, despite increasing competition and Covid-19, and partly because of the West Murray crisis. What’s next?