China

The polysilicon producer is sticking by plans to ramp up manufacturing capacity almost 300% within three years and says it will produce the basic material for the new generation of n-type solar panels.

Solar manufacturer Jolywood, which supplied almost 500 MW of its bifacial tunnel oxide passivated contact panels for Oman’s Ibri II facility, has claimed the power plant is the biggest to date to deploy the high-efficiency technology.

The Chinese manufacturer appears to have shouldered higher input costs in return for carving out a larger slice of the world’s biggest solar market – although it’s not clear from the company’s third-quarter update that CEO Xiande Li received the memo.

According to Chinese researchers, using abandoned coal mine goaves for pumped hydro facilities in combination with large scale solar and wind is not only technically feasible but can also provide an efficiency of 82.8% in yearly operation cases. They applied the model to wind and solar-rich northwestern and southwestern China.

The battery was fabricated by Chinese scientists with a low-cost electrolyte made of a derivative of TEMPO, which is a well-known electroactive aminoxyl radical used with several applications in chemistry and biochemistry. According to the researchers, the battery shows high redox potential and is crossover-free.

On September 7, the country that consumes more power than any other nation introduced green energy trading. Two regions in China, Beijing and Guangzhou, were selected for the initial introduction of what will become the national green power trading market. Although it is still a pilot program, the market is expected to have far-reaching impacts on China’s energy transition away from coal. What do you need to know about it? Vincent Shaw in Shangahi sets out the details.

The new product has a power conversion efficiency of up to 19.3% and a weight of 11.2 kg. The module is produced with glass fibre reinforced plastic, which the manufacturer says reduces light reflection and opens up new assembly options.

Reports calculated that the single order would be enough to support production of 800,000 vehicles.

The past 12 months have proved profitable for polysilicon manufacturers, as selling prices have soared to levels not seen since 2011. However, with major new capacity expansions on the horizon from most of the leading manufacturers, and new players planning to enter the scene, the market balance looks set to shift. Exawatt’s Alex Barrows rounds up where the industry stands and what might happen next.

Factories suffering from rationed grid electricity could help drive a boom in on-site solar systems, and recent moves to mandate the retrofitting of PV on existing buildings could also lift the market, as analyst Frank Haugwitz explains.