Sungrow Power Supply reported more than a doubling of PV inverter sales and shipments in 2013, supported by its first move advantage and leadership position in the rapidly growing Chinese market.
First Solar and GE’s Power Conversion business are utilizing their recently established technology and commercial partnership to develop a more cost effective and productive utility-scale PV power plant design that combines First Solar’s thin-film CdTe modules with GE’s new ProSolar 1500 Volt inverter/transformer system, which is claimed to be the largest inverter in the industry capable of accommodating 1,500 volt DC solar arrays.
First Solar has revealed a new total area module efficiency record for its CdTe thin-film technology of 17%, a significant increase from 16.1%, set in April 2013.
First Solar is planning its next major CdTe thin-film production capacity expansion phase to occur in 2015 with an additional 1GW of nameplate capacity. The company revealed the plans during its 2014 Analyst Day event.
The largest US solar installer, SolarCity deployed 280MW of PV installations in 2013, with plans to top 500MW in 2014 as it continues to race towards installing as much PV as possible before US tax equity incentive schemes are significantly reduced in 2017.
Major tier one PV manufacturer JA Solar reported better than guided shipments for the fourth quarter of 2013, while ending two years of quarterly losses on revenue of US$357.3 million.
Major PV inverter manufacturer, Sungrow Power Supply is partnering on plans for two PV power plants totalling around 100MW in two regions within Gansu Province, China.
Dubbed ‘Merlin,’ GT Advanced Technologies has launched a c-Si solar cell metallisation and interconnect technology that it claims will boost conversion efficiencies while lowering production costs via significantly reduced silver paste consumption.
GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) has announced an innovative cell metallisation and interconnect technology, dubbed ‘Merlin’ that is expected to provide substantial savings in both the manufacture and installation of solar modules. A key component of the new technology includes a flexible grid that replaces conventional two and three silver bus bars, while significantly reducing solver paste consumption.
Tier one PV manufacturer, Hanwha SolarOne, expects to spend around US$80 million on capital expenditure to expand both solar cell and PV module capacity to meet expected module shipment growth of 25% in 2014.
