The World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruling in favour of the US on its complaint against India’s localisation rules for solar equipment, does “not affect the future course of action” that India is considering, Tarun Kapoor, joint secretary of India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has told PV Tech.
The forthcoming PV CellTech conference in Malaysia, 16-17 March 2016, is poised to unveil the key issues that will underpin c-Si solar cell manufacturing over the next few years.
According to Taiwan-based market research firm EnergyTrend, a division of TrendForce, demand for monocrystalline wafers in China is increasing due to capacity constraints with mainstream multicrystalline wafers.
PV Cycle, a not-for-profit compliance and waste management programme solar PV technology in Europe, has achieved a record recycling rate of 96% for silicon-based PV modules.
There is no more doubt that PERC is becoming a mainstream technology in standard industrial solar cell production. The question arising is “what is next?”
The Indian government has sought industry feedback on the concept of establishing a polysilicon manufacturing hub in the country. Matthias Grossman looks at how such a proposal would fare in the currently unsettled global poly market.
Despite record low polysilicon prices seen in January 2016 marking a clear oversupply, PV manufacturing capacity expansions and projected end-market demand could reverse the situation by the end of 2016, specifically in China.
UK-based multicrystalline wafer producer PV Crystalox Solar inferred in a financial statement that it could finally benefit financially from the divergence of polysilicon and wafer prices, after several years of loss making.
SolarCity, the largest residential solar PV installer in the US said in its fourth quarter 2015 earnings call that its ambitious 1GW Buffalo Riverbend manufacturing facility had been impacted by longer than expected equipment lead times, pushing some equipment installs into the second-half of 2016.
