When we established the Silicon Module Super League (SMSL) a few years ago, it was prompted by the realisation that a select group of solar PV module suppliers were moving away from the 100+ chasing pack, and firmly establishing themselves as the companies that would be the dominant players as the industry moved towards and above annual shipment levels of 100GW.
This article reveals the top 10 module suppliers of 2018, based purely on own-brand shipped module MWp-dc volumes. This ranking complements our recently published top 10 cell producers feature.
Solar cell production in 2018 represented change on many fronts, but may be remembered as a year during which Chinese-owned companies made further strategic moves as part of the current Beijing mandate to position the country as a high-tech manufacturing global powerhouse.
A new technical report carried out by Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc. (E3) and sponsored by leading CdTe thin-film manufacturer First Solar, attempts to dispel the assumption that high levels of solar and wind electricity on electricity grids cause grid instability.
Leading CdTe thin-film module manufacturer First Solar is building a 58MW (AC) PV power plant using its next-generation large-area Series 6 modules and single-axis trackers for Facebook’s Prineville Data Center located in Oregon.
PV manufacturing capacity expansion announcements in the second quarter of 2018, were slightly higher than the previous quarter, although activity slumped specifically in June, after China’s decision to suddenly cap utility-scale and distributed generation (DG) projects (531 New Deal). But large-scale multi-gigawatt production plans in the first half of the year may have hidden an inevitable slowdown, despite the impact on downstream demand from the 531 New Deal.
We have tracked the annual R&D spending of 12 key publicly listed PV module manufacturers over the last 10 years. We present our new methodology with a broader scope which reveals record levels of investment in solar innovation.
NEXTracker, a Flex company has collaborated with CdTe thin-film module manufacturer, First Solar to provide a patent-pending racking technology for First Solar's Series 6 (large-area) panel rollout this year.
Ahead of PV ModuleTech conference, Finlay Colville takes an in-depth look at the type of module companies that will be internationally known over the next 12-18 months.
PV inverter manufacturer KACO new energy said it has supplied its string inverters to a 10.2MW solar carport in Turkey as part of a new amusement park near completion in Ankara, Turkey.
