During the past few years, we have had numerous requests at PV-Tech from a wide range of PV industry stakeholders (due mainly to the success of the PV CellTech and PV ModuleTech series of conferences) to launch an India-specific PV event in Delhi. The requests have come from Indian companies, overseas investors, government bodies, trade associations, and both upstream/downstream industry activists seeking to understand and drive future developments.
European research and innovation hub centre imec has detailed a path for its nPERT (n-type Passivated Emitter and Rear Totally diffused) solar cell technology to reach conversion efficiencies in excess of 24% for volume production applications.
China-based polysilicon and multicrystalline wafer producer Daqo New Energy has said it would discontinue its solar wafer manufacturing operations in September, 2018.
Much has been written and voiced over the past couple of months in the PV industry, following the so-called China-531 policy announcement that finally provided a wake-up call to Chinese manufacturers that their domestic end-market was not going to be allowed to maintain its near-exponential growth characteristics.
Leading ‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member JinkoSolar has reported higher than guided second quarter PV module shipments and reiterated total shipments guidance to be in the range of 11.5GW to 12GW in 2018.
As the solar industry has grown from a 50GW market to 100GW in just a few years, the desire to have differentiated production has increased, especially for companies entering the market or repositioning strategies.
Major China-based PV module manufacturer Risen Energy, which entered PV Tech’s Top 10 module manufacturer’s rankings for the first time in 2017, has recently held a ground-breaking ceremony for its planned 5GW solar module manufacturing base in the Yiwu Information Optoelectronics High-tech Industrial Park, Zhejiang, China.
NOS Microsystems has developed an electronic software delivery (ESD) ecosystem called 'getPlus' that bridges the gap between automation provider and end user by seamlessly integrating into the industrial automation providers’ licensing structures and databases—SAP, Oracle etc…to monitor the status of machines so exact updates, and incompatibility issues are identified. The user-friendly tool helps factories make the transition to industry 4.0.
PV Tech looks at market trends through the eyes of the CEO of DK Electronic Materials (DKEM), a metallization solution provider for high efficiency cells.