The first PV ModuleTech event is due to take place in Kuala Lumpur on 7-8 November, and the event is poised to explain and define the key module suppliers, technologies and audited metrics that are imperative to developers, EPCs, investors and asset owners for utility-scale solar module deployment in 2018 and beyond.
‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member and the largest integrated monocrystalline manufacturer LONGi Green Energy Technology said its subsidiary, LONGi Solar would ramp volume production of its PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Cell) technology by the end of 2017.
When manufacturing capacities moved from megawatt to gigawatt ten years ago, the concept of having a fully-integrated and automated production site was widely accepted to be the most economical, Finlay Colville examines whether this is truly the case.
PV Tech talked with PV Lighthouse’s Malcolm Abbot ahead of PV ModuleTech 2017, being held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 7-8 November 2017. Malcolm will be a guest speaker at the event.
Things can change very quickly in the solar industry, and no more so than when new trade-related cases are introduced or existing ones are amended in scope. Often companies – and in particular module suppliers relying on export revenues – suddenly find themselves with a golden opportunity that was previously not in their strategies, or have barriers unlocked that remove competitors based in other countries.
The Indian solar industry expressed shock recently when it emerged that multiple Chinese PV manufacturers had been reneging on supply contracts to India, but it seems this strategy may have been a comeuppance for historic behaviour on the part of some Indian developers.
With many of the top-20 module suppliers to the solar industry now having multi-GW shipment volumes, attention has turned firmly to assessing metrics that companies can use to benchmark the quality and reliability of shipped products against their competitors.
Some of the industry is at loggerheads and many feel local manufacturing must be intrinsic to the 100GW by 2022 solar target, but the value of trade duties is under dispute.
India’s Directorate General of Anti-Dumping & Allied Duties (DGAD) has published a letter revealing which Chinese, Taiwanese and Malaysian solar cell producers and exporters will be sampled in its ongoing anti-dumping investigation.
