Researchers at the German research institute have found that indirect gravure printing for metallization of silicon heterojunction solar cells reduces silver consumption and cycle times to below 0.5 seconds per cell, while still enabling conversion efficiencies of up to 20.7%.

The latest supply chain report from the Hong Kong-based technical compliance and quality assurance company covers India, providing information about current and planned capacity at 116 manufacturing plants.

The latest Sinovoltaics financial stability report ranking lists Tainergy, Eterbright, First Solar, Era Solar, and TSEC as the top five module makers. There was a slight reshuffling in the top ten, and seven new manufacturers were added to the ranking.

A German team developed models to illustrate water-saving potential in PERC silicon solar cell manufacturing based on a circular approach and commercially available technology. In the case of a 5 GW fab, water savings of up to 79% and wastewater discharge reductions up to 84% could be achieved, a “significant” improvement compared to a reference scenario.

The latest supply chain report from the Hong Kong-based technical compliance and quality assurance company covers the Southeast Asia region, providing information about 50 manufacturing sites.

Seraphim says it will build a new 10 GW solar panel factory in two phases in Guangzhou, with an investment of CNY 6 billion ($829.6 million), while JA Solar has announced plans to construct a 5 GW panel factory in Inner Mongolia.

JinkoSolar has broken ground on a 56 GW PV panel factory in China’s Shanxi province. It says the new facility will be vertically integrated and will be constructed in four 14 GW phases.

The Chinese module manufacturer led an international research team seeking silicon material savings and efficiency gains in the development of heterojunction PV devices. The cell achieved a certified power conversion efficiency of 26.06% with a thickness of 57 μm, with Germany’s Institute for Solar Energy Research confirming the result.

Canadian Solar says its new 14 GW vertically integrated cell and module factory will require an investment of CNY 9.63 billion ($1.33 billion), while Aiko Solar says it will invest CNY 9.97 billion in a 10 GW facility.

Verde Technologies, a U.S.-based spinoff of the University of Vermont specializing in single junction and all thin-film tandem perovskite solar technologies, has demonstrated that its coating processes are transferable to existing commercial roll-to-roll manufacturing lines in a project with compatriot manufacturer Verico Technology.