Manufacturing

The sheer volume of new power lines which will be required to accommodate the rising tide of solar installations ensures copper has been included by the International Energy Agency on its list of minerals which must keep flowing if the energy transition is to stay on course. And it’s not production that’s the potential bottleneck.

Adani Enterprises, which already controls Mundra Solar PV, has acquired a 74% stake in PV cells and modules manufacturing business Mundra Solar Energy through its subsidiary. The move will bring synergy in the company’s solar manufacturing operations and solidify its position in this space.

Maxeon’s Air technology platform brings solar to previously inaccessible roof spaces.

The vertically integrated factory, located in the Dholera Special Industrial Region, will produce 2 GW of mono PERC solar cells and modules annually. Production is expected to start from the next fiscal year. 

Developed by a French-Canadian research group, the triple-junction cell is based on indium gallium phosphide (InGaP), indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) and germanium (Ge) and has an active area of only 0.089 mm2. It can be used for applications in micro-concentrator photovoltaics (CPV).

British scientists have reported significant restoration of the panel performance with the experimental compressed air system developed by them for the simultaneous cleaning and cooling of PV modules. The system was built with a compressed-air unit which was made of a compressor, an air tank, and an airflow regulation valve, and a series of nozzles. The technique was tested on a PV system located in northwestern India.

The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) under the commerce ministry stated the Indian manufacturers provided sufficient evidence to warrant the initiation of an investigation into the alleged dumping of solar cells. The investigation will aim to determine the existence, degree and effect of the dumping and recommend an amount of anti-dumping duty to offset the material injury to domestic manufacturers.

The devil is in the details, as they say, and when it comes to the next generation of mass-produced, high-efficiency PV cells, silver costs may be devilishly hard to reduce. Making things worse, prices for the precious metal are now heading in the wrong direction.

The production-linked incentive scheme for battery storage, with an outlay of INR 18,100 crore (US$ 2459 million), is intended to build a cumulative 50 GWh of advanced chemistry cell (ACC) and 5 GWh of ‘niche’ ACC production facilities in India.

The government of India has recognized the manufacturer for the development and commercialization of 2mm thick fully-tempered solar glass, Selene anti-glare solar glass, and Shakti solar glass in matt-matt finish.