China

Sungrow, the world’s second largest inverter supplier, according to GTM research, has announced plans to establish production facilities in India. The Chinese inverter company is aiming to strengthen its global delivery capability by setting up central and string inverter facilities in the state of Karnataka. The fab would be its first outside of China.

Latest Global Solar Demand Monitor from GTM Research forecasts 6% annual increase in PV installation growth although current largest markets will register 7% contraction while geographic diversification poised to grow.

RenewSys India has filed an application before the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping & Allied Duties for the imposition of anti-dumping duty on imports of ‘Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) Sheet for Solar Module’ from China PR, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Thailand.

With 11 GW, India is set to become the second largest solar PV market in 2018, usurping the U.S., as global demand reaches 113 GW, says IHS Markit. It adds that Q4 will be the biggest quarter in history for installations, with 34 GW expected.

The Asian companies will form a joint venture in India to execute the plan. The project’s total investment is expected to be around US$930 million, which will be used for the production of solar PV ingots, wafers, cells, modules and batteries.

Dr. Frank Rijsberman, Director-General, Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), South Korea, speaks to pv magazine about its ventures in the Indian solar and storage market. Rijsberman outlines that the country’s growing and diversifying economy, with its ambitious renewable targets, can help to capitalize on the demographic dividend. As a result, it can become the world’s primary consumer sustainable growth market.

Lamination innovation: The ongoing ambition of laminator manufacturers is to develop machines that can deliver high output through a faster lamination process, while simultaneously reducing their footprint by combining several machines into one. However, an in-depth process know-how is essential in order to produce defect-free modules. Which players possess such knowledge?

CETC (India) has broken ground on an around US$49 million 200 MW solar PV cell manufacturing facility in the state of Andhra Pradesh. It will produce both standard polysilicon and PERC monocrystalline cells pv magazine has learned.

Panasonic’s Chinese factory has started the mass production and global supply of prismatic-type automotive lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. Its Indian subsidiary, Panasonic India, meanwhile has launched a new energy storage solution, CBPS 8000, for telecom towers at the Elecrama 2018 exhibition, currently taking place in India.

Only one month after announcing a PERC module efficiency of 20.41%, the Chinese solar manufacturer announced it has now achieved a 23.6% efficiency for its PERC monocrystalline cells, thus beating its own previous records.