Solar Manufacturing News

After emerging as the recipient of most of the Brazilian government’s public allocation of generation capacity, the Canadian-Chinese manufacturer has secured a large share of projects in auctions held by power companies Copel and, probably, Cemig.

Solar and storage developer 7X Energy has spent more than US$100 million to stockpile 2GWac of Power Electronics inverters in order to take advantage of the full investment tax credit (ITC) before it starts to taper next year.

Norwegian polysilicon manufacturer REC Silicon announced last Thursday it is considering selling its silane gas facility in Butte, in the US state of Montana.

The office of the U.S. Trade Representative has removed the exemption of bifacial products from Section 201 tariffs, effective October 28.

The Total Solar International PV unit of the French oil giant has started construction of a large scale plant in Osato, in the prefecture of Miyagi, Japan. With its third solar project in Japan, Total will reach 100 MW of installed generation capacity in less than two years.

Researchers from Canada have unveiled a new germanium deposition process which is said to eliminate threading dislocations and be significantly cheaper than previous approaches. The scientists say their technique creates nanovoids on the surface of the germanium layer which can attract and annihilate undesirable dislocations.

Developer Hydrogen Renewables Australia (HRA) and German engineering giant Siemens have unveiled plans for a hydrogen production facility in Western Australia, meant to be powered by a whopping 5GW of wind and solar.

U.S. manufacturers First Solar and SunPower could be among the winners following the announcement that the Trump administration will impose a 25% tariff on bifacial panels, although analysts warned that the new tariffs could be an overall negative for the industry.

Inverter manufacturer Solaredge has filed three additional patent infringement lawsuits against its competitor, Huawei, in China. This comes after three similar legal actions against Huawei that had been undertaken by Solaredge in Germany last summer. While Huawei has decided not to comment on the matter, the Chinese manufacturer revealed that it had filed three patent litigation claims against Solaredge at a Chinese court this May.

The US government has extended its solar import tariffs to bifacial modules, in a policy u-turn set to partially redraw the global trade flows of the fast maturing technology.

The polysilicon company draws another bad hand in the trade war.

The U.S. Trade Representative has not responded to claims it will end the exemption from Section 201 duties. If true, the development could be a big hit for Asian PV manufacturers and an annoyance for the U.S. market – but a positive for First Solar.

Cesium lead black perovskites could be interesting for solar cell development if their crystals are observed in their less efficient but more stable beta phase. The efficiency shortfall can be solved by healing emerging cracks in the surface of the cell using a choline iodide solution, according to an international team of scientists.

Plans to develop an 18 GWh lithium-ion battery factory in northern Queensland have reached an important milestone with the project feasibility study submitted to the Queensland government.

The holders of almost six million shares in the company voted against the reappointment of chairman and CEO Liu Hongwei as a non-executive director. On Liu’s watch the company has had to turn to a state bail-out from China to help ensure its survival.