Technology

After a short-lived collaboration, Europe’s two major solar events will be hosted four months apart in 2017, with EU PVSEC opting to travel to Amsterdam for its world leading PV solar energy conference.

The Japanese tech company broke the existing record with an impressive efficiency of 26.33% – the first time that 26% has been breached – during a NEDO project, which Kaneka Corporation hopes will lead the solar industry towards lower power generation costs.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory will lead a consortium comprising Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on the development of new solar module materials.

China Singyes Solar Technologies Holdings has confirmed that it has received formal approval to list shares of its Singyes New Materials subsidiary on the Hong Kong stock exchange’s secondary board.

Sector research from the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) shows that sales of German PV production equipment in the second quarter of 2016 grew 55% from Q1, continuing a trend which has seen orders of German equipment increase for four consecutive quarters.

Swiss startup Insolight is taking the initiative of concentrating sunlight onto space-age solar cells to make such technology affordable for residential PV customers, resulting in reduced costs for electricity consumption.

The German PV production equipment supplier has received an announcement that it has finally been sent prepayment for the EUR110 million of CIGS equipment from China National Building Materials (CNBM).

SMA’s Sunny Home Manager has added the prestigious brands of Bosch and Siemens to the list of appliances that it can easily integrate, adding to its ability to optimize power usage from a residential solar system and to continue costs electricity costs.

According to the latest U.S. Energy Storage Monitor, a quarterly publication from GTM Research and the Energy Storage Association (ESA), the United States deployed 41.2 megawatts of energy storage in the second quarter of 2016, an increase of 126% over the first quarter of the year. The nation is on track to deploy 287 megawatts of energy storage this year.

Changing technology, pressure to cut costs, dizzying price slumps and a number of other issues make solar module quality control as relevant as ever. The danger that modules could fail outright remains slim, so module reliability is still decisive for the success of the investment, explains George Touloupas, Director of Technology and Quality at CEA, in preparation of the 4th pv magazine Quality roundtable at SPI.