Magazine Archive 06-2011

Module prices: With sales stagnating, most module manufacturers are achieving lower profit margins.

Germany: After months of standstill prices are declining on the German photovoltaics market. However, investors and installers require further price discounts in order not to endanger the fledgling recovery.

Process control: Important tools to reduce the balance of system costs in PV manufacturing are the use of advanced optical defect inspection systems and surface metrology systems, in combination with a comprehensive process control methodology, explains Pieter Vandewalle of KLA-Tencor Corporation.

Conference on Silicon Photovoltaics: Silicon PV is set to continue to dominate the solar cell manufacturing industry for the next ten years. It will hold that position due to its ability to eke out continued conversion efficiency improvements and cost reduction.

Polysilicon production: The Siemens process has been the forerunning technology in the polysilicon production world for the last years. Even with the advent of fluid-bed reactors and vapor-to-liquid deposition, the Siemens process remains the unrivalled popular method. Thus, it was with great interest that pv magazine toured the Schmid Silicon Technology (SST) pilot plant in Schwarze Pumpe, in the east of Germany. SST has their own method; one apparently ready to challenge the rest of the techniques.

Russia: The natural disaster that happened in Japan on 11 March that caused a series of serious reactions at the Fukushima nuclear power plants influenced the nuclear energy industry and politics in many countries all over the world. But apparently, not in Russia.

Smart grids: South Korea plans to build a nationwide smart grid to reduce energy imports, sustain economic development, and support the country’s ambitious carbon reduction goals. The smart grid roadmap includes five principle areas of research and development, and the test bed site spans an entire province: the island of Jeju.

Radio Frequency Identification: RFID is an excellent real-time tracing tool that improves the management of the supply chain by enhancing its productivity, accountability and inventory management, not only on the shop floor, but also in large-scale on- and off-grid power plants. Highly reliable, industrial RFID provides 100 percent process traceability, as IAITO Infotech’s Anand Shenoy explains.

Spain: A wave of lawsuits against the Spanish Government is welling up after the authorities applied retroactive tariff adjustments to existing photovoltaic systems. But the industry is still optimistic about the future. Solar panels on industrial roofs are gaining momentum. And a regulation for self consumption is on the horizon.