Magazine Archive 2012

Laser technology: Lasers are becoming an essential component in crystalline solar (c-Si) cell production, driven by demand for equipment upgrades for the manufacture of high efficiency cells, but there is more the technology has to offer.

Raw materials: With the international price war at full tilt, any way to lower costs is of central importance to the photovoltaics industry. Copper is one of the most expensive base metals in the world, and the potential for cost cutting along the whole value chain is huge.

PV Taiwan: The challenges facing the solar industry are no secret with low prices across the industry sending some solar manufacturers reeling. This only adds to PV Taiwan’s significance. PV Taiwan, held on October 3 to 5, is Taiwan’s premium solar PV trade expo, bringing together hundreds of countries from all the top solar producing regions, especially the world’s numbers 1 and 2, China and Taiwan.

Dear readers, The USA against China, China against the USA, the European Union against China, China against the European Union – the chain reaction triggered by the U.S. trade restrictions against Chinese PV imports were foreseeable and are counterproductive. The solar industry is tearing itself apart and solar electricity will certainly not become more competitive […]

US system prices: The following article by analysts at GTM Research details the factors that contributed to price declines in each US solar PV market segment in Q1 2012.

Tax investing: The last solar projects developed using the popular federal U.S. Treasury cash grants are finishing up. Can the U.S. solar market keep up its momentum by attracting corporate financiers as those grants fade away? Here is what the signs show so far, and what corporate investors might mean for the market.

Module prices: Large price decreases should lead to higher demand in the fourth quarter.

Intelligent grid: For some time now, experts have been saying that it is theoretically possible to obtain 100 percent of required power from renewable energy sources. In the heart of Berlin, a so-called micro smart grid is poised to provide evidence for this. But the project has placed researchers in uncharted scientific territory.

Quasi-mono standards: The SEMI standards for quasi-monocrystalline silicon wafers can create a clear pathway for market acceptance of the technology and facilitate growth. The SEMI PV Group’s Stephan Raithel and LDK Solar’s Yuepeng Wan and Linyan Liu explore the potential of the technology and why standards could be valuable.