Heavy duty diamonds
Wafering: Meyer Burger counts on the benefits of using diamond wires to cut multicrystalline and monocrystalline wafers.
Job losses despite protectionism
Module prices: The antidumping duties are not helping the European solar industry. Who wins, who loses?
Leasing to own: a winning formula for the US market
Solar leasing: While solar leasing as pioneered by SolarCity has catapulted US residential PV to new heights, leasing and other financial models have done little to promote commercial and industrial systems in the country. LFC Capitals Solar Ownership Program combines leasing and ownership in what could be a winning formula to help drive this market segment further.
Made in the USA
US manufacturing: From the Silicon Forest to the Rust Belt to the South, US solar PV manufacturers are expanding once again.
Mobile payments driving pay-as-you-go PV
East Africa: In January, at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, M-Kopa Solar picked up the Zayed Future Energy Prize in the startup category. M-Kopa Solars Managing Director Jesse Moore shared the award stage with Vice-President Al Gore during which he quipped that the company is likely to return in the large corporation category in a matter of years. Its big talk for a small company, but it is driven by a powerful idea.
Picking up the fab
Inverter manufacturing: Insolvencies, job cuts and tumbling revenues have marred Europes solar inverter landscape, prompting the question: Are the days of inverter manufacturing in high-cost locations over? pv magazine discovers theres no simple answer to that rather straightforward question.
Regional solar PV manufacturing trends
PV manufacturing: Paula Mints, Founder and Chief Analyst of SPV Market Research, on the global PV manufacturing and shipping trends of the last ten years.
Role model for energy generation
Bangladesh: With distributed generation disrupting traditional energy supply models as the world seeks to keep climate change below the critical two degrees Celsius benchmark, analysts are predicting 2015 could be a tipping point for the switch from fossil fuels to renewables. The role model for the energy mix of tomorrow could be found in a surprising quarter.
Solars battle to plug in
UK electricity market reform: Billed as an effective means of decarbonizing the UKs economy, the EMR has faced accusations of favoritism and creating an uneven playing field for renewables. Solar PV in particular has suffered, but as the technology evolves and the market grows independently, change may soon come from the bottom up.
The rise of Chinese poly producers
Ranking polysilicon producers: Prices have rebounded from previous lows and companies are adding capacity through new plants or debottlenecking. Fluidized bed reactor processes continue to rise as do a number of fast-growing Chinese suppliers.
