Canadian Solar

Throughout this year, a fast-moving story has played out in PV module technology, with the introduction of larger wafers and subsequently larger module formats seeing the industry break into two camps, backing either 182 mm or 210 mm wafers. It remains to be seen whether one or the other will become a new industry standard, and both sizes will likely be plentiful on the market for the next few years at least. pv magazine takes a look at how we got to this point.

Hong Kong-listed solar company Irico New Energy is preparing to shunt its non solar glass business units into Chinese state-controlled parent Irico Group so it can treble its PV glass production capacity in 2024 with the help of a four-line, $108 million manufacturing facility.

The Ontario-based solar company will pay US$13 million to settle a class action filed in August 2010, after the Ontario Superior Court approved the offer.

The Chinese-Canadian company has secured two more deals in the Brazilian deregulated energy market. A 12-year PPA was awarded by BTG bank while a second, 15-year contract was awarded by power provider Furnas Centrais Elétricas.

The solar manufacturer’s impressive third-quarter gross margin is set to fall back in the current three-month window because global shortages have seen some material costs double since the world came out of Covid-19 shock.

China’s largest PV manufacturers claim limits placed on solar glass production two years ago, to prevent over production, are now causing an industry bottleneck.

The HiKu7 CS 7N-MS series is available with power output ranging from 640-665 W and efficiency ranging from 20.6-21.4%. The panel, which is the most powerful product the company brought to the market to date, is considered ideal for utility-scale and commercial and industrial PV projects.

The Italian energy company has developed four big solar plants in the last 21 months to add 794 MW of generation capacity to its 3.67 GW solar portfolio and is emblematic of companies from the wider energy sector focusing on the renewable technology.

Bigger PV module designs are now hitting the market, but the production of larger, more powerful solar panels is challenging. Canadian Solar is launching its new Series 7 modules with pv magazine in a webinar on Oct. 29. Our editorial team recently caught up with Canadian Solar’s chairman and CEO, Shawn Qu, and director of module R&D, Alan Xu, to discuss the company’s latest efforts to shake up the market.

The iron and steel sector is the ‘world’s largest industrial source of climate pollution.’ This steel mill in Pueblo, Colorado, will be the first in North America to rely on solar power.