Hunt Perovskite Technologies and 1366 Technologies said they have merged to form a company called CubicPV. The merger combines 1366’s Direct Wafer process and Hunt’s printed perovskite solar photovoltaic technology and aims to advance the adoption of tandem modules. The new company will receive $25 million in funding from Hunt Energy Enterprises, First Solar, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. North Bridge Venture Partners and Polaris Partners also joined in funding the new entity. Hunt Energy Enterprises will join the Board of Directors.
The companies said that tandem technology, also referred to as multi-junction, layers two light absorbers into one device, and can boost the power output of the end panel by 30% compared with current technology.
JinkoSolar notes ‘sharp rise’ in polysilicon prices
JinkoSolar Holding Co. announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2021 and said a “sharp rise in the price of polysilicon” has driven up the price of modules, which has affected downstream demand in the short term.
It said that lower demand has kept the materials’ prices from rising more. JinkoSolar said that as the prices of polysilicon stabilize, downstream demand is expected to resume in the second half of 2021.
The company reported total revenues of $1.21 billion for the quarter. Gross profit was $207.3 million, down 18.0% year over year.
Gross margin was 17.1%, compared with 16.0% in the fourth quarter of 2020 and 19.5% in the first quarter of 2020.
The company reported that it invested in Inner Mongolia Xinte Silicon Materials Co. to better secure its polysilicon material supply. And it also entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with China COSCO Shipping Corp. to handle transportation logistics.
JinkoSolar said that after taking into account supply chain and market conditions, it reduced its capacity expansion plan for 2021. It currently expects its annual mono wafer, solar cell, and solar module production capacity to reach 30 GW, 24 GW (including 940 MW N-type cells) and 33 GW, respectively, by the end of the year. That is down from previous guidance of 33 GW, 27 GW, 37 GW, respectively.
Battery electric vehicle growth
Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) will be the dominant form of road transport by 2050, accounting for 56% of all vehicle sales that year, according to new research from Wood Mackenzie.
By the middle of the century, some 875 million electric passenger vehicles, 70 million electric commercial vehicles, and 5 million fuel cell vehicles will be on the world’s roads.
Wood Mackenzie said that more than three out of every five vehicles on the roads will be electric vehicles in China, Europe and the U.S. by 2050. Almost one in two commercial vehicles will be electric by the same date in those regions.
Site permits for New York State solar
New York State officials issued final siting permits for Riverhead Solar 2, LLC and Morris Ridge Solar Energy Center, LLC.
Riverhead is a 36 MW solar facility in the Town of Riverhead, Suffolk County, on Long Island. Morris Ridge Solar Energy Center is a 177 MW solar facility coupled with 83 MW of battery energy storage in the Town of Mount Morris, Livingston County, south of Rochester.
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“Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) will be the dominant form of road transport by 2050, accounting for 56% of all vehicle sales that year, according to new research from Wood Mackenzie.”
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That’s nearly 30 years away. I seriously think BEVs will be above 90% of all vehicle sales by then. Maybe WM isn’t taking into account the exponential increase in battery technologies and instead thinks more linearly. Or maybe they think, as fossil fuel burning cars dwindle, fossil fuel prices will drop, keeping them more appealing. But even if fossil fuels drop to half what they cost today, an internal combustion engine car still can’t compete on overall cost of ownership against BEVs.