Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

GCL System Integration plans to build a 60 GW solar module factory in China’s Anhui province, with a total investment of approximately $2.5 billion.

The U.S. thin-film solar company says its production lines in Ohio, Malaysia and Vietnam have thus far been able to carry on operations. The company says measures have been taken to protect its workers at all of its premises.

Also in the brief: financing for a massive Texas project, distributed portfolio expansion in the DMV, Duke waives fees amid COVID crisis and more.

Thin-film solar startup PI Energy didn’t disclose the photovoltaic materials system it’s been commercializing, other than to say that it wasn’t CIGS, CdTe, or perovskites.

Analyst Wood Mackenzie expects solar demand to decline but predicts the market will recover, with the prospects for the energy transition remaining intact.

Although every box of shingles we examined came from Changzhou, China, not the factory in New York.

Also in the brief: Enphase ships storage; homeless encampments using secondhand solar; big batteries.

Many solar factories in China are starting to resume production, suggesting that concerns about supplies of PV components could soon begin to ease. Nevertheless, the temporary standstill will have an impact on the global solar market, as the implementation of some projects will probably be postponed until next year.

The Chinese polysilicon giant’s net income fell nearly 23% year-on-year to $29.5 million in fiscal 2019, even though it posted a 16% year-on-year jump in revenue to $350 million. It expects its polysilicon output to soar in the year ahead, despite the threat posed by the coronavirus outbreak.

Optimizer manufacturer Alencon has published a paper outlining the technical challenges and solutions to replacing the largely-obsolete and frequently-failing 600-volt central inverters used in older PV projects.