In case you missed it: Five big solar stories in the news this week
pv magazine USA spotlights news of the past week including market trends, project updates, policy changes and more.
Iron flow battery manufacturer secures $50 million investment
Publicly-traded ESS Tech announced it received an investment from the Export-Import Bank of the United States to expand its manufacturing capacity in Oregon.
Sinovoltaics updates North American solar module manufacturing map
The latest North American manufacturing hub report from Sinovoltaics maps current and planned capacity for 95 plants in the region’s PV module supply chain. The report tracks announcements of current and future capacities at plants producing PV modules, cells, wafers, ingots, polysilicon, and metallurgical-grade silicon.
Sunrise brief: New York governor urged to double solar deployment goal.
Also on the rise: Solar ingot and wafer manufacturing coming to Oklahoma. Pre-assembled residential solar canopy HelioWing product launches.
Solar ingot and wafer manufacturing coming to Oklahoma
The Norwegian company, Norsun, announced an investment of $620 million in a 5 GW ingot and wafer facility planned in Tulsa.
Back contact solar beats mono PERC at lifetime energy generation
A new analysis finds that back contact solar shows an average lifetime energy generation increase of 16.0% over mono PERC. The paper also says back contact had an average 9.7% shorter payback time and 10.7% lower LCOE across all modelled locations.
Sunrise brief: Solar tax transfer for smaller projects–Dissecting a $600,000 tax credit transaction
Also on the rise: Meyer Burger set to begin production at U.S. module factory. City of Detroit to install solar in mostly vacant neighborhoods. And more.
Origami Solar sets up regional fabrication of steel solar panel frames
Partnerships with steel equipment producers in Ohio and two locations in Texas will enable Origami to have its steel solar module frames shipped from fabricator to module manufacturer in one to two days, the company says.
‘We expect solar panel prices to stabilize in the second half of the year’
At Intersolar Europe 2024, pv magazine spoke with Edurne Zoco, executive director, Clean Energy Technology at S&P Global Commodity Insights, about module price trends, increasing solar demand and PV manufacturing outside China. She claims panel prices may stabilize in the second half of this year or in early 2025 and says top seven Chinese manufacturers may even continue with capacity expansion plans. She also believes that, without further substantial incentives, Europe will not be able to recreate a domestic PV supply chain.
‘Module prices surprisingly keep going down’
As part of our Intersolar 2024 interview series, pv magazine spoke with Yana Hryshko, head of Solar Supply Chain Research for Wood Mackenzie, about overcapacity, declining panel prices and expected PV demand for the next years. She revealed that Chinese module procurement schemes are currently seeing unprecedented, “ridiculously” low bids, but she also noted that the $0.08/W threshold may now be difficult to exceed. Hryshko also expects many manufacturers to backpedal on previously announced capacity expansion plans and renegotiate module supply contracts.
