Asia

Unsubsidized solar keeps moving forward in Germany, the US, Egypt, the Philippines, and South Africa.

After ten secretive years, several hundred million dollars spent, and the efforts of hundreds of scientists and engineers, QuantumScape went public on a video call today with the performance results of its solid-state battery — and its potential impact on the electric vehicle industry.

Few doubt that aluminum frames will be a part of the solar module for some time to come. And with PV manufacturing continuing to scale, the carbon footprint of this versatile metal may prove a sustainability challenge.

Researchers in China are proposing a new technique to recover polyethylene glycol terephthalate (PET) and ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) in solar panels at the end of their lifecycle. The two materials represent around 15% of the total material in a wasted solar cell, with a share of 10% for EVA and 5% for PET, respectively.

JA Solar has agreed to sell three solar farms to China Power Investment Corporation, while Tongwei announced lower prices on a number of cells. Eight leading players are calling for the standardization of PV products with 210 mm wafers.

Also: Despite a rosy forecast, creating energy storage projects with competitive economics has been an elusive endeavor. Plus, rate design innovations are boosting the energy transition and Plug Power raises $1 billion for U.S. green hydrogen infrastructure build-out.

The Chinese photovoltaic manufacturer said the recent invalidation procedure for its patent at the Chinese Patent Office’s examination and invalidity department is only an administrative examination procedure that only examines whether or not the authorized Chinese patent complies with patent law requirements.

As of today, the dumb world of solar module tariffs is currently subjecting imported bifacial modules to a 20% penalty, the same tariff as almost all other crystalline silicon solar modules.

A pilot project in China was brought online this month, combining 10 MW of PV with electrolyzers for hydrogen production and carbon dioxide hydrogenation to synthesize methanol. The methanol is supplied to the chemical industry, or can be converted back into hydrogen for energy use. And the project’s creators say their next goal is scaling the project up to 10 or even 100 times its current size.

If you’re interested in some lightly-used MOCVD and PVD thin-film solar cell production equipment, have we got a deal for you.