South Korea

The Korean/German solar manufacturer has filed patent infringement lawsuits against the three companies in the United States, and is seeking to bar them from importing solar products for the U.S. market. Hanwha Q Cells claims its three rivals have used its patented solar cell passivation technology to increase the performance of their products.

The U.S. wafer maker and the Korean module manufacturer expect to ramp the Malaysian factory no later than September. The fab is next to Hanwha’s existing cell and module facilities and 1366 Technologies plans to produce its Direct Wafers on a gigawatt scale for less than $0.20 per piece.

In this op-ed StoreDot Founder and CEO Dr. Doron Myersdorf discusses the current battery manufacturing landscape, the next steps the industry could take, and the potential behind new technologies.

Hanwha Q Cells’ New York-listed business unit will come back under the company umbrella early next year, with a separate merger between two further units of the Korean conglomerate set to consolidate its solar expertise in house.

The power electronics maker will buy 75% of Kokam’s shares for $88 million, with an intent to acquire the remainder thereafter. Strategic company acquisitions and close partnerships are characterizing this year’s inverter market, as companies seek to diversify and integrate storage systems and other technologies.

A report by Technavio suggests the global market for battery materials could grow 9% annually for the next four years. Analysts point to the increasing installation of storage systems with PV as a key driver. pv magazine has covered previous reports predicting significant growth in PV and storage systems.

Analyst data records 53% annual growth in storage in 2017, rising to 1.9 GW as South Korea rose to top of the tree in terms of cumulative capacity. The global project pipeline has soared to 10.4 GW.

And inaugural global energy storage report by GTM Research finds that while the United States remains the world’s leading market with newly installed capacity of 431 MWh, China is poised to rise to second place globally in 2019.

Korea is making good on an earlier promise, and now Japan has joined in. Both nations demand that the Trump Administration reverse the tariffs, or suffer an equivalent volume of retaliatory tariffs.

The developer has sold off three large, operational solar plants to the Korea Electric Power Corporation, as parent company Canadian Solar moves into O&M.