The Electric Power Board of Thailand (Egat) aims to increase the capacity of floating photovoltaic plants at its nine hydropower stations to 10GW by 2037, with an investment of nearly 300 billion baht. The Thai government earlier approved Egat's plan to develop 2,725MW floating photovoltaic plants at nine DAMS. Egat is waiting for approval of its capacity expansion from the committee that drafted the National Power Development Plan for 2023, Egat Director General Boonyanit Wongrukmit said. Egat has completed the development of its first floating photovoltaic plant, with a capacity of 45MW, located at the Sirindhorn Dam in Ubon Ratchathani in the northeast. Egat is building a second floating PV plant with a capacity of 24MW at the Ubonrattana dam in Khon Kaen in the northeast. Boonyanit said the project includes the installation of energy storage systems and weather forecasting equipment to ensure more stable power supply from solar farms.

The US production site will come on stream at 3 GW, with plans to double capacity to 6 GW.Enel North America announced that it has chosen Oklahoma as the site for its new solar cell and manufacturing facility. The facility was first announced in November 2022 and will be operated by its affiliate, 3Sun USA.The main battery and panel plant is expected to have an initial capacity of 3 GW, with Enel saying it plans to double that to 6 GW. The plant is expected to bring millions of dollars of investment to the state and create more than 1,500 jobs, with production expected to begin by the end of 2024."We are close to completing an assessment of potential sites for the plant, and factors such as land availability, skilled Labour stock, connectivity to transport networks and tax and incentive structures are taken into account when making location decisions," an Enel spokesperson told PV.The United States has become increasingly attractive to solar panel makers because the $370 billion Inflation Reduction Act contains a raft of manufacturing incentives, including tax breaks for solar cell and panel manufacturing.Enel currently has a $3 billion wind power portfolio in the state and an office in Oklahoma City. "We are very much looking forward to the possibility of expanding our presence in the state," Enel said.The facility will join Qcells' 3.3GW vertically integrated solar manufacturing base in Georgia, making it the largest solar manufacturing announcement in the United States to date."[Oklahoma] is on the verge of one of the largest economic development deals in our state's history with Enel, which has invested in our state for more than a decade," Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt said.Enel says it is considering building a new plant in the Tulsa area.

Nova Innovation, a leader in tidal energy technology, says it will install its first floating photovoltaic demonstration project in Scotland later this year. The company is currently building a multi-megawatt international pipeline.     Scotland will deploy its first floating photovoltaic system this year as part of work to increase renewable energy generation and reduce carbon emissions. Nova Innovation, a leading developer of tidal turbines, has added floating solar products to its portfolio and will install the above PV systems later this year. The company is currently testing the array at its facility in Edinburgh.Speaking during a visit to the production site in Edinburgh's Leith Harbour area, Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf said: "These panels give usa glimpse of the opportunities for Scotland's future energy system and are a first step in exploiting the huge potential of floating solar."Nova Innovation installed the world's first offshore tidal turbine array in Shetland in 2016. The company then secured 6.4 million pounds ($8 million) in funding from the National Investment Bank of Scotland in 2021 to expand production of innovative renewable energy generators. It has since set up project sites in Canada, France and Indonesia."The Scottish National Investment Bank's investment in Nova Innovation helps expand the company's manufacturing base in Leith and aligns with the Scottish Government's priorities to support innovative technologies, which will help us achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2045," Yousaf said, "Scotland is already one of the most advanced Marine energy technology testing and demonstration centres in Europe, and I look forward to seeing solar panels rolled out here in the near future."Simon Forrest, chief executive of Nova Innovation, said record high energy prices and growing concerns about security of supply made it imperative for Scotland to focus on exploiting its vast natural resources to develop homegrown energy."Scotland is at the heart of the tidal energy revolution and Nova continues to lead the field with proven technology and unmatched reliability," Forrest said. "Adding floating solar to our portfolio puts us in an ideal position to better drive towards net zero emissions."Nova Innovation says the installation of the floating photovoltaic unit will officially start later this year. The company says it already has several megawatts of international pipeline.

On March 21, the second day of Jinan Exhibition, Growatt booth scene is still hot. At the booth site, Growatt held a new product launch ceremony of "Inherit classic, recreate classic". Growatt made a grand debut with MAC 60KTL3-X2 LV industrial and commercial inverter products, explaining the core strength of the enterprise with innovation. With the proposal of the two-carbon strategy and the introduction of various favorable policies, industrial and commercial distributed photovoltaic (PV) develops rapidly and gradually becomes the main force of newly installed distributed installations. Growatt MAC series inverters since the use, a total of more than 100,000 shipments, capacity of more than 6GW. Growatt actively responds to the market demand, on the basis of the MAC generation officially launched MAC II series inverter, to create value for customers, to achieve cost reduction and efficiency.   Mr. Yuan Zhimin, product director of Growatt, pointed out at the press conference that the industrial and commercial products released this time start from the systematic level, maximize the value of customers, meet the requirements of high-ratio design, set high efficiency, economy, safety and intelligence as one, and improve the efficiency of power generation.     High efficiencyGrowatt MAC 60KTL3-X2 LV with maximum efficiency up to 98.8%, high current design, suitable for high power and high current components, perfect for 182/210 components, multi-channel MPPT design, support complex scenarios, improve power generation, increase power generation income.EconomySupport 70mm? Aluminum cable access, save cable investment; Support PLC communication, reduce communication cable and construction costs, all-round reduce power station system investment costs.SafetyThe product adopts no fuse design, safe and maintenance-free; IP66 protection and C5 anticorrosive grade design, waterproof and dust-proof, adapt to a variety of harsh and complex application environment; Ac-dc two-level lightning protection module design, extreme safety; Precise anti-DC arc technology to prevent fire hazards in power station.IntelligenceIntelligent group monitoring, accurate fault location; Intelligent IV curve scanning, one-button diagnosis power station health status, and provide diagnostic report; Big data intelligent early warning analysis, remote intelligent operation and maintenance, maximize to avoid power generation loss; Intelligent reactive power compensation, reduce the investment of reactive power compensation cabinet equipment.   Growatt builds the "quality first" brand core with core technology, and with strong R&D and innovation ability and excellent product quality, it provides high-quality distributed energy solutions for the whole scene for the global household and industrial and commercial users, and embraces the surging photovoltaic era.

On April 2, 2023, the photovoltaic committee of China Renewable Energy Society held the 18th China Renewable Energy Academic Conference, and released the results of the highest efficiency of solar cells in China in 2022 on the same day. Among them, the "29.55% perovskite/crystalline silicon two-end laminated solar cell efficiency" submitted by Longi Green Energy was selected by the photovoltaic committee of China Renewable Energy Society as the highest efficiency of solar cells in China in 2022 (Ver.6)!   29.55%, Longi crystalline silicon and perovskite stack team opened a comprehensive screen domination era!Among them: 29.55%, China crystalline silicon - perovskite two ends of the laminated battery the highest efficiency! China's first by the international authority of the certification of more than 29.5% of the laminated battery efficiency! Among the top three in the world!25.9%, the world's largest area (M6 size 241 square centimeters), the highest efficiency crystalline silicon-perovskite four-terminal laminated battery! Before this, the largest area is the Karlsruhe Polytechnic certification efficiency in Germany, an area of 4 square centimeters, the efficiency of 23.4%. This is the world's first true four-ended laminated mini PV module based on crystalline silicon dimensions!   At the 16th China New Energy International Expo and Summit Forum held on the same day, Martin Green, the "father of the world's solar energy" and professor of the University of New South Wales, announced through a video that Longi Green's 26.81% cell efficiency is currently the world's highest silicon solar cell efficiency record, regardless of technical route. It has been five years since a Japanese company set a new world record of 26.7 percent efficiency in a single crystalline silicon cell in 2017.      

On March 20, Growatt officially updated its prospectus and disclosed its business performance in 2022. According to the prospectus, the company generated revenue of 7.093 billion yuan, up 122 percent year on year; Last year, the net profit of the parent was 1.640.9 billion yuan, the revenue and net profit data significantly ahead of a number of listed optical storage inverter enterprises have approved the performance. According to the latest financial report, from 2020 to 2022, the revenue of Growatt is 1.893 billion yuan, 3.94 billion yuan and 7.093 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 122% in 2022. During the same period, the company's net profit was 366 million yuan, 573 million yuan and 1.64 billion yuan, with net profit margins of 19.3 percent, 17.9 percent and 23.12 percent, respectively. Founded in 2011 in Shenzhen, China, Growatt designs, develops and manufactures photovoltaic inverters, as well as energy storage systems, and sells them primarily to home and commercial end users around the world, according to the prospectus. According to Forrester Sullivan, in 2021, the company will be the world's third largest supplier of PV inverters by capacity (gigawatts) shipped, with a 6.8% market share, and number one in the residential PV inverter segment with a 19.9% market share. According to the prospectus, energy storage accounted for 11.3% of Growatt's revenue in 2020 and 40.3% in 2022, generating a whopping $2.86 billion in revenue. The revenue of battery packs reached 1.297 billion yuan, accounting for 18.3 percent. In the same period last year, the company's energy storage system revenue increased 326.7% from the same period last year. The global market's demand for energy independence, the surging price of electricity in Europe, and the increasing demand for electricity caused by the gradual replacement of oil vehicles by new energy vehicles will all be the driving force for the sustained growth of the future optical storage market. With an earlier and more comprehensive layout in the field of optical storage and the accumulation of technologies and brands, Growatt will undoubtedly become a big winner in the global energy storage market.

In order to create the ultimate cost-effective product, SunEvo Solar launched a new generation of ultra-high efficiency modules, the Evo 6 Pro HJT bifacial series. The new series integrates 210mm silicon wafers, with HJT, bifacial, multi-busbar cell technology and high-density encapsulation. The maximum power output on the front side of the two formats, 60 and 66, maximum output power reach 700W. Meanwhile, based on different installation environments, the rear side power generation gain is between 10-30%.

SunEvo Solar is delighted to announce that it has been granted INMETRO certification for the sale of SunEvo solar PV modules in Brazil. After extensive testing by the world renowned Photovoltaic-Institute, SunEvo solar modules have met all the testing criteria set by INMETRO in Brazil. “This is an important moment for SunEvo as the company is set for major expansion into the Brazilian market now that the INMETRO certification has been granted” said Eric, SunEvo founder. SunEvo sees Brazil as a significant growth market for solar PV in the immediate future. SunEvo-Solar-Panel-Inmetro-Label About INMETRO In addition to demonstrating compliance to international standards, manufacturers of PV modules , power inverters and solar thermal components who export their products to Brazil also need to fulfil minimum efficiency requirements. Therefore, two important points regarding the import process for solar components that are provided in the guideline issued by the Rio de Janeiro Chamber of Commerce and Industry are to be considered: Goods may only be imported by companies that are registered with the Brazilian tax authority and whose articles of association include the trade and distribution of products. In addition to the fulfilment of international standards concerning type approval and safety requirements, the efficiency of modules, power inverters, solar thermal collectors and batteries shall be verified by an accredited laboratory. “Although we are talking about energy generators or transducers here, the energy efficiency labels awarded are similar to those for refrigerators,” Althaus says. Products with a low energy efficiency level must not be imported. INMETRO, the National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology, is responsible for the accreditation of laboratories in Brazil. Previously, only results provided by laboratories based in Brazil (e. g. university laboratories) were approved. Now, laboratories outside of Brazil may also test products to be marketed in the country. 

Polysilicon Polysilicon prices had carried on with a minor inflation tendency this week, with overall mono polysilicon quotation sitting at roughly RMB 247/kg. Most polysilicon orders for March have been signed, and this week saw the signing of sporadic orders from partial polysilicon businesses, where the higher concluded prices for these sporadic orders are prolonging the inflation trend of polysilicon prices. An observation on the production, operation, and shipment status of the polysilicon sector indicates that partial businesses are still under overhaul for their individual production lines, while overhaul and logistic issues from overseas polysilicon businesses are also going to affect the provision of polysilicon. Coupling with the worse-than-expected release of expanded capacity, as well as the higher operating rate maintained by the wafer end, and the obstinately high level of demand, polysilicon is expected to carry on with the excess demand status within the short term, followed by a possible minor increase in prices. Wafers Wafer prices had remained largely stable this week, with minor increase in M6 and G12. M6, M10, and G12 were concluded at a respective mainstream price of roughly RMB 5.5/pc, RMB 6.64/pc, and RMB 8.86/pc (increase of 1.26%). Downstream cell businesses have been relatively aggressive in procurement alongside the gradual activation of PV projects from domestic and overseas markets recently, while the market persists in wafer demand on top of centralization of orders. The excess demand status remains apparent for wafers due to insufficient polysilicon provision as well as constrained production and logistics due to the pandemic, and the increment of prices for partial sporadic orders is evident. Cells Cell prices had carried on this week with the prices of last week under a predominantly sturdy level. Mono-Si M6, M10, and G12 cells were concluded at a respective mainstream price of approximately RMB 1.1/W, RMB 1.14/W, and RMB 1.15/W this week. Cell orders have become centralized alongside the steady commencement of PV projects from the domestic and overseas markets, and market transactions have dropped compared to the previous period after cell quotations had gone up last week, where the impeded transfer of cost pressure from the cell end has resulted in a reluctant attitude among several module makers. Market acceptance has slightly increased after inflation, and a climbing tendency is seen from the concluded prices of a small segment of orders. In terms of multi-Si cells, there were fewer new concluded orders this week, which may further diminish the scale of the multi-Si market. Modules Module prices remained stable this week, where mono-Si 166mm, 182mm, and 210mm modules were concluded at a respective mainstream price of roughly RMB 1.85/W, RMB 1.88/W, and RMB 1.88/W. Module makers remained under the inflation pressure of main and auxiliary materials from the industry chain, as well as the acceptance of end proje...

The floating PV plant will be built in several reservoirs, with a total of 1.94 million pieces of PV modules installed. Ciel & Terre is expected to complete the construction in 4Q17. All of the floating platforms will be made in China, which can reduce the transportation cost and the carbon footprint of the project itself. Ciel & Terre will use Hydrelio technology solution for the floating platform of this 70MW project. Back in 2016, China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has come up with 1GW bid for floating PV plants. This 70MW project is also the second-largest winning bid for Ciel & Terre. Now, Ciel & Terre has completed grid-connection for more than 85MW of floating PV plants. Once the 70MW project is completed, this will be the world’s largest floating PV plant ever since JA and Sungrow provided modules and inverters, respectively, to a 40MW floating PV plant in Anhui Province.