12 | 2021 | 78538

Marching orders for coal

World leaders deliver a clear signal to investors at COP26

Building in
emissions
reduction
The UP Initiative investigates
the tech shift inside BIPV
and heat pump efficiency

Cheaper
by the project
How significant cost
reductions are on the
horizon for green
hydrogen electrolysis
 editorial

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Expansion despite interruptions
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Becky Beetz – Head of Content – beetz@pv-magazine.com A supply chain interrupted by a multi-
Jonathan Gifford – Editor in Chief –
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tude of factors, a COP outcome that left
Mark Hutchins – mark.hutchins@pv-magazine.com much to be desired, and a global economy
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Authors: Jochen Bettzieche, Thomas Böcke, Angel Cancino, as 2021 draws to a close, solar appears to
Nicolas Chouleur, Uma Gupta, Felicia Jackson, Sacha Lep-
outre, Corrine Lin, Jesse Pichel, Christian Roselund, Martin have racked up another record year for
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www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021 1
contents

20

16
What COP26 means for solar Development disrupted
Felicia Jackson examines the outcomes of the global climate conference, which brought A year of price rises and project delays has
world leaders and climate experts to Glasgow in early November. failed to dampen analyst expectations.

42

28
BIPV no refuge Rely on India
Silicon PV products are increasingly able to compete with thin- Uma Gupta takes a look at Reliance Industries and follows the
film technologies in the building integrated PV space. Indian conglomerate’s moves into the renewable energy world.

56

68
Making cheaper H2 24/7 heaven
Christian Roselund on progress and Matching hourly consumption with green energy supply promises to accelerate
potential for green hydrogen production. decarbonization and avoid greenwashing, but it also has its critics.

2 12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
Don’t trust
fairy tales.
Trust the facts.
We all love a good story, but when it comes to PV safety, we
stick to the truth at SMA. Let’s banish false and misleading
information. The facts are these: PV systems pose less of a risk of
fire than your refrigerator or tumble dryer. There was never any
significant safety issue to begin with – but even so, SMA has
been improving standards for the last 40 years. Consequently,
SMA has developed lean PV systems with intelligent software
functions. With SMA, you only install the devices you need for
a reliable and safe energy supply.

Find out more about SMA SafeSolar, our safety approach,

at sma.de/safety
contents

6 News
applications & 54  v magazine test: New results and
p
further modifications to the test
markets & trends ≥ installations ≥ array in Xi’an.

8  wo sides to import tariffs:

T 28  IPV no refuge: Silicon PV prod-
B
Uncertainty surrounds the U.S. ucts are increasingly able to com- storage &
tariff exemption for bifacial mod- pete with thin-film technologies in
ule imports. the building integrated PV space. smart grids ≥
10  e price spiral winds up: No end
Th 32  eadroom for heatpumps: New
H 56  aking cheaper H2: Christian
M
in sight for high module prices, refrigerants promise higher heat- Roselund on progress and potential
writes Martin Schachinger. pump efficiencies, but each comes for green hydrogen production.
with its own drawbacks.
12  razil heads for an installa-
B 62  new entrant: Examining how co-
A
tion rush: The gradual introduc- 36 Rush hour: Moving into the new located hydrogen production could
tion of grid charges will drive DG year, our UP initiative will shift its add to a renewables project’s reve-
PV installations in Brazil, says IHS focus to urban transport. nue stack.
Markit’s Angel Cancino.
64  v magazine Award BESS: We
p
14  200 GW year in 2022:
A industry & suppliers ≥ highlight some of the latest entries
Corrine Lin shares InfoLink’s latest in the battery systems category
PV installation forecast. 40  limit to module size: Longi
A
Solar’s Hongbin Fang on the practi-
16  hat COP26 means for solar:
W calities of new module formats. financial & legal ≥
Felicia Jackson examines outcomes
of the global climate conference. 42  ely on India: Uma Gupta takes a
R 68 24/7 heaven: Matching hourly con-
closer look at Reliance Industries, sumption with green energy supply
20 Development disrupted: A year of following the Indian conglomerate’s promises to accelerate decarboniza-
price rises and project delays has spate of mergers and acquisitions in tion and avoid greenwashing, but it
failed to dampen analyst expecta- the renewable energy world. also has its critics.
tions for this year and next.
46  inding faults faster: PV manufac-
F 74  tate aid for EU solar: Revisions to
S
24  hina’s path to 100 GW: AECEA’s
C turers see big data’s value in process EU state aid rules spell good news
Frank Haugwitz talks power short- control and quality assurance. for renewables, though questions
ages, distributed PV, and more in remain over PV manufacturing.
China. 50  ll eyes upstream: CEA’s Andy
A
Klump talks supply chain scrutiny,
climate change and more. details ≥
52  v magazine Award modules: Our
p 78 Storage news
expert jury has picked four more 80 Final thought
finalists in the modules category.

advertisement overview ≥
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4 12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
 contents

Christian Roselund
Christian Roselund (pp. 56-61) is a writer, consultant, and energy
wonk. He has been covering the energy transition both glob-
ally and in the United States for more than a decade, including
serving as the founding editor of pv magazine USA and edito-
rial director at think tank RMI. “The more you get into green
hydrogen, the more there is to learn,“ says Roselund. “We’re at
the dawn of a new industry that holds tremendous promise to
solve problems we thought couldn’t be solved, and I feel lucky
to get to witness this.”

Jochen Bettzieche
Jochen Bettzieche (pp. 32-35) studied journalism after graduating in physics and works as a business and science journalist. His
focus areas include sustainability, renewable energy and the economic and ecological consequences of climate change.“Heat pumps
are the great hope on the road to climate-neutral building heating. However, thus far, they have not been able to deliver the often
high flow temperatures of existing buildings in an efficient and environmentally friendly way. Researchers and developers are look-
ing for new approaches.”

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news

Gigawatt factory plans announced

Italy’s Enel Green Power has secured an undisclosed sum from the $1.55 billion and is scheduled for completion within five years. No
European Union to scale up its 200 MW heterojunction module fac- further technical details were available. 
tory in southern Italy to 3 GW. “The innovative bifacial heterojunc-
tion technology ensures higher performance with respect to conven-

Photo: Government of Saudi Arabia

tional modules,” the commission said in a statement.
Saudi electric company Bin Omairah Holding has commissioned
a 1.2 GW PV module assembly factory in northwestern Saudi Ara-
bia. “The new manufacturing facility will produce monocrystal-
line PERC modules,” CEO Fahad Bin Omairah told pv magazine.
“We are targeting markets such as the Gulf Cooperation Council
countries, the United States, Europe, and Africa.” The factory will
manufacture M3 full cell panels, M10 half-cut products, and M12
modules with a one-third cut design. The total investment came to
about $186.9 million.
In China, JA Solar has signed an agreement with the government of
Chaoyang, Liaoning province, for the construction of a 5 GW PV
module factory and the deployment of a 2 GW hybrid wind-solar-
storage facility. The entire project will require a total investment of

Netherlands planning first

Photo: SaferSolar

unsubsidized solar park

Swedish energy company Vattenfall is in the process of plan-
ning the Netherlands’ first PV power plant outside of the coun-
try’s SDE+ program for large-scale renewables. “In the coun-
try, photovoltaic power plants are still preferably implemented
through state subsidies, but projects with power purchase agree-
ments (PPAs) are the future,” Annemarie Schouten, Vattenfall’s

“ Projects witharepower purchase agreements

the future
”
head of PV project development in the Netherlands, told pv
magazine. The planned 16.8 MW solar facility will be built with
25,000 bifacial modules in Almere, in the northern province of
Flevoland. The start of construction is planned for 2024, and
the energy company expects more powerful solar modules to be
available over the next few years. In addition, the solar park will
Australia removes DC use trackers, which are expected to help it generate around 18.3
GWh per year. 
isolator mandate
Photo: Vattenfall/Jorrit Lousberg

The Australian solar installation standard AS/NZS 5033 has

now been updated, removing the mandate for DC isolators to
be installed on household solar systems if other safety measures
are followed. The changes will go into effect in six months. The
update comes after much lobbying from various corners of the
industry. They claim that DC isolators, intended as a safety mea-
sure to disconnect a solar system’s panels in case of a fault or
emergency, have actually made systems more vulnerable to fires
and faults. Committee El-042, the group responsible for the rule
change, received more than 680 submissions during the public
comment stage in June. 

6 12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
 news

Multi-GW module

Photo: Alexandros Cruz/Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB)

deal for First Solar
Lightsource bp and bp have placed multi-
year orders for up to 5.4 GW combined
of First Solar’s thin-film PV modules. The
two ordered roughly 4.4 GWdc of mod-
ules, with options for an additional 1
GWdc. Lightsource bp agreed to buy up
to 4.3 GWdc of modules for its U.S. utility-
scale projects. Integrated energy company
bp will buy up to 1.1 GWdc to power its
projects being developed by Lightsource
bp. Planned deployments for both com-
panies include projects in the U.S. states
of Arkansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsyl-
vania, and Texas. The framework agree-
ments are the largest in First Solar’s his-
tory and will provide modules for delivery More cell efficiency gains
between 2023 and 2025. Under the agree-
ment, First Solar has firm orders for 1.55 Scientists at Germany’s  Helmholtz- with a dielectric reflector, which is used
GWdc of modules in 2023, 1.3 GWdc in Zentrum Berlin (HZB)  claim to have to reflect infrared light back into the sili-
2024, and 1.55 GWdc in 2025.  produced a perovskite/silicon tandem con absorber. Also in Germany, scientists
solar cell with a world-record efficiency have analyzed the main sources of perfor-
Photo: First Solar

of 29.80%. The result, which has been
certified by Germany’s Fraunhofer Insti-
tute for Solar Energy Systems’ (ISE) Cal-
Lab, was also included in the charts of
the U.S. Department of Energy’s National
Renewable Energy Laboratory. The solar
cell has an area of 1 cm2 and is based on
a nanotextured front side and a back side
mance losses in a silicon heterojunction
cell and have developed several optimiza-
tion strategies to improve overall perfor-
mance. By adding a second layer of amor-
phous silicon at the rear of the device, and
a magnesium fluoride anti-reflective layer,
they were able to boost cell efficiency by
around 1% to reach 24.51%. 

South Korea
deploys 2.82 GW
South Korea saw the deployment of 2,828
MW of new PV systems in the first three
quarters of the year, according to new
statistics released by the Korean Energy
Agency. This result compares to 3,283
MW in the same period a year earlier.
“The decline in solar PV installations in
Korea can be attributed to delayed permit-
ting, over local governments heightening
and expanding siting restrictions,” Eun-
byeol Jo, a researcher at Seoul-based NGO
Solutions for Our Climate, told pv maga-
zine. “In addition, renewable energy cer-
tificate (REC) prices have been dropping
due to oversupply in the market over the
past three years, hampering solar devel-
opment.” At the end of September, the
country’s cumulative installed PV capac-
ity reached around 17.3 GW. 
Photo:  Global Panorama/Flickr

www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021 7
markets & trends

Two sides to import tariffs

Solar stocks underperformed the broader markets in November, writes Jesse Pichel of ROTH Capital Partners.
This is in large part thanks to uncertainty coming from the United States, where the Court of International Trade
reinstated an exemption from import tariffs for bifacial modules – a decision that will likely see an appeal.

Guggenheim Solar ETF – TAN Holdings

50% S&P 500
Source: Roth Capital

50%
S olar stocks performed poorly in the
month of November, with the Invesco
Solar ETF trading down 7%, underper-
Russell 2000
40% Powershares Clean Energy ETF 40% forming the broader market and major
Guggenheim Solar ETF indices such as the S&P 500, which was
30% 30% up 1.7%. The top five performing solar
stocks in the U.S. market include Applied
20% 20% Materials, Inc. (6.7%), Enphase Energy,
Inc. (4.6%), JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd.
10% 10%
(2.2%), and Array Technologies, Inc.
0% 0% (0.9%).
As far as the U.S. market is concerned,
–10% –10% solar’s underperformance this month can
be tied to new legislation making its way
–20% –20% through the capital. The elimination of the
bifacial exemption/exclusion by the U.S.
–30% –30%
government was refused by the U.S. Court
–40% –40% of International Trade. Module providers
may now import bifacial modules into the
–50% –50% United States, and the industry will avoid
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov the section 201 import duties.
This comes as a big surprise to us.
Close price % change % change We expect that the Department of Jus-
Company Ticker Nov. 23, 2021 Nov. 1–23, 2021 year to date
tice will file an appeal against the deci-
Risen Energy Co.,Ltd. SZSE:300118 37.46 CNY + 57.3% + 29.9% sion, although the time frame for this is
REC Silicon ASA OB:RECsi 21.08 NOK + 32.0% + 30.9% unknown at this stage. We expect it to take
Jolywood (Suzhou) Sunwatt Co., Ltd. SZSE:300393 19.89 CNY + 29.1% + 114.4% longer than two months.
PVA TePla AG XTRA:TPE 43.90 EUR + 9.5% + 124.0% The chances of the DOJ succeeding are
Wacker Chemie AG XTRA:WCH 164.55 EUR + 8.6% + 40.9% high. Some are stating a 99% chance of
Manz AG XTRA:M5Z 46.95 EUR + 8.2% + 38.1% a successful appeal, however we believe
Shenzhen S.C New Energy Technology Corp. SZSE:300724 121.41 CNY + 5.9% − 16.6% the likelihood is between 50% and 75%.
Enphase Energy, Inc. NasdaqGM:ENPH 250.50 USD + 4.6% + 42.8% The current situation is a big negative for
Applied Materials, Inc. NasdaqGS:AMAT 148.92 USD + 6.7% + 72.6% domestic thin film producer First Solar,
Beijing Jingyuntong Technology Co., Ltd. SHSE:601908 12.19 CNY + 3.4% + 18.5% and a major positive for other utility scale
Array Technologies, Inc. nasdaqgm:arry 22.95 USD + 0.9% − 46.8% companies that serve the U.S. market.
JinkoSolar Hold. Co., Ltd. NYSE:JKS 58.17 USD + 2.2% − 6.0% In other public policy developments,
Meyer Burger Technology AG SWX:MBTN 0.45 CHF + 0.4% + 33.8% the House also passed H.R. 5376/Build
centrotherm international AG DB:CTNK 5.94 EUR − 0.7% 115.2% Back Better Act 220-213, following a nine-
Hannon Armstrong, Inc. NYSE:HASI 60.86 USD − 0.4% − 4.1% hour delay from House Minority Leader
Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc NasdaqGS:AY 39.14 USD − 2.3% + 3.1% McCarthy (Republican, California). The
SMA Solar Technology AG XTRA:S92 43.66 EUR − 4.3% − 22.0% measure is now on its way to the Senate.
SolarEdge Technologies, Inc. NasdaqGS:SEDG 350.02 USD − 3.0% + 9.7% If the House rejects the Senate’s version
Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd. SZSE:300274 156.61 CNY − 5.0% + 116.7% of the legislation, House and Senate lead-
Canadian Solar Inc. NasdaqGS:CSIQ 39.21 USD − 5.0% − 23.5% ers must agree on a conference report.
Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor Co., Ltd. SZSE:002129 46.15 CNY − 6.9% + 81.0% All eyes will be on senior senators Joseph
LONGi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd. SHSE:601012 92.78 CNY − 7.4% + 40.9% Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema in the com-
Xinyi Solar Hold. Ltd. SEHK:968 14.40 HKD − 9.0% − 28.9% ing weeks.   Jesse Pichel
TBEA Co., Ltd. SHSE:600089 22.92 CNY − 9.9% + 125.8%
Azure Power Global Ltd. NYSE:AZRE 22.17 USD − 8.8% − 45.6%
Information upon which this material is based has been compiled by pv magazine. Information was obtained from sources
believed to be reliable, but it has not been verified. Additional information is available upon request.

8 12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
markets & trends
The price spiral winds up
The title of Martin Schachinger’s October market commentary was
“Module prices set to rocket back to 2019 levels.” This month, he writes that
prices have already reached December 2018 levels and notes that there
is no reversal in sight. Prices for all module technologies have once again
risen by an average of 3 percentage points since last month.
E ven the few lower-capacity PV prod-
ucts still available in the market in
2021 – that is, below 300 W for 60/120
cells or 400 W for 72/144 cells – are now
being traded at rates that are only accept-
able in the most dire of circumstances.
Given high historical feed-in tariffs, such
terms are only tolerable for replacement
of defective modules in existing plants.
In new plants, panels with such low effi-
ciencies – referred to here as mainstream
modules – are scarcely viable.
If we look at the value of the feed-in
tariff in December 2018 in Germany, for
instance, and how much or how little will
still be granted to producers of PV power
EU spot market module prices by technology
0.50 €/Wp €/Wp 0.50
0.45 0.45
0.40 0.40
0.35 0.35
0.30 0.30
0.25 0.25
0.20 0.20
0.15 0.15
0.10 0.10
Nov ’20 Dec ’20 Jan ’21 Feb ’21 Mar ’21 Apr ’21 May ’21 Jun ’21 Jul ’21 Aug ’21 Sep ’21 Oct ’21 Nov ’21*
Crystalline modules (mono-/poly-Si) average net prices (€/Wp)
High efficiency: Crystalline modules 340 Wp All black: Module types with black backsheets,
and above with Cello, PERC, HIT-, n-type – or black frames and rated outputs of between
back-contact cells or combinations thereof 290 Wp and 400 Wp
Mainstream: Modules with usually 60 cells, Low cost: Reduced-capacity modules, factory
standard aluminum frames, white backing and seconds, insolvency goods, used modules
275 Wp to 335 Wp – the majority of modules (crystalline), products with limited or no
on the market guarantee
Bifacial: Modules with bifacial cells, transparent * Data as of November 18, 2021
backsheet or glass-glass, framed and unframed More information: www.pvXchange.com
10
in December 2021, the whole quandary
becomes apparent. Whereas we could
still expect feed-in tariffs of €0.08/kWh to
€0.12/kWh for PV systems connected to
the grid in late 2018, in the coming months
we will have to settle for just €0.047/kWh
to €0.073/kWh, depending on the size of
the system and whether the market pre-
mium model is applied. And this declin-
ing remuneration has unfolded against the
backdrop of unchanging module prices
in terms of euros per watt-peak. After
all, module efficiency has increased by an
average of 20% (relative) and individual
module output by as much as 25%, due
to the enlargement of cells and modules.
Thus, thanks to the reduced number of
modules per kilowatt of installed power,
installation expenses have been reduced,
which has in turn helped to bring down
overall costs. Nevertheless, it is becom-
ing increasingly difficult and unattractive
to plan and operate plants without a high
proportion of self-consumption.
In Germany, the number of new instal-
lations has continued to be comparatively
high in recent months, which has led to
feed-in tariffs falling at a degression rate
of 1.4% per month. This is due to the tar-
get corridor of 2.5 GW per year, which
will be greatly exceeded in 2021 with an
estimated 4.5 GW to 5 GW, triggering
the sharp reduction in feed-in tariffs. In
view of the need to add more than 10 GW
per year, this target is an outdated sym-
bol of the outgoing German government’s
unimaginative energy policy. As there is
a general consensus that the expansion
of PV is an essential pillar of future cli-
mate protection, however, there is justified
hope that the incoming federal govern-
ment will very quickly introduce correc-
tive measures to make new installations
more attractive again. At the moment, the
only sector that is booming is the small-
scale PV sector, where module prices do
not play such a decisive role.
What’s in store for 2022
It is difficult to make predictions today
about the future climate policy of the
new “traffic light” coalition in Germany
and the governments of other countries
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com

so soon after the somewhat underwhelm-
ing outcome of the COP26 international
climate conference in Glasgow. In princi-
ple, we can certainly expect a very posi-
tive environment for the renewable energy
sector. Ultimately, we have no choice
but to step on the (bio)gas in advancing
renewables. As always, however, the devil
is in the detail, and it is no secret that the
clumsy environmental and industrial pol-
icies of the past have done considerable
damage. It will take some time for this
changed constellation to have an impact
on market development and for new,
attractive opportunities to arise for play-
ers in the renewables space. In the mean-
time, the laws of supply and demand are at
work, and some turbulence can certainly
still be expected as a result.
The available supply of modules and
many other solar components cannot
meet the current demand, a dynamic that
is driving up prices. The reasons for this
are varied, and I have already discussed
them several times in recent months. In
addition to supply chain disruption and
high transport costs that have made some
shipments obsolete, China’s energy prob-
lems are now also coming into play. In
fact, some manufacturers have already
had to cut their capacity utilizations by 10
to 20%, resulting in fewer precursor mate-
rials that are urgently needed for module
production. This has also brought the sup-
ply of fresh modules for the global market
to a standstill. Furthermore, it has reduced
the flow of goods to Europe, which means
that delivery dates are often significantly
delayed. The market explosion in China
predicted months ago has so far failed to
materialize. For the coming year, gigantic
additions of up to 100 GW have already
been announced.
However, since such forecasts have
rarely come true up to now, we should
probably not be too concerned about
module availability in 2022. Accord-
ing to the sales staff of individual man-
ufacturers, module prices are also not
expected to make any more big upward
leaps, but will soon stabilize at the cur-
rent high level. However, producers do
www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021
markets & trends
Overview of price points broken down by technology in November 2021, including
changes over the previous month (as of Nov. 18):
Module class €/Wp Trend Trend Description
since since
Oct. 2021 Jan. 2021
Crystalline modules
Bifacial 0.39 +2.6% +14.7% Modules with bifacial cells, transparent backsheets, or
glass-glass, framed and unframed
High efficiency 0.36 +2.9% +12.5% Crystalline panels at 340 Wp and above, with PERC, HJT,
n-type, or back-contact cells, or combinations thereof
All black 0.37 +2.8% +12.1% Module types with black backsheets, black frames, and
rated power between 290 Wp and 400 Wp
Mainstream 0.28 +7.7% +21.7% Modules typically featuring 60 cells, standard aluminum
frames, white backsheets, and 275 Wp to 335 Wp
Low cost 0.18 +5.9% +12.5% Factory seconds, insolvency goods, used or low-output
modules, and products with limited or no warranty
Notes: Only tax-free prices for PV modules are shown, with stated prices reflecting average prices on the European spot market (customs cleared)
Source: pvXchange.com
not necessarily want to tie themselves to
specific prices.
A popular strategy at the moment is to
quote free on board prices in U.S. dollars –
that is, prices ex-works in Asia that explic-
itly exclude the risks of volatile transport
“
Experience has shown us that many
manufacturers clear out their warehouses
around mid-December, so there may still
”
be a bargain or two to be had
prices and exchange rates. Vague sliding-
price clauses have also entered the discus-
sion, again with a view to minimizing risk.
However, buyers should negotiate the
base price well before agreeing to such About the author
conditions. It may also be a good strategy Martin Schachinger has been active in
to wait until the end of the quarter. Expe- renewable energy for more than 20 years. In
rience has shown that many manufac- 2004, he founded the online trading platform
pvXchange.com, where wholesalers, installers,
turers clear out their warehouses around
and service companies can purchase standard
mid-December, so there may still be a bar- components, solar modules, and inverters
gain or two to be had.   that are no longer manufactured but are still
 Martin Schachinger, pvXchange.com urgently needed to repair defective PV systems.
11
markets & trends
Brazil heads for an
installation rush
Brazil’s deployment of distributed generation PV (below 5 MWp) has exploded from a total capacity of 500 MW in
2018 to 7 GW by September of this year. The trigger for this increase, alongside rocketing electricity prices, was the
2019 proposal of law 5829, writes IHS Markit analyst Angel Antonio Cancino. The proposal is expected to pass into
law at the end of this year and will gradually introduce grid-access charges for residential and commercial system
owners.
O n Aug. 18, a revised version of the
5829 law was approved by the
Chamber of Deputies of Brazil. The new
version of the proposed law was the result
of a lengthy negotiation process. It aims
to remove some of the grid-access privi-
leges held by distributed-generation (DG)
projects in Brazil. DG systems are cur-
rently exempt from grid charges when
they benefit from Brazil’s current net-
billing scheme. The scheme allows DG
system owners to offset their energy bills
with electricity generated on their roof-
tops and delivered to the grid. Law 5829 is
now awaiting approval by the senate and is
set to be published at the end of this year.
“
Though initially planned to curb the
DG segment, the revised version of
the law is expected to drive an
installation rush”
Though initially planned to curb the
DG segment, the revised version of the
law is expected to drive an installation
rush to beat the deadline after which
charges will be applied. This is similar to
other markets where such laws have been
introduced with a grace period or specific
connection deadline.
From January to September 2021, 2.2
GW of DG systems were connected, a
major increase from the 5 GW that were
12
in operation at the beginning of the year.
High electricity rates exacerbated by the
worst drought in almost a century in Bra-
zil, low interest rates due to the Covid-19
crisis, and economic entities offering loans
of five to 10 years to finance solar projects
make solar PV an attractive investment
option. The opportunity to avoid paying
grid charges makes near-term installa-
tions even more attractive.
Project push
The new law assures DG projects that are
in operation, or have filed access requests
with distributors within 12 months of the
publication of the law, will maintain their
current conditions until 2045. New sys-
tems will pay full grid charges, with a
gradual introduction starting one year
after the publication of the bill. This tran-
sition period is set to last seven years. It is
expected that by 2029, the Energy Devel-
opment Account will completely stop pay-
ing for tariff components related to the
distribution services.
For new projects, the law also requires
the presentation to the Brazilian Electric-
Brazil PV installations forecast 2021–2025
Distributed
Utility scale generation
15 22
GW GW
Source: IHS Markit
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com

ity Regulatory Agency (ANEEL) of a guar-
antee of faithful fulfillment within 90 days
of approval of access requests. Otherwise,
requests will be canceled. This guaran-
tee of fulfillment will not be mandatory
for shared generation through cooper-
atives and consortiums and framed in
the modality of multiple consumer units
(such as condominium buildings).
Law 5829 also includes the creation of
the Social Renewable Energy Program,
the main objective of which is to fund the
installation of solar PV and other renew-
able energy sources for low-income con-
sumers through the Energy Efficiency
Program.
“ We expect the annual installations for DG projects
will peak in 2022 and 2023, with almost 6 GW
of annual DG additions
As most developers and end users will
rush to apply to build DG PV systems
before the grace period ends, we expect
that the annual installations for DG proj-
ects will peak in 2022 and 2023, with
almost 6 GW of annual DG additions. As
a result of the rush on project installations,
we forecast intense installation activity in
the PV sector that could result in as much
as 37 GW of new additions over the 2021-
2025 period. This is expected to split
between 22 GW from DG projects and 15
GW in the utility-scale market.
Several factors could limit this forecast.
High system prices are one major threat,
even if the DG market is less price sen-
sitive than the utility segment. Modules
are already hard to get hold of in the Bra-
zilian PV market, and the suppliers of
solar components are reported to have
increased their prices by 10% to 20% com-
pared with 2020.
www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021
markets & trends
Photo: Aldo
The headquarters of Brazilian PV product distributor
Aldo.
High shipping rates and the volatility in
the local currency compared with the dol-
lar in the near term are additional factors
influencing the prices.
A lack of skilled workers is another
risk for the projected growth. The rapid
increase of companies catering to the DG
market already makes it harder to find
workers with skills and experience in PV.
A lack of resources can also impact the
”
authorization process with the distribu-
tion companies when they get flooded
with access requests.
The approval of 5829 in its current form
is a leap toward the decentralization of
Brazil’s electrical system. In the current
hydroelectric crisis, a rapid increase of dis-
tributed solar systems can be an important
solution, contributing to a reduced depen-
dency on hydroelectric energy in the short
and medium term. The staggered transi- About the author
tion to full grid charges avoids the steep Angel Cancino is a research analyst on
decline in DG installations that would the clean energy technology team at IHS
Markit. He has experience in energy resource
have happened with the passing of the
assessments and solar photovoltaic project
original law proposal. The question now analysis. His current research focuses on the
is how Brazil’s PV sector and the distri- solar PV market in Latin America, includ-
bution companies will cope with explod- ing the identification of projects, regulatory
ing near-term demand, as a rapid influx frameworks, and drivers of renewable growth
in the region. He holds a bachelor’s degree in
of companies catering to the segment also
renewable energy engineering from the Uni-
raises flags regarding project quality and versity of Science and Arts of Chiapas and a
profitability.   Master’s degree in sustainable energy systems
 Angel Antonio Cancino from the University of Edinburgh.
13
markets & trends

A 200 GW year in 2022

Structural imbalances in the supply chain and the energy intensity and online as scheduled, amid high gross mar-
consumption controls that China imposed in late September have caused gins. Against this backdrop, annual poly-
prices for most PV module materials and components to continue to rise. silicon production is expected to reach
Shipping fees and PV plant construction costs also remain high. PV plants 700,000 MT, which is enough to sup-
in many regions will therefore be postponed until next year, but it remains ply approximately 255 GW of end-user
unclear when module prices will start to fall. Despite these challenges, the demand.
global race to cut carbon emissions continues, and InfoLink’s Corrine Lin However, vertically integrated compa-
forecasts a bright future for PV deployments in 2022. nies continue to ramp up their in-house
wafer capacity, while new wafer players
such as Gaojing and Shuangliang are also

C hina’s PV demand is expected to reach

as high as 70 GW next year. InfoLink
projects that global module demand will
range between 196 GW and 212 GW, up
more than 20% on 164 GW this year. In
the meantime, the rising deployment of
solar+storage will accelerate steady solar
growth. On the storage side, InfoLink
predicts that the total number of homes
equipped with solar will pass 11 million,
while storage will hit 1.5 million, across
four of the leading markets Germany,
Japan, Australia and the United States by
the end of the year.
expanding. Large volumes of new wafer
capacity will push up demand for poly-
silicon, and the newly installed furnaces
require three to six months to ramp up
fully. Therefore, the supply of polysili-
con is expected to remain tight in the first
half of 2022, with prices decreasing too
slowly to ease high PV module cost pres-
sures. Polysilicon prices are expected to
hover around CNY 190/kg ($26.35/kg) by
mid-2022. If the United States continues
its sanctions against Xinjiang, polysilicon
prices in regions outside of China may be
slightly higher.
Polysilicon prices are projected to
decline quarter on quarter, as polysilicon

“
supply grows. If module prices remain
Polysilicon prices are projected to high, PV plants that have halted installa-

”
tion will try to postpone as long as pos-
decline quarter on quarter sible to secure better module prices. In
light of this, module prices and overall
demand will impact each other next year.
If module prices decrease markedly, over-
Cross impact all module demand will increase.
The international trade situation and Chi- While capacity expansion continues
na’s power rationing pose major threats to across the supply chain, uncertainties
2022 deployments. If China relaxes power caused by power rationing and interna-
rationing next year, the pace of PV mod- tional tensions will lead to low module
ule price decreases will be subject to poly- orders for the first quarter of 2022. Con-
silicon prices. Polysilicon manufacturers sequently, module prices, which stayed
will work toward bringing new capacity at $0.28/W to $0.29/W, finally showed
signs of decline in November. Meanwhile,
prices for other components such as glass
Forecast for market share by wafer size Source: InfoLink Consulting also began to slip. It’s expected that a slow
156.75 mm 158.75 mm 161.70 mm 163 mm 166 mm 182 mm > 210 mm downward trend in module prices will
begin in the first half of 2022.
2020 11% 36% 7% 38% 2 2

2021 F 8% 4% 2 37% 28% 19% Trade risks

2022 F 25% 47% 25% In early November, the U.S. Department
2023 F 12% 46% 41%
of Commerce rejected anti-circumven-
tion petitions, providing breathing space
2024 F 4% 41% 54%
to manufacturers with capacity in South-
2025 F 33% 67% east Asia. If anti-circumvention is no lon-
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% ger an issue next year, capacity expansion

14 12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
 markets & trends

projects in Southeast Asia will continue as TOPCon vs. HJT

planned, with 15 GW of capacity addition In terms of cell technology, PERC cells
expected for both the PV cell and mod- began to see profits decreasing to nil due
ule segments. to overcapacity. Meanwhile, manufactur-
In addition to the Xinjiang issue, which ers are expanding tunnel oxide passiv-
has caused polysilicon prices to move ated contact (TOPCon) and heterojunc-
unsteadily, the U.S. Withhold Release tion (HJT) capacity, both n-type products.
Order (WRO) also put Southeast Asia- After China successfully localized pro-
based businesses on watch. Thus, pro- duction of the factory equipment to pro-
duction lines in the region are not likely duce these cell technologies, the required
to return to full capacity utilization until investment per gigawatt has fallen from
this uncertainty is overcome. $35 million to $28 million for TOPCon,
Southeast Asia aside, wafer, cell and and from $62 million to $55 million for
module capacity expansions are concen- HJT this year, a significant reduction
trated in China. Because of the rapid shift bringing them closer to the $22 million/
to large-format products, global wafer, GW required by PERC. It appears that
cell, and module capacity are each set to TOPCon capacity additions will reach 20
grow more than 140 GW this year. The cell GW to 30 GW next year, while HJT may
segment saw the largest volume of addi- see a 15 GW to 20 GW expansion.
tional capacity, reaching around 180 GW.
Given new production lines are more
competitive, capacity across the supply
chain will continue to grow next year, with

“ As equipment cost reduction

the wafer and cell segment each adding
100 GW of new capacity.
The combined capacity of wafer,
cell, and module will outgrow end user
demand and surpass 350 GW by the end
will reach a limit, optimization
of the year. Production costs of conven-
tional format modules are higher by CNY
of manufacturing costs
will continue
”
0.01/W than the large-format ones, and as
sales of conventional format modules are
low, older production lines will be elimi-
nated next year. However, those installed
for PERC around three to five years ago
may simply be left idle.
As most manufacturers started produc- As equipment cost reductions will
tion of large-format products with the reach a limit, the optimization of manu-
182mm format, modules featuring 182mm facturing costs will continue. Metalliza-
cells and a power rating of 535 W to tion cost reductions will remain key next
545 W will see the largest share, followed year, while n-type cells will help reduce
by the 210 mm format. Cell numbers and costs through adopting large wafers. With
layout vary across manufacturers. The two the combination of large wafers and large
formats will together make up more than module designs, the market is expected to
70% of next year’s share, while M6 and see n-type modules featuring power out-
smaller-format modules will continue to puts higher than 600 W.
be used in the rooftop sector. It seems that prices for TOPCon mod-
ules will be $0.02/W higher than PERC
modules, which will already be an appeal-
Global module demand forecast ing price point for end users. Therefore,
(2021–2022)
TOPCon will outgrow HJT in terms of
Expected Optimistic China demand capacity and production.
200 GW 212.0 Nevertheless, PERC products are cur- About the author
196.0
rently the most mature and cost compet- Corrine Lin is the chief analyst at Infolink, a
150 GW
Source: InfoLink Consulting

173.0
164.0
itive on the market. So, it’s expected that provider of solar PV market intelligence focus-
100 GW n-type products will stay in the promotion ing on the PV supply chain. The company offers
and preparation phase next year, and the accurate quotes, reliable PV market insights,
50 GW 72.0 75.0 and a global PV market supply/demand data-
47.5
62.0
market share will grow slowly and steadily base, as well as market forecasts. It also offers
0 GW from 4% this year to 6% to 7%.   professional advice to help companies stay
2021 F 2022 F  Corrine Lin ahead of competition in the market.

www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021 15
markets & trends
What COP26 means for   
COP26 was either a great success or an abject failure, depending on who
you talk to. What matters for the solar industry is the extent to which
decisions agreed in the Glasgow Climate Pact are going to change the
direction of the energy and financial sectors.
T he 26th Conference of the Parties
(COP26) to the UNFCCC undoubt-
edly represents a global shift toward sus-
tainability. Not only did the summit
acknowledge the critical role of nature
in climate action and the importance of
acting on deforestation, but agreements
were also reached to address non-CO2
emissions such as methane. Perhaps most
importantly – despite significant argu-
ment – the need to move away from fossil
fuels (starting with coal) was, for the first
time, enshrined in a climate agreement.
The COP26 conference brought more than 40,000 The 2021 UNEP Production Gap Report
attendees to Glasgow at the start of November, and
saw more than 40 countries commit to the phase- warned that governments currently plan
down of coal power generation.
16
to produce more than twice the amount
of fossil fuels in 2030 than is consistent
with limiting warming to 1.5 C. The gap
between commitments and the action
needed remains high, but while the final
language may have been toned down from
the “phase-out” of coal to “phase-down,”
given that it has taken 26 years of arguing
to get something so necessary made offi-
cial, it remains an achievement.
Promising agreements
COP26 saw more than 40 countries –
including major fossil fuel users Poland
and Vietnam – promise to end all invest-
ments in new coal power generation and
scale up the deployment of clean power
technologies. It was also agreed that emis-
sions plans would be revisited next year
instead of in five years, which opens the
door to further action in short order.
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com

   solar
Agreement on the rules around inter-
national carbon markets also moved for-
ward. Richard Cockburn, head of energy
at law firm Womble Bond Dickinson, said
that “COP26 has been important for the
signals which it sends to governments and
markets around the world. In this light,
investors are under no illusion that the
future lies in low-carbon and zero-car-
bon energy technologies and widespread
carbon pricing now looms closer. The cli-
mate summit may not have provided the
concrete and immediate action demanded
by so many but it seems to have set a floor
for a pathway unlikely to be overturned.”
And consensus on action is accelerating.
Thirty-three new countries announced
net zero targets at COP26, which may not
yet put the world on a path to emissions
reduction of 45% by 2030, but has proved
that net zero is now mainstream.
www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021
markets & trends
“ The impact these
agreements have
The impact these agreements have on on trillions of dollars
trillions of dollars in private finance could
accelerate a low-carbon future. There are in private finance
several net zero alliances across asset man-
agers, insurers, banks and pension funds,
but at COP26, the Glasgow Finance Alli-
could accelerate
ance for Net Zero (GFANZ) announced
that signatories with $130 trillion of assets a low-carbon
”
under management have committed to a
net zero future – an increase of 25 times in future
the last couple of years. GFANZ states that
these commitments from more than 450
companies across 45 countries can deliver
the estimated $100 trillion needed over the
next three decades to reach net zero.
“The speed of the global net zero transi-
tion cannot be realized without an equally
ambitious implementation agenda,” said UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Indian Prime
Julian Havers, E3G’s lead on public banks. Minister Narendra Modi, pictured with UN Secretary
“In support of acceleration, Johnson, General António Guterres on day two of COP26.
The two nations will reportedly lead a “green grids
Biden and Von der Leyen put forward a initiative” as one of the first projects announced under
the breakthrough agenda launched in Glasgow.
Photos: UNFCCC/FlickrCC
17
markets & trends
Protests were held in Glasgow and other parts of the
world throughout COP26, peaking with a Global Day
of Action for Climate Justice march on Nov. 6.
new paradigm of sustainability finance –
spanning both public and private invest-
ments – to mobilize the trillions needed
to keep 1.5 degrees within reach. Moving
out of Glasgow and into 2022, the political
stage is set for changes in the ways clean
investment projects … [are] financed.”
Move to clean
One of the most obvious actions any
investor can undertake is to refocus their
investments away from fossil fuels and
toward clean energy. There is a huge gap
to be filled, with IEA and IRENA road-
maps showing solar and wind contribut-
ing 70% of generation by 2050. It’s going
to be a challenge – a joint study by the
Global Solar Council and the Global Wind
Energy Council estimates that by 2030,
there will be a 29% shortfall in the pro-
jected wind and solar capacity required to
keep the world on course for 1.5 C. Their
concern is such that they have established
18
the Global Renewable Energy Alliance to
drive the policies necessary to fill that gap
and support industry in integrating solar
throughout the value chain.
“The goal is to promote the value chain
from the supply chain to customers and
end users and involves many leading
global corporates which are taking radi-
cal sustainability approaches,” said Global
Solar Council CEO Gianni Chianetta.
Benedikt Ortmann, global director of
solar projects at BayWa r.e., believes that
solar and wind can achieve 45% decar-
bonization by 2030 if the right elements
are put in place.
“We must see targets at national level
supported by enabling policy and similar
commitments ‘on the ground’, and thereby
ensure projects of both wind and solar can
be realized at much greater pace,” Ort-
mann said.
The Glasgow Breakthrough Agenda
also recognized the need for urgent
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com

COP26 President and UK Minister of State
Alok Sharma closed the conference with a
warning, stating that he “would still say that
the pulse of 1.5 is weak … what this will be
judged on is not just the fact that countries
have signed up, but on whether they meet
and deliver on the commitments.”
action, and while its focus is on new tech-
nological approaches, it too demands the
deployment of clean energy. Represent-
ing 70% of the global economy, the inten-
tion is to replicate the cost curve achieved
by solar in more immature technologies
in power, road transport, steel, hydrogen,
and agriculture. One of the first projects
announced under its auspices is the UK-
India led “Green Grids Initiative – One
Sun One World One Grid” (GGI-OSO-
WOG) to build off-grid power, mini-grids
and connect international grids to enable
higher use of renewable energy.
20211116 PV Magazine print ad_FA_outlined.pdf
markets & trends
The reality is that today’s technologies
allow the rapid reduction of emissions if
political will and finance combine. “For
governments looking to show they are act-
ing now to raise their climate ambition
and accelerate their NDCs, solar PV and
wind are go-to technologies that are eco-
nomically competitive and reliable today,”
said Chianetta.
The economic potential is also huge.
Bertrand Piccard, chairman of the Solar
Impulse Foundation, said that there are
“today’s
thousands of potential solutions for pol-
icymakers. “Raising ambitions does not
represent an unmanageable risk, but
The reality is that
rather an economic opportunity to be
taken with audacity,” he said. “The good
technologies
allow the rapid
news is that the technologies exist and
they are just waiting to be implemented.”
There is a role for new solar technolo-
gies, too. This means sector coupling, new
processes, and techniques, for example the
reduction of emissions
use of solar in e-mobility.
“We need e-mobility PV solutions that
if political will and
finance combine
”
can be manufactured at scale using auto-
mated manufacturing processes rolling
off gigawatts of PV,” said Power Roll CEO
Neil Spann. “And we also need solutions
that can be manufactured anywhere in
the world using materials that are abun-
dant and easily accessible, produced in the
same regions where they are consumed:
in Thailand for tuk-tuks and in Glasgow
for the shipping industry. Anywhere and
everywhere.”   Felicia Jackson
1 17/11/21 11:24
Advertisement
markets & trends
Development disrupted
It may be the best of times, or it’s the worst – it rather depends on who you
talk to. Either way, 2021 has not been a dull year in the global solar industry.
Polysilicon and commodities prices, shipping costs, tariffs, and energy
shortages have all taken turns to give the supply chain a beating, but has it
sent PV development off course?
S ome 1.5 GW of mid-sized PV projects
in Chile are at risk of cancellation.
Carlos Cabrera, president of Chile’s solar
industry association, ACESOL, is making
the case that construction extensions must
be granted by officials or developers will
abandon their plans. The projects, which
had achieved the green light from Chil-
ean regulators in April 2021, are not going
ahead at present because anticipated price
structures can no longer be realized.
Cabrera said that developers will not
be able to provide government agencies
with the documents required to register
the projects as going ahead. “Under the
current international conditions of infla-
tion and scarcity, not many projects will
be able to do so,” he says.
“ Price increases, shipping delays and disruption, and force
majeure production shortfalls have been commonplace,
leading to requests for construction extensions from EPCs,
PPA partners, and government agencies alike
“You have to consider that approxi-
mately 60% of the capacity approved …
belongs to four or five large groups that
have a lot of financial resources, and they
themselves have serious difficulties with
these prices,” Cabrera explains. “Imagine,
then, what small and medium-sized com-
panies are going through.”
The challenge facing Chilean developers
is not unique. A series of price and deliv-
ery shocks have reverberated along the
PV supply chain throughout 2021 – with
developers and EPCs often the loudest in
voicing their frustrations. Price increases,
shipping delays and disruption, and force
majeure production shortfalls have been
20
commonplace, leading to requests for
construction extensions from EPCs, PPA
partners, and government agencies alike.
Price hike
Upward inflationary pressures in 2021
have been economy-wide. It is, however,
surprising for an industry where ever-
falling prices were long the default set-
ting. And there are multiple drivers of
the disruption – a combination of both
macro-economic trends and solar-specific
factors. This year has seen polysilicon sup-
pliers enjoy somewhat of a “back-to-the-
future” moment, with prices having shot
up throughout 2021, and ingot and wafer
manufacturers happy to lock in longer-
term contracts – a dynamic reminiscent
of more than a decade ago.
BloombergNEF has tracked polysilicon
spot prices as having increased from an
all-time low of $6.3/kg in 2020 up to $37/
kg as 2021 draws to a close – according
to its head of solar insight, Jenny Chase.
“There is a fair amount of panic buying
”
that happens sometimes,” she says. “And
the poly spot market has got much shal-
lower as wafer makers have locked poly
into long term contracts. Polysilicon mak-
ers have a massive incentive to make the
spot price rise, which is precisely what has
occurred.”
There is consensus among much of
the analyst community that polysilicon
prices will remain high for some time –
at least through much of 2022. As of the
third quarter of 2022, prices may begin
to fall, and the consensus is that by 2023
downward polysilicon prices are likely to
eventuate. And while Chinese polysilicon
producers are adding capacity, primar-
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com

ily outside of the problematic Xinjiang
region, poly facilities are neither quick to
build nor straightforward to ramp.
Outside of China, there is polysilicon
production capacity available, yet for
higher-cost producers to restart facili-
ties, they need longer-term price signals.
And duties on U.S. polysilicon from China
makes this supply option unattractive to
many. “China still imports 20% of its poly,
from Wacker [in Germany], from OCI [in
Malaysia] and sometimes from the U.S.,”
explains Chase. “We haven’t seen the U.S.
plants come back online, but REC Sili-
con plans to bring U.S. capacity back into
the market in 2023 despite China’s import
tariffs.”
Further upstream, that much of the sup-
ply of metal silicon comes from Xinjiang
is an additional complication – however,
the Bloomberg analysts do not see this
polysilicon feedstock as an unmovable
supply issue. “The shortage in metal sili-
con isn’t structural,” says Chase. “The spot
price for metal silicon was one of the panic
points, but I don’t think it was as much
of a problem to the polysilicon makers as
www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021
markets & trends
Photo: Daqo New Energy
A polysilicon production facility in China. There is
consensus among much of the analyst community
that polysilicon prices will remain high for some time.
they suggest. The prices [of metal silicon]
were $10/kg in late September, but have
come down to $5/kg, so the situation has
become more reasonable.”
Commodity trend
Beyond polysilicon, global commodity
price increases are impacting solar, along
with much of the global economy. In
solar, while polysilicon “still blows every-
thing out of the water,” according to David
Dixon, the senior renewables analyst for
Rystad Energy, “silver, copper, aluminum,
glass really sum up the key inputs on the
module, and steel for the tracker” – and
prices for all have headed north.
“There has been dramatic decline in
[solar component] cost over the past five-
to-six years, but we’re now at prices we’ve
not seen for years,” says Dixon. Driving
these cost reductions, the Sydney-based
analyst suggests, is production efficien-
cies in module assembly, cell processing,
and wafer processing – “module suppli-
ers have done an excellent job in reducing
their costs, also thrifting with their com-
modity inputs.
21
markets & trends
Photo: pv magazine /Jonathan Gifford
IHS Markit analysts Edurne Zoco (left) and Cormac
Gilligan, pictured at Intersolar Europe in October. “It’s “But we’re now at a stage that manu-
incredible that we are still forecasting 180 GW for this
year despite everything,” Zoco told pv magazine. facturing makes roughly 30% of mod-
ule costs while [commodity] inputs com-
prise around 70% of the costs. And those
are out of control for the manufacturers,”
Dixon concludes. Rystad finds that mod-
ule manufacturing costs have increased
from $0.20/Wp in 2020 to between $0.26
and $0.28 in 2021 – a 40% increase.
What appears to be a shorter-term
factor are the module supply shortages
because of power rationing, as Chinese
officials attempt to wrestle high energy
costs and pollution (see pp. 24-27). As
China solar industry observer Frank
Haugwitz notes, there is not likely to be
a reversal to the measures that have seen
manufacturing curtailment across China,
including of PV components. It appears
Solar PV module, shipping cost over time Source: Rystad Energy RenewableCube
Module
2021 4Q
Shipping
2021 1Q
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
$ 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45
22
that a signal is being sent that production
ramping at all costs, financial or environ-
mental, is to be avoided.
Shipping costs add further insult to
injury. Container shipment costs are
eight times higher from Shanghai to ports
in the United States and Europe in 2021
than they were in 2020, according to sev-
eral sources. For module shipments, Rys-
tad concludes that shipping prices have
increased 500%, from $0.005/Wp in Sept.
2019 to $0.03/Wp in Oct. 2021.
Bottlenecks at some ports are particu-
larly severe, most notably in the United
States, and while analyst expectations are
that shipping prices will fall in 2022, there
will be some lag before the complex global
network begins to normalize.
Projects delayed
In November, Rystad made the somewhat
startling claim that some 90 GW of util-
ity scale PV projects were “threatened” by
the higher cost structures for PV develop-
ers. The analysis noted that some 56% of
planned PV power plant projects globally
could either be delayed or canceled due to
higher costs and bottlenecks.
The impact of higher prices is likely to
differ in different markets. Unsurpris-
ingly, where utility-scale project margins
are slim the cost increases will hit hard-
est, such as Australia, India, and Latin
America, notes Dixon. He adds that this
is also true of locations where installa-
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
 markets & trends

tion labor is a smaller proportion of proj- Demand in established DG markets like

ect cost, such as the Middle East, where
labor accounts for 20% rather than the
more common one-third split.
In these locations, project delays rather
than outright cancellations would be
preferable, as delivery in late 2022 may
be achievable if module prices normal-
ize. Alternatively, sharing of cost between
suppliers, EPCs and developers may see a
project across the line. “If not, developers
the United States and Australia remains
robust, but the growth in China is prov-
ing remarkable – driven by incentives in
the residential segment and an imperative
to reduce emissions in the industrial seg-
ment. IHS expects China to install close to
25 GW of DG projects in 2021, an increase
of 60% on 2020 for the segment.

“likeDemand
across the world must make the decision
to bear it and choose to honor contracts
with counter parties, or rip them up and
in established DG markets
try to renegotiate for a higher PPA or go
back to auction.” the United States and Australia
remains robust, but the growth in China
In the more mature large-scale PV
marketplaces of Europe and the United

”
States, the outlook for some projects
appears less dire. Wood Mackenzie solar
analyst Sagar Chopra says module cost
is proving remarkable
increases between 12% and 15% have
been observed in the United States, but
that logistics delays and policy uncer- Even in the utility-scale segment, where
tainty is biting harder than price hikes. many projects are at a standstill, IHS sees
“There has definitely been some delay sufficiently strong demand to push deliv-
for projects, or at least seeing projects ery, if delayed. “Demand is so massive
pushed out into 2022 especially because there is always someone to pick it up,”
they [EPCs] can’t get their hands on mod- says Zoco. “Everyone has targets, govern-
ules,” says Chopra. “In the U.S., all this talk ments, companies, and financial investors.
of potentially extending the ITC [Invest- There are parts of the supply chain that
ment Tax Credit] and policies that are cannot ramp up at the same speed, and
being discussed right now, a lot of devel- bottlenecks that need time to adjust, but
opers have decided to push the dates out one of the major reasons for the current
and let these resolve themselves before disruption is that demand is huge.”
they start building the projects.” PV is perhaps a victim of its own suc-
cess on the demand side, but fortunately
Globally robust the PV supply chain has shown robust-
Despite the numerous challenges facing ness. “It’s incredible that we are still
the large-scale segment, 2021 is likely to forecasting 180 GW for this year despite
be another year of market expansion, with everything,” says IHS’ Zoco. “I mean, if
180 GW installed and 2022 to see more we installed almost 150 GW [in 2020]
than 200 GW installed, according to IHS with Covid, the industry can do pretty
Markit’s most recent forecast. Noting much anything.”   Jonathan Gifford
that the global average PV system costs
increased by 4% in 2021, the analysts say
that the solar supply chain has not as yet Solar PV commodity price increases since 2020 Source: Rystad Energy RenewableCube
adjusted to a new era of robust demand, 350% Polysilicon
in particular polysilicon makers. Silver
300%
“There is amazing growth in the dis- Copper
tributed generation (DG) segment,” says 250%
Aluminium
Edurne Zoco, executive director, clean 200% Glas
energy technology at IHS Markit. DG 150% Steel
installations are less sensitive to module
prices, she notes. “The total [cost] weight 100%
of the module is less on the PV system 50%
cost in DG than it is in utility scale,” Zoco 0%
explains, with labor, customer acquisition,
–50%
and other component costs instead play- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
ing a larger role. 2020 2021

www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021 23
markets & trends
China’s path to 100 GW
China is once again the focus
of attention across the global
solar PV industry. The country’s
manufacturers have had a turbulent
2021, but domestic demand
remains strong, particularly from
the booming residential rooftop
segment. Despite the supply
challenges, China will likely reach
50 GW this year and possibly
even 100 GW next year. Given
the dynamic market and policy
landscape, pv magazine publisher
Eckhart K. Gouras recently caught
up with long-time China solar
expert Frank Haugwitz, the founder
of the Asia Europe Clean Energy
(Solar) Advisory (AECEA).
China’s PV manufacturers have been dealing with high poliysilicon prices and power shortages in 2021.
24
Module prices are on the rise, yet there remains a lot of manufacturing overcapacity
available. AECEA itself predicted mid-year that 390 GW of capacity would be reached
by the end of 2021, in “stark contrast” to the 160 GW to 240 GW of anticipated global
demand, as you put it. How do you see the situation today?
Conditions have changed. Module prices are at a high. Right now, you pay CNY 2.10
($0.33) to CNY 2.20 per watt, so that has prompted developers or investors to either
postpone, shift demand into next year, or just kick off the project with a small phase
this year and the larger bulk of the project to be executed next year. At the same time,
given this high-price environment we are in right now, some of these manufacturers
have started to reconsider their expansion plans. Because at some point, they ask the
question, “does it really make sense to keep on building up more production capacities
if we cannot pass all these high-price modules to the end users?”
Because the demand has shifted to next year, I don’t see this overcapacity situation as
severe as three, four months ago. It has softened. Of course, oversupply conditions will
remain in place. I mean, it has always been an oversupply situation, anyway.
Let’s zero in on polysilicon and the rise from CNY 56/kg in April-May 2020 to CNY 270/
kg currently. Where do you see these costs next year, as the very exclusive club of just
10 polysilicon producers in China is widened to include as many as 16 or so produc-
ers, as you noted in your July 8 briefing?
Right now, the price of polysilicon is about CNY 276/kg. It could be that by the end
of next year, provided all projects will execute as planned, China could be home to
Photo: Longi
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
 markets & trends

Photo: pv magazine/Dave Tacon

around about 1 million plus tons of nom-

inal annual polysilicon production capac-
ities. The actual output, given the ramp-
up of new production capacity, will not
reach this level until 2023. By the end of
next year maybe the actual output could
be between 700,000 and 750,000 tons,
which is indeed an increase. But neverthe-
less, this will pretty much become avail-
able in the latter half of next year.
We may witness a steady, soft price
decline. So possibly by the second half of
next year or early second half next year,
falling to around about CNY 170 per kilo-

“competitive
gram. That would already be quite a drop
by about CNY 100, but compared to CNY 56 in 2020, it’s more than double.
Whether that will translate into a significant reduction of module prices remains to be
Solar PV is very
– that
seen, because of China’s dual carbon policy, power restrictions, and how the pricing of
PV components and other materials develops.

You mention power constraints, which are both at the provincial and regional levels.
This has left many PV manufacturers without power to carry on with their manufac-
will drive some
turing. How do you see this other form of curtailment impacting our industry in 2022?
These kind of power restrictions are expected to be in place for the foreseeable future.
of the demand
for distributed
As of now, let’s say the broad consensus is until the end of this year or after the win-
ter period. So, it is basically from April onwards. From the second quarter next year

”
onwards, we are back to normal.
If I put myself into the shoes of the Chinese government and I ask, what do I want? I
would like to have a lasting change of my energy mix, so I’m not turning off the switch
generation
and then turning it on again. Otherwise, we would have an annual exercise like this. In Frank Haugwitz
the long run, Beijing does not want to have these kinds of situations recurring every
year. This can’t be. So that’s why the significant and lasting change ahead will be the
introduction of so-called time-of-use electricity tariffs.

Distributed solar PV had a rather lackluster performance last year, with just 5.4 GW
installed in the C&I segment and 10.1 GW in the residential segment. How do you see
distributed solar in China being influenced by time-of-use tariffs?
This year the distributed generation segment, consisting of residential PV and C&I, is
outperforming. Time-of-use tariffs means that at a given time throughout the day you
pay a certain tariff, including C&I incentives, which used to be subject to a fixed tariff
– now no more. In almost all provinces, C&I tariffs are no longer set in stone. They too
are subject to this time-of-use scheme and are subject to market demand and supply
and other drivers. It is one more driver, why C&I solar will become much more popu-
lar: It helps me as a manufacturer to reduce my own factory carbon footprint.
At some point you drill down to the company level in each separate province. Thus far
we’ve talked about provincial-wide decarbonization targets. But now we drill deeper
and deeper. At some point we will be on a factory level. At that level, the factory owner
will be asked how to conserve energy, how to save energy, how to reduce carbon foot-
print, etcetera.
So, you have this kind of policy switch with this introduction of time-of-use electric-
ity tariffs, that will bring a lasting change in both the consumption and generation of
electricity.
As a commercial or industrial user, if you have your own rooftop system, maybe com-
bined with storage, you can schedule your production according to a schedule you

www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021 25
markets & trends

Photo: Sungrow
determine and not be resigned to the fol-
lowing: “All right. Now I have power from
midnight until eight o’clock in the morn-
ing.” Often you will be informed at very
short notice. I learned that sometimes you
have only an hour or two lead time.

We’ve seen similar drivers elsewhere in

the world for solar+storage. How much
can the tariff structures make an impact
on solar+storage’s competitiveness in
China?
It is cheaper with this kind of time-of-use
electric tariff and the so-called “floating
tariff.” Basically, now you have a fixed tar-
iff and a certain percentage of the tariff
can float according to demand and sup-
ply. It can go up to 20% and sometimes
these time-of-use differences between
early morning and peak hours are up to
CNY 1 and more. That is a lot.
Solar PV is very competitive – that will
drive some of the demand for distributed
generation. But as well, it brings in the
longer term a change of the overall, let’s
Time-of-use pricing will likely be a driver for C&I solar say, consumption habits.
installations, such as this 2.6 MW C&I project at a
Whirlpool factory.
Looking more closely at China’s end market, this summer AECEA highlighted the
new NDRC Circular Economy Development Plan for 2021-25. This plan prioritized
distributed solar PV in combination with electrical energy storage as the second
most important key project. We’ve been talking about the C&I segment, but doesn’t
it appear that residential has really impressed with its expansion?
In the first nine months of this year residential PV installations grew by about 120%
year on year. In the first three quarters of this year, already about 11.6 GW of residential
PV systems were installed. So, 120% plus, and the C&I segment is still lagging behind.
It’s around about 5 GW so far this year, so almost equal to the entire C&I installation
in 2020.

120 % year-on-year residential PV market growth

in the first nine months of 2021

Distributed overall, we’ll see that there was massive demand because in August as the
NEA basically approved a new nationwide distributed generation PV pilot program.
Accordingly, counties shall make sure 50% of government buildings accommodate
rooftop PV systems, 40% of public buildings, 30% of commercial buildings, and 20%
of residential buildings in semi-rural areas. As of today, out of a total of 2,851 counties,
over 670 of them have been approved by the NEA. And if you assume about 200 MW
to 250 MW per county, that makes around 130 GW to 170 GW of additional demand
between now and the end of 2023.

This is outstanding growth and looming future expansion. But it was the utility scale
that formerly led the way in China. What is going on there?
If you talk about large-scale utility ground-mounted systems in, let’s say eastern and
central provinces, there is a significant land constraint. The province of Shandong
recently released a notice saying no new ground mounted systems shall be registered
and approved until further notice. They will look into each and every ground-mounted

26 12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
 markets & trends

project installed since June 2018 to investigate the status quo and verify if everything is
in compliance and the positive and negative impacts.
But what is on top of all this is that they want to make sure no more agricultural land
would be covered by solar PV plants. So you have a conflict with land needed for secur-
ing food supply. Is it more important than generating green electricity? Shandong is the
No. 1 province in terms of installations. They have installed about 26 GW of PV, around
10% of China’s cumulative total, which is not a small number.
Yunnan also just released a notice regarding the protection of grasslands and forests.
Inner Mongolia early this year released a plan to save 52% of the Inner Mongolian ter-
ritory. It’s a no-go area for future PV system development in order to protect the grass-
lands in this case. So you have two issues: environmental protection and making sure
in the long run you can guarantee food supply. That’s why distributed generation can
only increase in terms of importance in the future.
For this year, I expect residential installations to grow to about 16 GW, from 10 GW last
year. For the C&I segment I expect around 6-7 GW, from 5.4 GW last year.
Definitely for the remaining years of the 14th Five-Year Plan the share of the distrib-
uted segment in the overall PV build will increase.   Interview by Eckhart K. Gouras

An enormous 9.2 MW multi-roof PV project at a Dell

production facility.

Photo: Sungrow

www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021 27
DOWNLOAD THE
WHITE PAPER
HERE
applications & installations
BIPV no refuge
Deployment in the building integrated PV segment is accelerating,
and so too are the number of solar products available to architects and
developers. And while BIPV had long been the segment in which an array
of thin-film technologies could shine, they are now in increasingly stiff
competition with crystalline silicon rivals.
I n late October, Japanese thin-film PV
producer Solar Frontier announced
its decision to pull the plug on its CIGS
(copper indium gallium selenide) solar
module production facility in Kunitomi,
southern Japan. The 800 MW production
facility had been inaugurated in 2011 and,
at the time, had been the flagship CIGS
factory globally – a lodestar for global
CIGS producers, demonstrating that the
technology could achieve close to giga-
watt scale.
Walking the factory floor when the plant
had first been fired up, it was difficult not
to marvel at the high levels of automation
and intense focus on quality that the Jap-
anese production engineers had deployed
at the Kunitomi facility. It was no surprise
in subsequent years to learn that the CIGS
modules rolling off the production lines
exceeded performance expectations when
speaking to EPCs and project owners in
Europe and the United States.
In the years after the factory’s opening,
the strong Japanese domestic PV mar-
ketplace delivered sufficient demand to
the factory owners, as Showa Shell had
The Midsummer Wave takes a new approach
to solar tiles, with its flexible module invested for decades in the development
covering five roof tiles.
Photo: Midsummer
28
of Japanese CIGS technology. But as Chi-
nese crystalline silicon (c-Si) rivals made
inroads to the Japanese PV marketplace,
which had long been skeptical of the qual-
ity of Chinese products, Solar Frontier’s
CIGS modules could not compete on con-
version efficiency or cost.
Module efficiencies for the CIGS mod-
ules rolling off the Kunitomi lines reached
15.5% in mass production and, while cost
structures were never announced publicly,
the opinion of leading PV technology ana-
lysts was that they had struggled to come
down much below the $0.80/W mark – far
above what c-Si producers could achieve.
Arguments that the CIGS modules pro-
duced more kilowatt-hours per kilo-
watt peak, particularly in times of lower
direct irradiation or higher temperatures,
couldn’t cut through the reality of higher
costs on the factory floor.
In the face of these challenges, Solar
Frontier had long traded on its strong
sales channels in Japan, the undoubted
quality of the modules themselves, and
attempts to enter new market sub-seg-
ments. Like several CIGS providers before
it, Solar Frontier developed specialized
modules, small formats for the tight Jap-
anese residential rooftops, and flexible
modules for weight-constrained roofs, to
carve out applications in which competi-
tion on price did not predominate.
However, a revealing decision by Solar
Frontier was that it would deploy mono-
crystalline silicon in its new module series,
announced in November. The company’s
CIGS technology could not compete –
and the technology joined a long list of
thin-film contenders that had failed in the
face of the impressive efficiency gains and
cost reductions that had been achieved by
predominantly Chinese c-Si rivals. With
the same dimensions, the lighter Solar
Frontier c-Si module hits a power output
of 250 W, compared to 190 W in its CIGS
predecessor.
BIPV contested
That building integrated photovoltaic
(BIPV) applications should be the ideal fit
for thin-film PV technology simply stands
to reason. The monolithic nature of thin-
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com

film PV gives a uniform appearance over
the glass surface, meeting the aesthetic
requirements of architects. Black or blue
crystalline silicon cells, even when spaced
widely in the dual-glass facade, remain
visible and are conspicuous, by contrast.
When it is also considered that thin-
film semiconductors can be depos-
ited onto flexible substrates – opening
up curved surfaces and roofs unable to
bear the weight of framed-glass modules
– thin film becomes an obvious BIPV
technology.
Organic PV (OPV) could also be pro-
duced in a dazzling array of colors, mod-
ule formats and with semi-transparency,
however the technology tended to deliver
low conversion efficiencies – well below
double digits.
Ideally in these applications the propo-
nents of thin films would find opportu-
nities. The price-per-watt factor was less
important, meaning that the technology
could compete. And when form factor,
weight and even color were considered,
thin films were seen as having uncon-
tested turf in BIPV applications. There
was, it seemed, space in the solar world
for all solar technologies.
However, increasingly it appears this is
not the case.
C-Si alternatives
In 2021, there are an ever-growing number
of c-Si module producers offering prod-
ucts for BIPV applications. From c-Si inte-
grated solar tiles to colored modules and
specialized mounting structures, there is
www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021
applications & installations
Photo: pv magazine/Andreas Schlegel
CIGS modules produced by Solar Frontier
in 2011. A decade ago, when pv magazine
visited the Kunitomi facility, it was a marvel
a wide array of crystalline silicon products in automation for the solar industry.
that can be incorporated into the building
structure itself. Major c-Si producers like
JinkoSolar and Maxeon have paid increas-
ing attention to BIPV applications, while
more specialized producers like Hevel
Solar and Mitrex produce BIPV products
that offer architects a wide array of options
to meet their demanding aesthetic needs.
“We are working with crystalline tech-
nology and it is advancing a lot,” says Teo-
dosio del Caño, the CTO of Spain-based
6g/kWh
BIPV producer Onyx Solar, which pro-
duces bespoke thin film and c-Si BIPV
modules. “We would say that today we
are doing 70% crystalline and 30% amor-
phous silicon (a-Si).”
Del Caño explains that the company is
using offline a-Si production equipment
from a European producer as it delivers the carbon footprint
the flexibility to produce modules at a of Midsummer’s CIGS
range of module dimensions. A-Si tech- modules when installed
nology also allows Onyx to tailor the level in Sweden
of light that passes through the module
– to allow for 10, 20 or 30% transparency.
Onyx does this by etching strips of the a-Si
semiconductor off the glass with its laser
process, which would not be possible with
CIGS due to the molybdenum (Mo) back
layer – which is very tough and problem-
atic to laser etch.
However, it’s the c-Si product range
that is gaining significant market trac-
tion for Onyx, in a year that the com-
pany describes as “the best in our his-
tory.” Advances in lamination technology
are allowing the company to produce c-Si
modules of sufficient thicknesses to be
29
 applications & installations
Photo: Midsummer
deployed as safety glass for sound barri-
ers, and with glass colors and textures that
can completely mask the c-Si cells inside.
“We have a really prominent position
in the market because of our lamination
capabilities,” says del Caño. “Compared
with the beginning of BIPV, it leads us to
a position where the client chooses crys-
talline [PV] as the main, best solution for
their projects.”
Inside lamination
There have been significant advances in
glass lamination technology in recent
years. Coating technologies allow increas-
ingly advanced materials to be applied to
architectural glass, delivering a range of
thermal and even dynamic transparency
capabilities.
For BIPV, the ability to laminate mod-
“ film
ules using thick glass is a particular chal-
A lot of these thin- lenge and a requirement for the safety
glass required for certain building appli-
companies,
cations, up to 10 mm thick for the front
and back glass for wind loads and other
weather impacts. For German lamination
10 to 12 years ago, equipment provider Bürkle, it presents an
opportunity to apply the expertise devel-
were expanding oped in the safety glass lamination indus-
try to PV.
too fast,
“They [very thick glass sheets] are a
challenge for conventional lamination
”
as the membrane process is not ideally
too early suitable for modules of this thickness,”
explains Robert A. Gaiser, the sales direc-
Sven Lindström tor for PV and technical glass at Bürkle.
“The corner pressure in lamination can
create voids and the lifetime of the [lami-
nator] membrane is dramatically reduced.”
Gaiser says that as a result, Bürkle devel-
oped a new membrane-free process that
Photo: Onyx Solar
The DEWA R&D center in Dubai incorporates 1,000 m2 of amorphous The Edmonton Convention Center in Canada installed crystalline silicon
silicon glass, 100% customized transparency, and six different colors. PV glass as part a roof renovation. The pattern of the c-Si cells opens up
to a circular oculus with lines of Morse code that spell out a poem.
30
the company predominantly deploys for
architectural safety glass production but
is also applicable to BIPV. “The process
uses a vacuum flat press already in the first
lamination step instead of a conventional
membrane press,” Gaiser explains.
But it is perhaps in the addition of col-
ored or patterned coatings onto the glass
or within glass that is facilitating c-Si tech-
nology’s challenging of thin films. If the
c-Si cells can be masked and BIPV mod-
ules with a wide range of colors produced,
architects and construction companies
will be more willing to incorporate solar
into their building designs.
Companies such as Hevel, Mitrex and
Onyx are unwilling to release details as
to how they produce the colored or pat-
terned glass for their modules. However,
Gaiser says that foils or coatings are com-
monly used for BIPV applications, and
that the experience of material appli-
cations such as anti-reflective coatings,
now near-universal in PV, have allowed
for equipment providers to develop reli-
able techniques for mass production. He
says roller coating is the most common
technique. “Of course, it is important to
apply such coatings homogenously, but
our state-of-the-art technologies are
already suitable for the most part for such
coatings.”
With any colored or patterned mod-
ule coating there will always be a trade
off with efficiency. However, with the a-Si
used by producers such as Onyx achieving
something like 8% conversion efficiency,
c-Si producers, with 18% module effi-
ciency seen as the low end in 2021, there
is plenty of performance to play with. Rus-
sia’s Hevel, for example, is using 23.8%
Photo: Onyx Solar
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com

efficient heterojunction cells in its new
BIPV line, meaning colored coatings may
diminish output but still leave impressive
conversion efficiency.
Wide market
With the global solar market likely to
exceed 160 GW in 2021, and mount-
ing imperatives to decarbonize the built
environment, there is a growing number
of opportunities for agile manufacturers.
In Europe’s north, Midsummer is
deploying its CIGS technology. Midsum-
mer first entered the solar PV market as
a CIGS production equipment supplier,
but it has now pivoted to producing BIPV
solar roofing modules alongside its tool-
ing business. It initially supplied modules
to its home Swedish market and is now
looking to expand into southern Europe
from a new 50 MW production facility in
Italy.
Midsummer’s Wave product integrates
its stainless-steel substrate CIGS cells into
roofing tiles, in a way that delivers the
same aesthetic as a solar tile or shingle,
but without the abundance of cables and
connectors that existing, similar products
do. A single Wave module can be installed
across five roof tiles and integrated into
existing roofs – another differentiator
from solar tile or shingle makers, which
each have a bypass diode, junction box
and two connectors for each tile. And
with conversion efficiencies of 15-17%, the
Midsummer Wave remains a high-perfor-
mance product.
“I don’t know any kind of energy that
can produce electricity with this low car-
bon dioxide footprint,” says Midsum-
mer CEO Sven Lindström, speaking to
an additional advantage of the company’s
BST iPQ-Surface
applications & installations
Photo: Onyx Solar
technology. “Midsummer solar panels
come in at 6g/kWh [carbon footprint] in
Sweden, and in Sydney or LA it’s between
three and four [grams].” He adds that the
carbon footprint has been verified by third
parties.
Lindström says there is improved
awareness of the importance of the car-
bon footprint of solar products from
investors and for construction compa-
nies or building owners looking to inte-
grate PV into their roof. The company
also offers a more-conventional module
for flat roofs.
From its entry into the PV produc-
tion equipment market in the mid-2010s,
Midsummer has been adept at identify-
ing market opportunities and in the BIPV
segment in southern Europe and Sweden,
it believes there is ample opportunity for
“that
its CIGS technology in today’s PV mar-
ketplace. In contrast to 10 to 15 years ago,
when fellow CIGS technology producers
We would say
today we
MiaSolé, Global Solar and Stion raised
hundreds of millions in capital but could
not achieve competitiveness, Lindström
believes the marketplace is more mature
and ready for the Midsummer thin-film
are doing 70%
offering.
“A lot of these thin-film companies, 10
crystalline and
30% amorphous
to 12 years ago, were expanding too fast
too early,” he says. “Maybe the technol-
”
ogy was not mature. I see people look-
ing at solar roofs in different ways today
… The home is the most expensive thing
silicon
many people will buy in their life. They Teodosio del Caño
will spend a lot of money on their house,
and they don’t like the regular silicon
panel aesthetics. And then the aspects on
CO2 footprint, and that we’re not made in
China, is creating a market which is really
to our benefit right now.”  Jonathan Gifford
Advertisement
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applications & installations
Headroom on heat pumps
Heat pumps can now achieve sufficiently high flow temperatures to
operate most heating systems, even in older buildings. They are not yet
highly efficient, but new refrigerants are expected to provide a remedy.
This presents a number of challenges, but German researchers and
industry participants are working on solutions to harness the power of
heat pumps to keep people warm throughout the year.
C lean heating has been a demand
of environmentalists for decades.
“Heating is by far the largest producer of
CO2 in the household,” reports Germa-
ny’s Federal Environment Agency. But
there is a wide spread of emissions inten-
sity between heating technologies. Some
homes are heated by burning oil or gas
and are thus responsible for high CO2
emissions. Others have already have a heat
pump, which emit significantly less CO2,
depending on the electricity mix used. At
least, that is, in theory.
While the installation of a heat pump
in a new building is straightforward, as a
heating concept is drawn up at the plan-
ning stage and the individual components
are coordinated with one another, the sit-
“ Heating is by far uation is different in existing buildings.
In existing apartment buildings and large
homes, the challenge is greater. In build-
the largest producer ings in which conventional heating sys-
tems are already in place and the radia-
of CO2 in the tors require high flow temperatures, it is
difficult to switch to a heat pump system.
household
”
Manufacturers are therefore working on
several avenues to extend their capabilities
to better serve existing buildings.
There are still many prejudices against
heat pumps, even in new buildings or
modern existing buildings. “But the heat
pump is better than its reputation,” says
Ferdinand Schmidt, a researcher on heat
pumps at the Faculty of Mechanical Engi-
neering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Tech-
nology (KIT). Over the past 20 years, heat
pump annual coefficients of performance
(COPs) have increased significantly, espe-
cially for air-based heat pumps. Here, the
average over various installation condi-
tions and devices is now 3.1, albeit with a
wide range of COPs between 2.5 and 3.8.
However, this does not make them
competitive on price, at least not today
in Germany. Competitiveness is influ-
enced heavily by high German electricity
32
tariffs, around €0.30/kWh for electric-
ity, compared to an equivalent of €0.06/
kWh for gas, the scientist explains. “For
the same energy output per euro, you’d
need an annual coefficient of performance
of five, and you can’t get that in existing
buildings.”
Flow efficiency
Heating systems in old buildings often
require high flow temperatures of 70 C to
80 C, or even higher. If the temperature
is lower, the heating output drops drasti-
cally. The relationship is logarithmic and
applies to radiators regardless of their age,
explains Alexander Lyssoudis, a member
of the board at the Bavarian Chamber of
Civil Engineers in southern Germany.
“At 10 degrees less in the flow, the heating
capacity is only one-third, which means
two-thirds of the heating capacity cannot
be provided.”
Lyssoudis says achieving higher flow
temperatures is the wrong approach for
heat pumps to achieve the required per-
formance, because reaching these temper-
atures comes at the expense of efficiency.
A heat pump with a maximum flow tem-
perature of 35 C, for example, can deliver
coefficient values of more than six, but
only 2.4 in a temperature range of 60 C.
Schmidt has seen something similar.
Although there are heat pumps on the
market that deliver 62 C flow, he says that
“the coefficient of performance then falls
to its knees; at a temperature range of
more than 60 degrees, coefficients of per-
formance above two are hard to achieve.”
Schmidt does the math. For a temper-
ature swing between the heat source and
sink of 60 Kelvin, the temperature swing
in the heat pump’s refrigerant circuit is
around 70 Kelvin. With a heat pump Car-
not COP of 0.5 – that is, the COP is half
the thermodynamically possible maxi-
mum – and an evaporator temperature of
-10 C, the COP is 2.38. A heat pump can
be designed for this. However, the refrig-
eration circuit is typically designed to the
operating points required by existing stan-
dards, and then the Carnot COP in the
extreme point example would not be 0.5,
but perhaps 0.4. The resulting COP would
then be 1.9.
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com

However, it depends very much on the
refrigerants used as to what is achieved in
practice. The thermodynamically achiev-
able limit is set by physics, or more pre-
cisely by the second law of thermodynam-
ics. This gives a theoretical maximum for
the efficiency and thus for the maximum
COP, which corresponds to the reciprocal
of the Carnot efficiency. However, tech-
nically feasible COPs are below this. The
formula also shows that the higher the
required temperature range, the lower the
theoretical limit for the maximum coef-
ficient of performance – which explains
Schmidt’s result.
HFC refrigerants
Currently, manufacturers are trying to
get the supply temperatures up with other
refrigerants at an acceptable efficiency.
This is not a trivial challenge. Accord-
ing to Lyssoudis, the hydrofluorocarbons
www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021
applications & installations
Photo: Cornelia Lichner
This basement in a new building in Berlin
features two heat pumps, heat and cold
storage units, a combined heat and power
(HFCs) still in use only work acceptably unit, and two peak load boilers. Designing
up to about 50 C to 55 C, so the annual new buildings with heat pumps from the
performance factor doesn’t drop well start is one thing, but integrating them with
existing heating systems can be a challenge.
below three.
“Every degree of flow temperature
above the ideal value of 35 C reduces the
efficiency of the heat pump by 4%,” the
researcher explained. He gives an exam-
ple: A heat pump with the HFC R410A has
a heating capacity of 17.2 kW and a COP
of 4.71 at a heat source temperature of 0 C
and a required flow of 35 C. If the flow is
to be 55 C, the same heat pump has a heat-
ing capacity of only 16.5 kW and a COP of
3.01. If one goes a bit further to 62 C in the
flow, the COP then drops to 2.58.
However, HFCs will be phased out.
The Global Warming Potential (GWP) of
refrigerants currently still in use is in the
order of 2,000, which means that if 1 kg of
the substance is released, this corresponds
to around 2 tons of CO2, according to Ger-
33
applications & installations
Photo: Viessmann
German manufacturer Viessmann uses
propane as a refrigerant in its heat pumps
to reach flow temperatures of up to 70 C.
This allows the system to be integrated with
existing radiators. Some in the industry,
however, have expressed safety concerns
over the use of propane, particularly in
residential settings.
34
many’s Central Association for Sanitation,
Heating and Air Conditioning, which also
deals with refrigerants.
“If I have three to 5 kg in my system, and
they escape into the atmosphere, then I
can also heat my house with oil for one to
two years, which has the same effect,” says
Matthias Wagnitz, a consultant for energy
and heating technology at the association.
This only happens in the event of an acci-
dent, he notes, but the risk exists.
There are few climate-friendly refrig-
erant alternatives. Newer “fourth-gen-
eration” substitutes such as tetrafluoro-
propene may have a low GWP, but they
only work if other disadvantages are
accepted, explains Johannes Brunder,
a research associate at the Institute for
Building Energetics, Thermotechnology
and Energy Storage at the University of
Stuttgart.
“The substances decompose quickly
in the air, are then no longer there in
their original form and are considered
degraded,” says Brunder. “However, the
degraded products contain toxic and
corrosive pollutants that are no longer
degradable, such as trifluoroacetic acid,
and possibly also highly climate-damag-
ing degraded products.”
Higher temperatures
Several manufacturers, such as Vaillant
and Viessmann, now use propane, which
allows higher flow temperatures. “This
has a GWP 100 of just 0.02 according to
the sixth IPPC status report published in
the summer,” explains Viessmann press
spokesman Wolfgang Rogatty. Previously,
a value of three was assumed, which can
still be found in numerous sources.
The new Viessmann product, which
contains 2 kg of propane, is scheduled to
go into series production in early 2022.
Property owners will have to sacrifice
1 to 2 square meters of garden space for
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com

the outdoor unit. “We can use it to create
a flow of 70 degrees even at –15 degrees
outside without an electric heater, but it
can be included for extra cold days just
to be on the safe side,” Rogatty promises.
Under standard conditions according to
EN 14511, the COP is just above 5.4.
Lyssoudis is familiar with the use of
propane, and finds it problematic. For the
heat pump to work, the gas is in the cir-
cuit at a slightly higher pressure. Because
of its high flammability and the fact that
it is a heavier-than-air gas, a propane sys-
tem in the basement of a residential build-
ing is dangerous.
Lyssoudis explains: “There are various
regulations that add up to make filling
problematic, but there is no general ban.”
Still, he says that he’s certain that propane
will not catch on, despite its thermody-
namic properties.
Lyssoudis sees another refrigerant as
having an advantage over propane: CO2.
It would easily reach temperatures above
60 degrees, but requires high pressures,
Brunder suggests 100 bar, in the refriger-
ation circuit – requiring increased tech-
nical effort.
“Because of the high pressure, the over-
all system is inefficient and expensive,” the
researcher says. For manufacturers, CO2
is not preferred. Not only does the heat
pump have to generate the high pressure,
“we then also need more massive materi-
als, which drives up the price of the equip-
ment,” Rogatty adds.
Ammonia is often used as a refrigerant,
but here too there are challenges. “I don’t
want that in the house, it’s highly toxic and
corrosive,” Lyssoudis says. However, there
are ways to use the refrigerant outdoors.
An attractive alternative, Brunder sug-
gests, are cycle compression heat pumps
that use ammonia/water. These would be
suitable for larger capacities of 500 kW
to 20 MW. “For heat networks in neigh-
borhoods, this is a conceivable solution –
even in existing buildings.”
Theoretical limit
Brunder calculates that a system with a
supply of 60 C at an outside temperature
of 0 C has a theoretical coefficient of per-
formance of 5.5. “If you look at the prop-
erties of the refrigerants, systems with
the currently used refrigerant R410A,
an HFC, come in at a maximum of 3.5,
with propane at 3.9 and with ammonia
at 4.5.” Given this, there’s still room for
improvement.
www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021
applications & installations
However, he advises against looking
solely at the COP. The compressor’s grade,
a measure of a machine’s internal losses
that is often confused with efficiency, also
plays an important role, he says. “The
highest theoretical value does not have
to be the most practical,” he says. Here,
Brunder suggests, degrees of quality of 50
to 80% are realistic.
Instead of looking for new refriger-
ants, manufacturers could also improve
the processes in heat pumps. “If you cool
down the liquid refrigerant after the com-
pressor and heat the gaseous one after
the evaporator, that increases efficiency,”
Brunder says. With propane, he says, the
approach works well.
Smaller temperature differences also
help. A lower temperature difference
between the internal and external circuit
of 2 Kelvin instead of 5 Kelvin is immedi-
ately noticeable. “You then get a flow that
“is one
is three Kelvin warmer without chang-
ing anything in the refrigeration circuit,”
Brunder says. The disadvantage is that The refrigerant
of the most
the heat exchanger has to be somewhat
larger.
Changes to the compressor, such as an
intermediate injection with liquid refrig-
erant, could also increase the tempera-
important ways to
ture level of the usable heat and thus the
flow temperature. Viessmann, for exam- achieve higher feed
rates
”
ple, offers intermediate steam injec-
tion for ground-source heat pumps. In
this case, two heat pumps are intercon-
nected. A certain amount of refrigerant
is then diverted within the refrigeration
circuit and injected into the heat pump’s
compressor.
“We can achieve a flow of 73 degrees
and a maximum capacity of 274 kilo-
watts with a brine-to-water heat pump
for apartment buildings and commercial
businesses this way, but larger capacities
are also possible with air-to-water sys-
tems,” Rogatty says. The brine-to-water
pump’s COP is 4.4 at B0/W35, accord-
ing to EN 14511.
Over the long term, the refrigerant is
one of the most important ways to achieve
higher feed rates with acceptable effi-
ciency. Rogatty doesn’t see the end of COP
improvements even after Viessman’s new
heat pump is on the market.
“There are still opportunities for even
higher efficiencies, at least in theory; a
few years ago, you wouldn’t have thought
of using propane as a refrigerant either,
because you didn’t know certain tech-
niques yet.”   Jochen Bettzieche
35
 applications & installations
Rush hour
Urban transportation is key to modern civilization. It has enabled humans
to travel long distances and is one of the building blocks of industry and
leisure. But it has come at a cost. In the first quarter of 2022, pv magazine’s
UP Initiative will focus on the rise of e-mobility. We will examine urban
transportation and the role electric vehicles, trains, and two- and
three-wheelers can play in greening the electricity grid. In addition to
technological innovation, we will also investigate market projections, the
policies and infrastructure required, and the role solar and storage will
play in taking this nascent industry full throttle.
Y ou step out of your apartment onto
the street. Spring is burgeoning – a
faint smell of frost mixed with fresh cut
grass from the nearby park reminds you
of summer to come. Chatter seeps from a
corner café and the tree-lined road is dot-
ted with PV-powered charging points.
People walk purposefully, their shoes clip-
clopping on the solar-paved path while
birds chirp from budding bushes. It’s 8
a.m. on Monday, March 15, 2051 – rush
hour – and you’re late for work.
Walking to the nearest designated land-
ing hub, you check the taxi’s location on
your hologram device. There’s only a
minute to scroll through emails before a
whoosh ruffles your hair. You pause and
look up to see your ride descending, its
rtor blades quietly whirring. The door
slides open and you step in, taking a seat
by two other passengers, also on their way
to the city center.
The electric air taxi ascends. You’ll
arrive at your destination in 10 minutes.
Initiative partners Beneath, the city sprawls, rooftop PV pan-
els and solar facades glisten in the sun. An
pv magazine thanks our UP Initiative supporters electric subway surfaces for a moment to
for their guidance and ongoing commitment to snake its way through the concrete jungle,
sustainability across the solar supply chain. as electric and hydrogen-powered buses,
vans, cars, bikes, and scooters zig-zag
their way through the roads below.
From A to Z
The above scenario may seem a sci-fi flight
of fancy. But according to Bloomberg-
NEF’s (BNEF) “Electric Vehicle Outlook
2021,” if net-zero road transport emissions
are to be achieved by 2050, 100% of the
world’s road fleet must run on electric-
ity or hydrogen, with almost 60% of new
car sales to be zero emission by 2030 (see
chart, p. 38).
36
The analysts place a heavy mantle on
transportation, stating that “mobility is
at the core of modern civilization.” Evo-
lution in one area, however, often comes
with regression in another. And thus,
while modern transportation is one of the
key building blocks of international busi-
ness and trade, has widened human com-
munication, and enabled us to place our
fingertips on almost every square inch of
planet Earth (and increasingly beyond!),
it has also contributed to a dangerous car-
bon footprint, high levels of smog, a grow-
ing inequality gap, and the destruction of
some of our most fragile environments.
Despite the invention of the electric
car in 1830s Scotland, and a 1990s move
by U.S.-based General Motors to com-
mercialize them (crushed by the fossil
fuel lobby, as depicted in the 2006 docu-
mentary, “Who Killed the Electric Car?”),
we’ve remained stubbornly focused on
burning liquid hydrocarbons to power
transportation, to the detriment of our
environment and further research into
cleaner options.
Driving change
According to Project Drawdown, a non-
profit collaborative established by 200
researchers and advisers in 2013 to model
solutions to reverse global warming,
transportation accounts for 14% of the
world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
And our appetite is only growing.
Thankfully, we are finally on a greener
road to transportation. In its January
2020 report, The road ahead for e-mobil-
ity: How OEMs can win consumers and
achieve mass-market EV adoption, McK-
insey & Company noted that electric vehi-
cle (EV) market penetration increased
from 0.9% in 2016 to around 2.5% of the
total light-vehicle market in 2019. Europe
is said to be the fastest-growing market,
although China currently represents the
largest by volume.
This year, BNEF reported that there are
12 million passenger EVs, 1 million com-
mercial EVs, and more than 260 million
electric two- and three-wheelers on the
world’s roads. It predicts passenger EV
sales will increase sharply from 3.1 mil-
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com

lion in 2020 to 14 million in 2025. It attri-
butes Europe’s vehicle CO2 regulations,
which include an industry-wide emission
target for CO2 of 95 grams per kilometer
by 2021, as well as China’s fuel economy
regulations and its new-energy vehicle
credit system as the primary drivers. This
year, policy changes in the United States
will have limited impact, say the ana-
lysts, but adoption “will start to increase
in 2022 and beyond as more compelling
local models come to market, particularly
in the pick-up truck segment.”
Manufacturers are responding to this
trend, with McKinsey reporting that
around 400 battery EV (BEV) models are
set to enter the market by 2025 across all
vehicle segments.
In addition, governments are starting
to incentivize consumers. Last year in
Germany, for instance, the government
increased its EV purchase price subsidy
for BEVs from €4,000 to €6,000, and a
German EV charging subsidy program,
the KfW scheme, pays up to €900 for res-
www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021
applications & installations
Photo: EHang/Twitter
China-based EHang is one of the many
companies working on electric air taxis.
They may seem like a flight of fancy now,
idential EV charging stations, provided but they could realistically form a part of our
they use renewable electricity. Non-mon- e-mobility future.
etary incentives are also being introduced,
like partially exempting EVs from city
congestion reduction policies.
Complementing these are technologi-
cal and infrastructure advancements that
are not only pushing down prices, but
“
which are also improving issues like driv-
ing range and faster charging times.
Beyond passenger cars, BNEF finds that Passenger EV
sales will increase
global sales of two- and three-wheelers are
already at 44%, while 25% of the existing
fleet is said to be electric. Here, China
also dominates, although Taiwan, Viet-
nam and India are seeing rapid uptake.
sharply from 3.1
It further calculates that there are already
600,000 e-buses now in operation, repre- million in 2020 to 14
million in 2025
”
senting 39% of new sales and 16% of the
global fleet.
“This year marks the first major
increase to our EV adoption outlook in
the last five years,” write the analysts. “EV
sales are surging due to a combination of
policy support, improvements in battery
37
applications & installations

Share of zero-emission vehicle sales by segment: of the Congo where cobalt is mined, for
Economic transition scenario and net zero scenarios instance, or the energy intensive methods
2020 44% used to extract lithium in places like Chile
2030 49% 9%
2 / 3 Wheelers 2040 83% 16% – topics the UP Initiative addressed in the
2050 98% 2 first quarter of 2020 (see www.pv-maga-
2020 39% zine.com/up-initiative). What to do with
2030 65% 13%
Buses 2040 83% 16% so many batteries at end of life is another
2050 91% 9% hot issue.
2020 4% E-mobility also requires electricity to
2030 34% 24%
Cars 2040 70% 30% operate. According to BNEF, EVs of all
2050 88% 12% types will add 5,000 TWh of electric-
2020 1 ity demand by 2050 under its Economic
2030 31% 2
LCVs 2040 60% 29% Transition Scenario, and 8,500 TWh
2050 78% 22% under its Net Zero Scenario. “In many
2020 0 advanced economies, EVs prevent over-
2030 12% 8%
MCVs / HCVs 2040 31% 63% all electricity demand from falling,” it says.
2050 48% 52% Thus, the advancement of EV’s must go
ZEV sales share (Economic Transition Scenario) ZEV sales share (Net Transition Scenario) hand in hand with the greening of our
Note: LCVs, MCVs and HCVs are light-, medium- and heavy-dity commercial vehicles Source: BNEF electricity grids.
Infrastructure is another wrinkle to
smooth. Charging points are crucial and
technology and cost, more charging infra- regulations country specific. As attorney
structure being built, and new compel- Dirk Voges from Germany-based law
ling models from automakers. Electrifica- firm Weitnauer, and Stefan Zagel, a tax
tion is also spreading to new segments of consultant for Ebner Stolz, wrote in an
road transport, setting the stage for huge op-ed for pv magazine, “the legal and fis-
changes ahead.” cal issues involved in setting up charging
infrastructure can be stumbling blocks for
Evolution vs. regression ambitious projects. Among other things,
This progress is much needed if we are one has to consider charging pole regula-
to clean up our mobility act; however, as tion, and energy industry and renewable
mentioned earlier, evolution usually car- energy laws.”
ries a cost. And while EVs contain far Furthermore, which products allow for
fewer moving parts than combustion solar-optimized charging and are national
engines, for example – roughly 20 ver- electricity tariffs high enough to make
sus 2,000 – their manufacture still pro- economic sense?
duces high CO2 emissions. According to
the Financial Times, quoting an uniden- Flights of fancy
tified study in China, emissions are 60% There are many companies working to
higher, primarily because of the batteries. make what may seem like flights of fancy
now, a near-future reality. For instance, in
Spain, Repsol and Ibil launched the first
charging station for EVs using second-life

“Which products allow for solar- batteries from e-buses this February, while
the country’s first e-scooter recharging
station powered by solar pavement was
optimized charging and are national commissioned in July by the city coun-
cil of Sevilla. In France, automation com-
electricity tariffs high enough to make pany Sirea has installed a 21 kW recharg-
ing station powered by a solar carport and

economic sense?
”
Batteries are arguably the stickiest point
when it comes to e-mobility, with a pleth-
ora of news investigations and reports
having long documented the working
conditions in the Democratic Republic
small electrolyzer for self-consumption at
its facility in Castres.
Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology –
where EVs charge from and discharge
into the grid – is another promising area,
despite the many barriers to overcome,
like large-scale commercial deployment,
or how vehicle owners should be incen-
tivized to make their vehicles available
for V2G.

38 12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
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at #isnaesna22
Join us in person January 13-15 in
Long Beach, CA for the combined
Solar E-cycles has developed a solar-powered tricycle targeting Intersolar North America and
access to e- mobility and electricity for productive use in rural offgrid
communities. Energy Storage North America
conference and expo.

• Get key insights during educational

“With the opportunity to provide storage at huge scale and sessions focused on distributed
very low cost, it now comes to the industry stakeholders to over- and utility-scale solar + energy
come these barriers of low customer value and concerns over storage topics
battery degradation. It remains to be seen whether an effective
commercial proposition can be made amongst the web of stake-
• Meet with 260+ market-leading
holders, including auto OEMs, energy suppliers, and flexibil- companies in the expanded
ity providers … to effectively unlock the value of V2G,” wrote exhibit hall
George Hilton, senior analyst for energy storage at IHS Markit,
• Connect with your peers during
in the August edition of pv magazine (pp. 12-14).
VIPV or vehicle-integrated PV is also starting to gain traction. lively onsite events, like the 2022
In a recent interview with pv magazine online, Bonna Newman, Solar Games installer competition
program manager for PV and Mobility, Module Technologies at
the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research
said that EVs incorporating PV modules on their bodywork or
roof have the potential to reach more than 10,000 km per year
of pure solar-powered driving and that the modules could have
a payback time of just three to four years.
Product innovation is likewise far-reaching. Kenyan startup
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All aboard
Electric air taxis may currently be more of a sci-fi fantasy,
although hundreds of companies are said to be working on the
concept, with investment bank Morgan Stanley predicting the
“urban air mobility” market will be worth $1.5 trillion by 2040.
However, there are many working projects already demonstrat-
ing the potential to electrify the world’s transportation sectors.
There are hurdles to overcome and we must remain alert to the
pitfalls that will come with this progress.
Thus, the UP initiative in the first quarter of 2022 will investi-
gate how the growth of e-mobility can complement the renew-
able energy transition, focusing on solar and energy storage-
integrated solutions, products, technology, costs, business
models, and political issues. If you want to jump aboard, con-
tact up@pv-magazine.com.   Becky Beetz Produced by:

www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021
industry & suppliers
A limit to module size
There is a threshold at which big
becomes too big when it comes to
PV module sizes, argues Hongbin
Fang, the director of product
marketing at Longi Solar. Fang
recently said at pv magazine’s
Roundtables USA event that
despite size limits, there is still a
lot of efficiency and cost-reduction
potential to come.
“there
At Longi, we think
are significant
reliability risks using
”
oversized modules
Hongbin Fang
40
Large format modules have gained market share but face a number of hurdles,
including shipping, comparable efficiency rates, and balance of system (BOS) con-
siderations. What is the key to Longi’s strategy regarding the trend to high power?
The 182 mm wafer and cell size is the optimal dimension arrived at after thorough anal-
ysis across the whole cell and module manufacturing processes. We believe this is also
true relating to the module deployment processes, including shipping and installation
– it is the maximum wafer/cell size with conventional six row stringing within each
module that still fits 40HC containers using the current best-known method of ship-
ping modules: double stacking of pallets inside 40HC and landscape packing of mod-
ules within each pallet.
With module voltage kept the same as previous smaller format modules and current
only modestly higher, only minor adjustment is required on downstream BOS equip-
ment to make them compatible. We have worked diligently with various BOS com-
ponent partners to ensure compatibility. Based on this, Longi believes the 182-72 cell
module is the optimized solution for utility projects. That has helped our customers to
reduce BOS cost and achieve significantly lower LCOE.
You’ve mentioned voltage and logistics, but what about modules installed in the
field. Why do you believe that the 182-72 cell format is better than larger modules,
some of which are now up over 600 W?
PV projects are designed to work reliably for 25 to 30 years. But extreme weather con-
ditions are becoming more and more common, and we need to include sufficient mar-
gins in our system and component design, so that the whole project can survive extreme
weather conditions and perform well throughout their lifetime. With the same effi-
ciency, higher power modules require a larger footprint, which creates challenges for
deployment and increases reliability risks. For example, under the same mechanical
load, 40% to 60% higher deformation is observed on 600 W and plus modules com-
pared to 182-72 cell modules, increasing the chance for cell u-crack formation and
glass breakage.
Other areas of higher reliability risks include larger shear stress at mounting position
under dynamic load, smaller safety margin at junction box, higher resistive loss at con-
nector contacts and lower glass strength due to larger dimensions. In order to fit into
40HC, oversized modules (600 W+) have to adopt vertical loading (portrait orienta-
tion) within each pallet, significantly raising the center of gravity and posing challenges
during unloading process on unfriendly site conditions.
So, do you believe we have reached the threshold for module sizes?
Using large-format modules to improve power output from each module has been an
effective way to reduce BOS cost and improve LCOE in the last couple of years. Anal-
ysis has shown that BOS cost has reached a plateau with approach of increasing mod-
ule size and power without efficiency improvement. At the same time, using the same
2mm plus 2mm double glass construction, increasing module dimensions even further
will bring higher risks on reliability, as I’ve already addressed.
At Longi, we think there are significant reliability risks using oversized modules (more
than 2.8 m² in area or more than 1.2 m in width). As such, we will not pursue larger
module dimension than 182-72 cell format. Instead, we will focus on cell and module
efficiency improvement for future technology advancement and bring better value to
our customers with higher efficiency modules.
If you won’t go bigger, how do you continue to push up efficiencies?
With significant investment in advanced technology development, the PV industry is
progressing nicely on efficiency improvement and cost reduction to bring advanced
technology into high-volume production. Our recent announcements showing TOP-
Con and HJT cell efficiency world records on commercial size wafers are good testa-
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
 industry & suppliers

Photo: pv magazine/Stefanie Loos

At pv magazine’s Roundtable USA event in November

Longi’s Hongbin Fang said that solar module sizes can
only go so big before new challenges in reliability and
ments to recent progress. The market will see more and more advanced high-efficiency system integration outweigh the benefits.
technology in volume production in the next few years.

There is an increasing focus on carbon footprints in production. What steps is Longi

taking to further decarbonize and green its supply chain, while also addressing mod-
ule end-of-service issues?
We are in the green energy business and committed to making our manufacturing
green. Since 2015, we have intentionally located most of our new ingot and wafer man-
ufacturing capacity in Yunnan province in China and Sarawak in Malaysia, to take
advantage of local grids mostly powered by clean hydropower. Longi has also joined
the RE100 initiative and is committed to power 100% of our operations by renewables
by 2028. To help deep decarbonization, we have also established Longi Hydrogen Com-
pany focusing on green hydrogen equipment development.

What two or three measures can Longi take to drive down the cost of solar further?
We truly believe with technological innovations, solar cost will be further reduced.
Manufacturing processes in ingots, wafers, cells and modules can be further optimized,
and material consumption further reduced, combined with continuous improvement
on cell and module efficiency, module cost per watt will continue to drop.
With improvements on cell and module efficiency, higher power is achieved with the
same module dimension. Energy yield will also be further improved with the intro-
duction of advanced technology. Both will help to reduce BOS cost and achieve lower
LCOE at system level.   Interview by pv magazine

www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021 41
industry & suppliers
Rely on India
India’s Reliance Industries sees the response to climate change as a huge
opportunity to create value through a new energy and materials business.
The company aims to set up a fully integrated, end-to-end renewable
energy ecosystem.
T he International Energy Agency (IEA)
has warned that all oil and gas com-
panies will be affected by the clean energy
transition, so every sector of the industry
$29 million
needs to consider how to respond.
The same realization has come to India’s
largest private-sector enterprise, Reliance
Industries Limited (Reliance), which
recorded a net profit of $7.2 billion in fis-
cal 2020-21. It recognizes the need to align
Reliance’s investment in with the global energy transition. This is
German wafer manufacturer why the company’s new energy arm, Reli-
NexWafe ance New Energy Solar (RNES), aims to
invest beyond its core oil and gas business
in clean energy projects such as solar, stor-
age, and green hydrogen.
Reliance Industries traces its roots to
a textile business started by Dhirubhai
Ambani, known for its Vimal brand. But
the company’s backward integration has
been spearheaded by his son, Mukesh D.
Ambani, a chemical engineer.
Reliance Industries’ Jamnagar Refinery in Jamnagar, Gujarat, is the
largest refining hub in the world. According to shipping and logistics
giant Maersk, the Jamnagar Refinery managed to increase its exports
during the Covid-19 lockdown from 2,500 forty-foot container
42
Today, Reliance is perhaps the only
company in the world with backward
integration. Its operations cover every-
thing from textiles and polyester fibers to
petrochemicals and petroleum refining, as
well as upstream oil and gas exploration
and production.
Known for making timely moves in
business expansion, Mukesh Ambani
announced a $10 billion plan in June to
manufacture and fully integrate all the
critical components of the renewable
energy ecosystem. The plan includes every
stage of the solar supply chain, advanced
energy storage, hydrogen production,
and fuel cells. And going by the compa-
ny’s investments in upstream integration
recently, Reliance could well offer the
world an alternative to China-made prod-
ucts for meeting renewable energy goals.
From plan to realization
Mergers and acquisitions are marking
Reliance Industries’ foray into solar proj-
ect development, PV module and battery
storage manufacturing, and green hydro-
gen. The company is racing ahead with
plans to set up a fully vertically integrated
equivalents (FFE) to 10,000 FFE.
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com

polysilicon-to-solar module manufactur-
ing unit in Jamnagar, Gujarat – the same
district where it operates refining and
petrochemicals plants and manufactur-
ing assets.
Through RNES, Reliance is acquiring a
100% stake in Norway-headquartered PV
module manufacturer REC Group. Reli-
ance plans to use REC’s technology and
manufacturing expertise in its fully inte-
grated, metallic silicon-to-PV panel giga-
factory. It will initially start with 4 GW of
capacity per year and will eventually grow
to 10 GW.
Going upstream, Reliance is investing
$29 million in German wafer manufac-
turer NexWafe, which Ambani described
as “an important step toward accelerating
India’s green energy transition and posi-
tioning India as a global leader in photo-
voltaic manufacturing. We believe Nex-
Wafe’s innovative ultra-thin wafer will
give solar manufacturers a significant
advantage over existing photovoltaic tech-
nologies, helping consumers in India and
globally realize the benefits of solar energy
more quickly and more efficiently.”
On the battery storage front, the com-
pany has invested $50 million in Ambri,
a U.S.-based liquid metal battery startup
incubated at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT), raising 42.3 mil-
lion shares of preferred stock in Ambri. As
part of the transaction, RNES and Ambri
will partner to develop and manufacture
www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021
Leading operational businesses
Digital services: Through Jio Platforms
Limited (JPL), Reliance operates India’s
largest telecom network. Jio is the first
operator outside of China to cross the
400 million subscriber milestone in a
single country market. It is developing
new-generation, 5G radio-access network
(RAN) technology. Qualcomm and Jio have
already successfully tested 5G solutions in
India, achieving the 1 Gbps milestone.
Retail: Reliance Retail is India’s largest
retailer by reach, revenue and profitability
– and the only Indian retailer to feature in
the Global Powers of Retailing list. In fiscal
2020-21, Reliance Retail opened 1,456 new
stores, taking its total store count to over
12,700 stores across India. It is by far the
leader in each category – grocery, electron-
ics and apparel.
Ambri’s batteries in production facilities
located in India.
For green hydrogen, Reliance Industries
has partnered with Denmark-based Sties-
dal for the technology development and
production of Stiesdal HydroGen elec-
trolyzers in India. On the project devel-
opment front, they aim to establish and
enable at least 100 GW of solar energy by
2030. The acquisition of a 40% stake in
Sterling and Wilson Solar, a leading solar
EPC and O&M player, signifies Reliance’s
industry & suppliers
Media: Network18 is a diversified media
and entertainment platform in India.
Oil/gas exploration and production: An
upstream portfolio consisting of deep-
water acreage and CBM blocks. Together
with bp, Reliance Industries will produce 30
million metric standard cubic meters per
day of gas by 2023, which will establish it as
one of the largest suppliers of gas in India,
meeting 20% of the nation’s gas demand.
Oil to chemicals: One of the world’s most
integrated oil-to-chemicals operations,
driving India’s energy security. The oil-to-
chemicals business is a broad portfolio
spanning transportation fuels, polymers,
polyesters and elastomers. It operational-
ized the joint venture with bp in fuel retail-
ing. To accelerate growth, the company
is bringing Saudi Aramco in as a strategic
partner in its oil-to-chemicals business.
Photo: Jamnagar Refinery
43
industry & suppliers
Photo: NexWafe
An artist’s impression of what NexWafe’s under-
construction polysilicon factory will look like in
Bitterfeld, Germany
plan to benefit from its vast experience in
global markets.
Showing no signs of slowing down,
Reliance also aims to expand into the
manufacturing of power electronic prod-
ucts and other ancillaries used in renew-
able energy and project implementation.
The company’s move to own the full sup-
ply chain in solar is reminiscent of how it
pursued backward integration up to pet-
rochemicals and oil and gas exploration
after starting with textile operations in
The first installation of REC Group’s Alpha modules on the late seventies, and thereby building
a residential rooftop in Venice, Italy
Photo: REC Group
44
an empire. Today, Reliance Industries is
a global leader in most of its businesses
across the energy value chain, being one
of the largest integrated polyester players
as well as the second-largest producer of
Paraxylene globally.
The company’s existing infrastructure
and capital enable its upstream integra-
tion in the solar industry, particularly the
capital-intensive polysilicon stages, while
mergers and acquisitions provide access to
cutting-edge product technology, thereby
minimizing risk and enabling market lead
the way it did in other sunrise sectors.
Climate commitment
Fossil fuels are at the core of Reliance’s
business, with oil-to-chemical (O2C)
being the most value accretive. The O2C
business contributed around $43.1 billion
to the company’s consolidated revenue
of $72.6 billion from all businesses. And
yet Reliance’s chairman and managing
director, Mukesh. D. Ambani, has com-
mitted the company to an impressively
ambitious “net carbon zero by 2035” tar-
get. “The world is now closing ranks for
strong global action on Climate Change,”
said Ambani in Reliance’s annual report
for fiscal 2020-21. “This gives Reliance the
right opportunity to accelerate our own
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
 industry & suppliers
Photo: Mukesh. D. Ambani

Key elements of ‘net

carbon zero by 2035’
strategy
Reliance Industries’ plan to achieve “net carbon
zero” by 2035 includes the following key elements:
• Transition from transportation fuels to chemi-
cal building blocks integrated with sustainable
downstream derivatives
• Transition from fossil fuels to renewable fuels
for captive energy demand
• Maximize the use of biofuels and use bio-
pathways to fix CO2 and facilitate conversion to
renewable fuels and materials
• Scale up recycling of materials and maximize
circularity across the value chains
• Achieve CO2 capture, storage, and conversion to
Reliance Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh D. Ambani useful chemicals and materials at competitive
costs sets the tenor and trajectory for a reduc-
tion in Reliance’s carbon footprint

ambitious New Energy and New Materi-
als business wedded to the vision of clean
and green development.”
Toward its “net carbon zero by 2035”
goal, Reliance Industries has reorga-
nized its refinery and petrochemicals
business into its O2C business. The O2C
unit focuses on transportation fuels,
polymers, polyesters and elastomers, as
it looks to accelerate new energy and
materials to minimize CO2 emissions
and develop carbon capture and storage
technologies to convert greenhouse gases
into products and other chemicals, while
pursing the sustainability goal of a circu-
lar economy.   Uma Gupta

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industry & suppliers
Finding faults faster
PV cell and module manufacturers are increasingly turning to artificial
intelligence to monitor production lines and the products coming off them
in minute detail. As inline monitoring and testing equipment become
more sophisticated, cell and module makers must be prepared to manage
the enormous amounts of data and pull out the points that will save them
time and money. pv magazine examines the software solutions backing
state-of-the-art PV production.
A chieving high solar cell and module
efficiencies is one thing, but main-
taining them in the thousands of PV mod-
ules that roll off production lines each year
is quite another. Manufacturers are real-
izing that reaching the levels of consis-
tency their customers demand requires
careful monitoring of processes, materi-
als and recipes from start to finish, and
are increasingly turning to artificial intel-
ligence to assist with this task.
“Around 2015, manufacturers were
all about cutting costs, and in terms of
inspection only wanted to do what is
€2m
really necessary – the flashing and sorting
at the end of the manufacturing process,”
explained Tom Thieme, business unit
manager for solar at inspection equipment
supplier Isra Vision. “For some time now,
we are seeing a trend for process inspec-
tions moving backward along the chain all
in state funding for the the way to inspection of incoming wafers
Selfab AI project or cells.”
Thieme sees two reasons for this. First,
manufacturers want to ensure consistent
performance on their production lines,
and see a higher degree of automation as
the best way to achieve this. Second, they
are realizing that investment in additional
process control and inspection pays off, as
customers seek high manufacturing effi-
ciency at the lowest cost of ownership, and
cells sorted and binned at the lower end of
the efficiency range are increasingly hard
to sell.
Along the whole production line,
equipment suppliers are increasingly
adding software capabilities to their tools
that allow for real-time monitoring of
processes, and to notify operators when
something could be changed or opti-
mized. “We have a continuous and repet-
itive system for the automatic collection
of machine data,” said Michele Caddeo,
46
marketing representative at Ecoprogetti,
an Italy-based company that builds out
entire module production lines for cli-
ents. “With data such as machine status,
alarms, counter pieces used and recipes
in use we can offer our customers process
control and an evaluation of the various
sensitive points of the production line, so
that they can establish changes to improve
quality of the product and the production
flow.”
Big data
All of these additional inspections and
monitoring within individual machines
and processes means PV manufacturers
have mountains of data to sift through
covering their whole operation, and
this presents both a challenge and an
opportunity.
German flashing equipment supplier
h.a.l.m. sees manual or semi-automated
processes to analyze manufacturing data
as being laborious for staff and ineffec-
tive in producing timely interventions
and optimizations on the line. “Manual
methods are hard work and time consum-
ing. By the time an error or an opportu-
nity for optimization is spotted, it could
already be several thousand cells too late,”
said h.a.l.m managing director Michael
Meixner. “We got into close discussions
with some of our customers to understand
how they treat their data: the evaluation
methods, the key figures they look at. And
we decided to offer a solution which auto-
mates this data collection and analysis.”
And as the amount of data and the
number of points to track grows, the need
for automated solutions to manage it and
pull out the points that can save time and
money for manufacturers becomes even
greater. Given that their tools have long
managed and analyzed data produced
in the inspection and sorting at the end
of production, suppliers of flashing and
testing equipment are well placed to
develop more comprehensive solutions.
Both h.a.l.m. and Isra Vision have this
year introduced new software solutions
to analyze and manage production line
data, and see significant demand for such
solutions coming from all regions. “Big
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com

data is something that producing com-
panies recognize they will need to under-
stand and make use of more and more in
the future,” says Meixner. “And particu-
larly with the growing size of production
lines and industry expansions, you cannot
monitor or optimize lines like these with-
out a close sight on your data.”
Isra Vision’s Thieme also sees the
growing trend for PV manufacturing to
make better use of big data, mirroring
past developments in the semiconduc-
tor industry. “The semiconductor indus-
try has been using these kinds of big data
analysis for a long time. And PV is now
catching up,” he said. “And in a way the
development is similar – first there was
a lot of subsidized manufacturing, and
then costs fell rapidly and manufacturers
were more interested in volume. Now we
are again seeing a rise in the value of data,
which must come with industry standards
and high reliability.”
Beyond MES
PV manufacturers have long made use
of centralized “Manufacturing Execution
Systems” (MES) to operate and monitor
their production lines. However, the latest
generation of software solutions on offer
goes far beyond the capabilities of these,
in terms of the depth of data available and
www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021
industry & suppliers
Photo: Isra Vision
Isra Vision’s Connected PV solution allows
for central control of processes and
recipes, as well as real-time monitoring,
across entire cell production lines.
the speed at which analysis can be con-
ducted and optimizations made to pro-
“
cesses or recipes.
Such solutions could contribute to the
much-discussed comeback of PV manu- Such solutions
could contribute to
facturing in Europe, as well as the United
States, India, and other regions, by ensur-
ing a smooth ramp-up of production and
quick optimization of processes to be able
to compete with those of more established
the much-discussed
rivals already operating large manufactur-
ing bases. comeback of PV
manufacturing in
In Germany, this was recognized with
the establishment of the Selfab research
project, which received around €2 million
in funding from the ministry of econom-
ics and labor in the state of Baden-Würt-
Europe, as well as the
temberg. The project is a collaboration
between five leading research institutes in United States, India,
and other regions
”
the region, and focuses on development
of artificial intelligence solutions for PV
manufacturing.
“Artificial intelligence is a key technol-
ogy for the future and can also play a deci-
sive role in photovoltaic production,” said
Baden-Württemberg Economics Minister
Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, announcing
the project in December 2020. “The self-
learning factory significantly increases
efficiency and productivity and enables
faster implementation of new technol-
ogies. Our plant manufacturers in the
47
industry & suppliers
Photo: JinkoSolar
Manufacturers are increasingly interested in software
solutions to enable closer control over processes and
materials in production, ultimately ensuring better
quality products. country can gain decisive competitive
advantages.”
The project created a “digital twin” of
a PV production line. The generic model
takes in all of the processes at work in
a factory, allowing plants to trial and
improve different process optimizations,
and model their potential effect on cell/
module efficiency and other parameters.
“continues
Researchers working on the project have
As PV technology said it could allow for processes to be opti-
mized before having to try them out with
to evolve, actual materials, potentially speeding up
the transfer of new advances and even
manufacturers
entire new technologies into industrial
production.
Using big data in this way, to manage
are preparing for risks in the ramp-up phase and ensure
the fastest route to optimized produc-
increased variation tion, means that analytics software back-
ing will play an important role in estab-
in the products they
lishing PV manufacturing in new regions.
And equipment suppliers already note a
”
slight regional nuances in how manufac-
need to offer turers are making use of the insights from
data.
“Established manufacturers in Asia are
tending toward higher degrees of auto-
mation to eliminate human influences
on process performance. But they know
how to ramp up very quickly, they have
standard operating procedures for this
based on automated inspection data” said
Thieme. “Customers in other regions are
using big process data more to catch up
48
quickly and safely to gigawatt-scale pro-
duction at high quality and efficiency
levels.”
Growing variation
As PV technology continues to evolve,
manufacturers are preparing for increased
variation in the products they’ll need to
offer – whether that means multiple
cell technologies or modules in differ-
ent shapes and sizes for particular appli-
cations. And this requires the regular
switching of processes, materials, reci-
pes and other parameters, with a seam-
less ramp up.
Without a centralized system to man-
age these changes, switching lines to a
new product could mean an operator has
to upload new settings manually to each
individual tool – both time intensive and
leaving room for errors or inconsistency
in the settings. And while the switch
might still need components and materi-
als going through the line to be physically
changed by operators, all of the process
parameters can be switched instantly to
settings already optimized for a specific
product, reducing the need for a more
cautious ramp up or optimization cycle
to weed out any issues.
For new and emerging cell technol-
ogies as well, many of the processes
being used to reach higher efficiencies
are becoming more complex, with more
potential pitfalls. With artificial intelli-
gence (AI) and machine learning to track
these, and more data available to dive
deep into process details, new processes
and research and development cycles can
also be shortened.
While AI tools can save a lot of time
in manufacturing, it can ultimately only
be as smart as the training and tools it is
based on. And this is where suppliers of
inspection or flashing equipment are able
to leverage their experience in analyzing
images and spotting quality issues. This
information is still at the core of the solu-
tion, and provides the high level data to
guide operators to the best places to do a
deeper dive.
“We have a lot of systems installed, we
have a high degree of technology and pro-
cess experience, which is incorporated
in our system software,” said Thieme.
“Knowing how to process an image and
extract the relevant data for comparison is
valued by our customers, and something
they can use to achieve their individual
objectives.”   Mark Hutchins
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
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industry & suppliers
All eyes upstream
The United States faces a number
of compelling issues in its push
to expand solar. Clean Energy
Associates CEO Andy Klump
recently spoke to pv magazine
about supply chains, domestic
manufacturing, climate change,
and COP.
“higher
The impact of
logistics
and shipping costs,
and delays due
to Covid-19, has
highlighted the fact
that manufacturing
in the United States
along with subsidies
can lead to a
rebirth of domestic
manufacturing”
Andy Klump
50
The Biden administration has a goal of expanding solar by three to four times in the
coming years, but is also challenging China on trade issues. What progress has the
U.S. solar industry made in the past 12 months to address its supply chain issues?
While the first half of 2021 demonstrated strong growth in solar installations, the U.S.
solar installation market is challenged by the current trade issues with China. The 27%
drop in imports in Q3 2021 reflects this trend, as three major manufacturers have been
blocked from importing modules due to the Withhold Release Order (WRO). A recent
FAQ published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in mid-November provided
additional guidance to importers to avoid importing forbidden products, which will
help the industry manage risk better in this area.
The antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) case raised in August had the
potential to impact seven manufacturers in Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia, but the
November decision by the Department of Commerce to throw out the case has alle-
viated this risk for now – though there is some potential for future filings. The indus-
try looks forward to future growth despite these recent challenges, and developers and
IPPs need to monitor developments in Washington closely, as there are several mea-
sures in pending legislation that could help boost growth.
Given the heightened scrutiny solar supply chains are receiving by Customs and Bor-
der Protection, what internal systems and business practices do companies need to
invest in to better manage supply chain issues?
Most global manufacturers of PV modules have Manufacturing Execution Systems
(MES) in place to track suppliers and identify the provenance of their upstream mate-
rials. Most MES have been in place and operational for the past decade or more, with
some mid-size suppliers implementing them more recently, but many module manu-
facturers only focus on cell and module manufacturing and therefore only trace their
upstream supply to the wafer level.
Other manufacturers are vertically integrated from cell and module into ingot and wafer
production, so they monitor their upstream supply of polysilicon. As many module
manufacturers have never been asked to monitor their suppliers’ suppliers, the request
of the WRO to trace components to the metallurgical grade silicon (MGSi) is a new
topic, and some are checking with polysilicon suppliers for the traceability of their
MGSi; however, this request is an unusual one and extremely difficult to implement as
many MGSi suppliers lack a sophisticated MES or the desire to implement a new system.
There have been considerable investments made in U.S. solar manufacturing over
the past few years by domestic and overseas manufacturers. Can these facilities be
competitive in higher-cost countries like the United States?
Cost is still a major factor in the manufacturing process, but due to high levels of auto-
mation and advanced manufacturing platforms, the bigger factor with respect to cost is
the advantage of the overall supply chain, including consumables and proximity of sup-
pliers. The United States has the potential to reshore more manufacturing domestically,
but an extensive overhaul of the supply chain is needed to ensure that these costs remain
in line with industry trends. Additionally, the impact of higher logistics and shipping
costs, and delays due to Covid-19, has highlighted the fact that manufacturing in the
United States, along with subsidies, can lead to a rebirth of domestic manufacturing.
Turning to end-product quality, are solar products produced today robust enough
to withstand the effects of a rapidly changing climate? Where does CEA see the need
for particular attention to make solar equipment more resilient?
Climate change is placing additional operational stress on solar arrays due to, for exam-
ple, more extreme and potentially damaging storm events and higher ambient temper-
atures. Many of today’s racking and balance of system (BOS) components have been
tested based on industry standards set a number of years ago and consequently, some
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
 industry & suppliers

Photo: CEA

CEA’s Andy Klump sees potential for PV

manufacturing to return to the United States,
but doing this cost effectively will require a major
of the current extreme weather events are causing more stress than these components overhaul of the entire supply chain.
were designed to withstand. Although some manufacturers have adjusted their spec-
ifications for these adverse conditions, others are pushing for lower-cost options and
components, which may lead to more damage rather than less. Consequently, some cus-
tomers are requesting their manufacturers increase the rigor behind their component
specifications to increase resiliency, so there is some tension in the market on this point.
CEA has been educating clients on the importance of reevaluating bill of materials
(BOM) selection and completing more extensive in-line production monitoring (IPM)
during our Quality Assurance Program (QAP) to withstand intense weather events.
Best-in-class downstream companies can use a comprehensive QAP to ensure that they
monitor the impact of their equipment selection on overall performance, despite severe
weather events worsening over time. pv magazine
The most recent COP negotiations in Glasgow wound up last month – how is the
solar ecosystem likely to change as decarbonization and electrification accelerate
Roundtables
Our Roundtables USA event on Nov. 9 was a huge
through global economies? success, bringing together 29 expert speakers
There is an increased demand for ESG compliance as larger, well-established fund man- from the United States energy industry, across
agers are financing large-scale solar deployments and therefore a higher level of scru- four sessions joined by close to 500 attendees.
tiny will be placed on ESG. In addition to ESG funds, solar consumers are becoming If you missed the event, or just want to revisit the
more discerning of the carbon content in solar components and consequently, upstream engaging discussions, scan the code here or visit
pv-magazine.com/pv-magazine-events/rtusa21
manufacturing steps produced with low-cost hydro energy may be in more demand to view recordings of the whole event, and
than low-cost coal. access presentations from
In the past, certain countries such as France and South Korea have paid additional tariff the key speakers. And
levels for low carbon content modules, but I predict that this trend will increase. Fur- pv magazine has more
thermore, residential homeowners will continue to demand electric vehicles, so a bun- Roundtables and a whole
host of other great events
dled solar installation with EV charging and backup battery system will become the coming up in 2022 – watch
standard in future. I anticipate that larger global manufacturers who prioritize these this space for announce-
trends will enter into this sector, and the recent acquisition of REC Group by Reliance ments!
Industries in India is one good example.   Interview by pv magazine

www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021 51
industry & suppliers

pv magazine Award:
H2 Finalists announced
It’s what inside that makes most of the finalists stand out in the Modules entries submitted in the second half
of this year, and both TOPCon and heterojunction (HJT) cells are leading the way in terms of efficiency. Check
out the next four new modules to make their way to the final judging
phase of the 2021 competition.

This year is shaping up to be the one in which developments on

Selection criteria
the cell-efficiency level take over from module innovation. TOPCon • Efficacy of the solution: What prob-
lem does it solve for the industry? How
technology is playing a key role in the high-efficiency plans of the major
well does it do this?
manufacturers, while HJT remains in the hunt. The selection of finalists • USP: How does the approach differ
in the Modules category of the 2021 pv magazine Annual Award reflect from other solutions in the same mar-
this trend, although module ket segment? How effective do you
applications that unlock hard- believe it is?
Reminder: Finalists from H1 to-serve market sub-segments • Economic feasibility and market
impact: How significant is the market
• Canadian Solar: HiKu 7 & BiHiKu7 have also been recognized by impact and how does it contribute to
• Hevel Solar: BIPV HJT our independent jurors. And the reducing costs or improving quality in
• Trina Solar: Vertex Series
• Mitrex: Solar Cladding
finalists are… the solar/storage industries?

JinkoSolar – Tiger Pro N-type with TOPCon

The latest iteration of Jinko’s Tiger
series deploys n-type TOPCon for
high efficiency, with good results for
the rooftop. With a module efficiency
of 21.3% the results are impressive,
and the Tiger deploys all the standard
high efficiency module technologies to
deliver power outputs of 395 W to 415
W in an all-black, 60-cell format.
Jay Lin (JL): I scored this module
slightly higher than the Jolywood
[Niwa Black] because Jolywood’s is a dou-
ble glass module. So, the market impact
of this would be higher for the rooftop
segment.
Pierre Verlinden (PV): It definitely is
a new product that is interesting. Jinko
doesn’t advertise their tiling ribbon [in
this application]. I was wondering why,
because that is what was innovative with
the Tiger, where they flatten the round
wire at the overlap point.

Maxeon – Air solar panel

SunPower spinoff Maxeon is looking
to unlock tricky market segments with
its lightweight Air module series, while
also introducing a low-cost installation
process. Maxeon’s IBC cells deliver high
efficiency, at 20.97%, but don’t reach the
peaks of the TOPCon producers. They
keep the weight down without the frame
and glass, instead encapsulating in high-
performance polymer – although jurors
have concerns with long-term durability.
Yali Jiang (YJ): It does look like a new way
for installing, which to me looks totally
different. But I understand that there are
some concerns about reliability.
PV: It is a low-efficiency IBC cell. It is
an expensive cell with an efficiency that
is not even reaching the efficiency of
the TOPCon right now, which is a bit
disappointing.
JL: I also have reliability concerns and
I also noticed that certification is still
pending. Although they claim they have
600,000 customers, the certification is not
ready yet.

52 12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
 industry & suppliers

Jolywood – Niwa Black

Achieving 21.94% module efficiency, Jolywood has demonstrated JL: One thing that is strange to me is that it is a bifacial module,
the power of its n-type TOPCon cell in its Niwa Black mod- but the target market is the rooftop.
ule. Its glass-glass bifacial module format drew some questions YJ: Jolywood has a good record in TOPCon production. There
from the jurors, yet its POPAID process for the J-TOP 2.0 cells are signs that this year will be a big one for TOPCon.
inside helped the Niwa Black to truly stand out. And with a slick-
black appearance at 405 W to 430 W from 60 cells, it’s a power-
ful contender.
PV: I rated Jolywood very highly as its new technology for depos-
iting the polysilicon on the rear side is innovative. It is a TOPCon
cell, and most manufacturers use LPCVD to deposit the poly –
they use a back-to-back system.
Unfortunately, there’s a little bit of wrap around because it’s done
in low pressure, so there is a little bit of deposition of polysilicon
on the front side – which you need to etch back and selectively,
without impacting the passivation on the front. So, it is quite a
complicated process.
What Jolywood has developed is the POPAID process, which is
similar to a PVD process, and they have successfully been able
to remove a number of process steps.

REC – Alpha Black

REC continues to tweak its HJT cell platform, originally sup-
plied by Meyer Burger, to produce a high-powered module for
the rooftop that achieves 21.9% module efficiency. The low frame
profile brings advantages in terms of transportation, which is
proving to be a costly challenge for suppliers in 2021, and it con-
tinues with a lead-free approach to cell interconnection, with
no gaps.
PV: There is nothing really new compared to the previous
year. There are concerns with the cost and sustainability of HJ
cell regarding the usage of Silver, Indium and Bismuth for the
interconnection.
JL: One thing I like about REC’s Alpha Black is that it is lead-free.
Also, the smaller frame height will reduce the carbon footprint
of the product and that can differentiate it from others even if
there isn’t much innovation.
YJ: For me it’s just about how competitive REC can deliver. The
efficiency is similar, but it doesn’t look like it’s very competitive
with Jinko and Jolywood’s TOPCon.

The Jury
Jay Lin – Chief
Consultant,
PV Guider
Lin is chief consultant at PV Guider.
He has more than 15 years of experi-
ence in photovoltaic research, produc-
tion, and system integration. PV Guider
is a consultancy offering quality assur-
ance services for investors, insurers,
and banks.
Pierre Verlinden –
Founder, Amrock
Verlinden is a veteran
PV researcher, having carried out funda-
mental solar cell research at both KU Leu-
ven and Stanford University. He has led
R&D teams at SunPower and Trina Solar,
the latter in the role of chief scientist.
Yali Jiang –
Solar Analyst,
BloombergNEF
Jiang covers the PV manu-
facturing sector, tracking supply and
price dynamics along the value chain.
She also keeps an eye on technology
trends that might impose near-term
impacts. She started her career in a PV
and battery company in 2009.

www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021 53
industry & suppliers

pv magazine test
October 2021 results
As detailed in the October edition, the pv magazine test rooftop PV installation was reconfigured to ensure
more accurate tracking of the high-power, high-current modules using microinverters. George Touloupas, senior
director of technology and quality at CEA, discusses additional modifications to accommodate high currents on
the rooftop, and presents the first results from the newly configured array.

B y Oct. 18, replacement and recon-

figuration of the microinverters had
been completed, and since then module
performance has been tracked, except
for three days of mandated power cuts.
During this period, we observed some
energy yield anomalies for the high cur-
rent modules, the root cause of which is
the difference in resistive losses for the
DC cable between modules with widely
differing currents. As the DC cable loss is
proportional to the square of the module
current, these differences in losses for 15
m of 2.5 mm² DC cable can reach up to
Bifacial boost
all in Wh/Wp Total Jun2021 Total Jul2021
Average monthly yield 110.96
Average monthly bifacial yield 112.69
Average monthly monofacial Mono 105.75
PERC yield
Operation days 30
Average daily yield 3.70
Average daily bifacial yield 3.76
Average daily monofacial yield 3.53
Bifacial boost 6.6%
24 W, between a G12 (210 mm wafer)
and a M6 (166 mm) module, and 6 W
between a M10 (182 mm) module and a
We have therefore decided to change
the cables to the bigger 4 mm², and at the
same time develop a method of applying
M6 one. Increasing the cable cross sec- a correction factor to the output of high-
tion to 4 mm² will narrow this to 15 W current modules to account for the dif-
and 4 W, respectively, but we still con- ference in resistive losses that may other-
sider this to be wide, as the power of a wise distort the energy yield comparisons
G12 module will be in the range of 550 W in favor of modules using smaller wafers.
to 660 W. In PV plants, the modules are The modifications were completed in
connected in long, high-voltage strings mid-November and the results will be pre-
(typically 1,500 V), so the percentage of sented later. In this issue, we only pres-
the resistive losses over the total string ent the data for low-current modules, with
power is much lower than for an indi- higher current products (M10 and G12) to
vidual module. be added in the next issue.
The average bifacial boost is 7.8% for
October 2021. Bifacial boost is defined as
Total Aug2021 Total Oct2021 the extra energy yield of the bifacial prod-
116.63 118.41 27.71 ucts compared to the average energy yield
107.05 124.42 29.00 of all monofacial mono PERC products.
101.87 116.17 26.89 The chart to the bottom right shows the
comparison between different PV mod-
29 31 11 ule technologies for October 2021. Bifacial
4.02 3.82 0.87 modules are steadily performing above all
3.69 4.01 0.91 the other technologies, with monofacial
3.51 3.75 0.84 mono modules having the lowest yield.  
5.1% 7.1% 7.8%  George Touloupas

Energy yield ranking

# Installation Product Type Total Total Total Total Jun July Aug Oct
Month Jun 2021 Jul 2021 Aug 2021 Oct 2021 2021 2021 2021 2021
Wh/Wp Wh/Wp Wh/Wp Wh/Wp Rank Rank Rank Rank
26 8/28/2019 LONGi LR6-72HBD375 Bifacial Mono PERC 132.251 128.866 131.478 30.091 1 1 1 1
27 12/31/2019 Jolywood JW-D72N-400 Bifacial Mono 128.329 127.086 130.243 29.808 2 2 2 2
N-TOPCon
37 7/1/2021 LONGi LR4-72HBD-445M Bifacial Mono PERC 125.617 114.612 120.979 29.261 4 10 5 3
28 4/15/2020 Risen RSM114-6- Bifacial Mono PERC 126.678 121.783 123.597 28.973 3 3 4 4
405BMDG
31* 10/1/2020 JA JAM60S10-345/MR Mono PERC 122.531 118.050 120.585 27.891 5 4 6 5
20 11/21/2018 Phono PS380MH-24/TH Mono PERC 116.580 115.690 118.806 27.574 8 6 9 6
22 5/4/2019 Znshine ZXP6-60-275/P Multi 111.144 113.108 113.218 27.467 7 13 13 7
30 7/7/2020 GCL GCL-M3/72H380 Cast Mono PERC 115.429 115.613 114.164 27.381 10 8 12 8
21 3/1/2019 Risen RSM120-6-320M Mono PERC 120.063 115.711 117.433 27.175 6 5 10 9
29 7/7/2020 CSI CS3U-390MS Mono PERC 110.206 114.448 111.285 26.955 11 11 15 10
34* 7/1/2121 JA JAM72D20-445MB Bifacial Mono PERC - 115.271 119.754 26.851 - 9 8 11
10 5/24/2018 Recom RCM-275-6MB- Mono 116.186 113.445 99.890 26.562 9 12 16 12
4-BB21
35* 7/1/2121 JA JAM72S20-445MR Mono PERC - 111.108 116.174 26.347 - 14 11 13
33* 7/1/2121 Trina TSM-450DE173(II) Mono PERC - 108.969 112.764 25.389 - 15 14 14
*Purchased products from the market, which bypassed the random sampling process. The rest of the products were provided by the suppliers.

54 12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
 industry & suppliers

Daily temperature and irradiance data (October 2021) Source: pv magazine test data
very
18 °C Daily ambient temperature Daily irradiance 7 kWh/m2 good
16 °C
6 kWh/m2
14 °C
5 kWh/m2
12 °C

10 °C 4 kWh/m2

8 °C 3 kWh/m2 module

6 °C
2 kWh/m2
4 °C
1 kWh/m2
2 °C

0 °C 0 kWh/m2
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Total energy yield (October 2021) Source: pv magazine test data

LONGi LR6-72HBD375
Jolywood JW-D72N-400
LONGi LR4-72HBD-445M
Risen RSM114-6-405BMDG
JA JAM60S10-345/MR
Phono PS380MH-24/TH Notes on the energy yield measurements
Znshine ZXP6-60-275/P
• The energy yield comparison among various
GCL GCL-M3/72H380 technologies, including bifacial boost, will be
Risen RSM120-6-320M analyzed using products installed after the
CSI CS3U-390MS beginning of 2019.
JA JAM72D20-445MB • The energy yield is given in Wh/Wp and calcu-
lated by dividing the energy produced by the
Recom RCM-275-6MB-4-BB21
module by the Pmax at STC of the module. This
JA JAM72S20-445MR Pmax is the maximum STC power after a process
Trina TSM-450DE173(II) of stabilization.
WH/WP 5 10 15 20 25 30 • The results are grouped in categories, per mod-
ule type.
Bifacial Mono PERC Bifacial Mono N-TOPCon Mono PERC Mono Cast Mono PERC Multi
• The bifacial boost depends on many param-
eters: the bifaciality factor, the installation
geometry, the albedo of the ground, the sun
angle and diffuse irradiance. The ground in this
Relative yield of different technologies (October 2021) Source: pv magazine test data
case is gray gravel.
112%

110% 110.9
108%

106% 107.0 Test cooperation

pv magazine test is a cooperative effort involv-
104%
ing pv magazine, APsystems, CEA and Gsolar. All
102% testing procedures are carried out at Gsolar’s test
102.2 laboratory in Xi’an, China. CEA supervises these
101.9 tests and designed both the indoor and outdoor
100%
100.0 testing procedures.
98%

96%

94%
Bifacial Mono Bifacial Mono PERC Cast Mono PERC Mono PERC Multi
N-TOPCon

www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021 55
storage & smart grids
Making cheaper H2
The hype surrounding green hydrogen is real, but does the cost-reduction
outlook for its production technologies live up to it? Christian Roselund
looks at the technology, transportation, application and enabling policies
behind the promising green energy carrier.
G reen hydrogen is the topic of the year.
From day-long sessions at COP26 to
the oil and gas company advertising spree,
to the policies hammered out in Brussels
and Washington, DC, talk of green hydro-
gen – created using electrolysis powered
by renewable energy – is everywhere.
Hydrogen is needed to decarbonize sec-
tors of the economy that cannot fully be
electrified, including international ship-
ping, potentially flexible power gener-
ation, long-haul aviation, and the pro-
duction of fertilizers, methanol and steel.
But while hydrogen is either already used
or has proven its ability to deliver in
most of these sectors, it must also do so
“
cost-effectively.
Gigawatts of green Critics are quick to point out that for
all the talk of green H2, nearly all hydro-
hydrogen projects are gen production today is either made
directly from fossil fuels or as a byprod-
underway and dozens uct in petroleum refining. They also note
that the dominant steam methane reform-
ing (SMR) process in most places is cur-
more are planned rently many times cheaper than making
”
green hydrogen.
by 2030 This is widely expected to change
over the next decade. Gigawatts of green
hydrogen projects are underway and doz-
ens more are planned by 2030. And major
industry analysts – including Bloomberg-
NEF, Agora Energiewende, and RMI –
expect that as these come online over the
next decade, green hydrogen will become
cost-competitive or cheaper than hydro-
gen from SMR. RMI, formerly known
as Rocky Mountain Institute, says that
this could happen even sooner with the
deployment of as much as 25 GW of elec-
trolysis capacity.
But when you look deeper into these
forecasts, things get a lot more com-
plex. Both current green hydrogen costs
and the potential for cost reduction
vary widely depending on a host of fac-
tors. These include the electrolyzer tech-
nology, assumptions of learning curve
56
effects, manufacturing and installation
location, what the end-use application is,
and what policies are in place to support
deployment.
Learning curves
The core of hydrogen production is the
machine that splits water into hydrogen
and oxygen: the electrolyzer. There is a
broad consensus that as the scale of this
central technology grows, they will get
cheaper, and that this can be forecast as a
learning curve effect.
Learning curves have been observed
in dozens of products. Researchers have
found that whether you are making air-
planes or cellphones, there is a mathemat-
ical relationship between how many are
made and how cheap they are to make.
This has been most dramatically proven
in solar manufacturing, where each dou-
bling of deployment led to costs falling by
between 28% and 36%.
BloombergNEF and the International
Renewable Energy Agency have already
estimated learning curve rates for green
hydrogen with ranges from 12% to 21%,
but these should not be taken as final.
Many analysts warn that there are insuffi-
cient data points to work from.
“Learning curve is a super-high level
metric that helps analysts frame and
understand cost reductions,” explains
Raffi Garabedian. Garabedian is no
stranger to the solar learning curve, as he
was formerly the chief technology officer
at First Solar. He has since founded and
serves as the CEO of Electric Hydrogen
Company, a startup that seeks to bring
down costs for green H2. “What is more
helpful is to peel it apart into its constitu-
ent contributors,” he notes.
Alkaline vs. PEM
The first significant split is in technol-
ogy. Most of the electrolyzers made and
installed today are based on either alka-
line or proton exchange membrane (PEM)
technology, and BloombergNEF reports a
bigger market share for alkaline technol-
ogy in current shipments.
Alkaline electrolysis of water has been
conducted at industrial scale since the late
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com

1930s. As such, it is a mature technology
and unsurprisingly cheaper per unit of
hydrogen produced. These machines are
also easier to make and can last longer
than PEM electrolyzers.
PEM was developed in the 1960s and
70s for space and undersea applications. It
is a faster-evolving technology, and while
more expensive and harder to make, it
takes up a smaller footprint. And it has
another significant advantage: PEM elec-
trolyzers can respond better to the fluctu-
ations in electricity supply that can come
with solar and wind.
Garabedian says that PEM has signif-
icant cost-reduction potential. He cites
“smarter choices of materials, and also
productivity improvements in the elec-
trochemistry itself ” as important areas
for work. But to cut costs PEM must
also reduce or eliminate the use of rare
and costly metals, including platinum
and iridium. “We can’t make platinum-
plated electrolyzers and achieve the cap-
ital cost points that are required,” quips
Garabedian.
www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021
storage & smart grids
Photo: Hybrit Development
Hybrit is a project led by three companies in Sweden
exploring the use of hydrogen in fossil-fuel free iron
manufacturing. Hydrogen has huge potential in
Garabedian sees fewer opportunities for decarbonizing various sectors that cannot be simply
alkaline electrolysis. “Alkaline isn’t going powered with clean electricity.
to get cheap fast enough to keep up with
PEM,” he argues. In particular, he notes
that alkaline electrolyzer cost is domi-
nated by stainless steel, which isn’t get-
ting cheaper. However, Garabedian says
that there is a still a technology learning
curve around performance.
And there are other factors that apply
regardless of the technology used. “What
will drive the costs of stacks down is pri-
marily economies of scale and automa-
tion,” argues Gniewomir Flis, a hydrogen
expert at Agora Energiewende. Flis notes
that many electrolyzers are currently made
in manual processes, but the new gigafac-
tories being built will be automated.
And it isn’t just the water-splitter itself
that must get cheaper – it is also the inte-
gration of the electrolyzer into larger sys-
tems, which Flis describes as being highly
important. “In most applications, electro-
lyzers are part of a much more complicated
system, a chemical plant, for instance,” he
explains. Much of the cost here is in power
57
storage & smart grids
PEM electrolyzer stacks from German manufacturer
ITM Power. PEM is seen as the most promising water-
splitting technology, with several advantages over the
alternative alkaline electrolyzers, despite currently
being more expensive to manufacture.
58
conversion, and as this represents a more
mature technology, there are more lim-
ited routes for cost reduction. However,
industry observers see opportunities for
more efficient system design, including
Garabedian, who insists that the current
approach to electrolyzer integration will
not deliver the cost reductions needed.
“You have to productize electrolysis the
way that solar plants have been produc-
tized, so that they are easily and cheaply
deployable,” he states.
Location, location, location
Electrolyzer and integration costs are only
part of the puzzle. The cost of electricity is
a major input into the cost of green hydro-
gen, and as other costs fall, this is expected
to make up much of the total costs.
Due to the challenges of transporting
H2, both green hydrogen setups already
installed and most of what will come
online over the next few years is bespoke;
on-site projects for specific end-uses.
This ties the cost of green hydrogen to the
availability of renewable energy in specific
locations. And as solar and wind prices
vary widely by location, so do these costs.
RMI has found that green H2 is already
nearing cost-competitiveness with hydro-
gen made from SMR in some locations.
And while many of these are far from
demand centers, some are not. In Trini-
dad and Tobago, RMI found an estimated
cost of green H2 production of only $2.30
per kilogram, even with a $700 per kilo-
watt electrolyzer capex (including integra-
tion costs). And there are local markets for
this hydrogen in both fertilizer manufac-
ture and potentially in the restart of the
island nation’s sole refinery.
Thomas Koch Blank, who heads RMI’s
hydrogen work, argues that the advan-
tages of deployment in optimal locations
could shape the growth of the hydrogen
economy, with green hydrogen taking
Photo: ITM Power
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
 storage & smart grids

Name Nation Main Companies Electrolyzer Technology Status Commission date Applications
capacity
Hybrit (Luleå) Sweden LKAB, Vattenfall, SSAB 4.5 MW Alkaline Online 2021 Iron, direct reduction
H2Future Austria Voestalpine, 6 MW PEM Online 2019 Iron, blast furnace
VERBUND, Siemens,
others
Commercial Plant Iceland Carbon Recycling 6 MW Unknown Online 2011 Methanol
Svartsengi International
Refhyne Germany Shell, ITM Power 100 MW PEM Online (first phase) 10 MW—2021, Refining
90 MW—2025
Aqualyzer Japan Asahi Kasei, Toshiba 10 MW Alkaline Online 2020 Stationary fuel cells,
Energy, Iwatani transport
Air Liquide Canada Air Liquide 20 MW PEM Online 2021 Exports: liquid and
(Bécancour) gas, for industry and
transport
Cachimayo Plant Peru Industrias Cachimayo 25 MW Alkaline Online 1965 Ammonium Nitrate
(fertilizers, explo-
sives)
Green Lab Skive Denmark Green Lab Skive A/B 100 MW Unknown Under construction 6 MW—2022, Methanol
(first phase) 94 MW—2024
Puertollano Green Spain Iberdrola, Ingeteam, 830 MW PEM Under construction 20 MW—2021, Ammonia
Hydrogen Plant Fertiberia (first phase) 810 MW—2023–2027
HySenergy Denmark Shell, Energinet, 1000 MW PEM Under construction 20 MW—2022, Refining
Everfuel, others (first phase) 980 MW—2025–2030
Baofeng Energy China Ningxia Baofeng 100 MW Unknown Under construction 30 MW (installed), Methanol
Energy Group 70 MW—2021
Leuna Chemical Germany Linde, ITM Power 24 MW PEM Contracted 2022 (planned) Exports via pipeline:
Complex chemical production,
transport
Varennes Carbon Canada Thyssen Krupp, 88 MW Unknown Contracted 2023 (planned) Biofuels (transport)
Recycling Hydro Québec
H2 Green Steel Sweden H2 Green Steel 800 MW Unknown Acquiring permits 2024 (planned) Iron, direct reduction
Consortium
Hybrit (Gällivare) Sweden LKAB, Vattenfall, SSAB 600 MW Unknown Acquiring permits 2026 (planned) Iron, direct reduction
Porsgrunn Ammonia Norway Yara, Nel 25 MW Unknown FID 2023 (planned) Ammonia (fertilizers)
Plant
Westküste 100 Germany EDF Germany, Ørsted, 300 MW Alkaline FID 30 MW—2023, Refining
ThyssenKrupp, others 270 MW–2028
Neom Zero-Carbon Saudi Arabia Air Products, ACWA, 4 GW Alkaline FID 2025 (planned) Green ammonia for
City ThyssenKrupp export, transport
Note: This spreadsheet is not a complete accounting of all existing or planned green hydrogen projects, and only includes projects that have reached FID or similar milestones.
The information provided is complete to the best of the author’s knowledge.

off in places that have both local demand
and rich renewable resources. This makes
global average prices less meaningful for
actual hydrogen uptake. “Nobody builds
a new tech in a place with an average
resource,” notes Koch Blank.
But what may be an even bigger factor
for cost reduction is where electrolyzers
are built. While RMI estimates 2021 all-
in costs of $700 to $1,400 per kilowatt for
PEM electrolyzers and $500 to $1,000 for
alkaline, it also notes that an alkaline sys-
tem can be built for $200 in China, using
Chinese-made components.
Currently, Chinese electrolyzers are
largely confined to the Chinese mar-
ket. “A Western bank looking at a West-
ern project isn’t going to take the risk on
a Chinese electrolyzer maker,” Meredith
Annex, head of heating and hydrogen at
BloombergNEF, tells pv magazine. How-
ever, she expects that to change soon,
and when Chinese electrolyzers begin to
be used in Western projects, this could
greatly reduce costs for green hydrogen.
Moving hydrogen
While most near-term green hydrogen
projects are co-located with industry,
there are several export-oriented projects
planned to come online in the 2025-30
time frame. These are often orders of mag-
nitude larger than the co-located projects,
and many are looking to make ammonia
using green hydrogen.
Transporting hydrogen, either by ship
or pipeline, represents losses and/or
extra costs, such as the cost of convert-
ing hydrogen into ammonia. However,
if ammonia is the end-use, this cost will
be borne either way. Additionally, trans-
porting hydrogen allows it to be made in
lower-cost locations and moved to higher-
demand areas.
Most of the projects currently planned
involve maritime shipping, as hydrogen

www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021 59
storage & smart grids
Hydrogen research facilities at the U.S. National
Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado. NREL has
signed an agreement with Raffi Garabedian’s Electric
Hydrogen Company to develop high-performance
electrolyzer components.
60
pipeline networks are currently limited
to a few locations like the Gulf Coast in
the United States. However, new hydrogen
pipeline networks including on the North
Sea coast of Germany and the Netherlands
are planned. Agora Energiewende’s Flis
expects these to come online around 2030.
“It will take quite a lot of time to have
a pipeline network to be sufficiently big
enough and long enough to connect to
places where there is a renewable advan-
tage and no issues of public acceptance
impeding mass rollout of renewables,”
notes Flis.
Policy matters
Where you deploy hydrogen also matters
greatly in terms of the policy support avail-
able. Policies to support hydrogen are being
finalized and implemented by many gov-
ernments including in the European Union,
India, and the United States. Meanwhile,
China’s 2060 carbon-neutrality goal appears
to be sending a strong signal to businesses
looking to adopt green hydrogen.
Photo: Dennis Schroeder/NREL
Other policies that are not specific to
hydrogen can be strong drivers. In the
European Union, the Red 3 Directive
requires hydrogen refineries to integrate a
certain quantity of renewable fuels of non-
biological origin. But perhaps the most
effective to date in driving green hydro-
gen uptake is the combination of the EU
Emissions Trading Scheme (EU/ETS) and
the Cross-Border Adjustment Mechanism
(CBAM).
There is much speculation about what
future EU/ETS prices will be. However,
even the threat of a higher EU carbon
price – particularly when free EU/ETS
allowances phase out – is already driving
a move to green H2 in sectors such as iron
and steel making.
Across markets, BloombergNEF has
identified the need for more policy cer-
tainty. “A lot of people are waiting on policy
to make a final investment decision,” notes
BloombergNEF’s Annex. “Why go ahead
and do an unsubsidized project when you
know you can do a subsidized one?”
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com

The way forward
More can be done to bring down costs for
green H2. For the near term, direct subsi-
dies can help to get more projects off the
ground, particularly in countries like Ger-
many, where renewables costs are higher.
As costs come down, there is a need
for other kinds of support. Several ana-
lysts that pv  magazine spoke to stress
the importance of standards and regula-
tions to help build a mature market, par-
ticularly rules to define what qualifies as
“green” hydrogen.
There are also solutions outside of pol-
icy, such as stronger co-location with wind
and solar. As noted previously, much of
the cost of integrating electrolyzers comes
from power conversion. This is also a cost
for wind turbines and solar plants. If wind
and solar projects are co-located to pro-
duce hydrogen on-site and then trans-
port the hydrogen instead of electricity,
this can reduce the need for costly power
conversion components.
But ultimately the biggest factor may
be sheer scale. Demand for electrolyz-
ers is growing at a dizzying rate. Bloom-
bergNEF expects 400 MW to 500 MW of
storage & smart grids
capacity to be shipped this year, but 1.75
GW to 2.5 GW next year, with roughly 1
GW in China alone. The company is fur-
“
ther tracking a total of 40 GW of projects.
Beyond these there are MOUs signed
for individual projects in the 26-30 GW
The math of
range, but BNEF is not tracking these as
there aren’t enough details yet.
learning curves
Meanwhile, members of the trade group
Green Hydrogen Catapult have set a goal shows that what
to put online another 45 GW of green
hydrogen production by 2027. Electro-
lyzer makers are racing to catch up by put-
drives down costs is
ting gigawatt-scale factories online, and
Agora Energiewende’s Gniewomir Flis
not how many years
expects the current shortage of electrolyz-
ers to turn into overcapacity around 2025. elapse, but how many
The math of learning curves shows
that what drives down costs is not how electrolyzers are
”
many years elapse, but how many elec-
trolyzers are made. As such, the ambition
being shown by players in this indus-
made
try is accelerating the rate of change.
All of this quickens the day when fer-
tilizers, steel, shipping, and potentially
other sectors eliminate emissions, and
when global industry is transformed to
a clean future.   Christian Roselund
Advertisement
storage & smart grids
A new entrant
to the energy sector
Green hydrogen can play a vital role in decarbonizing the economy
and enabling countries to reach net-zero emissions. The economics of
producing green hydrogen from electrolysis are maturing as developers
scramble to meet expected future demand. Everoze partner Nicolas
Chouleur and Neoen hydrogen expert Sacha Lepoutre discuss a case study
that shows how stacking different revenue streams could improve the
economics of renewable energy projects.
L arge volumes of low-carbon hydrogen
from excess renewable energy pro-
duction can help to decarbonize the econ-
omy, and hence enable countries to reach
their net-zero emission goals. Net-zero
scenarios put forward by the International
Energy Agency and the Energy Transi-
tions Commission show hydrogen meet-
ing between 15% and 20% of global final
energy demand in 2050, all of which needs
to be low carbon. This would increase the
demand for hydrogen from under 80 tons
today to well over 1,000 tons by mid-cen-
tury and create a gigantic opportunity for
renewables, in particular solar PV.
To what extent large-scale hydrogen
will play a role in providing long-dura-
tion storage to net-zero power grids in
the future is a hot topic on its own. How-
ever, green hydrogen production from
small- and medium-scale electrolyzers
offers considerable short-term potential.
The economic value of grid balancing services for a price of hydrogen of 7€ / kgH2
No grid services Capacity market Distribution of FCR and aFCR plus capacity market
8%
7% 7.61
6% 6.70 6.58
6.18
5% 5.38
4% 4.86
3%
2%
Source: Everoze
1%
0%
Solar plus GO based projects Wind plus GO based projects
62
The key is for it to become commercially
viable quickly, in order for it to help solve
grid integration challenges.
To date, green hydrogen from electro-
lyzers fed by renewable energy is adopted
in small volumes in demonstration proj-
ects, but the technology is on a path to
commercial maturity. So, what makes co-
located electrolysis and renewable gener-
ation financially attractive?
Grid-balancing revenues
RTE, the French transmission system
operator, ensures the stability of the grid
by balancing supply and demand. Three
grid-balancing services are currently ten-
dered by RTE, differing in their required
activation time response, duration, and
occurrence of the service as shown in the
table (bottom right).
Certain electrolyzers can run at part
rated load factor and hence flex their
demand in either direction in response to
grid requirements. They produce hydro-
gen at a higher rate when there is an abun-
dance of power which might otherwise be
curtailed, and decrease production when
renewable generation is scarce, and the
market is tight. This capability allows
them to participate in these tenders. Pri-
mary and secondary reserves are required
every day to balance the grid frequency.
The capacity market is only required dur-
ing the tightest supply months of the year
and ensures there is always adequate sup-
ply available to meet demand.
IRR uplift
As part of Sacha Lepoutre’s master’s the-
sis, an analysis was undertaken to assess
the ability of an electrolyzer, co-located
with either solar or onshore wind, to pro-
vide ancillary services to the grid. The
potential economic value of doing so
for a pilot-scale commercial project was
quantified. The scenarios modeled were
solar+storage, with the remaining share
of electricity supplied by the grid, as well
as solar+grid electricity, guaranteed as
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com

“
While not the primary purpose of an electrolyzer, the
ability to provide ancillary services may create additional
revenue streams and improve project economics of a PV or
wind project significantly
renewable using green certificates (GO or
Guarantee of Origin). Another scenario
was wind+grid electricity guaranteed as
renewable using green certificates (GO or
Guarantee of Origin).
The results of the analysis are presented
in the graph (bottom left), plotting the
IRR achieved by each project scenario
against the resulting or negotiated hydro-
gen offtake price.
Several conclusions can be drawn from
the analysis. Most significantly, using the
electrolyzer to provide one or more fre-
quency reserve services improves profit-
ability, with a consistent uplift in project
IRR, irrespective of the renewable energy
it is combined with. Grid services reve-
nue contributed up to 10% of total proj-
ect revenue for comparatively little addi-
tional capital outlay. Secondly, on the
French market and for this specific proj-
ect, feeding the electrolyzer with wind
power may outperform solar. And thirdly,
higher internal rates of return (IRR) are
observed for electrolyzers that are only
being reserved and not activated on the
secondary reserve.
In other words, while not the primary
purpose of an electrolyzer, the ability to
provide ancillary services may create
French grid-balancing services considered for electrolyzers
Grid services Characteristics
Primary reserve 4h tenders
(FCR) Symmetric
15min tenders
Antisymmetric (Up)
Secondary Reserve
(aFRR) Reservation:
1h tenders
Antisymmetric (Up)
Capacity Market 10-25 days/year (Nov.-March)
Revenues (€/MW/year)
www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021
storage & smart grids
”
additional revenue streams and improve
project economics of a PV or wind proj-
ect significantly. This could lead to small
and medium scale electrolyzers becom-
ing a significant new entrant to the ancil-
lary services market on the supply side.
The potential knock-on impact on bat-
tery storage business models and ancillary
services price pressures warrants further
investigation.
However, key hurdles to bankabil-
ity remain. Although several innovative
projects considering frequency services
have emerged recently, and manufacturers
mention the feasibility of such projects,
practical feedback from real demonstra-
tor projects is currently missing. More-
over, to date, the lack of regulatory defi-
nition for green or low-carbon hydrogen
adds significant uncertainty to the reve-
nue streams.
Curtailment of renewables is already
a problem, and this problem is going to
exacerbate rapidly without a large-scale
and price-sensitive dispatchable demand
that can be ramped up when renewable
power is available in excess. In the long About the authors
term, electrolyzers may well provide a pro- Sacha Lepoutre undertook an MSc in
portion of this dispatchable demand.   the Sustainable Energy Futures program at
 Nicolas Chouleur and Sacha Lepoutre Imperial College London. He works in emerg-
ing markets as part of a broader transition
to a more sustainable future. He is currently
the hydrogen lead for Neoen, an independent
renewables producer, in France.
Activation <30s
Revenues (€/MW/h) Nicolas Chouleur is a partner at Everoze,
Activation <5min a technical and commercial energy
Revenues (€/MWh) consultancy specializing in renewables,
energy storage and flexibility. He has
No activation been working on designing, engineering
Revenues (€/MW/h) and operating all kinds of solar PV systems
Batteries: FCR throughout the world since 2006, from residen-
Electrolyzers: aFRR Up tial PV arrays to large, utility-scale power plants.
63
storage & smart grids

pv magazine Award:
BESS BESS

Energy storage is a vital enabler for the energy
transition, and one that is increasingly showing its ability
to play a wide range of roles in ending our reliance on
fossil fuels – whether that’s keeping grids big and small
running smoothly, powering electric vehicles, or one of
many more emerging roles for battery systems. In our
second look at entries in the battery energy storage
systems category, we see improving operational safety
and work to extend both storage capacities and product
lifetimes emerging as key trends. Check back next
month, when we’ll be announcing winners in all six pv
magazine Award categories.

Stopping thermal runaway in its tracks

Amphenol – Robust Early Detection of Thermal Runaway
Anybody who has been following the Amphenol’s sensors require no replace-
energy storage market over the past few ment or recalibration across their 20-year
years will know of the dangers posed by lifespan, according to the manufacturer. 
thermal runaway. Attacking this issue, The technology is proven too, as REDTR
Amphenol has developed the Robust has already been successfully imple-
Early Detection of Thermal Runaway mented in transportation and heavy vehi-
(REDTR) sensor, a gas sensor platform cle applications. This also brings the ben-
that can detect initial flammable gas vent- efit of existing large-scale manufacturing
ing from cell failure within battery energy and lower costs.
stationary storage enclosures.
The REDTR T8200TR uses a combination
of infrared spectroscopy and thermal con-
ductivity sensors that will not suffer drift,
poisoning, or nuisance alarms.
The platform can detect these events
within seconds of a single cell failure,
without the need to customize for dif-
ferent battery chemistries, cell sizes, or
enclosure volume.

Bringing portable storage to the

silver screen
Axsol – ARVEY E-Series
Combining four use cases in one portable
storage solution, Axsol’s ARVEY E-Series
is a movable battery container usable as an
uninterruptible power supply, home stor-
age solution, diesel hybridization unit and
mobile battery storage solution. Utilizing
lithium iron phosphate chemistry, the
solution is more resilient in its lifecycle,
can be used in demanding applications,
and provides higher electrical safety lev-
els and lower thermal risk than other bat-
tery chemistries.
With the number of generators being
deployed still increasing worldwide, the
E-Series provides a solution that makes
the usage of procured generators more
sustainable, while enabling a smooth tran-
sition to battery electric power supply for
professional and demanding applications.
Axsol is particularly keen to highlight the
solution’s potential in the film industry,
where it can meet the inherent need for
on-site power, which today is most often
met by diesel generators.

64 12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com

Universal design for a universe of applications
BYD – Battery-Box Premium
In pursuit of creating a “Universal Design”
for its battery solutions, BYD has devel-
oped the Battery-Box Premium, a battery
system that it claims can be used in any
segment or market and for any purpose
or application, from simple home backup
power to providing critical power for
medical care in the world’s most remote
regions.
A DER’s best friend
eleXsys Energy – IKEA eleXsys Microgrid
Charge like a god
Growatt – Thor EV charger
Growatt’s Thor smart EV charger can
combine with a residential PV system
and automatically prioritize solar power
to charge an electric vehicle. The Thor
series includes a 3 kW/7 kW single-
phase charging option and an 11 kW/22
kW three-phase model, covering the full
gauntlet of residential and commercial
scenarios. Powered by solar, the smart
EV charger is highly flexible and com-
www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021
storage & smart grids
The universal design of the Battery-Box
allows it to achieve benchmarks such as grid
backup and offgrid primary power supply,
flexible compatibility with different inverter
models, simple installation, flexible installa-
tion location potential, modular design for
increased mobility, and high safety proper-
ties, achieved through the solution’s lithium
iron phosphate battery chemistry.
To counter the increasingly prominent
issue of grid imbalance due to intermit-
tent generation and the need for two-way
energy flows, eleXsys energy has devel-
oped the IKEA eleXsys microgrid, an
advanced power electronics device inte-
grating a suite of artificial intelligence pro-
prietary software applications, enabling
next-generation two-way smart grids.
The technology platform manages the sta-
bility and resilience of distributed energy
resources from either behind or in front
of the customer’s meter. By fortifying and
stabilizing electricity grids, eleXsys allows
significantly more energy from C&I roof-
top solar to flow into networks in a safe
and reliable manner.
EleXsys also significantly increases the
DER hosting capacity of electricity grids
enabling more large-scale C&I roof-
top solar and batteries to be installed
that reduce electricity costs and improve
returns on investment.
patible with different brands of PV sys-
tem, including the Growatt smart home
system (GroHome). The PV-connected
model helps homeowners to achieve 100%
self-consumption of the power generated
on their rooftop. The chargers can adjust
charging power dynamically according to
the home’s power consumption, and can
automatically charge EVs at offpeak times
to reduce electricity bills.
65
storage & smart grids

Making battery
storage a breeze
GoodWe – Lynx Home
U Series
GoodWe’s Lynx Home U Series is a low-
voltage lithium battery optimally designed
for residential applications. Like many
others it utilizes lithium-iron phosphate
battery chemistry, which GoodWe says is
safer than others on the market.
The battery is designed for plug-and-play
design makes installation, and IP65 pro-
tection as well as wall or floor mount-
ing offer plenty of flexibility on location.
The smart interface allows users to con-
trol how and when the energy is used by
storing energy from the PV system and/
or from the grid for use when electricity
is more expensive. This option helps save
money on electricity bills and cut down on
PV system payback times.

Eliminate operational uncertainty

Novum engineering – Novum AI and deep analytics
Currently almost all storage systems work
with load and capacity buffers to compen-
sate for uncertainties in determining the
state of charge, the state of health, or to
reach a certain lifetime. This means that
nowadays many battery systems are much
more expensive than they actually should
be, according to Novum. 
Novum’s artificial intelligence solution
can be added to energy storage systems,
to make batteries more predictable. This
means that either buffers can be used
for commercial purposes, or in some
cases the storage solution can be down-
sized by approximately 20% for the same
application. 
Novum promises that its solution leads
to battery storage systems at a lower price
per kilowatt, increasing both profitability
and sustainability. Novum’s AI can also
extend battery life cycles by up to 20%,
even with incomplete input data or a com-
pletely offline system, which is especially
important for storage applications in criti-
cal infrastructure. The company also notes
applications in quick testing and minimi-
zation of O&M costs for second-life bat-
tery installations.

66 12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
 storage & smart grids

One manufacturer, zero headaches

Sungrow Power Supply Co. – the three-phase solution
Sungrow’s new three-phase energy stor- can be 100% discharged. Other features
age solution is a combination of its three- – including blackstart capability, heat
phase hybrid inverter and its residential pump integration, and the instant switch-
battery. The three-phase solution delivers ing backup function – mean it can meet
a full energy storage system from one sin- a range of different use cases, delivering
gle manufacturer, supplied with a 10 year added value to residential solar+storage
warranty on the full system, and not lim- systems. The system also includes a  new
ited to a number of cycles. communication device, WiNet-S.
The inverter doesn’t have to be opened
during installation and comes with easy
plug-and-play connectors. The battery,
meanwhile, comes with its light overall
weight (33 kg per module) and practical
handles on the battery modules. It can
easily be installed by one person, without
any need for wiring between modules,
says Sungrow.
Each battery can be configured with up
to eight modules and up to five invert-
ers connected in parallel. This means that
capacity can be scaled from 9.6 kWh up to
25.6 kWh. Sungrow adds that the battery

Save the date!

The winners of the pv magazine Award will be honored
in a virtual ceremony on February 3rd 2022. The free to
attend ceremony will feature our pv magazine editors in
conversation with the winners in all six categories, as well
as the expert jurors who selected them from more than 200
entries received.
Register today to meet the people
behind the most impactful innova-
tions in solar and energy storage
this year. We look forward to seeing
you online – scan the code or head
to pv-magazine.com to register!

A reminder of the finalists announced so far:

Modules Manufacturing
Canadian Solar HiKu 7 & BiHiKu7 Dupont Teijin Films Mylar based backsheet
Hevel Solar BIPV HJT Sono Motors vehicle integrated PV
Trina Solar Vertex Series Coolback frame/backsheet combination
Mitrex Solar Cladding Teknisolar robostak laminator
JinkoSolar Tiger Pro n-type TOPCon
Maxeon Air BOS
Jolywood Niwa Black Studer Cables AG, BETAflam solar 125 flex cable
REC Alpha Black CAB Products, integrated grounding messenger wire
cable management system
Inverters ETH Zurich, adaptive solar façade
Ampner 300 PV ES Fracsun, Ares soiling loss management system
Fimer PVS 10-33 TL GIZ, PV Port & Store
Ginlong, Solis RHI-3P (5-10) K-HVES-5 Axial structural, blocking system
Ginlong, Solis-255K-EHV-5G-Plus
Sungrow, SG125HX

www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021 67
financial & legal

24/7 heaven
It’s what Google calls its “biggest sustainability moonshot yet” – 24/7 ity consumption with 100% renewable
hourly matching – a new granular phase of renewable energy sourcing. energy. Now, the claim of “100% renew-
The pursuit of 24/7 moves beyond buying enough renewable energy to ables” is not what a layman might expect,
match annual consumption, to matching consumption every hour of every as it doesn’t mean that 100% of Google’s
day. Some say 24/7 matching could push up the price of renewables, but consumption came from renewables, but
others say 24/7 is the only way to drive home decarbonization, minimize rather that Google purchased enough
greenwashing, and create a truly net-zero energy system. renewable energy to match its annual con-
sumption in the form of Energy Attribute
Certificates (EACs) via power purchase

J ust as black and white film made way

Iron Mountain, a 24/7 advocate, installed 7.2 MW of
solar on its data center in Edison, New Jersey. The
system supplies up to 15% of the facility’s electricity
load.
for Technicolor and resolution reached
high definition, so too will the current
annual accounting of energy consump-
tion make way for the better optics on
hourly accounting, or what is known as
24/7 hourly matching. Consumers need
to know if their electricity is renewable or
not, and unfortunately green electrons are
not physically Technicolor green.
Not keeping it 100%
In 2017, Google became the first major
company to match its annual electric-
agreements (PPAs). Of course, Google’s
facilities were still connected to mixed-
energy grids and utilized power produced
by fossil fuels.
This is one of the problems with cur-
rent EACs: A company can claim energy
generated during the day at a solar farm in
the middle of the night a year later, effec-
tively meaning green energy operates as
brown storage. This can be seen as a form
of “greenwashing” and means corporate
PPAs do less to decarbonize the grid than
assumed. Unfortunately, many companies
don’t even realize they’re “greenwashing.”

Photo: Iron Mountain

68 12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com

As Dan Goldman, co-founder and man-
aging director of U.S. green investment
fund Clean Energy Ventures said at TBB
Berlin 2021, “there are companies out
there that have no idea how to know their
emissions.”
To Google’s credit, the tech-giant real-
ized that “100% renewable” should be syn-
onymous with “0% non-renewable,” and
the latter remains an impossibility when
grid-connected. When Google looked
more closely at its consumption, it real-
ized that it had to go much further to reach
24/7. After all, since renewables like solar
and wind are variable (and Google’s data
centers are not), hour to hour, the com-
pany was still relying heavily on coal and
gas from the grid. It is now spearheading
the concept of 24/7 and has set itself the
goal of operating on carbon-free energy
(CFE) 24/7 by 2030.
That gap between renewables procure-
ment and actual renewables impact on the
grid “is taken by 24/7,” said Olivier Cor-
radi, the creator of electricityMap and the
CEO of Tomorrow. He argues that 24/7
means that you “can’t report zero if space
and time are not matched. And that is a
big step, because right now we’re saying
that zero is misrepresentative because we
don’t have enough granularity.”
Why go 24/7?
Obviously, 24/7 refers to a temporal shift
from annual to hourly energy account-
ing, but 24/7 calls for spatial account-
ing, too. This two-pronged focus is key to
24/7’s ability to drive grid decarboniza-
tion. Not only should renewable electric-
ity be consumed in the same hour it was
procured (unless it comes from storage),
but it should also be procured via the same
network.
“As the percentage (of renewables)
increases, it will continue to become more
and more important that we’re aware of
where and when renewable power is
placed onto the grid in order to maximize
impact,” Chris Pennington, the director
of energy and sustainability for U.S. data
management company Iron Mountain,
told pv magazine.
And 24/7 is gaining traction. As Han-
nah Hunt, impact director for Re-Source
Platform put it, “both clean energy buyers
and sellers are showing increased inter-
est in exploring 24/7. RE-Source and Eur-
electric have a joint 24/7 Task Force that
includes more than 60 large energy buyers
(including Google, IKEA, Microsoft, Tele-
www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021
financial & legal
Carbon-free energy supply to data center, full year, USA Source: Google
Google data center, located in the Midwest, USA
Jan 1 Dec 31
Carbon-free energy supply Gaps in carbon-free energy
fonica), sellers, grid operators, and tech-
nology providers. Even for companies that
are not actively pursuing 24/7, we’re see-
ing interest to discuss the potential bene-
fits and solutions.”
Similarly, Google’s data center energy
strategic negotiator, Amanda Peterson
Corio, told pv magazine that the challenge
of climate change means “we are already
seeing growing momentum behind 24/7.”
As examples, Corio pointed to U.S. Pres-
ident Joe Biden’s “commitment 24/7 CFE
for federal buildings in its infrastructure
plan,” and the UN’s Sustainable Energy for
All ‘24/7 Carbon-free Energy Compact’.
Of course, the temporal-spatial aspect
of 24/7 should drive the uptake of energy
storage and improved grid infrastructure
(particularly interconnectors) as well. It is
a method of accounting that incentivizes
the right behaviors. And 24/7 “will ulti-
Additionality vs.
mately reinforce the value and impact of
solar+storage solutions,” said Pennington.
emissionality
Additionality is one of the more ambiguous buzz-
words in the energy transition. In short, addition-
Timestamping output ality puts your renewable energy procurement
Timestamping of electricity production is in a zero-sum game with your carbon footprint.
mounting as an important enabler of 24/7 This is to say, additionality refers to the addition
renewables. That is at least according to of new renewable assets (either to the grid or
on-site) that would not have developed in the
the EnergyTag Initiative pushing to put
absence of purchasing power. Therefore, a com-
hourly temporal information on EACs, pany purchasing solar panels for the rooftop of
so that 24/7 is possible through Granular its factory is an example of perfect additionality.
Certificates (GCs). A corporate PPA would be considered additional
According to EnergyTag’s founder, if, as a direct result of the agreement to purchase
renewables from a future generator, that project
Toby Ferenczi, timestamping is a way to
is able to go ahead. Of course, there are more and
verify hourly procurement of CFE reliably. various shades of additionality, but the key con-
“With GCs, CFE is priced according to its sideration is whether it is creating impact.
real-world availability, cheaply when it is Emissionality, on the other hand, which gets
in over supply, and more expensive when its name from the portmanteau of “additional-
ity” and “emissions,” focuses on how impactful
it isn’t,” he said.
a renewable energy addition is on emissions
The emergence of inspectable ledger reduction based on the grid mix. So, not only is
technologies like blockchain, among oth- a renewable project judged on whether it is an
ers, means that granular traceability is example of “additionality,” but also the level of its
within reach. EnergyTag is looking to pro- avoided emissions. For instance, Boston Universi-
ty’s PPA with a midwestern U.S. windfarm avoided
vide a framework to which software com-
more emissions than if it had procured those
panies can adhere, with guidelines being renewables in New England. The project therefore
designed to “protect against double count- has better emissionality.
ing, double issuance and other issues
69
financial & legal
Green energy verification process
Under responsibility of the GC issuer
GC registry
Producer Trader
account GC transfer account
GC issuance
Electricity Transmission
generation
Metering data Measurement body
Metering data
The EnergyTag Initiative is seeking to provide a framework of guidelines that would see a timestamp incorporated into Energy Attribute
Certificates, enabling the creation of Granular Certificates (GCs). The above graphic is EnergyTag’s proposal for how GCs could be verified.
important for making granular certifi-
cates a robust instrument,” said Ferenczi.
However, Corradi pointed out that
there are other systems to make trace-
ability trustworthy. One example is “flow-
tracing,” which tells you where electricity
comes from by country of origin and could
be applied to EACs to calculate how many
GCs can be bought and sold between
countries. Another option is to “publish
everything as open data.” The necessary
factor is that everybody calculates their
data using the same methodology.
“Trust for me comes down to being
able to be transparent about what you’re
doing,” said Corradi. “Which emissions
factors are you actually using? How are
you treating the imports and the exports
Google’s 2030 24/7 CFE goal means that it must pursue on the grids? Are you able to have certifi-
renewable energy generation on the grids that it is
operating. Considering the tech-giant’s considerable cates go from one grid to the other? What
load, this should help to decarbonize those grids.
Photo: Google
70
Source: EnergyTag
Consumption
verification body
Checks that
Electricity supplier or cancellation
GC transfer consumer account happened against
consumption
GC cancellation / retirement
Electricity used
by end-consumer at a
consumption point
Metering data
Metering data
are the rules that enable these things?
How is storage considered?” These are
the questions currently being discussed
in the EnergyTag Initiative, and Corradi
said the decisions need to be transparent,
and “not hidden in some complex 200-
page white paper.”
Google’s Corio believes the “24/7 car-
bon-free approach reflects an unparalleled
level of transparency. It enables us to show
hour-by-hour where we need to develop
new clean energy projects, advocate for
policy changes, and in some cases, look
to new technologies that can help fill in
the gaps.” Looking to set a strong exam-
ple, in June Google released the 2020 CFE
percentages of all its data centers and its
overall progress toward the 2030 target.
Ultimately, Corradi explained, there are
two ways of looking at traceability. The
first is to say that it is impossible to know
where an electron comes from, and there-
fore if you buy X amount of renewables,
then you can claim to have used it (known
as the purchasing power paradigm). The
second, to borrow a “smoothie” analogy
offered by Corradi, is that you can’t selec-
tively choose different energy from your
neighbor on the same grid, in the same
way you can’t selectively choose a par-
ticular fruit once it has been made into
a smoothie. However, said Corradi, “you
can pursue procurement that impactfully
removes the fruits from the smoothie that
you don’t want, i.e. fossil fuels.” The more
granular accounting becomes, the more
pre-emptively selective we can be and the
more renewable the smoothie becomes.
The initiative’s discussions are not
caught on anything “too divisive,” said
Ferenczi, but are rather busily occupied
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
 financial & legal

with hammering out the extensive amount Google data center electricity consumption, carbon-free electricity share in 2020
of detail required to cover the bases of Regional Grid Location of Data Center(s) 2020 Grid CFE (%) 2020 Google CFE (%)
such a complex system. Details such as: Energy Market Authority Singapore 2% 4%
“how to ensure that the EnergyTag guide- of Singapore
lines work with existing traditional cer- Taiwan Power Company, Taiwan Changhua County 18% 18%
tificate schemes? How to manage units Elia, Belgium St. Ghislain 64% 79%
less than 1 MWh? How to include stor- EirGrid, Ireland Dublin 42% 42%
age? How to manage data quality issues?” Energinet, Denmark Fredericia 83% 90%
“We need to make it very simple and Fingrid, Finland Hamina 83% 94%
Tennet, Netherlands Eemshaven 30% 60%
easy for all types of energy consumers,
Sistema Interconectado Quilicura 43% 65%
even those without large energy pro- Central, Chile
curement teams or the ability to sign Midcontinent Independent Council Bluffs, IA 32% 93%
long-term purchasing agreements,” said System Operator (MISO), U.S.
Ferenczi. “This is value that GCs can Southwest Power Mayes County, OK 43% 92%
bring.” The value that any buyer, whether Pool (SPP), U.S.
they’re a small- or medium-sized business Pennsylvania, Jersey, Loudoun County, VA 41% 63%
Maryland Power Pool (PJM), U.S. New Albany, OH
or Google, can be sure where their energy
South Carolina Public Service Berkeley County, SC 27% 27%
is coming from. Authority (Santee Cooper), U.S.
Southern Company (SOCO), U.S. Douglas County, GA 30% 42%
Watch this space Tennessee Valley Authority Jackson County, AL 57% 70%
Unfortunately, not every member of the (TVA), U.S. Montgomery County, TN
EnergyTag Initiative is as keen on spa- Duke Energy Carolinas (DEC) Lenoir, NC 62% 67%
tial accounting as they are on the tempo- Bonneville Power The Dalles, OR 90% 90%
Administration (BPA), U.S.
ral. But time alone is not enough. Corio
Electric Reliability Council Midlothian, TX 37% 37%
said the spatial element is “massively” of Texas (ERCOT), U.S.
important to Google’s 24/7 progress. “It Nevada Energy (NVE), U.S. Henderson, NV 19% 19%
is only by analyzing our hourly footprint Source: Google
at this regional level, that we can begin
to pinpoint the exact challenges of each
grid where we operate to becoming truly
carbon-free.” likely to invest in a country if the grid isn’t
Fundamentally, what the 24/7 approach up to scratch or the local renewables are
demands, continues Corio, is that we not amenable to 24/7 procurement. As
“think about the grid on which we oper- Corradi put it, in the end a grid is just a
ate. We cannot take a ‘one-size-fits-all’ big, shared asset that takes time to decar-
approach if we want to move the needle bonize, and “physically representative tar-
towards reaching ‘absolute zero’ emis- gets” send a “strong signal to policymak-
sions.” And this needle needs a push ers, [by saying] ‘I will make my decision
because there are regions in the world on where to place my assets based on how

“The push for

“where we have so far been unable to pur-
chase renewable energy because of market
barriers and regulatory constraints,” and
“regions that do not have efficient wind
and solar resources deployable at scale.”
Full-time skeptics
Not everyone is pro 24/7. One sugges-
tion is that 24/7 will drive up the cost of
renewables and EACs. In theory, as Cor-
radi points out, if you “restrict the liquid-
ity of the certificate, then the price can
increase.” But the point is whether 24/7
incentivizes the right behaviors. If renew-
ables and EACs become scarce due to
restrictions of time and space, the price
may rise, but it should also incentivize
energy storage, interconnectors, and other
solutions to renewable intermittency.
In addition, 24/7 should incentivize
good policy. A company like Google isn’t
clean of a grid you can provide in the
future.’ And I think that is what is really
interesting about 24/7.”
Another criticism, touted by some cor-
porates, particularly those with high levels
24/7 is not just
of emissions in hard-to-decarbonize sec-
tors, is that 24/7 is too much to ask. They
about time,
but also space
”
complain annual targets are already diffi-
cult, and that “big tech” is simply “moving
the goalposts.”
Of course, the goalposts haven’t moved;
we just didn’t realize how far away they
were. Annual 100% renewable matching is
not the goal, but decarbonization is, in the
same way that reaching the cloud line of
a mountain isn’t the same as reaching the
summit. As Google’s Corio put it, “100%
renewable energy matching is an impor-
tant step on the path to full decarboniza-
tion, but in order to prevent the most dan-
gerous impacts of climate change, we must

www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021 71
financial & legal

European electricity map by emissions

intensity, with flows

Carbon intensity
(gCO2eq/kWh)
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Source: Tomorrow

Olivier Corradi and electricityMap say they aim “to organize the world’s electricity data to drive the transition toward a truly decarbonized
electricity system.” By using open-source data, electricityMap shows the live movements of electricity from all generation sources. This is a pv
magazine rendering of a snapshot in time on electricityMap, outlining the low-carbon electricity (including nuclear) in the energy mixes of
different nations. However, one must play around on electricityMap to begin to truly understand its full granularity.

target the ultimate goal of moving to fully
carbon-free grids.”
Google aims to operate on Time to act
24/7 carbon-free energy by
the requirement for temporal matching of
green hydrogen production. “It would be a
disaster if we are allowed to claim hydro-
gen to be green based on electricity pro-

2030
There are many ways actors can move to
24/7 CFE. Companies can improve their
hourly carbon footprints by load-shifting
the most carbon-intensive activities at
times when renewables are most available.
On the policy front, Corio calls for
“wholesale market expansion and reform.
We need more transmission to unlock
congestion and deliver CFE to the regions
where people live.” Another is to reduce
restrictions on EACs, such as the 1 MWh
constraint. And one key policy would be
duced on a different grid at the right time,”
said Corradi.
There should also be policy discussion
about panic buying of EACs during poten-
tial early 24/7 scarcity periods, where big-
ger companies cause others to miss out.
The move to 24/7 feels inevitable. The
more granular our view of the electric-
ity system, the more renewables can join,
and the more impactful procurement of
renewable energy can be for grid decar-
bonization.   Blake Matich
Photos: Google

Google’s PPA with Acciona Energía has seen the El Romero Solar Farm feed electricity into Chile’s central grid since 2017, helping Google’s
Quilicura data center to pursue 24/7 renewable energy consumption.

72 12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
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financial & legal
State aid for EU solar
The European Commission’s revision of the General Block Exemption
Regulation bodes well for the solar industry. The plan will allow EU
member states to grant subsidies to renewables projects without first
seeking approval from Brussels. Andreas Walstad reports that hydrogen
projects appear to be the big winner, but notes that solar manufacturing
may also benefit from the changes.
T he European Commission (EC) is
revising the General Block Exemp-
tion Regulation (GBER) and it looks like
The EC says more than
97 %
very good news for the PV industry. The
revised rules mean that EU nations will
increasingly be able to financially support
renewables projects without first asking
the EC to assess whether the support is
compatible with EU state aid rules. This
will cut lead times and could make it eas-
of all state aid measures ier for renewables projects to attract more
are now implemented by state financing.
member states without the The GBER was first adopted in 2014 and
need for prior approval enables member states to implement state
aid approvals without prior consent from
from Brussels Brussels if the state funding is consid-
ered unlikely to distort competition. The
EC says that more than 97% of all state
aid measures are now implemented by
member states without the need for prior
approval from Brussels. However, in light
Enel Green Power’s 3Sun module production
74
of the European Green Deal, the EC wants
to extend the scope of the GBER by wid-
ening exemptions for renewables projects
that can demonstrate their contribution to
cutting CO2 emissions.
“Our proposal aims at broadening the
possibilities for member states to imple-
ment aid measures supporting the green
and digital transition without prior notifi-
cation and approval by the Commission,”
EC Executive Vice-President Margrethe
Vestager, who is in charge of competi-
tion policy, said in a statement in Octo-
ber. “This will make it easier and faster
for member states to provide such fund-
ing, without causing undue distortions of
competition in the single market.”
Projects that stand to benefit from the
revised regulations include renewable
hydrogen projects, electricity storage,
zero-emission vehicles and recharging,
and refueling infrastructure. There are
also plans to introduce a “green bonus” to
improve the energy performance of build-
ings, including on-site renewable energy
installations generating electricity, heat-
ing or cooling.
Natural gas and carbon capture and
storage (CCS) are not excluded from
facility in Catania, Sicily.
Photo: Enel Green Power
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com

the GBER proposal and may also secure
exemptions from EC aid notifications.
However, the revised regulations lean
heavily toward renewables, as they are
designed to support the green transition.
Promoters of green hydrogen projects, for
example, could be winners in this context.
“To facilitate investments in green
hydrogen, the proposed amendment will
cover investment aid for green hydro-
gen projects,” the EC said in an explan-
atory note. The revised GBER will also
apply to hydrogen transmission pipelines,
either new ones or repurposed natural gas
pipelines.
“With regard to investments in energy
infrastructure, support is allowed for
energy infrastructure for new energy
sources, notably hydrogen infrastruc-
ture,” said the EC. A stakeholder consul-
tation runs until Dec. 8. The new rules are
expected to be adopted in the first half of
2022.
Cancellation rumors
However, what is less clear is the extent to
which manufacturers of renewable energy
components, such as solar cells and mod-
ules, are included in the scope of the reg-
www.pv-magazine.com  |  12 / 2021
financial & legal
Photo: Meyer Burger
Meyer Burger’s new 400 MW solar module factory in
Freiberg, Germany, is already Europe’s largest, and it
plans to expand to 1 GW.
ulations. In a global market dominated by
China, national subsidies and grants seem
key to accelerating the domestic growth of
solar module production.
“The General Block Exemption Regula-
tion is absolutely something we will inves-
tigate,” said Johan Lindahl, the secretary
general of the European Solar Power Man-
ufacturing Council. “We need a push to
build up production volumes to be com-
Solar scales up in Sicily
PV module manufacturer Enel Green Power, a
petitive. It is about getting the ball rolling,
unit of Italian power utility Enel, has secured an
we don’t believe we need state subsidies in undisclosed sum from the EU’s Innovation Fund
the long run.” to scale up its 200 MW heterojunction module
A major challenge – and opportunity factory in Sicily to 3 GW. In a statement, the Euro-
– for the European PV industry is that pean Commission praised the plant’s “innovative
bifacial heterojunction technology” for its ability
import costs of modules from China are
to maximize “energy production while minimiz-
increasing. High polysilicon prices, due ing the cost of electricity.” It also highlighted the
to events like the polysilicon plant explo- plant’s plans to facilitate “the application of the
sions and the “Dual Control Policy” to tandem structure to B-HJT solar cells, in order to
control energy consumption in China – overcome the limit imposed by silicon bound to
its bandgap.” The commission said it was particu-
the latter of which was implemented in
larly impressed by the project’s next-generation
September – have contributed to this. A PV technology leadership, while noting that it will
threefold increase in shipping costs has also has a positive impact on the value chain. Enel
not helped, either. launched heterojunction module production at
“Word on the street is that about 20% the Sicily factory in October 2019, after it invested
€80 million in the plant’s revival. It was originally
of larger solar PV projects in Europe have
designed to produce multijunction, thin-film sili-
been cancelled or postponed. This illus- con PV modules.
trates the vulnerability of being dependent
on one single country for imports,” said
75
financial & legal
Photo: INEOS
Green hydrogen projects – such as this 100 MW
INEOS water electrolysis plant for green hydrogen
production in Cologne, Germany – are now being built
across Europe.
A heterojunction solar panel is processed at Enel
Green Power’s Catania module production facility.
Photo: Enel Green Power
76
Lindahl, while warning that high depen-
dence on China for imports could slow the
energy transition.
“Countries outside of Europe have also
made that conclusion, take the Biden
administration rolling out favorable sup-
port schemes for PV manufacturing. And
the same goes for India,” Lindhal said.
Web of policies
Although the revision of the GBER could
be a welcome move for PV manufactur-
ing, support will also come through other
channels. Supportive policies include the
Ecodesign legislation, Important Projects
of Common European Interest (IPCEI),
the Just Transition Fund, and the Recov-
ery and Resilience Facility.
IPCEI, which is currently under review,
allows project promoters to apply for
EU state aid approval for cross-border
projects. In 2019, for example, the EC
approved €3.2 billion in national subsi-
dies by seven member states for a pan-
European research and innovation proj-
ect in the battery value chain.
To this end, companies across Europe
– including Enel, Fraunhofer ISE and
Singulus – plan to go via IPCEI to obtain
state aid approval to scale up solar com-
ponents production. One of the goals is
to establish 15 GW of PV cell and module
manufacturing in Europe within the next
seven years. Current module production
capacity in Europe is 6.75 GW, while
solar cell capacity stands at around 650
MW. Before gaining approval by Brus-
sels, however, member states must com-
mit to certain concrete levels of financial
support.
“On IPCEI we have contacted the mem-
ber states in writing and we already have
written support from Poland. Others are
expected to follow soon. We hope to get
state aid clearance from the EC in July-
December 2023. But it takes time,” said
Lindahl.
Lindahl noted that there is now a win-
dow of opportunity in terms of technol-
ogy as highly efficient heterojunction PV
cells are tipped to be in demand. Europe
has the possibility to directly scale up pro-
duction volumes for the third generation
of silicon cells, he said.
“We produce 0.4% of all cells in the
world but we install about 15%. Europe has
therefore a trade deficit of around USD
7 billion/year for cells and modules,” he
added.
EU grants
In addition to national subsidies and aid
schemes, direct funding from Brussels will
also be needed to get PV manufacturing
off the ground. There are signals that this
is now beginning to happen. On Nov. 16,
the EC announced the first seven projects
that will share a pot of €1.1 billion under
the EU’s €10 billion Innovation Fund. The
Innovation Fund runs from 2020-30 and
is funded by revenues from the EU’s Emis-
sions Trading System (ETS).
The selected applicants include Enel’s
TANGO project, which features plans to
develop an industrial-scale pilot line to
manufacture heterojunction PV cells. The
project aims to scale up production from
200 MW/year to 3 GW/year of PV mod-
ules at a factory in Catania, Italy.
The second call for grants was launched
on Oct. 26 with a budget of EUR 1.5 bil-
lion ($1.7 billion). The deadline to submit
applications is March 3, 2022. The results
will be published in the third quarter of
2022, according to the EC. 
 Andreas Walstad
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
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details

The energy storage decade has arrived, says BNEF

Energy storage installations throughout the
world are forecast to reach 358 GW/1,028
GWh by the end of 2030, more than 20
times greater than the 17 GW/34 GWh
online at the end of 2020, according to the
latest report from BloombergNEF (BNEF).
This projected growth in stationary energy
storage will require more than $262 bil-
lion of investment, BNEF said in its 2021
Global Energy Storage Outlook. “This is
the energy storage decade. We’ve been
anticipating significant scale-up for many
years and the industry is now more than
Photo: Southern Power
ready to deliver,” said Yayoi Sekine, the
company’s head of decentralized energy.
The outlook estimated that 345 GW/999
GWh of new energy storage capacity will
be added globally between 2021 and 2030.
The United States and China are expected
to be the two largest markets, representing
more than half of global storage installa-
tions by 2030. Other top markets include
India, Australia, Germany, the United
Kingdom, and Japan, all driven by sup-
portive policies, ambitious climate com-
mitments, and the growing need for
flexible resources. The forecast said that
although Asia-Pacific will lead the storage
build on a megawatt basis by 2030, while
the Americas will build more on a mega-
watt-hour basis. BNEF said that is because
storage plants in the United States usually
have longer durations.
Europe, the Middle East and Africa cur-
rently lag behind other regions due to a
lack of targeted storage policies and incen-
tives. Growth in the region could accel-
erate, however, as renewables penetration
surges, more fossil-fuel generators close,
and the battery supply chain matures.
BNEF said that falling battery costs

and “surging” renewables penetration

make energy storage a “compelling flex-
ible resource in many power systems.”
Energy storage projects are growing in
scale, increasing in dispatch duration,
and are increasingly paired with renew-
ables, it said. The forecast suggests that
55% of energy storage build by 2030
will be to provide energy shifting. Co-
located renewable-plus-storage projects,
solar+storage in particular, are becoming
commonplace globally. 

UK company claims to offer ‘world’s most sustainable

lithium-ion battery’
An advanced battery company based in tinuous power than equivalent lead-acid

Birmingham, England, claims to have
developed “the most sustainable, low-
waste lithium-ion battery in the world.”
Aceleron says its “compression technol-
ogy method” has enabled it to produce
products in which every component can
be accessed for repair, replacement or
upgrade. The company claims its ‘Essen-
tial’ product is fully recyclable, effectively
giving the device an “infinite lifespan,”
according to co-founder and chief tech-
nical officer Carlton Cummins.
Cummins said the Essential is the same
size as a group-31 device – 330 mm by 173
mm by 240 mm – and weighs around half
as much as a traditional battery. The com-
pany’s website lists a 15 kg figure for the 12
V/100 Amp-hour (Ah), 24 V/50 Ah, and
48 V/25 Ah products.The developer states
that the Essential offers “up to” four times
the cycle life and three times more con-
Photo: Aceleron
devices. The company also says the modu-
lar design of the Essential means it can be
used in series to power applications rang-
ing from onboard motor home systems to
providing uninterrupted power supply for
data centers.
“As technology evolves, we have the ability
to upgrade individual components with-
out the need to discard the entire bat-
tery, staying true to our company ethos
of promoting reuse and re-manufacture
over waste, contributing to the increas-
ingly crucial circular economy,” added
Cummins. That circular manufacturing
approach has also been used in the Bir-
mingham-based business’ new residen-
tial product, the Offgen, which Aceleron
claims can offer storage capacity ranging
from 4 kWh to 11 kWh, thanks to its mod-
ular design. 

78 12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
 details
Solar is the new oil
Thomas Böcke, VP Thin-Film Photovoltaics, Von Ardenne
T o fulfill the Paris Agreement, renew-
Photo: Von Ardenne
able energy must be expanded mas-
sively. Consequently, photovoltaics will be
of increasing strategic importance to the
global energy sector.
The supply of PV cells and modules
must be ensured by creating new manu-
facturing capacities worldwide. With the
current global situation, it will also be cru-
cial to diversify and reduce risks in the
supply chain while the quest for higher
efficiencies and productivities continues.
There will be an increasing interest in
developing emerging PV cell technologies
and transferring them into production.
Emerging laboratory developments are
mainly based on organic technologies.
One example is perovskites, which could
be used in a plethora of energy applica-
tions. Although these materials are not
new, we see an increasing trend to invest
into perovskite PV at the research and
pilot production level.
A major advantage of organic material
is cost-effective synthesis and production
Preview of issue 01/2022
Photo: Edward Musiak/FlickrCC
Photo: Jurii/Wikimedia
MENA interconnection Inside indium supply
Inside the grid projects looking to link the A look at future supplies of indium, which
countries of the GCC, and North Africa to is used in important barrier layers in high-
Europe, and what they could mean for PV. efficiency cells.
80
– and even deposition as some experts
claim. There are a variety of deposition
technologies available for manufacturing
perovskite PV as tandem and single junc-
tion, such as wet processes and physical
vapor deposition (PVD).
If it comes to capex, it is very challeng-
ing for PVD to compete with wet pro-
cesses. However, the impact on opex and
on the environment needs to be consid-
ered as well. Eventually, proof of prin-
ciples will determine which technology
route will be appropriate. We are con-
vinced that PVD processes will be applied
for at least a good share of layers in the
perovskite cell configuration.
We cooperate closely with research
institutes to learn about the physical lim-
its of new materials in exchange for our
knowledge of upscaling new processes
to MW and GW capacities. Our goal is
to decarbonize the world by improving
mature PV technologies and enabling new
ones, be it single junction, tandem or tri-
ple-junction perovskite PV. 
Photo: Erdenebayar Bayansa/Pixabay
Hard to decarbonize
The role of green hydrogen in decarbon-
izing difficult sectors and the projects
targeting these applications.
12 / 2021  | www.pv-magazine.com
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