Just under a year after the opening of Reiling's first recycling plant for solar modules, two technological breakthroughs have been achieved. Firstly, the quality of the recovered solar glass has been significantly improved. In addition, the recovery of silicon has been realised on an industrial scale.
Chinese PV module and cell manfacturer Longi and London based Ferroglobe PLC, producer of Silicon Metal and Ferroalloys, have entered into a long-term supply agreement.
The efficiency was confirmed by Fraunhofer ISE. The cell was manufactured at the factory in Brandenburg an der Havel, eastern Germany. There, Oxford PV is researching new types of perovskite stack cells.
Although Chinese exports of solar panels have increased significantly, the price of silicon continues to drop steadily. The Chinese economy is slowly picking up again after all the lockdowns and the slow restart, but fear for a recession fear is still holding back a real price recovery, concludes Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar.
Wafer manufacturer NorSun and Meyer Burger Technology AG enter into a supply agreement for silicon wafers, thus strengthening the independence of European solar supply chains.
Wacker takes an important step to strenghten the European PV supply chain. The German based company prepares to expand its silicon metal production in Norway.
Researchers in Berlin have achieved an efficiency of 29.8 per cent with a tandem cell made of silicon and perovskite. Among other things, they have improved the boundary layers between the semiconductors.
Researchers at the Fraunhofer ISE have calculated that silicon photovoltaic modules manufactured in the EU produce 40 per cent less CO2 emissions than modules manufactured in China. See here why that is the case:
With an infrastructure composed of 1000 square meters of laboratory space and state- of-the-art clean room equipment, the Center for High Efficiency Solar Cells of Fraunhofer ISE is equipped to address the new technological challenges.
