May 2023
Canadian Premium Sand (CPS), a manufacturer of patterned solar PV glass, has signed offtake agreements with significant panel producers Meyer Burger, Qcells, and Heliene, and is taking steps to significantly grow its business.
In addition to its initial plans to increase production by 550 tonnes per day, the Alberta-based company announced that it will open an 800 tonne per day solar glass facility. With a strong demand for solar manufacture in the US as a major driver, this translates to an annual production of solar glass of around 6 GW.
The facility will be able to manufacture a variety of patterned solar glass standards, including standard 3.2 mm-thick front glass for the residential and commercial rooftop market and 2.0 mm-thick glass necessary for the bifacial utility market.
April 2023
A new lightweight, fully circular solar panel will be unveiled at JEC World 2023 by EconCore (Leuven, Netherlands), a producer of honeycomb sandwich material production technology, and Solarge (Weert, Netherlands), a manufacturer of lightweight, sustainable solar panels. This solar panel will reduce the weight of solar installations by up to 65% for rooftops.
EconCore and Solarge have been working closely together since the beginning of 2018 to create this next-generation solar panel, which eliminates weight by swapping out heavy glass for lightweight honeycomb materials. As a result, traditional non-sustainable materials now have a completely recyclable replacement. A new EconCore/Solarge panel that is slightly over 2.66m2 in size weighs 14.5 kg as opposed to the old glass-type model's more than 28 kg.
The businesses are exploring how to employ a composite, honeycomb structure and a polymer frontside to replace the glass that is now used in solar panels. For a given weight or density, honeycomb possesses excellent mechanical qualities, being extremely rigid and robust. Glass panels require an aluminum frame as well, but honeycomb eliminates this requirement as well, reducing weight further.
April 2023:The capacity expansion plans for CSI Solar Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Canadian Solar, were revealed. CSI Solar plans to increase its ingot, wafer, cell, and module capacities by 30 GW, 15 GW, 10 GW, and 25 GW by the end of the first quarter of 2024.
November 2022:A solar power plant and energy storage facility are being built in Arizona, USA, thanks to a collaboration between EE North America and Elio Energy. The 2 GW project's construction is scheduled to begin in 2023.
August 2022:The construction of a new manufacturing facility in Malaysia, announced by Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Ltd., would increase the company's capacity to produce solar PV glass with TCO coating. This investment is anticipated to increase the company's market presence globally and strengthen its capacity to fulfill the rising demand for solar PV glass.
April 2021:Interfloat Corporation and Glasmanfaktur Brandenburg (GMB), two European solar glass manufacturers, have been acquired by Borosil Renewables Ltd. The goal of the acquisition was to make the company more competitive in the Solar PV Glass Market and to expand its supply network across Europe. Additionally, this action aimed to increase the company's overall manufacturing capacity and product portfolio.
In 2023, Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Ltd. (NSG Group) launched its Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO) manufacturing plant in Malaysia. As part of this initiative, Malaysian Sheet Glass SDN BHD, a member of the NSG Group, modified a float line at its facility in Johor Bahru to start TCO coating of glass in December of the same year.
The purpose of this investment is to promote the growth of First Solar Inc., an American company that has worked with the NSG Group for a long time in the photovoltaic field. First Solar is one of the world's largest developers of solar modules, with a number of plants of their technology worldwide. The float line will provide the glass required by First Solar's facilities in South East Asia. This expansion promises to enhance the market for solar photovoltaic (PV) glass as well.
In 2022, AGC Inc. announced that its photovoltaic glass will be used for the new Punggol campus of the Singapore Institute of Technology, which is expected to be completed by 2024. The food court of the campus intends to add AGC's photovoltaic glass into the skylight of the building for energy purposes to reduce energy consumption from the main grid. This development will help boost the market for solar photovoltaic glass demand.
The following investment enriches the long-term supply agreement with First Solar, Inc., a US company with the largest photovoltaic solar panel manufacturing facility in Northwest Ohio. In turn, this construction took place in order to increase the TCO glass capacity due to the increase in demand for the solar market.
The new glass plant of 500,000 square foot area was built in order to increase sub-TCO glass production to meet the expanding market of solar energy. The new float furnace facility located in Luckey, Ohio, was launched in 2020 with the objective of producing TCO-coated glass used in solar panels. Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Ltd. (NSG Group)