August 2013 – Page 2 – Solar Magazine

EU journal gives details on the trade case

There was a settlement in the Eu-China trade

The EC published details of the China trade, some questions are still unanswered.

The trade dispute over Chinese modules and cells regarding the minimum import price was approved on Friday. Still, some questions have not been answered.

Some details about the EC’s trade dispute have been published in the 6th of August edition of the Official Journal. The EU reported that it agreed with the compromise.

The decision reveals details about the way that the negotiation lead to a minimum price for the freely imported PV. The first step the commission took was to verify whether a minimum price could be associated with the indexes of some commodities. PV modules do not permit an easy correlation between the commodity prices and retail prices. It is implied the the EC used indexes compiled by Bloomberg and pvXchange.

The Commission says the following aboutthe impact of the minimum prices: “In order to assess whether that price undertaking removes the injurious effect of dumping, the Commission has analysed, inter alia, the current export prices and the level of provisional duty. On that basis, it was concluded that the price undertaking removes the injurious effect of dumping.”

However details about the specific minimum prices will nor be revealed. But, accordind to the media reports the price range is between €0.56 and €0.57 per watt with the ceiling on imports from China set at 7 GW.

The pertinent questions the have not been answered are:
-Imports of participating companies will reflect current annual levels. But what is the correct annual level in such a fast changing market?
-What happens if the targeted annual level is exceeded, and how will individual producers, in this context, be coordinated?
-Price indexes compiled by Bloomberg and pvXchange were used for the negotiated minimum price. The document does not explain how changes in the minimum price will be negotiated.

-How will modules be treated that are not manufactured in China nor the EU, but that contain Chinese cells?

Roxana Moraru

New researches predict the use of black metals in PV industry

There is a possibility that black metals will be a part of PV

Black metal is said to be a part of PV industry

The development of more efficient solar cells helped researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) from U.S.A make an important discovery: black metals in PV production.

The work with nanostructurated metals which are made to have low reflectivity and high absorption of visible and infrared light paid off for The LLNL Materials Engineering Division research team.

Working with nanostructurated metals involved the work with non-classic black metals which are considered to be a kind of extension of the black silicon concept. This means that when silicon is treated in a special way, fro example when it is being roughened at the nanoscale level, it gathers light by multiple reflections and helps to increase the absorption. This is a result of the silicon’s black surface that is capable of better trapping full sun’s wavelength spectrum.

The experiment team led by LLNL engineer Tiziana Bond helped with the discovery of the way that an absorption can trap a bigger quantity of solar wavelengths by improving and controlling the efficiency of the absorption and transform the metals in black metals. This kind of technology may be used in PV development. Moreover, similar black metals are developed by all kinds of nanostructuring between silver and gold but without the certainty of a full solar absorption.

“Our article was picked for the cover story of Applied Physics Letters because it represents cutting-edge work in the area of plasmonics, the broadband operation obtained with a clear design and its implication for the photovoltaic yield,” as Bond announced.

Roxana Moraru

A raise is predicted to come in the Residential PV storage global market

home solar PV systems

The latest report done by the research group IHS shows that installations of residential PV storage systems will go up to 2.5 GW until 2017. The report also says the Germany’s energy storage subsidy has quick started the flow.

If encouragements and With incentives and bonuses like FITs being cut keep coming, than it is highly desirable for end-consumers to self-consume. Lately, the idea of sending the extra energy generated by a PV system into the grid and retail electricity prices became very unattractive.

“Residential PV customers are striving to maximize their own consumption of the energy they are generating,” announced Abigail Ward, PV analyst at IHS. “This is because rising electricity prices and decreasing feed-in-tariffs (FITs) are serving as a disincentive for consumers to export their power to the electricity grid”, he added.

The total amount of installations is said to grow up to 2.5 GW by 2017, a leap from 12 MW in 2012. The number of PV residential energy storage installations is predicted to be higher than the total number of residential solar systems in Germany today.

“An energy storage solution enables a PV system owner to shift energy from when it is generated to a later time for consumption,” in Ward’s terms . “As a result, demand for residential energy storage products will continue to accelerate as PV energy reaches grid-parity in a number of countries.”

Roxana Moraru