L R AS Published on Friday 28 June 2019 - n° 283 - Categories:brochures
Cast inserts come on the market
Moulded monosilicon wafers were at the centre of discussion at the SNEC exhibition. The manufacturing method is more advanced than it was a few years ago. The casting process uses solidification system furnaces to reduce the oxygen content and therefore has a lower LID than monosilicon products. In addition, efficiency and appearance have already improved,
which means fewer flakes generated during the process. In addition, the transition to larger wafers this year means that mono-casting stands out for its competitiveness in terms of cost and yield. However, from a technological and market point of view, mono-casting still has to overcome problems such as dislocation density, appearance and value for money.
At SNEC, GCL announced a 6 GW cooperation agreement with Canadian Solar, Astronegy, Sunport Power and Akcome. GCL also announced the completion of the modernization of 1,400 casting furnaces in 2020 in order to increase production capacity by the third quarter of this year.
Demand for mono-cast products is increasing but some cell and module manufacturers remain cautious about them. PV InfoLink believes that manufacturers of multicrystalline cells will develop mono-casting. The pace of change will depend on the large companies and the volume of their orders in the second half of next year.
PV InfoLink of 19 June
Editor's note Are there technological and quality similarities between the GCL casting process and the moulding process of Hanwha Q Cells-1366 Technologies? According to what is said in the specialised press, the results obtained are different, but what the two processes have in common is that they will rapidly render the diamond wire cutting systems obsolete.
Therefore, we are thinking of manufacturers who want to become the number 1 in inserts (LONGi, Jinko Solar, ...) by investing massively. Are they going to stay on the cutting edge or manage to modify their production line to produce cast inserts?
