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Chinese module manufacturer Trina Solar has signed a collaboration agreement with the Institute of Solar Energy at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (IES-UPM) to drive innovation in the solar industry.
The collaboration aims to innovate in multiple areas such as solar panel efficiency, the resilience and robustness of solar trackers and the improvement of solar energy management. Trina Solar said research and development (R&D) are “critical to the industry’s progress”. Last year, the company allocated US$768 million to its R&D work, 19.7% more than in 2022.
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“This partnership will enable our R&D team to work closely with European academic talent, maintain our core competence, and provide more localised energy solutions to the European market,” said Helena Li, executive president of Trina Solar.
Alongside this R&D work, Trina Solar will establish a training centre at IES-UPM. The centre will be equipped with solar modules, trackers and possibly battery energy storage systems (BESS) to “support solar energy development in the region”.
IES-UPM was established in 1979 and has been conducting research into the practical application of solar PV. Looking ahead, the university’s research will focus on multiple areas, such as finding cheaper ways of purifying silicon, developing new solar PV materials and original structures for highly efficient tandem cells, developing more efficient strategies for demand management and assessing the use of batteries to ease the integration of technology into the electricity grid.
As one of China’s leading solar manufacturers, Trina Solar was ranked second in Wood Mackenzie’s latest module manufacturer rankings behind JA Solar. Last year, the company shipped more than 65GW of modules, up from 43.1GW in 2022, representing a 51.3% year-on-year growth. As of the end of the first quarter of 2024, Trina Solar had shipped over 205GW of modules.
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The conference will gather the key stakeholders from PV manufacturing, equipment/materials, policy-making and strategy, capital equipment investment and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out PV manufacturing out to 2030 and beyond.
PV Tech has been running PV ModuleTech Conferences since 2017. PV ModuleTech USA, on 17-18 June 2025, will be our fourth PV ModulelTech conference dedicated to the U.S. utility scale solar sector. The event will gather the key stakeholders from solar developers, solar asset owners and investors, PV manufacturing, policy-making and and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out the PV module supply channels to the U.S. out to 2026 and beyond.
New Green Power has announced an agreement to offer Google the rights to procure up to 300MW of solar power from its development pipeline.
Eurelectric reports that, in the first half of the year, renewable energy accounted for more than half of Europe’s power supply.
Swedish thin film solar manufacturer Midsummer has secured roughly €8 million (US$8.6 million) to support the development of its 50MW copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin-film cell manufacturing plant in Italy.
Chinese state-owned power company China Three Gorges Renewables has announced a plan to build a 8GW solar PV project in Inner Mongolia, China.
French renewable energy company Voltalia has signed a framework agreement to develop over 2.5GW of solar PV and wind capacity in Egypt to support green hydrogen production.
AEMO Services has signed a long-term energy service agreement to secure green energy from the 243MWp Maryvale solar-plus-storage project.
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