Last week I spent three days at the International Solar Energy and Green Building Conference & Exhibition SNEC in Shanghai, China.

SNEC lived up to its reputation to be the largest solar exhibition worldwide. With an area of 160,000 square meters, more than 1,500 exhibitors and 200,000 visitors from all around the world attended.

The number of exhibitors and visitors clearly shows that the global solar industry is in full expansion in 2016. Various research reports show that the industry will add an additional 10-20 GW of cell production capacity worldwide.

Many new technologies were on display at SNEC: From diamond wiring technology on poly-silicon wafers to black poly cell technology; from PERC cell technology to 1500 V modules and so on.

The most impressive solar module product to me, however, is the double-glass 1500 V panel featuring 5 bus bar solar cells. Double-glass modules have some unique features:

no micro-cracks, no snail trails, anti-UV

fire resistant

Annual degradation 0.5% after first year

30-year performance warranty

1500 V modules help to reduce the system costs through longer module strings, and the 5 bus bar design raises the cell efficiency and reduces the risk for hot spots.

Author: Dr. Shawn Qu -Chairman and CEO at Canadian Solar Inc.

• [Editor:tianyawei]