The Upcoming Digital Tsunami in Retail

INTERVIEW

Reshaping PV Technology

Mohamed Saady, Jinko Solar’s Technical Services Manager of Middle East & Africa, explores with The Sustainabilist the brand’s latest products and achievements

What innovations is JinkoSolar particularly focussed on and how will these improve the LCOE of projects in GCC?

We always aim to provide the clients with technologies that really add value. We are the first company to offer the Tilling Ribbon technology in the market which increases the modules’ efficiency considerably compared with normal modules, at the same time we improved the overall specs of modules, such as degradation values, temperature coefficient and optimised frame design. These improvements, along with high efficiency mono, half cut technology, and multi busbars, lead to huge improvements in the Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE) and total investment.

JinkoSolar will be supplying 1 GW of PV modules for Phase V of the Mohammed bin Rashid Solar Park. What does the brand’s expansion in the UAE market demonstrate about its technologies?

UAE has always been one of the largest and oldest markets for solar PV in the region, and it has always been very eager to adopt new technologies to maximise the performance.

For the last 10 years, the UAE has expanded its renewable energy resources to meet 2030 and 2050 Strategies, so we were very glad to see many mega size projects in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. After having shipped 1.17 GW for the

Swehian Project in Abu Dhabi, we were eager to work on another large project in UAE. Supplying 1GW for Phase V of MBR Solar Park is huge milestone not only for us and for the region, but for the solar industry globally, especially since the supplied modules will be bifacial and hence will provide a validation for this technology worldwide.

How do you see the impact of new 500+ W modules in the industry?

I believe this year has pushed the limits in so many ways. Last year, the biggest wafer size was 166 mm and now we are seeing wafer sizes reaching up to 217 mm, this has led to bigger modules with more power.

We are also seeing improved module efficiency with new overlap technologies such as tiling ribbon, shingling and paving. Last year, available efficiency was 20% but there has been 0.5-1% improvement in efficiency for 500+Wp modules.

The BOS suppliers, such as trackers and invertors, also improved their products to be compatible with all these changes.

Supplying 1GW for Phase V of MBR Solar “ Park is huge milestone not only for us and for the region, but for the solar industry globally. “

What’s next for JinkoSolar?

I believe our future products will be based on 182 mm wafer size. Our future technologies will focus on improving the cell conversion efficiency. There is great potential for N-type technologies such as PERT and TOPCON, and that’s why we decided to showcase our new N-type Tiger Pro product with power reaching up to 610Wp.

We are also adding new products to our portfolio. We have already launched our battery storage solutions and started supplying the system to many projects in US and Africa and soon, the Middle East.

We also introduced our new Building Integrated PV (BIPV) modules with a variety of colors and sizes and are very excited to offer them in the region as there is a very high demand for this kind of products.