In June 2024, the 52nd IEEE PVSC 52 was held in Seattle, USA, and the world’s largest photovoltaic exhibition (SNEC2024) was held in China in the same week. In addition, the following week, Intersolar Europe, the largest exhibition in Europe (second in the world) was held. As of the end of 2023, the global production capacity of PV modules has reached 1 TW/year, and as the era of 1 TW of global annual PV installed capacity is in sight, progress in new technologies and new products related to PV power generation, which is the main power source for decarbonization, were presented at these events.
At IEEE PVSC 52, one of the world’s three most authoritative and academic international PV conferences, keynote speeches and special sessions were held from the perspectives of building sustainable supply chains and overcoming resource constraints, which are required to realize the TW era.
Mr. Peter Fath from RCT Solutions presented the results of the cost analysis of manufacturing high-efficiency crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells in the U.S., Europe and other regions and concluded that it is important for energy security to diversify production locations by establishing supply chains for solar cells in demand regions, even if the costs are higher. Until 2023, presentations of academic papers had been the main focus of the conference, however, in response to the trend toward restructuring the PV supply chain in the U.S., the 2024 conference featured industrial forums, such as the “PV Technology in GW Production”, “PV Trainings: How to Train People for Local GW Production and Deployment” and the “U.S. PV Market Dynamics”. These forums showed the stance of the U.S. that it is not only promoting the PV production, but also working to develop human resources necessary for construction and design works.
Intersolar was held in Germany in Europe, where the introduction of renewable energy is growing rapidly and a need for further expansion, digitization and flexibilization of energy infrastructure is increasing to meet this growth. The focus was on realizing cross-sectoral solutions centered on renewable energy for a sustainable energy supply 24/7, including the electric power, heating and transportation sectors. The session on floating PV (FPV) power generation was also impressive, with discussions on system operation and optimization through the tribrid of FPV power generation, pumped storage dams and grid-scale storage batteries, based on empirical data. At the exhibition, mainly European manufacturers exhibited solar cells/modules in the forms of roof tiles that match the design of traditional roofing materials, as well as PV modules for wall installation with a variety of colors and surface shapes that enhance the aesthetics of buildings; the trend shown by these exhibits also attracted attention for its differentiation through added values that focus on the needs of utilization, rather than merely focusing on high performance and low prices. With the module manufacturers’ announcements of building factories in Europe, as well as the inverter manufacturers’ revival and participation in the exhibition, the resumption of manufacturing PV products in Europe is about to begin gradually.
SNEC moved to a new exhibition venue this time, expanding the total exhibition area from 270,000 m2 to 400,000 m2 , about 1.5 times larger than the 2023 event. The vast exhibition venue covered the entire supply chain of the PV industry, with exhibits on solar cells/ modules, inverters, power storage, mounting structures, system integration, O&M, raw materials and manufacturing equipment. More than 500,000 visitors from China and abroad came to the exhibition, seeking the world’s most advanced technologies, new products and new business opportunities. Active business negotiations took place at crowded exhibition booths. As for solar cells and modules, HJT and backcontact technologies competed for higher output and higher conversion efficiency. In the module category, PV modules for offshore installation were exhibited by various manufacturers, indicating a high level of interest in the field of offshore PV power generation in the future. As a new technological trend in installation methods, many mounting structures using wire were exhibited. They are expected to realize low-cost installation in locations such as slopes, water surface and farmland and expand the installable locations. Also in China, the pursuit of higher efficiency and higher performance and the development of technologies and products to expand the fields of utilization are being promoted, showing that the country is taking steps in anticipation of the rapid expansion of the global PV market.
As described above, active development of technologies and products is being promoted around the world and part of this trend can be seen in the growing scale of PV exhibitions, as shown in Table 1. Compared to Japan’s largest PV Expo held every spring at Tokyo Big Sight, Intersolar was roughly twice the size in terms of area, exhibitors and visitors, while SNEC was four times the size in area, 2.3 times the number of exhibitors and seven times the number of visitors, which shows that the global PV industry is challenging the TW era. As the world is moving to accelerate the introduction of PV power generation and restructure the supply chains, Japan must not be left behind in this movement. Discussions have begun for the formulation of the Seventh Strategic Energy Plan, in which we must show a development vision for PV power generation toward 2040 so that Japan can compete with the rest of the world and industry, government and academia must make a concerted effort to achieve a renaissance of the PV industry as a part of the energy industry.
Table 1 Comparative overview of international exhibitions
