The PV industry in 2021 is largely defined as disruption: rising prices from raw materials to final transportation have led to global supply shortages of  PV modules and project delays. Despite these uneases, innovation continues, and there have been a lot of technical twists and turns this year, which will definitely bring good news to solar energy in the long run.

In 2021, the cost pressure faced by PV module manufacturers is increasing. It does not seem to curb the world’s demand for new solar devices, nor slow down the adoption of new technologies, which will squeeze more solar energy out of  PV modules. And introduce solar energy into the new environment.

The trend of PV manufacturing this year has proven that large-size solar modules will continue to exist. Since the photovoltaic wafer manufacturers began to introduce larger size products to the market in 2019, there has been a lot of debate about the ideal size of cells or modules. Almost all major PV manufacturers adopted the 182mm or 210mm format this year. Although the debate about which of these provides the greatest advantage continues, it is now unlikely that we will see a shift to anything smaller in mainstream production.

Since it requires fewer changes, the risk of system design is lower, so the 182mm format currently seems to have the largest share. Standards continue to emerge, which will make things easier in system and component design. Analysts predict that the 210mm format will be more widely accepted within the current decade.

The installation of ground and roof PV modules will still be the standard for solar energy; however, this technology has also made significant progress in the past year, opening up new niche markets for itself. The promising and actual developments in agricultural PV, building integrated PV, and floating PV all show the prospects of integrating solar energy into our existing environment and the possible future directions.