Events

Plus, solar funding is down and Australian rooftop installers are preparing for tough times ahead as one U.S. utility has warned customers to be alert to scammers hoping to benefit from the pandemic.

Touted as ‘the largest solar trade show in Europe’ just two weeks ago, this year’s event has been canned after exhibitors voiced concerns. Next year’s conference will take place in Haarlem, in the Netherlands, from March 16-18.

Corporate power purchase agreements and the combination of PV plants with hydrogen production open up new medium-term financing opportunities for solar projects, as was demonstrated at the fourth session of the pv magazine Roundtable Europe event. The evolution of corporate deals may have been slowed by current price developments but hydrogen may come sooner than many had predicted.

The organizers of the Solar Solutions International event which was postponed in March have persuaded the Dutch government industry events should not be subject to the same Covid-19 restrictions as concerts.

The solar industry faces many challenges in its move to become truly sustainable and that goal is imperative, rather than being simply a luxury, if the sector is to achieve terawatt scale. pv magazine’s first Sustainability Roundtable took place on June 10 and included discussion as to why sustainability matters in PV and which business, regulatory and technological approaches can be applied to achieve truly “green” solar power. A video of the event can be streamed online.

The industry needs to cut a dependence on lithium-ion battery imports from China, according to Nitin Gadkari, who said the government is looking to support research into alternative technologies.

The first session of the pv magazine Virtual Roundtables Europe on June 9 showed that the performance of PV arrays can be boosted with effective measures – proving it’s more than just theoretical. The evaluation of a portfolio of 70 plants prompted a performance boost of 8.4%. The video of the event is now online.

Industry body SolarPower Europe is trying to stay bullish about the lingering effects as the continent starts to come out of lockdown and one analyst has predicted a healthy large scale solar market will carry the US through the crisis.

The US solar industry’s largest trade show goes hybrid, with a virtual and outdoor event at the Las Vegas Convention Center Oct. 21-22 — and organizers say, no swag, please.

The COVID-19 pandemic featured prominently at this week’s inaugural pv magazine Virtual Roundtables Europe, which took place this past Tuesday and Wednesday. Not only did the pandemic lead to the virtualization of pv magazine’s established June Roundtables, but it was a big topic in the final session on Wednesday dealing with markets and specifically the further development of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) in Europe.