“The Australian market will be the global number one”
Distributed battery storage: Things are moving quickly Down Under. German battery supplier Senec has joined the list of companies looking to make inroads to the rapidly growing Australian battery storage market and the action is on the residential front. Senec launched its product in Perth, Western Australia, in January. pv magazine was on the spot and spoke to Senec Australia Managing Director Ian Parkinson and head of international development Sven Albersmeier-Braun.
In-situ EL promotes careful handling
In-situ and on-site testing: Module damage is a serious issue, even when faults can not be seen at first glance. Fortunately, methodologies and technology for the testing of modules in the field are evolving at pace, bringing home the importance of handling modules with care.
Cornering the market
Module mounting: A new mounting technique could change the appearance of solar farms and rooftop systems over the long term. Tilting solar panels by 10 to 45 degrees is said to greatly improve their self-cleaning properties and enable completely new array designs. Two major project engineering companies are already testing the concept and have confirmed its numerous benefits.
New energy in app form
Digital technology and PV: Blockchain is the name for a secure, distributed database that forms the basis of the bitcoin digital currency. Now there is much hype over blockchain’s potential application in the energy industry. Grid singularity is a startup developing the next generation of a blockchain that could genuinely revolutionize the energy system. It reconciles data usage with privacy.
PV plant to electric car – bring it on
New energy world: Innogy is repositioning itself following the restructuring of RWE. pv magazine paid a visit to the company’s “disruption department,” the Innogy Innovation Hub.
Experimental policies
Turkey’s PV market: Turkey has reached about 1 GW of solar PV installations, and 2016 was the PV sector’s best year so far. Furthermore, a recently announced tender for a mega 1 GW solar park in central Turkey adds to the expectation. Is such optimism justified? pv magazine examines why the Turkish Government’s policy experiments with the solar sector risk its fragile growth.
Coming in from the cold
Interview: Karoliina Auvinen is a researcher at FinSolar and Director of the smart Energy Transition Project at Aalto University in Helsinki. pv magazine spoke with Auvinen about her work and her thoughts about the future of solar power in Finland.
Finland’s solar spring
Solar potential: While it is little known for its solar power potential, PV deployment has increased in the Scandinavian country over the last two years. Community projects, a drop in prices for solar panels and a retail company have been the main drivers of this development.
Funding future production
Underpricing issues: Expect manufacturer revenues for 2017 to have little relationship to current prices, as manufacturers continue selling tomorrow’s production today. Moreover, the ability of manufacturers to raise prices in the near, medium and long term has been permanently eroded. For most manufacturers current prices do not reflect costs and as margin expectations – that is, the gross margin necessary to run a thriving business – are little understood by analysts, observers, academics, researchers and even industry participants there is little possibility that the dire consequences of continued underpricing will be addressed.
A wild ride into the mainstream
Message from the editor.
