Magazine Archive 04 - 2023 | The view from the ground

When faced with a crisis, speed is of the essence. At the SolarPower Summit in Brussels in March, International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol delivered a “bravo” to EU member states, policymakers, and companies for what they had managed to achieve in the face of the energy crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of […]

The Invesco Solar ETF, an exchange-traded fund that tracks the MAC Global Solar Energy Index, under-performed relative to the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) in March. Jesse Pichel, of Roth Capital Partners, attributes this to the worsening situation for US module imports from China.

With products thin on the ground, all manner of explanations have been offered up for the latest solar components shortage, says pvXchange’s Martin Schachinger.

Factors such as net-metering rules, solar system size limits, and state electricity prices can render commercial and industrial (C&I) solar less than straightforward in the United States but the boost provided by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is clear, explains S&P Global’s Alex Kaplan.

Passivated-emitter, rear contact (PERC) solar and the plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) production method are clinging on as mainstream options, but their anticipated demise is moving ever closer, explains InfoLink’s Derek Zhao.

With a plethora of new production lines announced in the wake of the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – and European Union legislators following president Joe Biden’s example – renewables developers should be wary about the high defect rates associated with new fabs, reports Jörg Althaus, director of engineering at Clean Energy Associates.

Poland has become Europe’s third-largest PV market, with almost 5 GW of solar added in 2022. Climate and Environment Minister Anna Moskwa tells pv magazine that the government now wants to attract solar manufacturing.

National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI) founder and chairman Pranav Mehta died on Dec. 15, leaving a void in the industry. His vision helped establish India as a global solar leader and his contribution to the sector laid the foundation for the world’s fastest-growing solar economy. He is remembered by NSEFI Chief Executive Subrahmanyam Pulipaka.

Doubling up on land use by adding solar to agricultural sites sounds like a great idea. But what is the right method? pv magazine Deutschland’s Cornelia Lichner compares ground-mounted solar and agrivoltaic systems in Germany and discovers that some of the relevant regulations do not appear to be justified.

Cannabis prohibition drove a culture of clandestine production in the past and solar helped growers to cultivate it at remote, off-grid sites. Now, as a global commercial cannabis market emerges, solar has an even bigger role to play, reports Blake Matich.