Magazine Archive 04 - 2023 | The view from the ground

It pays to do your homework when buying a battery storage system. Victor Schäfer, vice president of R&D at German lithium battery maker Tesvolt, explains the differences between battery cells when it comes to fire prevention and other considerations.

Non-synchronous renewable energy affects grid stability but storage-as-transmission (SAT) assets offer grid companies a trump card. Whether it’s “virtual transmission” in Australia, Germany’s “Grid Booster” program, or the giga-scale pipeline of projects emerging in the United Kingdom, energy storage is finding a way.

Sustainability reporting is becoming commonplace in solar and inside these lengthy reports comes data that may guide investor decisions. However, a distinct lack of standardization leaves much room for interpretation and more shades of gray than green.

Longi has set ambitious targets to reduce waste in its business operations. The environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) activities it is undertaking can serve as an example for other solar companies looking to reduce their environmental impact.

Promising to replace fossil fuel jobs with an identical number of clean energy roles in coal-dependent communities is overly simplistic and ignores the fact that communities need to be brought onside with credible expectations of better-quality employment, says Raul Alfaro-Pelico, a senior director at the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI).

While the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank sparked a domino effect in the United States and Europe, driving fears of another global banking crisis, state-side PV developers are sanguine about any fallout for their projects, as pv magazine USA’s Michael Schoeck explains.

By Matthias Taft, CEO of BayWa re.