The sustainable pioneers
In the coming weeks, months, and years, pv magazine will be digging deeper and expanding our sustainability horizons, defining – with your help – the most effective courses of action. What follows is an overview of current sustainability initiatives in the solar and, to a lesser extent, storage industries.
Sustainability and an ‘electrification offensive’
Volkswagen’s spokesperson for environment and sustainability Günther Scherelis, and life cycle assessment specialist, Marko Gernuks talk to pv magazine about the car manufacturer’s electric vehicle plans and new sustainability agenda. In the past, the company tried to achieve such sustainability by advocating diesel. This ended, as we all know, in Germany’s emissions scandal, dieselgate, in 2015. Now VW needs a new direction.
“We have not yet seen the real age of solar”
As its founding permanent Director General, Adnan Z. Amin has shaped the International Renewable Energy Agency like no other. As he stands aside after a transformational eight years both for the agency and for the renewable energy sector, he reflects on his time at the helm and sends a powerful message to the solar sector.
Utility-scale plants will drive the market until 2021
Special tenders adopted by the government will stimulate PV expansion in Germany for the next few years. The German market could push 4 GW again in 2019. Experts see a bright future ahead, with subsidy-free solar beginning to raise its head and a healthy market for large rooftop installations.
Four cases, one roundtable
The participants of last year’s pv magazine Quality Roundtable at Intersolar Europe said that they really appreciated the examples we used as a basis for our quality case studies. Many have sent us their own experiences. These cases, where something went wrong, will be presented this year at the Quality Roundtable in Munich.
Preparing for take-off
A boom in self-consumption and gigawatt-auctions for solar parks are drawing developers to France’s historically underwhelming photovoltaics market. Europe’s dozy giant has long punched beneath its weight, but pro-renewable reforms are helping the country cut red tape and unlock its vast solar potential.
“Certainty normally is preferable, unless that certainty is terminal”
In the daily shifting sands of Britain’s Brexit imbroglio, trying to predict an outcome is like placing chips on the roulette table. At the time of going to press, numerous scenarios were still feasible: a no-deal Brexit, Common Market membership, Common Market 2.0, Norway-plus, super-Canada, Theresa May’s repeatedly-rejected deal, a second referendum, more extensions, a flextension, or calling the whole thing off.
Plenty to go around
At the end of May 2018, events in Spanish politics took a turn without precedent since the country embraced democracy: a motion of censure against the conservative PP (Partido Popular) by an all-but unified opposition received 180 votes in favour, 169 votes against, and 1 abstention. Pedro Sánchez, leader of the socialist PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español), took up the post of Prime Minister that Mariano Rajoy had held for the previous six years. For the PV sector, the change could not have come too soon.
The future is complicated: BNEF Summit 2019
This year’s BNEF Summit (Future of Energy) in New York revealed that with solar and batteries continuing their historic path of price declines and exponential growth, things get much more complicated from here.
