Magazine Archive 06 – 2024 | Down to the wires

Vienna’s Federal Ministry for Climate Protection published its integrated grid-infrastructure plan in April 2024, massively increasing the PV target for 2030.

Energy infrastructure has been a key target since the very beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Vladyslav Sokolovskyi, chairperson of the board of the Solar Energy Association of Ukraine, provides an account of the role that PV has played in powering the nation throughout the conflict and predicts a bright future for Ukrainian solar after the war.

It’s time to assess curtailment, as rising amounts of excess generation are being wasted in several markets. This can be problematic for the solar industry but Toby Couture and David Jacobs, coordinators of think tank Global Solar PV Brain Trust, argue that curtailment is not always bad.

In recent years, the Baltic countries have experienced a solar generation boom as the region seeks to kill two birds with one stone. These nations aim to break away from years-long energy dependence on Russia amid growing security concerns while also continuing to prioritize the green energy transition.

China, with an 18% share of the global population, uses 26% of the world’s primary energy and emits 33% of the world’s energy-related CO₂. The energy transition unfolding in the country isn’t merely a national affair as its ramifications echo globally, explains Mahnaz Hadizadeh, a researcher for consultancy DNV.

African governments are being encouraged to leave fossil fuels untapped in return for Just Energy Transition Plan (JETP) finance. Can these new financing plans from Western governments achieve their ambitious aims?

Saudi Arabia has ramped up its clean energy ambitions and has attracted solar tracker makers but there are few local module suppliers or inverter manufacturers, says Sunshine Middle East’s Fernando Herrerias.

Small-scale, “distributed” PV has become a significant part of the world’s biggest solar market but it is now butting up against the same grid constraints that have frustrated utility-scale PV in China and other parts of the world.

The rapid growth of renewable energy in Brazil has not been matched by transmission and distribution infrastructure. Connection restrictions for both “distributed-” and centralized-generation sites are leading companies to adopt new strategies to maintain expansion, reports pv magazine Brasil’s Livia Neves.

Distributed string inverters offer many advantages over centralized inverters. Chint Power Systems highlights projects where its 350 kW inverters exhibit high reliability under harsh conditions.