Magazine Archive 08-2011

Interview: Module manufacturer Emmvee Photovoltaics GmbH was established in Bangalore, India. But, having recognized Europe’s potential, founder and MD, D.V. Manjunatha, relocated its headquarters to Berlin. Here, along with MD Steffen Graf and Head of Marketing and Communications, Frank Hilgenfeld, he talks to pv magazine.

India: The German-Indian consulting company Bridge to India looks at Renewable Purchase Obligations and Renewable Energy Certificates on the sub-continent.

UK: The UK, which will see its FIT rates cut from August, is fast becoming a lesson for governments drawing up renewable energy policies in how not to do things. All eyes are on the country.

Junction boxes: Optimizing electronics are increasingly being integrated into junction boxes, posing new challenges for designs. Increasingly, collaborations are forming between junction box and electronics manufacturers. pv magazine takes a look across some of the latest products and ideas behind solar’s little black box.

PV Legal/PV Grid: The initiative PV Legal, funded by the European Commission’s Intelligent Energy for Europe program, has provided for more transparency and the elimination of bureaucracy in Europe. Nevertheless, central obstacles that still act as a brake on PV growth in many European Union countries have yet to be eliminated. The new initiative PV Grid is to change that.

Selective emitter process: The thin, uniform application of dopants is critical to the successful formation of selective emitters on photovoltaic cells. Considerable effort is ongoing to improve the efficiency of photovoltaic cells. Recently, much attention has been given to the formation of selective emitters to significantly improve the efficiency of the solar cell. In the second part of a two-part article, Ultrasonic Systems’ President Stuart Erickson and Chinalight Solar’s Senior Engineer Yang Song, Deputy Director of Research and Development Ye Duan, and Deputy General Manager Youzhong Li elaborate.

Lead times: European inventory levels are declining dramatically.

Telecom applications: Phocos AG, a German manufacturer of solar charge controllers and components for off-grid solar systems as well as energy-saving DC appliances, on its telecommunications projects in India.