Magazine Archive 09-2015

Climate change: Adam Smith’s invisible hand has been handcuffed, taking away consumers’ rights to choose their source of power. Headwall Power’s Brad Meikle talks about the long ongoing climate change debate, and why it does not make sense.

Solar and utilities: With intelligent power electronics being coupled with PV and potential storage, a new energy paradigm is emerging. But what will the future look like for utilities, grids and consumers, both large and small? pv magazine sat down to lunch with some of the Enphase leadership team to discuss these issues and found out that a brave new energy world is emerging, but what shape it will take is yet to be clear.

Highlights from Intersolar North America 2015: The recent Intersolar North America show presented an ideal opportunity to take the temperature of the solar world’s balance of system (BOS) players. The sector is playing a larger role in overall cost reduction of PV, and the innovation on show at the exhibition offered an encouraging glimpse into a lower cost, more reliable solar future.

FBR Poly: Fluidized bed reactor (FBR) technology has been hailed as a means to produce polysilicon for solar at lower costs and with a small fraction of the electricity used by the dominant Siemens process. However, long delays at two new projects and technical challenges are slowing the progress of this promising technology. Will FBR eventually deliver?

Backsheets: Backsheet architecture has evolved. With the many materials, it has also become necessary to conduct the right tests to know if they can survive in the field.

Flashing and Electroluminescence (EL) testing: When a solar park is underperforming it is often the case that modules need to be tested for park remediation and for repairs to be carried out. But mobile flashing and EL testing is becoming more common as a preventative and quality assurance step.

India update: After many years on the fringes of driving global PV growth, is India finally ready to join the solar heavyweights of China, the U.S. and Japan? In this latest India solar quarterly market update, Mercom Capital’s Raj Prabhu believes that it is.

African policy: The falling costs of solar energy technology, Sub-Saharan Africa’s vast solar resource, and the continent’s thirst for electricity have created expectations that the region might soon take the lead in solar PV growth. But are these expectations sensible or exaggerated?

Thin film ranking: Remaining the minnow to crystalline silicon’s giant, thin film producers have been steadily losing market share. However, with two major producers continuing to execute on technology and project road maps, it should not be discounted.