Magazine Archive 12-01 – 2024-2025 | Best in class

France is set to record another landmark year for new solar, and the EnerGaïa trade show is going from strength to strength. So why isn’t energy storage making the same inroads?

From modest beginnings in 2011, Power Capital Renewable Energy (PCRE) has become one of Ireland’s foremost independent power producers (IPPs). Joint CEO and co-founder Justin Brown told pv magazine that despite Ireland’s challenging environment for solar, the company sees a lot of opportunity and is taking full advantage.

Greece is pursuing an ambitious island energy transition program. pv magazine visited the island of Tilos for a firsthand account of how one community has blazed a trail in the energy transition.

The PV industry is embracing artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to automate operations and maintenance (O&M) diagnostics and predictive analytics in PV systems. More transparency and standard definitions are needed, however, as US-based Sandia Labs scientists Joshua Stein and Marios Theristis explain.

As part of his work as guest researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy (ISE), Mücahid Candan specializes in the use of artificial intelligence in photovoltaic systems. Here, he tells pv magazine about his ongoing project: deep learning-based fault detection using neural network ensemble (DEFNE).

Ampin Energy Transition has worked on hundreds of renewable energy projects in India, from initial development to operations. The company has chosen to focus on India’s burgeoning commercial and industrial (C&I) sector. pv magazine spoke to Amit Mittal, Ampin’s chief operations officer.

Regular solar panel cleaning can help prevent problems such as electrical faults, energy losses, and even fires. All too often, cleaning becomes a commonly overlooked part of operations and maintenance (O&M), argues Steve Williams, CEO of Clean Solar Solutions America.

It’s been another record-breaking year for solar and storage with new standards for module efficiency, a battery boom, and innovation across the supply chain. Investment in capacity, quality, and R&D is evident, but there’s more to the energy transition than capital. Ingenuity is the lifeblood of technical progress and it has been demonstrated by our pv magazine Awards 2024 winners, whose creativity should serve as an inspiration to all.

The intermittent nature of solar generation can pose problems for grid operators. This year’s pv magazine Award for projects attracted entrants with innovative solutions. Fixed generation is the goal and appears to be achievable using effective forecasting. From powering up idle plants to bolstering the grid when demand is highest, solar, energy storage, and data can make all the difference.

Flexibility, adaptability, and interoperability are the pillars of good inverter design. This year’s best-scoring products displayed those qualities and more. In a competitive field ranging from microinverters to utility-scale devices, the pv magazine Award 2024 winner was found in the residential segment, where upgradeable hybrid solutions can support households as they embrace the energy transition.