Magazine Archive 12-2015

European markets: While the U.K., Germany and France are firmly ensconced at the top of the Europe’s table in terms of annual installed PV capacity, significant contributions continue to be made further south. pv magazine brings the Austrian, Swiss, Portuguese and Spanish markets into focus.

United Kingdom: After a few years of astonishing success, the U.K.’s PV sector is in turmoil and is fighting for survival. This year’s Solar Energy UK, held in Birmingham last month, reflected on the latest policy changes and laid bare a crucial question: what is the immediate and long term future for solar PV in the U.K.?

PERC LID: While it brought one of the first regeneration tools on to the market, Germany’s centrotherm has observed a lag before market adoption, until now. Wolfgang Jooss (pictured), centrotherm’s Director R&D and Technology photovoltaics, and Thomas Pernau, Product Manager Firing and Regeneration Furnaces, spoke to pv magazine .

Voltage regulation: For solar energy to fulfill its potential, storage must also fulfill its potential. Ancillary services that control and regulate battery systems via intelligent software are paving the way for the solar+storage applications to provide meaningful solutions where the grid falls short.

2015 supply side update: Paula Mints of SPV Market Research provides estimates of 2015 solar shipments, inventory, defective modules and prices, and analyzes how this ebb and flow compares to previous years.

2015 supply side update: Paula Mints of SPV Market Research provides estimates of 2015 solar shipments, inventory, defective modules and prices, and analyzes how this ebb and flow compares to previous years.

An alternative to silver paste: Copper plating is widely used both in the semiconductor industry and for bifacial and multi-junction PV cell designs. However, despite technical and cost advantages it has not been widely used for front-side metallization of standard crystalline silicon cells. Will copper plating replace silver paste for front-side metallization and, if so, when?

An alternative to silver paste: Copper plating is widely used both in the semiconductor industry and for bifacial and multi-junction PV cell designs. However, despite technical and cost advantages it has not been widely used for front-side metallization of standard crystalline silicon cells. Will copper plating replace silver paste for front-side metallization and, if so, when?

Emerging markets 2016: Ash Sharma, Senior Research Director for IHS PV Research, runs the rule over the potential solar stars of 2016, and concludes that the thirst for new markets may not be as pronounced in years past.

Emerging markets 2016: Ash Sharma, Senior Research Director for IHS PV Research, runs the rule over the potential solar stars of 2016, and concludes that the thirst for new markets may not be as pronounced in years past.