Magazine Archive 12 – 2022

European governments and companies are donating clean energy kit and cash assistance to Ukraine, potentially benefiting neighboring countries in the post-war energy market, reports Sergio Matalucci.

With Russia intent on destroying Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, a network of NGOs is taking up the challenge to donate small and mobile energy supply solutions. Astrid Schneider, a member of clean energy nonprofit Eurosolar, shares the story of the small solar kits that are making a big difference.

Before Puerto Rico had a chance to recover from Hurricane Maria, in 2017, it was rocked by earthquakes and then, in September 2022, the island was struck again – this time by Hurricane Fiona. These disasters severely impacted Puerto Rico’s infamously fragile power grid, but have emboldened local communities to take power into their own hands through solar and battery storage, and increasingly in the form of microgrids. Compelled by catastrophic circumstances, Puerto Rico must now push toward energy resilience and in the process may see itself become a model not just for other islands, but mainland grids as well.

With each new module generation, we see more energy generated at lower costs. This trend looks set to accelerate with the development of high-efficiency cells such as TOPCon products. Module performance characteristics, provided by manufacturers in “PAN files,” are improving and it seems that this is only the beginning. While everyone wants to hear that their project is going to perform brilliantly, developers should take a balanced approach to manufacturers’ claims and cross check against sound data to make sure that “Peter-Pan” files do not turn projects into PV pandemonium.

Israel’s scarce land resources and lack of interconnections to neighboring countries have driven the rise of rooftop solar. Now a number of recent policy changes, mainly due to electricity reforms, are set to reinforce the decentralization trend, reports Ilias Tsagas.

Solar will play a pivotal role in Israel’s decarbonization but land scarcity is holding back its rollout. However, the high-tech nation has big plans for agrivoltaics and pv magazine sat down with Yael Harman, head of R&D in the chief scientist’s office at Israel’s Ministry of Energy, to discuss 150 MW of farm-based projects that should serve as the country’s blueprint.

Owners and insurers suffered record hail losses in 2022. John Sedgwick, president of engineering advisory VDE Americas, provides some pro tips for mitigating such risks.

While the efficiency of solar cells will always be important, scaling innovation in sustainable cell technology and solar deployment, is the new game in town. With hydrogen exports and production of green metals in its sights, Australia has some breakthrough tech coming down the pike, as pv magazine Australia’s Natalie Filatoff reports.

It is increasingly clear that the dominance of PERC solar is waning. For better performance and higher efficiency, Chinese manufacturers are turning to TOPCon, HJT and IBC products as next-generation solar cells vie for mainstream dominance. Vincent Shaw reports from Shanghai.

PV manufacturing is expanding rapidly in India. The country will remain one of the world’s largest PV markets in the coming years, and it is keen to free itself from dependence on imported solar goods. But rapid scale-up, featuring new players and technologies, comes with risks and challenges that need to be carefully managed.