Engineering the future
PV thin glass: Corning Photovoltaics has recently developed a range of engineered glass substrates, specifically designed to replace one of a typical PV modules glass layers, which it claims can improve conversion efficiency, while also being lightweight and maintaining product strength and reliability.
EPCs power play
Engineering, procurement, construction: If there is money to be saved or costs to be shaved in the EPC business, the worlds leading companies are addressing the challenge. Geographic diversification, vertical integration, and lowering of costs, including cost of financing, are three key strategies being taken.
In good shape
Dear readers, Who says that the solar market isnt in good shape? For weeks negative headlines have shaped the public debate on photovoltaic energy: 2011 as the year of bankruptcies, misfortunes and mishaps. And now new record figures. New installation of PV systems in 2011 exceeded all of the forecasts from the analysts. In May […]
In the starting blocks
Intersolar India: Since its start in 2009 Intersolar India has become a real crowd puller. In the middle of December it attracted photovoltaics experts from 38 countries to the conference and trade exhibition in Mumbai.
Increased output in autumn and winter
Solar glass: In winter, solar panel installation rates decrease, both due to weather conditions and the lack of output. Modules with specialized, deeply textured front glasses offer one possibility to increase the output of a system in cold seasons. Patrick Jonas and Daniel Pohl of EuPD Research explain how it is indeed possible for modules to efficiently generate energy in the colder months.
Inverter demands
Inverter survey: A new global survey reveals insight into customer inverter requirements and demands. Cormac Gilligan and Ash Sharma from IMS Research reveal some of the most important findings from the survey.
Italy examines battery benefits
India: As project due dates pass, Mercom Capital Groups Raj Prabhu delivers an Indian solar market update and investigates how many were successfully completed.
Japans boom year for PV?
PV Expo 2012 Tokyo: Japans first big solar show opens later this month. Will its timing coincide with a boom year for PV in post-Fukushima Japan?
Making sense of chaos
Automation standards: It has become common knowledge that with the implementation of automation, product quality significantly improves and costs can potentially be cut. Are standards in such automation necessary? What are the pros and cons of such standards?
No oil, no gas, no coal, no choice?
French nuclear industry: As the world and its energy industries adapt to a post-Fukushima reality and the Fifth Republic gears up for a high-stakes election in 2012, it seems that the current climate within the energy sector is sowing the seeds of change that could grow into a post-atomic market in years to come.
