Global FIT overview
Feed-in tariffs: Western Australia sees reductions in payments after the repeal of the carbon pricing scheme. Egypt tables the idea of feed-in tariffs (FITs) in the sun-drenched country. France and Slovenia degress their FITs slightly as planned. EPIA speaks out on Italys retroactive measures. Missouri in the US cancels its SREC program.
Grid parity for PV power plants
Grid parity monitor, fourth edition: Eclareon has published the fourth in its series of analyses investigating the growing competitiveness of PV in different applications and markets. In the latest edition, David Pérez from Eclareon concludes that utility scale PV is competitive with market prices in Chile, and the outlook is increasingly positive in Morocco, Italy and Mexico.
Leading by doing
Sometimes statistics make for happy reading. With 15.9 GW of installed PV capacity and 143,000 jobs contributing $15 billion to the economy, the American solar industry is delivering some impressive numbers. Add to that more than 4.5 GW of new capacity over the last three quarters, as well as the contribution PV is making to […]
Let there be solar light
Solar streetlights: Candilux, a manufacturer of solar-powered streetlights, and solar electronics manufacturer Phocos installed off-grid lighting at a sports field in Erbach in southern Germany. Susanne Kircher of Phocos discusses the details of the project.
Microinverters vs. optimizers
Module-level electronics: The challenge of increasing the yield of a typical solar module has been taken up with aplomb by both microinverter and power optimizer suppliers over the past few years. Yet with both technologies claiming the upper hand in terms of power performance, pv magazine examines both sides of what looks increasingly like the same coin.
More grid independence
CEO interview: Bill Watkins, CEO of Imergy Power Systems, speaks with pv magazine about the companys vanadium-based flow battery energy storage products and why they make sense for PV developers. Imergy is headquartered in Fremont, California, and has operations in Gurgaon, India.
Moving forward
Investment policies: UBS and Citigroup are advising investors to prepare for a move away from fossil fuels towards solar, thanks to the rise of electric vehicles and the falling cost of battery storage. The question now is whether their investment bank peers will follow suit.
New on the block
Ghana: An interview with Steffen Behrle, Team Leader Renewable Energy in Ghana for Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), which implements projects on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.
Optimization in the cloud
Energy management: Start-up company Tado made news with an intelligent control unit that activates heating or air-conditioning systems when the owners approach their home. The devices will soon be available for use with solar electricity as well.
Resource adequacy
Capacity markets: Amid the normal European fragmentation on energy matters lies an unresolved capacity market question, with the UK proposing radical plans. If introduced, what role can renewables including solar PV play in building upon the growth of capacity markets in the UK and beyond?
