Global FIT overview
Feed-in tariffs: Many countries around the world have tweaked their incentive schemes in the New Year.
Global solar forecast 2015
The year ahead: PV installations in 2015 will likely reach 54.5 GW globally, led once again by China, Japan and the U.S., writes Raj Prabhu, CEO and cofounder of Mercom Capital Group.
Investment Tax Credit sunset date looms ahead
USA: The Investment Tax Credit (ITC) has been called the cornerstone of continued growth in the US solar market. At the end of 2016, the credit will drop from 30% to 10%, and will be limited only to businesses. What will this mean for the United States solar PV market?
Jordan’s solar PV spring
MENA region: Jordan is rather belatedly undergoing a solar PV spring. The emerging question is whether this will last, and summer will burst into life, or whether the current momentum will soon subside, giving way to other forms of energy. There are signs indicating both.
Keeping PV components green
Sustainable PV: Just as module efficiency does not depend only on cell architecture developments, so too does sustainable solar come right down to the components. This is the case from solar glass through to backsheets. The use of fluoropolymers in backsheets supplied to the industry has some worried about toxicity issues when modules come to their end of life.
Merchant solar
New business models: As global solar markets mature and reach more and more locations around the globe, opportunities for new business models open up. Among the most interesting of these is merchant solar, where projects sell the electricity they generate on the spot market.
New finance models primed for Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia: The southeastern region of Asia has an enviable solar resource and is home to some world-leading finance centers. The right combination of homegrown innovation and responding to global trends in finance will help to make the most of solar in the region. Ragna Schmidt-Haupt of DNV GL identifies several new global and local financing trends that could have a big impact in the region.
N-type mono is coming
Solar cells: N-type mono wafers are the foundation for the most successful high efficiency solar PV cell designs on the market. But will they replace p-type technology for monocrystalline silicon PV, and when?
Off-grid power for small-scale enterprises
Ethiopia: Light, services, energy PV can deliver tangible benefits to communities beyond electricity grids. It can also create new business opportunities in rural areas, as has been demonstrated in Ethiopia where businesses, a university and government are coming together to facilitate solars transformative growth. pv magazine spoke with Engidaw Abel Hailu, Manager at the Solar Competence Center (SCC) of Arba Minch University, Ethiopa.
On the cusp
Off-grid PV: Of the 1.3 billion people without access to electricity, more than 80% live in rural areas far away from the existing power grids. Because of the problems to finance the up-front cost of a solar PV system with a battery, diesel gensets are still the preferred energy solution in many of these areas.
