Removing barriers
Chile market update: Thousands of solar megawatts could find their way on to the grid with the new Electricity Transmission Law. Interconnection between the two electrical systems aids the opening of the market.
Splitting the O&M
Fleet management: The O&M portion of the U.S. solar business is dependent on factors that differ enough that many analysts now separate the O from the M when discussing the separate business models.
Stop building walls
Solar battleground: The war between U.S. utility-scale and distributed solar threatens to undermine the industrys common goal and play into the hands of naysayers. There is enough sun for all, so PV should stop building walls.
The eyes have it
Visual inspection tooling: Automated optical imaging is becoming a more common feature in PV cell production today. From the color sorting, right through to detailed process control, a range of optical imaging approaches and technologies are shedding the light required to deliver quality, increase average efficiencies, and enhance yield.
The heart of PV
Junction boxes: An often underexplored component in the PV system, the junction box holds immense potential as a means of safeguarding power production, protecting modules, increasing yield and monitoring output and an evolution is underway.
Thin competition in thin film
Thin film ranking: Using the latest data from analysts IHS Markit and figures reported by the companies themselves, pv magazine rounds up the five leading module producers currently operating in the global thin film space.
What counts
Module prices: In an overall quiet market characterized by the onset everywhere of summer vacation, module prices generally declined in July.
Wheels keep on turning
India update: As cumulative solar installations in India cross 8 GW, optimism is tempered somewhat by persistent challenges that the industry must still face, writes Raj Prabhu, CEO and cofounder of Mercom Capital Group.
Why, robot
Automation in PV: With huge leaps made in automation of PV module production facilities over the past decade, module quality and output have seen dramatic increases. However, differences still exist among tier-1 manufacturers in terms of relative levels of automation, with some manufacturers choosing not to automate certain process steps for reasons of cost, flexibility and even quality. George Touloupas of Clean Energy Associates examines the major pros and cons for automation of key process steps, and asks why some have chosen one approach over the other.
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Smart Renewable Energy: Across 20 pages pv magazine examines the latest trends as enabling technology allows PV and other renewables to get smart. Its the curse that comes with success. But perhaps its a blessing. As PV and other renewable energy sources continue to play a larger role as a generation source in electricity grids […]
