“Solar is a competitive source in the energy mix”
Africa and the Middle East: Solar developers and suppliers have long been eyeing the sun-drenched countries south and south east of the Mediterranean. However, progress in both the distributed and utility-scale market segments has been slow. A number of developers are now making serious progress, through a combination of working under government tenders and in supplying solar solutions tailored for the end market. Martin Haupts founded the Dubai-based Phanes Group to play in both the DG and large-scale space, and he spoke to pv magazine about the challenges and opportunities.
Stored potential
Solar + storage in Austria: The PV market in the alpine republic is very stable. Stable demand is a key prerequisite for the installation of domestic storage systems, which are not yet profitable in this market segment in Austria. Nonetheless, experts see enormous potential.
“It would have to be a brave buyer in today’s market”
SolarWorld: The insolvency of SolarWorld AG last month came as no surprise, but it has raised questions about solar cell and module manufacturing in the more developed economies within Europe and the U.S. Jenny Chase, who heads up solar analysis at Bloomberg New Energy Finance believes the impact of the pioneering solar company both on solar trade and manufacturing globally will be minimal.
They will come … if you build it
Indian infrastructure: India’s thriving solar segment grew 76% in 2016, beginning this year with almost 12 GW of capacity installed as the nation hurtles towards a 100 GW solar target by 2022. However, by doubling its solar park capacity goal to 40 GW earlier this year, has the government’s bold ambition for ground-mounted solar overlooked the difficult realities on the ground?
Revamping Italian PV
Italy regulations: As one of PV’s pioneers, Italy dove headfirst into murky solar waters without any points of reference and often under strict installation deadlines. Coupled with first generation PV components, it is hardly surprising that vast portions of the nation’s installed solar capacity are less than optimum. Now, though, the authorities have introduced clear regulations designed to enable a total PV revamp.
Module replacement as a last resort
Repowering: The German Renewable Energy Act (REA) places strict limits on exchanging solar modules to restore profitability to PV plants. Plant operators should contact the network operators in advance to preserve the old feed-in tariff and avoid having to pay back tariffs already received. Proving solar panels are defective can be very complicated.
A matter of scale
Inverter selection: When it comes to selecting inverters for large-scale solar projects, EPCs are increasingly putting the next generation of string inverter solutions through their paces. But although the uptake of string-at-scale has been noteworthy, so too has the pushback from the central inverter sector.
Pinpointing when a microcrack was caused
Fault detection: With a portable device, researchers at the Institute for Solar Energy Research (ISFH) in Hameln analyze modules in the field for microcracks. In contrast to the electroluminescence method, the new technique can determine the age of the damage following a hailstorm.
Quantifying Risk: CEA introduces benchmarking
Quality assurance: Having been involved in assuring quality with over 16 GW of PV installations, Clean Energy Associates is putting its experience to good use. Its new Supplier Benchmarking Program brings together its proprietary data set with an analytical methodology, delivering a tool to judge the ability of PV module suppliers’ ability to deliver on promises of durability and reliability. Director of Technology and Quality George Touloupas sets out the program.
Emerging fix for LID in multi PERC
Cell technology: PERC is nothing new, but a full understanding of the defects behind the “nasty” light-induced degradation in multicrystalline cells is. Researchers from the University of New South Wales claim to have made significant progress in both identifying, testing for, and mitigating these defects, in a development that may turn the multi versus mono competitive dynamic once more on its head.
