Magazine Archive 2019

A maturing PV market does not automatically deliver certainty in terms of technology roadmaps and industry dynamics. Crystalizing trends and anticipating developments is the business of analysts, so pv magazine assembled four of solar’s best to talk about prices, technology and market-defining policy developments.

India’s total installed solar capacity touched 34.1 GW on June 30, 2019. The total was split between 27.9 GW of utility-scale PV, 4.6 GW of rooftop solar and 1.26 GW of off-grid solar. The nation’s total project pipeline – projects allocated to developers and those in various stages of development – stood at 19.69 GW as of June 30. Bridge to India’s Sai Nandamuri looks at the outlook for Indian solar in 2019 and 2020.

Abundant sunshine, favorable policy settings and high power prices have long placed Australia at the cutting edge of rooftop solar uptake. The more recent utility-scale boom has further enhanced its status as a PV leader. Battery adoption, microgrids, EVs and green hydrogen are all taking shape, yet what should be an Aussie smart energy no-brainer continues to be dogged by mounting investment uncertainty and a toxic debate on the national level.

The April 2019 insolvency of shooting-star solar provider Mobisol hit the offgrid solar sector like a bombshell, throwing into question the private-sector model of supplying renewable energy to some of the world’s poorest people. Industry insiders concluded that socially minded entrepreneurs, among them Mobisol, took the revolutionary pay-as-you-go system as far as they could, before becoming bogged down in the unforgiving terrain of Africa’s markets. Then, in early September, French energy giant Engie acquired Mobisol, shocking the sector with its against-the-grain plan to take the company’s quest for universal access to energy to another level.

The outlook for growth in Vietnam’s renewables sector is positive, writes Daine Loh, research analyst at Fitch Solutions. And the solar segment is one of the key drivers of this impressive growth. Vietnam still has substantial untapped solar power potential. Coupled with an increasingly supportive regulatory environment, and an expected surge in electricity consumption over the next decade, the country’s renewables sector is poised for a new dawn. And this will bring substantial opportunities for investors.

The climate, developing economy, and rapid demographic growth are leading to increased electricity demand in the MENA region. However, as a hub of conventional energy supply, it has been slow to embrace PV. To capture more of the value chain and deliver the full potential of solar PV, there are increasing calls for distributed generation deployment to play a much more prominent role.

To facilitate the growing share of renewables in the world’s energy mix, and the more distributed nature of generation, changes are needed to the way electricity is transmitted and distributed. Claudio Palmieri, CEO of CLS Energy Consultants looks to Dubai, where a robust, distributed system has helped local utility DEWA with the difficult task of securing a reliable water supply in a parched desert region. This system, he argues, could provide an example of how an electrical ‘grid of the future’ might work.

The Turkish solar market finds itself at a crossroads in 2019, with previous policy settings coming to an end and more questions than answers being raised by recent government efforts. While the YEKA projects to date have delivered little in terms of installations, Muren Guler from Global Energy Ltd believes that ‘Mini YEKA’ could provide just the boost manufacturers, suppliers, and developers are looking for.

Long seen as a slow region for solar deployment, the U.S. Midwest has seen an explosion of project development in recent years. And while there is still a lot of speculation and uncertainty, one way or another this region is going to see major development.

It remains Europe’s biggest solar and energy storage event, and with a resurgent market, The smarter E in 2019 is shaping to be no different. Accordingly, pv magazine is rolling out a full program of events and launches, and of course is inviting you to party with us.