Magazine Archive 2020

The recent COP25 negotiations in Madrid were an ignominious way to close out a decade of climate change (in)action. And on a personal level, it was particularly disappointing to learn of my home country of Australia’s efforts to impede meaningful action. As if by divine climate intervention, a record-setting heat wave and devastating fires subsequently […]

New markets, new applications, new possibilities: falling PV costs along with technical and business-model innovation putting PV in new places and providing the benefits of solar power to an ever-increasing number of people. It’s worth recognizing the innovations that are allowing PV to grow to sometimes unlikely places.

The coronavirus outbreak is gripping the global community and the economic impacts are being felt, with the solar industry profoundly affected. With something like 90% of the solar module supply chain located in China – the source of the Covid-19 outbreak – the ripples from the profound disruption to production in the early stages of this year will likely be felt for many months to come.

Whether it’s two, three, six months or more, there will be an end to the Covid-19 pandemic. But when restrictions begin to lift and the “hammer” becomes the “dance” stage of the management strategy, various segments of the solar market will burst back to life. But where will it leave us? Some argue that such […]

The return to normal has begun – albeit slowly, cautiously and with limited expectations. As what we are being assured is the first wave of the Covid-19 crisis begins to recede in certain parts of the world, many are returning to the free fields, rooftops and homes that make up the workplace of the solar industry.

It was only a year ago, but it feels like a world away. June in the European solar industry without Intersolar, of course now The smarter E, feels very strange indeed.

The solar story of the past decade has been defined by fast-falling costs – a remarkable achievement of which the industry can be rightly proud – as highlighted by the World Bank in a recent energy access update (pp. 22-24). However, a narrative that PV benefits the few at the expense of the many has been a difficult one to shake.

Solar+storage: A progressive marriage of two technologies is bringing on a new era for the energy sector. The times, and the climate, are changing.

This year has caused major economic shifts, the acceleration of some existing trends, and has left some industries staggering. In general, it has been encouraging to see the resilience exhibited by the solar industry in the face of a Covid-19-related economic downturn, although this hasn’t been even across all segments and markets.

The term “game changer” is vastly overused. But a carbon-neutral China by 2060 must fit the bill as truly changing the global climate change game. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, made the announcement last month, and it will require a considerable acceleration of solar, wind and other zero-emissions technology.