Magazine Archive 2022

There are literal oceans of space for floating PV (FPV), beyond the first applications on lakes, reservoirs and hydro-electric dams. For countries where land is at a premium, such as the Netherlands, Singapore and Japan, offshore FPV is of particular interest. Of course, unlike a reservoir, the sea is rarely still. Thankfully FPV’s growth has also brought technological innovation and maturity with it, meaning the coast could now be clear for solar to head offshore.

Sungrow won this year’s pv magazine Award for inverters. We caught up with Moritz Rolf – the company’s director of central, eastern and northern Europe – to hear about the functions of the winning entry and what the company is planning in terms of product strategy for this year.

There are many ways to make waves in this world. In fact, there are approximately 20 different methods of engineering waves in the nascent but rapidly growing market of surf parks. But one thing is certain: Beyond the ocean, you can’t make waves without lots of energy.

Subsidies for PV projects are a divisive topic in European countries. Mistakes of the past hang over fresh decision-making processes. Experts argue that changing market conditions are making even months-old schemes too generous, while missing the real issues.

In 2021, China installed 21.6 GW of residential PV, which accounted for nearly 40% of the total annual installation figure of 54.9 GW. Spool back to 2018, and the residential segment clocked in at a mere 3 GW – less than 7% of the total for the year. Vincent Shaw in Shanghai reports on how changing market priorities caused a spark that quickly became a fire.

Sunfarming is taking the lead when it comes to agriPV project development and investment in Germany. And in South Africa, Sunfarming’s Food and Energy and the Food Education Energy Development (FEED) program has developed two unique concepts through which it can share its agriPV expertise. pv magazine sat down with Sunfarming director of international projects, Edith Brasche, to talk about the company’s South African projects.

Ukraine is still facing dire circumstances, with war continuing to claim lives and Russian invaders occupying large parts of the country. Solar plant owners also face serious challenges, including collateral damage, looting, destruction of communication infrastructure, and payment shortfalls. However, a bold vision for recovery has been set out with a key role for solar, as Ian Skarytovsky reports.

Enabling future energy flows at the lower-voltage distribution level? Unlikely. Wide-scale hardware upgrades would cost billions if not trillions, especially in Australia’s far reaches. Software and digital solutions are identifying new cost-effective ways of letting more sun into the grid.

The rising popularity of “baseload” power purchase agreements (PPAs) has posed questions to solar electricity suppliers in the German market. How can projects that do not generate at night, with wide seasonal output variation, effectively supply constant power to consumers? More importantly, who shoulders the price risk?