pv magazine Focus 2024

June 20, 2024

@The smarter E Europe, ICM Conference Center, Munich, Room 13

pv magazine is bringing back its live, participatory events to The smarter E Europe 2024 – the biggest solar and energy storage event on the continent.  

pv magazine Focus 2024 was held on June 20, at The smarter E Europe and moderated by pv magazine Jonathan Gifford, Michael Fuhs, Mark Hutchins, Marija Maisch and Marian Willuhn.

pv magazine Focus is a multifaceted discussion of the most pressing quality issues facing solar in the current turbulent market environment. And, for the first time, a session in German addressed the latest in energy management systems, providing participants with crucial insights into quality criteria and how rooftop solar can be integrated into a system alongside EV chargers, heat pumps, batteries and more.   

10:30 am     Focus on PV Module Quality (EN)

12:20 pm     Focus on large-scale BESS Quality (EN)

02:00 pm     Qualität von Energiemanagementsystemen für Wohngebäude (DE)

Download full agenda

English Session

(10:30 am – 1:00 pm) 

Focus on PV Module Quality

(10:30 am – 12:00 pm) 

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A live discussion of the quality issues facing the solar industry is back in 2024! Don’t miss this chance to be a part of the discussion in the Focus on PV Module Quality session.  

Since 2014, pv magazine has been hosting quality-focused events – sparking lively debate among participants and delivering important learnings for the industry. In 2024, the latest quality topics will be in focus including the latest solar cell architectures and degradation issues; evolving bill-of-materials (BOM) and experience in the field; and how balance-of-system (BOS) components can accommodate large format modules.  

The well-known “quality case studies” will also be discussed live during the Focus on PV Module Quality session. Submitted by the European PV community and investigated by the pv magazine editorial team, the case studies provide an opportunity to share learnings from quality issues encountered in the field or rooftop, how they can be addressed by project stakeholders, and how such issues can be discovered before they become a problem.  

10:35 | Maintaining module quality, at all costs

Prices for PV modules began to fall rapidly in 2023, and the oversupply conditions pushing them down may be around for some time yet. In these times of fierce competition for slim profit margins, concerns over quality and long-term performance are almost inevitable as suppliers all along the supply chain look to cut costs.

• Molly Morgan, senior research analyst at Exawatt, shares her findings on key quality concerns for module buyers in 2024.

10:45 | Quality Case Study

A floating PV (FPV) array installed in hot and humid conditions experienced problems only months after installation was completed. Mistakes abounded from the planning stage, in component selection, through construction. We investigate and discuss what went wrong and how to set it right.

10:50 | Key quality concern: module glass

Recent trends in PV module design have seen products get significantly larger, and manufacturers switch to using glass on both sides – requiring thinner glass to keep the overall weight down. Larger sheets of thinner glass, as well as differences in heat strengthening processes, have led to an increase in reports of glass breakage coming from the field.

• pv magazine will be in conversation with Kiwa-PVEL’s Tristan Erion-Lorico and several other industry experts, to discuss the ins and outs of this complex and still developing module quality issue.

11:00 | Panel discusses the case study and glass breakage

An interactive discussion involving four industry experts and our live audience on the issues raised in the FPV quality case study, and the the structural integrity of modern, large-format dual glass modules.

With our panel participants:

• Madeleine Hill | Partner | Everoze
• Steven Xuereb | Executive Director | Kiwa PI Berlin
• Edurne Zoco | Executive Director Clean Energy Technology | S&P Global

11:30 | Long term performance for n-type

The solar industry is in the midst of a fundamental technology transition, from p-type to n-type cells. The promise of lower susceptibility to known degradation mechanisms, allowing for stronger performance over a longer lifetime, is one of the key reasons for this switch. But a growing body of research suggests that there may be other risks for performance loss over time inherent to the technologies now moving toward the manufacturing mainstream.

• This session will feature pv magazine in conversation with George Touloupas, senior director of technology and quality at Clean Energy Associates, discussing risks that manufacturers and their customers face with the latest TOPCon or HJT modules, and what can be done to mitigate them.

11:40 | Quality in focus

• We will close the session with a broad focused discussion of quality in PV systems, featuring Fangdan Jiang, Director of PV R&D Institute from Chinese PV manufacturing giant Tongwei, Dominic Buergi, Head of Services Renewable EnergiesSwiss headquartered supplier Stäubli Electrical Connectors, and Jan Mastny independent PV-industry consultant.

Here we’ll discuss the implications of the issues raised in all of the day’s discussion, and how these latest quality concerns fit into the wider landscape of PV systems and markets in 2024.

Focus on large-scale BESS Quality

(12:20 pm – 01:00 pm)

No discussion of quality in today’s marketplace would be complete without the inclusion of battery energy storage systems (BESS). At the Focus 2024, large-scale applications are on the agenda.

12:20 | Introduction and launch of pv magazine’s dedicated energy storage news platform

12:25 | The importance of BESS revenue optimization platforms at the time of volatile electricity prices and what they can deliver for asset owners

Including a presentation about Algorithms as energy traders’ best friends from Jochen Siemer, Senior Editor at pv magazine Deutschland.

12:35 | BESS Quality panel discussion

The discussion will include: latest battery energy storage system design trends, evolving safety features in large-scale BESS, how to ensure optimized lifetime of BESS assets and collocation with PV: Business case and safety concerns.

Our speakers for this panel:

• Kai-Philipp Kairies | CEO | ACCURE
• Juan-Carlos Mejia | Senior Solution Manager C&I Europe | Huawei
• Neill Parkinson | Product & Business Development Manager BESS | JinkoESS

Deutsche Session

(14:00 – 16:00 Uhr)

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Qualität von Energiemanagementsystemen für Wohngebäude 

Welche Energiemanagementsysteme gibt es? Nach welchen Kriterien sollte man es als Planer oder Installateur auswählen und wo gibt es Qualitätsunterschiede zwischen den Geräten?  

Diese Fragen spielen heute im Gegensatz zu der Vergangenheit eine entscheidende Rolle, insbesondere wenn man ein zukunftsfähiges System mit großen Photovoltaikanteil aufbauen will. Was bisher eher wie  eine unwesentliche Optimierung aussah – die Hauptaufgabe bestand oft darin, passende Schnittstellen zu finden – kann jetzt einen relevanten Einfluss auf die Wirtschaftlichkeit und den Beitrag zur Energiewende ausmachen.

Mit dynamischen Stromtarifen, die nächstes Jahr flächendeckend angeboten werden müssen, den Anforderungen an steuerbare Lasten (Paragraf 14a) und der zunehmenden Integration von Wärmepumpen und Wallboxen hat das Energiemanagement für Gebäude inzwischen anspruchsvolle Aufgaben. Das führt dazu, dass sich Unterschiede in den Funktionalitäten und in der Qualität deutlich auswirken und dass das ein zukunftsfähiges Energiemanagement zur Herausforderung wird.

Unsere Agenda zeigt, wie viele Themen bei der Frage nach der Qualität des Energiemanagements zusammenkommen. Wir wollen kondensiert und in zwei Stunden die wesentlichen Fragen ansprechen. Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer, die die Systeme planen und installieren, sind eingeladen mitzudiskutieren. Wir wollen das Verständnis dafür schärfen, wonach kann man Anbieter fragen kann.

14:00 | Produktüberblick Energiemanagementsysteme

• Marktüberblick
• Thomas Haupt | Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter | Hochschule Ansbach
• Pitches von Anbietern
• Diskussion

14:30 | Komponenten, Tests und Erfahungen

• Praxisbeispiele:
  – Batteriedegradation aufspüren bei fehlender Diagnosefunktion
  – Dynamische Tarife für die Wallbox kollidieren mit Heim-Energiemanagement
  – Solaroptimiertes Laden nur mit Hindernissen (Auto hält Standard nicht ein)
  – Wärmepumpen-Nachrüstung bei fehlender digitaler Schnittstelle
• Energiemanagement- und Wallbox-Benchmark
  • Lukas Schriewer | Teamleiter Ladetechnologien | P3 automotive
• Speicher-Inspektion: Auf welche Unterschiede kann man als Käufer achten
  • Nico Orth | Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter | HTW Berlin
  • Moderation Marian Willuhn | Senior Editor | pv magazine
• Paragraf 14a: Wie wird das Heim-Energiemanagement kompatibel
  • Nicolai-André Stickler | Innovation & Partner Sales Manager | gridX
• Wärmepumpen: Wie relevant sind die Unterschiede der verschiedenen Konzepte zur Integration in Energiemanagementsysteme?
  • Marc Franken, Produktmanager, Viessmann Climate Solutions
• Schnittstellen: Wird EEBus der neue Schnittstellenstandard, der die lästigen Kommunikationsprobleme löst?
  • Gunnar Steg | Vorstandsreferent Truck & Bus | Volkswagen, Vorstandsmitglied EEBus
  • Markus Große Gorgemann | Prokurist | Energielenker
• Erfahrungen mit einer bidirektionalen Wallbox im Vehicle-2-Home-Betrieb und Auswirkung auf das Heim-Energiemanagement
  • Markus Hackmann | Managing Director | P3 automotive

15:15 | Qualitätskriterien für das Heim-Energiemanagment

Diskussion mit Panel und Publikum

Expertinnen und Experten:

• Barbara Wittenberg | CTO | 1Komma5°
• Stefan Feilmeier | CIO | Fenecon, OpenEMS Association
• Bernhard Wille-Haussmann | Smart Grid Operation and Planning| Fraunhofer ISE
• Konrad Schade | CCO Rabot Charge

Moderation: Michael Fuhs (Redaktionsleiter pv magazine)

16:00 | Ende & Networking bei Kaffee und Häppchen

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