Switzerland

Having entered the solar space four years ago with residential rooftop kits, Ikea added storage to its product mix in 2017. pv magazine caught up with Signe Antvorskov Krag, Global Development Leader IKEA Home Solar Business to discuss business models, its role in the industry, and how it intends to execute the next stage of its plan: energy communities.

In a preview of its half year financial results, Swiss equipment supplier, Meyer Burger has announced it is expecting a return to profit in the first half of 2018, recovering from a lengthy period of losses, including a major restructuring and the closure of multiple production sites.

Biggest shareholder has acquired – and postponed payment of – a chunk of debt due last month and agreed a further debt-to-equity transfer. The Swiss company today stated further measures will be required to shore up its balance sheet.

The German PV home storage provider delivered around 1,500 solar batteries globally last month. At around 75%, most systems went to Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

According to new numbers provided by Swissolar, Switzerland’s solar market saw a 9% drop in new PV installations in 2017. Demand for PV installations up to 30 kW, however, remained strong.

Researchers from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have developed a process for depositing a perovskite layer onto a silicon solar cell, which it says has already resulted in the creation of a 25.2% efficient tandem cell.

The research team used real-world energy consumption data from 4,190 Swiss households to analyze how different cost scenarios may influence optimal photovoltaic-battery (PVB) system deployment.

This marks another world record conversion efficiency for perovskite solar cells. A newly developed process reportedly reduces non-radiative recombination of the cells. The new cell is the result of joint research between the England-based Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Surrey and China-based Beijing.

The company reports that its IoT ABB Ability platform connects to existing GE Industrial Solutions’ installations. The company will supply its products to GE, with the GE brand name being retained. Access to the North-American market was named as one of the primary motivators for the acquisition. At the same time, the company inked a deal to support Be Power in the Italian market for dispatching services with its ABB Ability solution.

Inverter manufacturers tapped into the major theme of digitization in their product presentations at this year’s Smarter E event in Munich – of which Intersolar Europe is a part of. The solutions deploy smart software solutions for maximizing self-consumption, O&M provision and enable hybrid architectures across all three market segments.