After an extensive process and a raft of documents, the European Commission has laid the groundwork for legal measures aimed at a more sustainable solar industry. Don’t expect a revolution.
As part of pv magazine’s UP initiative, we asked our readers how they felt about sustainability in solar, whether they or their customers were willing to do something about it, and how they saw the conflicting goal of profitability.
This quarter, pv magazine‘s UP Initiative focuses on lead – a toxic heavy metal that’s present in many PV technologies, and one that’s often mentioned in connection with hazardous substances across the green energy supply chain. We take a closer look at the issue and ask what it would mean for manufacturers to replace lead in their modules with more environmentally friendly materials.
The energy transition is becoming ever more apparent among power companies, as was evident at the European Utility Week event last week in Paris, which showcased the hopes and fears of energy companies. Rebranding next year to ‘Enlit’, the organizers aim to reach the whole energy industry.
Sonnen presented two new products in the usual hip ambiance of Berlin E-Werk. In addition to home storage and electricity, the company now offers electric cars and PV systems with battery storage on a subscription model in Germany.
A new test design from the University of Central Florida has challenged modules with different cell technologies. The results show advantages for the heterojunction modules tested. Here we discuss the new method with its designer.
Michael van der Gugten, Sales and Marketing Executive at Smit Thermal Solutions, is convinced that perovskite solar cells have reached maturity, and that they are ready to make the step from the lab to production. He is leading the organization of a conference on this topic and expects that the perovskite community, production equipment suppliers and crystalline silicon cell manufacturers will discuss the implementation of perovskite-silicon tandem cells or the production of standalone perovskite modules.
At the beginning of the decade, Zhengrong Shi, at that time founder and CEO of Suntech, was one of the most influential people in solar. After the Chinese module manufacturer ran into troubles in 2013, he had to go and, thus, slipped out of the spotlight. Now he is back as founder of Sunman, a company specializing in lightweight crystalline modules using polymer composite materials instead of glass. pv magazine caught up with him at Intersolar Europe 2019.
In the run-up to pv magazine’s quality roundtable at Intersolar Europe, we look at a case where a production error resulted in cold solder joints in 5% of the solar modules across a 50 MW project portfolio. We consider how to come to an agreement with a manufacturer to replace modules in such a situation and how such a solution compares with a production audit before installation.
The expansion of The smarter E Europe exhibition and conference continues apace in 2019, with the growth of power-to-gas as well as solar and battery storage’s increasing competitiveness capturing new territory. It is managing to meet both system requirements and customer demand.
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