Applications & Installations
Among energy technologies, solar is unique in its flexibility and range of applications. Rapidly growing niches including floating PV and agrivoltaics are proving their worth alongside the more established rooftop and ground mount market segments.
Hybrid systems combining solar with energy storage and other generation technologies are also becoming more common, in the pursuit of 24/7 emissions free energy. And this brings our industry into more frequent contact with other concerns, that need to be carefully managed.
Latest News
Solar’s infrastructure obstacle
During the development of a recent utility-scale project in Texas’ ERCOT grid interconnection zone, Levona Renewables CEO Fernando Queiroz found his team spending more time evaluating transmission infrastructure, interconnection requirements, equipment availability, and utility procurement processes than discussing solar modules – a striking realization affecting project developers in the United States and beyond.
Making the data center business case
A data center can be built in 18 to 24 months, but connecting it to the grid is another matter, writes Laura Hoffmann-Ostenhof, Europe industry lead at modeling software supplier Gridcog. Across Europe’s established hubs – the FLAP-D cluster of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin – the wait for a grid connection now runs from seven to 10 years, as data centers compete for capacity.
When heat becomes a stress test: What extreme temperatures mean for photovoltaic systems and battery storage
Photovoltaics rely on sunlight. Battery storage systems rely on absorbing and releasing energy precisely when the power grid needs it. Both sound like an ideal combination for hot summer days: plenty of sunshine, high generation, increased electricity demand due to cooling, and greater grid flexibility. In practice, it’s more complex.
Partial U.S. eclipse produced similar daily solar energy losses to higher-obscuration European locations
In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that the Aug. 12 solar eclipse caused highly variable irradiance losses across Europe and North America, shaped by obscuration, cloud cover, and the timing of the eclipse. However, eclipse-related power-market impacts varied much more, showing that irradiance loss or obscuration alone is not a reliable predictor of electricity-price effects.
India on track for record 50 GW of solar installations in 2026
India is on track to install a record 50 GW of solar capacity in 2026, driven by a rush to meet the ALMM-II deadline despite emerging cell supply constraints. Wood Mackenzie expects the resulting supply crunch to push system prices higher through 2027, while greater domestic manufacturing capacity gradually eases pressure.
Solar’s infrastructure obstacle
Judging crop yield and quality under agrivoltaic systems solely by the shading rates of solar panels is inappropriate, according to new research from the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation (JREF). The Tokyo-headquartered think tank has released a report that analyzes the effects of shading from solar panels on crops including rice, soybeans, tea, coffee, and spinach, …
