Commercial & Industrial PV

A group of researchers from Utrecht University analyzed offshore floating photovoltaic (OFPV) systems to determine reasons for enhanced performance compared with land-based systems. Out of their research, the team developed two regression models to help predict yield advantages when siting projects.

Switzerland had its best year in terms of new PV deployment in 2022, with more than 1,000 MW of installed capacity, according to provisional statistics from Swissolar. At the end of December, the nation surpassed 4.6 GW of cumulative installed solar capacity.

The city of London has launched a tender process to install a GBP 3 million ($3.81 million) solar system on London Olympic Stadium, featuring an unspecified PV membrane.

In another interview from the series held at Intersolar 2023, pv magazine spoke with Paolo Rocco Viscontini, president of the PV association Italia Solare. He said the Italian solar market is now inevitably poised to see more growth across all segments this year and during the current decade. He also spoke about market drivers, current demand, and the PPA business, as well as large-scale and small-sized storage.

The Ethiopian government has secured financing from the World Bank through the Access to Distributed Electricity and Lighting in Ethiopia (ADELE) program for 20 solar minigrid projects.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, presents the solar irradiance data it collected for northern India last week. Cyclone Biparjoy had a significant impact on solar power generation in the region.

Scientists in Europe have put together a comprehensive guide to PV module degradation, examining literature and case studies on the topic as far back as the 1990s. Their paper details the primary stress factors faced by modules in the field, the most common modes of degradation and failure, and provides clear definitions relevant to reliability, quality and testing standards. Among their key findings is that a full understanding of how combinations of different stresses over varying timeframes is still missing from methods to estimate and improve system reliability.

SolarPower Europe’s new guidelines for agrivoltaics are designed to support project developers, scientific institutions, and policymakers in developing agrivoltaic schemes. The PV trade body presents business cases from different European countries and shares best practices for O&M and engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC).

A new study details how floating photovoltaics impact wind flow and irradiance on lakes, with the effect of influencing water temperature at different depths. However, the report’s authors say more research is needed on how to design systems for maximum benefit to the water bodies themselves.

José Donoso, the president of Spanish solar association UNEF, spoke with pv magazine at Intersolar 2023 about the future of solar manufacturing in Europe, incentives, and the need for Europe and Spain to master the entire PV industrial cycle.