Residential PV

This year, residential solar reached several milestones in the United States, as extreme weather events have driven customer interest in home energy storage systems.

As solar and storage technologies are deployed on the U.S. grid in record numbers, there’s no time like the present to take steps to prevent solar and storage from cyberattacks.

Dutch researchers have used optic colored filters to make building-integrated PV products more suitable for urban environments with cultural heritage value. They discovered that the filters do not affect a cell’s open-circuit voltage and fill factor, but only the short-circuit current.

India recorded 46.2 GW of installed solar capacity at the end of October, led by installations in the states of Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Gujarat.

Incorporating solar into our built environments represents an opportunity for hundreds of gigawatts to be installed worldwide without taking up any additional land. In many cases though, this will require solutions beyond typical rooftop PV installations and much closer cooperation between the PV and construction industries. A new report published by IEA PVPS looks to bring together the interests of both worlds, and clearly categorize both the building envelope and energy functions of different BIPV components.

The lack of proper business models, high upfront costs, and long payback periods are the key barriers to enabling the wider adoption of solar-powered heat pumps, according to recent research. Other factors reducing market acceptance are a lack of information on the technology and sociodemographic factors like public perception and peer effects.

India installed 7.4 GW of new solar capacity in the first nine months of 2021, putting this year on track to become one of the best 12-month periods on record for new PV installations.

Midsummer and Medacciai are developing a BIPV solution for curved metal roofs in southern European markets, through a five-year deal.

Germany’s Home Power Solutions has developed a hydrogen storage solution with a capacity of up to 15,000 kWh. The Picea system stores excess electricity from rooftop PV systems in the form of green hydrogen.

The European Council has approved a proposal to amend the EU rules on rates of value-added tax (VAT) to give member states more flexibility to set them. If adopted, solar panels for residential and ‘public interest’ applications would be included in the list of goods and services for which a maximum of 5% VAT could be levied.