Rooftop solar’s success results in ‘struggling’ large-scale segment in Australia
As rooftop solar racks up records in Australia, price cannibalization has resulted in a “struggling” large-scale market segment. Bruce Mountain, head of the University of Victoria’s Energy Policy Centre, says that increasingly depressed wholesale electricity prices during the day are squeezing out big PV.
U.S. publicly traded solar installer Sunworks files for bankruptcy
The residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural solar installer files for bankruptcy amid troubled macroeconomic conditions for distributed solar nationwide.
Weekend Read. COP: A solar flop?
Tripling clean energy generation capacity to 11 TW by 2030 was a leading pledge from the United Nations’ (UN) climate change conference in Dubai. With few details about infrastructure and energy storage and no clear PV targets, however, it is hard to judge the effectiveness of the 28th global Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting. Angela Skujins considers possible impacts for the solar industry.
Stormy January impacts irradiance across North America
In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that North America saw irradiance below average, primarily due to the stormy conditions that prevailed during the second half of January.
Optimizing photovoltaic grid integration through active power management
PV systems, surpassing minimum load demands in various regions, necessitate innovative grid integration measures. Active power management (APM), notably curtailment, emerges as a powerful solution here. By actively managing power peaks, PV systems can unlock new possibilities, contribute to grid stability, and enhance their overall value. The new IEA-PVPS Task 14 report encourages a shift in perspective, urging DSOs to explore the potential of APM instead of traditional grid expansion methods.
Trane debuts air-to-water heat pumps
The new products use propane (R290) as a refrigerant and have heating and cooling capacities ranging from 8 kW to 30 kW.
Philippines proposes register for PV system installers
The Philippines’ Department of Energy (DOE) is moving ahead with plans to require solar system installers to officially register with it. The DOE says that only registered installers will be recommended to government entities seeking PV installation services.
Kosovo to auction 950 MW of renewables, 170 MW of battery storage
Kosovo plans to auction off 950 MW of renewables over the next two years, to the tune of €1.2 billion ($1.29 billion).
Off-grid solar EV charging system designed for quick installation
The PairTree off-grid solar charging system for electric vehicles (EVs) combines bifacial solar panels ranging from 4.6 kW to 5 kW, a 42.4 kWh capacity storage system, and one or two AC “Level 2” EV chargers.
Coupling ground-source heat pumps with heat storage, borehole heat exchangers
Scientists from China have developed a novel optimization method for medium-depth ground source heat pumps, using an improved chaos particle swarm optimization. They coupled it with either a heat storage tank or a shallow borehole heat exchanger and found that both system typologies increase the heat pump’s coefficient of performance.
