Opinion & Analysis

The EU is solarizing its digital economy at a fast pace. The factors behind this paradigm shift in energy – when renewable energy is projected comprise 90% of the electricity mix in Europe by 2040 – include technical, economic, environmental.

It was a record year for global shipments of single-axis solar photovoltaic (PV) trackers in 2018, as they increased by more than 40%, surpassing 20 GW globally for the first time, writes IHS Markit senior analyst Camron Barati. While the United States continued to be the largest individual market for single-axis trackers last year, shipments also increased in Mexico, Australia, Egypt, Spain, and other large utility-scale markets.

PV industry veteran Karl-Heinz Remmers recalls the trajectory of solar power this decade and predicts stronger than expected development for the ten years ahead.

The U.K. government was the first major economy in the world to pass laws to end its contribution to global warming by 2050. But to achieve this ambition is going to take some major changes – not least of which to the U.K.’s power network.

The past year has marked a watershed moment in the global energy transition, driven primarily by the fact that public awareness of the challenges posed by climate change has skyrocketed.

Lead halide perovskite PVs (LHP-PV) have rapidly emerged over the last decade as a potentially viable thin film PV technology, because of their high efficiency and potential for low manufacturing costs. However, concerns remain over potential impacts to the environment and human health arising from the use of toxic lead in LHP-PVs.

The Lancang-Mekong River is being decimated by hundreds of tributary and mainstream hydroelectric projects from the Tibetan Plateau in China to Lower Sesan in Cambodia. On the Mekong, the Laos Government has constructed the majority of these projects and it is planning even more. But why does it only focus on hydroelectric power plants (HPP’s)? What about other renewable energy sources? Can Nam Ngum solar replace Mekong hydro?

The World Climate Summit in Santiago de Chile, set to be held in just a few weeks, has just been cancelled. Against a background of social protests in the country, concerns have recently grown as to whether logistics and security could be guaranteed for the event. Nevertheless, social problems and environmental protection must not be played off against each other: Both are closely linked to the economic paradigms of recent decades.

With solar energy about to reach the iconic terawatt (TW) milestone of globally installed PV capacity, waste handling and end-of-life (EoL) scenarios become a pressing matter.

PV InfoLink analyzed the key markets of China’s big module manufacturers, as well as product trends, based on export statistics. According to trade figures, the nation’s module exports totaled 34.2 GW in the first half of 2019, up by more than 90% from the corresponding period of 2018. In a nutshell, overseas demand has been strong in 2019.