Magazine Archive 01-2016

Utility-scale monitoring: With every passing day more and more solar panels are installed at large-scale sites across the world. Each panel represents a new possibility in a cleaner energy future, but despite their durability, things can, and do, go wrong. But solar’s maturation has nurtured a growing monitoring sector that not only identifies and understands faults, but can offer predictive modeling to reduce risk before ground is broken.

Tracker supply chains: Reducing the costs within a far-flung global supply chain is one of the growing pains of the PV tracker industry, and luckily an exercise other industries have helped to streamline.

Module testing, durability and performance: With extreme light, heat and dust, desert environments can present big challenges for PV power plants. While these challenges can be met and overcome, PV projects in arid regions require additional consideration and a careful approach to maintenance.

MENAT markets: Often in headlines but too infrequently in the order books of solar, the numerous markets that comprise the MENAT regional grouping have been slow to arrive on solar’s main stage. But is that set to change? pv magazine conducts a comprehensive review.

Module prices: As the year draws to a close, there has been little movement in module prices. A slight bottleneck in polycrystalline standard modules noted in November failed to lift prices, counteracted by the usual clearance sales in December.

Jordan update: Jordan’s solar PV market is currently the most successful in the MENA region. Its success, however, is not solely based on number of installations; rather, it is more accurately assessed by the number of local stakeholders that comprise the vibrant and fruitful solar space. pv magazine expands on Jordan’s great success and examines the opportunities and limitations that could enable or restrain it very soon.

NYSE Bloomberg Solar Energy Index: Index searches for direction as policy support offsets mixed 3Q15 reports and Paris Climate talks boost investor optimism.

O&M: The solar industry is coming of age. While building new capacity remains of primary focus, PV owners and developers are in parallel putting increased emphasis on the optimization of the existing fleet in order to achieve greater efficiency and asset value. Kamal Soundararajan and Ragna Schmidt-Haupt of DNV GL (formerly GL Garrad Hassan) provide an overview of recommended practices and a glimpse into the future of drones for a modernized and holistic approach to solar asset operations.