Magazine Archive 02 – 2024 | Embracing change

As a new entrant to Europe’s solar “gigawatt club,” Bulgaria’s PV sector is enjoying a long-awaited boom. However, numerous challenges cast a shadow over the country’s solar prospects, raising the question of whether it can keep the momentum going.

Big plans for solar power across the Caucasus region could depend on a successful working relationship with the European Union, as Ian Skarytovsky reports.

Electricity market liberalization and private sector development of solar and energy storage in Cyprus continue to be delayed. pv magazine’s Ilias Tsagas looks at why independent power producers are frustrated by electricity curtailment and a lack of market reform.

Decades of mismanagement have eroded trust in South Africa’s state-owned energy utility, Eskom. Last year, households and businesses suffered daily blackouts of up to 10 hours, or even longer. Solar and battery energy storage are booming but a domestic PV manufacturing industry has yet to materialize.

FAS Renewables announced in December 2023 that it had signed contracts for a 52 MW solar portfolio to be built on shopping center rooftops across Saudi Arabia. The projects will be among the first in the kingdom to operate under commercial power purchase agreements. FAS chief executive officer (CEO) Marcus Schrauf said he expects to see many more as the country becomes a commercial PV powerhouse.

Around 800,000 new workers will be required in Europe by 2025 for the battery industry alone and, more broadly, existing workers will need to be retrained as the continent’s industries transition away from fossil fuels. International competition for workers is becoming increasingly fierce. Where are these workers and the required skills supposed to come from?

Portable solar generators are making their way from the fringes of solar and energy storage to become a mainstream consumer item. The rise has been charged by a range of factors that have created massive brands. Where did the sector emerge from, who was buying before, who is buying now, and what’s next? Tristan Rayner reports.

Native American lands boast serious PV potential in the United States but getting projects off the ground hasn‘t always been easy. Different tribes are willing to take power generation into their own hands and the landscape could be shifting, thanks to funding from the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and other programs.

The annual UN Conference of the Parties (COP) climate summits draw criticism for their overly lofty goals but the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) new “Renewables 2023” report states that the COP28 target for solar is well within reach, as lead author and IEA Senior Energy Analyst Heymi Bahar explains to Jonathan Gifford.

The opening session of the pv magazine Roundtables Europe event, in December 2023, addressed the issue of solar in harsh environments, with a particular focus on floating PV installations moving out to sea. Peijun Shen, senior manager for product marketing at Longi Solar, shared details of the company’s testing-led approach to ensuring long-term reliability in any environment. After the event, Mark Hutchins caught up with Shen to discuss the broader landscape for module reliability in 2024.