Tempered sentiment
Ardour Solar Index: Trade wars wage on stabilization in pricing. Index constituents post widely varied performances.
The lure of larger PV projects
Ecobuild 2013: Everybody likes big solar projects as they gobble up the MWs and the UK is no exception as it girds itself to install as much as 20 GW of PV by 2020. This is the upper end of a target set out within the UK Department of Energy and Climate Changes (DECC) Renewable Energy Roadmap at the end of 2012.
A cell phone saves you the trip to the basement
Inverters: Inverters can now communicate and are better adapted to their various uses than ever before. Thomas Mühlberger, head of PV System Technology at Fronius International GmbH, talks about the trends.
The pressure to innovate
Laminators: Solar laminator manufacturers paint a bleak picture of their current markets. Some focus on reducing the cost of existing technology, others on innovation.
Another year of steady growth
Mercom Capital global forecast: Raj Prabhu, CEO and Cofounder of Mercom Capital Group, forecasts 2013 installations of 34.5 GW.
The secondary solar market
Interview: SAG Solarstrom has sold five German field PV plants with a total output of approximately 12 MW to an investor. The systems built in the years 2007 and 2008 were technically and legally evaluated by the SAG Solarstrom Group and then purchased and restructured by a leasing company. Chairman of the board Karl Kuhlmann sees an interesting new field of business in such restructuring of solar investments on the secondary market.
Coming on strong
Japan: The new feed-in tariffs for fiscal year 2013 have been proposed. Izumi Kaizuka of RTS Corporation describes the impact of the 2012 FIT program and the discussion of the new solar PV FIT, which should come into effect this month.
The solar catalyst
Saudi Arabia: One of the worlds largest producers of petroleum products is taking a sharp turn from fossil fuels to the sun. The need to cut back on conventional fuel dependence and to bank in on the sun has fueled forecasts that Saudi Arabia will be the solar market to look out for in the year to come.
Elevating solar with property tax funds
Property tax funding: A host of new property tax-based lending programs are arising across the United States bringing a promising new financing mechanism which could be securitized to much of the PV market for both residential and commercial installations.
Trends in energy storage markets
Storage market: Market activity in energy storage, as with most cleantech sectors, is tied to government strategies pertaining to industrial innovation. The three regions with the most innovative and dynamic economies, Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America, have developed distinct strategies for cleantech and, more specifically, for energy storage, as Anissa Dehamna from Pike Research (a part of Navigant) explains.
