Equipped for the long game
CEO interview: Clean energy manufacturing group Meyer Burger has generated a few solar headlines in recent weeks as the company stabilizes following an industry-wide downturn. pv magazine caught up with CEO Peter Pauli to discuss current market challenges, Meyer Burgers strategy for growth and its technological developments.
Casualties of the solar trade war
Polysilicon in the US: With a long history, massive scale and cost advantages, polysilicon is a strong industry in the United States. However, it is under threat by Chinese tariffs. Will the US polysilicon industry be a casualty of the solar trade war?
Bi-facial to mainstream
Equipment supply: Although times are undoubtedly tough for PV equipment vendors, a range of next-generation technology is making its way on to the market. Bi-facial cell and module technology is a part of this, with equipment supplier Schmid saying that line upgrades could see cost-effective bi-facial production on multicrystalline lines currently in production.
Between a ROC and a hard place
UK market update: April sees large-scale UK solar shut out from the Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) scheme a program that has helped push PV beyond 5 GW of installed capacity this year. How will the incoming Contracts for Difference (CfD) program fare, and are residential and commercial ready to take up the slack?
An ultra-mega opportunity or a headache?
India: In September, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy published plans to develop large-scale and ultra-mega solar power parks totaling 20 GW of capacity over the next five years. The draft policy contains no domestic content requirement. So after the governments decision against antidumping duties on solar components imported from China, Taiwan, Malaysia and the US, Indias solar industry is wondering whether domestic content requirements will be incorporated into public tenders, or where the 20 GW worth of modules is going to come from.
A transformative tipping point
Ranking inverter suppliers: The shifting sands of the global inverter landscape have shuffled the pack a little, but with SMA a familiar face at the top of the tree albeit with a drastically diminished global market share just how tumultuous has 2014 been for the worlds leading inverter suppliers?
