Magazine Archive 12- 2023 / 01 - 2024 | Winter Edition - Gold standard

Artificial intelligence (AI) is hot right now and is finding central applications in homes and businesses as they move from simple grid connections to self-generation, energy storage, electric vehicle (EV) charging, and load-shifting revenue streams. With AI everywhere, what’s the difference between advanced control via simple algorithms, and true intelligence?

Utility-scale installations are accelerating while labor shortages prompt the industry to explore alternative strategies for delivering and operating solar plants. Utility-scale solar construction company McCarthy Building Companies, and robotics company OnSight Technology, recently teamed up to test a robotic tool to inspect field components.

Europe is witnessing a surge in power purchase agreements (PPAs). Over the past four years, the number of European PPA transactions has trebled. More than 180 deals were signed in 2022 alone and the trend is expected to continue, especially for solar projects, says IB Vogt Power Analyst Sara Fountir Benbrahim.

Diesel generators have been the workhorse of disaster relief for decades but as the frequency of extreme weather events rises, so do calls to decarbonize the emergency response. Sustainability may not be the only benefit to using solar in a crisis, as pv magazine discovers.

Another year in the solar and energy storage industries has swept past, meaning another 12 months of innovation and challenge; of great leaps in performance and the addition of new capabilities; of hurdles overcome and opportunities grasped; and of relentless competition on cost. This is all demonstrated in the winners of the pv magazine Awards for 2023, which includes, for the first time, a projects category which proved extremely popular with entrants.

Today, it is not enough for solar site developers, owners, and lenders to have internal environmental, social, and corporate and governance (ESG) metrics or corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies. Now they must trust, as well as verify, their partners’ ESG metrics and CSR policies, especially regarding labor practices. James Whittemore, senior manager for quality assurance and quality control at Enertis Applus, offers a guide to best practice.

On Nov. 6, the European Solar PV Industry Alliance (ESIA) published a recommendation paper in which it set out how its members envisage a European support scheme to foster the development of European solar. What chance does it have of actually achieving its goals? Götz Fischbeck delivers an assessment.

Reports of broken module glass with no obvious cause have begun to crop up at large PV projects. Module design, glass manufacturing, and interactions in the field between modules and trackers are at play and a clear solution has yet to emerge. Early signs suggest an update to certification standards may be needed, as industry stakeholders tell Mark Hutchins.

It is not only solar module manufacturers that need to reduce their carbon footprint. The same applies to their material suppliers, not least polysilicon producers, given the emissions associated with the earliest stages of solar manufacturing.