Magazine Archive 12-2013

Balance of systems market: The BOS industry is lowering costs mainly through system and process optimization rather than by developing revolutionary new devices. Matt Feinstein provides examples.

Interview: What are the perspectives for Tata Power Solar? What are the challenges for Indian PV manufacturers? pv magazine talked to the company’s CEO Ajay Goel.

SPI: The atmosphere at this year’s Solar Power International (SPI) in Chicago was remarkably sunny. The US solar market is growing sustainably, although it is still dominated by utility-scale installations. The main driving forces are declining costs, backed by tax credits. A new trend is the increasing involvement of US utilities in the solar PV industry.

Performance metrics in India: Performance ratio or capacity utilization factor – which provides better insights into the performance of a solar PV system? Europe prefers the performance ratio, and India favors CUF. Sebastian Dürr, cofounder and director of REACH Solar Consulting, describes the different viewpoints in India and Europe and the pros and cons of the different approaches.

Metallization pastes: Innovative metallization pastes help to lower silver cost, while novel cell technologies and new printing techniques enable the optimization of cost and performance, explains Carsten Mohr of the Photovoltaics Business Unit of Heraeus, a precious metals and technology group based in Germany.

Polysilicon and wafers: Reduced costs and increasing demand are significantly improving the outlook for PV polysilicon and wafer producers in 2014, writes Charles Annis of NPD Solarbuzz.

Module prices: The stagnating European market and inventory clearance sales have sent prices plummeting at the end of the year.

Inverters: Until just a few years ago, efficiency was the only topic that mattered to the inverter market. But from a system engineering point of view, innovation at all levels makes sense in order to improve inverters while increasing the yield of photovoltaic installations.

India: Jasmeet Khurana, head of the Market Intelligence team at Bridge to India, outlines how India’s National Solar Mission has slowly overcome its roadblocks and begun making a real impact on the nation’s solar landscape.

North America: The US solar equity markets enjoyed an upswing in October, driven by a substantial number of utility-scale projects in the pipeline and advances in technology.