Magazine Archive 12-2014

Solar EPCs in the US: North American engineering, procurement and construction companies are competing for fewer large projects. Increased specialization, efficiency improvements, and accelerating mergers and acquisitions are among the strategies used by companies to survive in the market.

NYSE Bloomberg Solar Energy Index: Pressured by Asian market uncertainty and expected price declines.

Interview: Minh Le, the director of the Solar Energy Technologies Office within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) of the US Department of Energy (DOE), spoke with pv magazine at the SPI trade show about the SunShot Initiative. EERE’s SunShot Initiative was announced in February 2011 to make solar competitive with traditional energy sources by the end of the decade.

Flashing and cell testing: In part two of pv magazine’s spotlight on approaches to the flashing of high efficiency cells, the approaches of Berger Lichttechnik, Sinton Instruments, and Pasan are explored.

U.K. solar: The U.K. is currently Europe’s largest solar PV market and is expected to become the fourth biggest in the world by the end of the year. Alongside a domestic policy shift, European policy changes concerning renewable power subsidies and continuing PV price falls are compelling British solar stakeholders to question the future of the PV sector.

Solar lighting in India: With many people living in remote areas, there is a lot of potential for solar lighting in India where companies like Tata Power Solar have been supplying this market for more than a decade. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen to fulfill his electoral promises to electrify India. But there are also concerns that a wider distribution of LED lights could cause problems for wildlife and spread insect-borne diseases. .

Germany: Anyone involved with the German solar industry will hardly be surprised by low figures for newly installed capacity. The crucial question, however, is: What will next year bring?

Solar cells: Passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC) technology is taking the solar industry by storm, with nearly 5 GW of installed capacity. What is the attraction of PERC, and what are its limitations?

Battery energy storage: U.S. Companies are exploring how to create revenue streams from energy storage and services attached to providing stored energy to utilities, commercial, industrial and residential customers, and vehicle charging stations.

It was never meant to be easy. Convincing the world that PV is a mainstream and affordable electricity source has proven to be a tricky business, and over the last three years many of us in PV have had friends and colleagues exit the industry and seen companies fall by the wayside. However, when looking […]