Keeping PV components green
Sustainable PV: Just as module efficiency does not depend only on cell architecture developments, so too does sustainable solar come right down to the components. This is the case from solar glass through to backsheets. The use of fluoropolymers in backsheets supplied to the industry has some worried about toxicity issues when modules come to their end of life.
Daring to dream
Solar flight: Solar panels have been a ubiquitous sight on satellites since the dawn of space travel, but their use thus far has only ever been secondary to more traditional power sources. Solar Impulse, however, hopes to break these boundaries when it embarks on the worlds first round-the-world, solar-powered-only flight in March. pv magazine gets up close and personal with the craft and crew attempting this historic feat.
Smart storage to power the Smarthome
Storage and the Smarthome: PV, batteries, and consumer electronics are coming together to deliver innovative solutions for the homeowner. It is capturing imaginations, but can it capture the future of residential energy?
Leasing to own: a winning formula for the US market
Solar leasing: While solar leasing as pioneered by SolarCity has catapulted US residential PV to new heights, leasing and other financial models have done little to promote commercial and industrial systems in the country. LFC Capitals Solar Ownership Program combines leasing and ownership in what could be a winning formula to help drive this market segment further.
Drink tea, keep hoping and just carry on
Turkey: Geopolitics, a burgeoning economy, lots of sunshine, and cheap technology are driving Turkeys solar PV sector, which is set to expand in the near future. But 2015 doesnt seem to be part of this future yet, with the Turkish PV sector having to fight several battles, bureaucracy being the main one.
Opportunities after the boom
Japan: There have been reports that the Japanese PV market may not have the most rosy of outlooks in the mid-term. But with predictions for the 2015 market coming in between the 8 to 10 GW mark it is hardly a minnow. And with its continuing preference for high efficiency products and smart solutions it will remain a highly significant PV hub for some time to come.
The next wave of PV innovation
There are many drivers of innovation, and necessity ranks high on the list. In the PV industry, it appears as if the first great wave of module manufacturing capacity expansions necessitated a range of innovations to achieve production at vast scale. But at the same time it brought great pressures, as oversupply gripped the market […]
Legal insight into Mexicos power market
Mexican law: Mariangela Zerpa Dreyer of Rödl and Partner examines the relationship between Mexicos Electric Industry Law and the countrys wholesale power market, and explains how renewable energy sources like solar PV fit into this hopeful new landscape.
A feast without a ticket
Monitoring in China: Dining at Chinas top PV table has been a one-course affair for the past few years. However, the O&M sector is set to deliver a lavish second course, and it is an industry that promises a great deal of meal tickets for a wide array of specialists.
Small steps to solar progress
Poland: The countrys revised Renewable Energy Sources Act has taken a slow, considered approach to future clean energy generation, but will soon launch an auction system that could prove attractive to solar PV developers, writes Piotr Mrowiec of law firm Rödl and Partner.
