Sunsetting FITs spell new dawn – 02-2019
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Final thought: Subsidy free solar in sight
Around the globe today, the solar PV industry continues to rely on the Chinese market for installation volume and scale. This market achieved the deployment of an estimated 44 GW of capacity in 2018, having brushed the 50 GW mark in the previous year. The world’s most populous nation will also remain its largest PV market for […]
Feb 25, 2019
48 hours in… Tokyo
Many PV Expo 2019 attendees probably hammered out their post-show travel itineraries weeks in advance, particularly first-time visitors to Tokyo. Some travelers – particularly those with specific cultural interests such as manga and anime – will undoubtedly gravitate toward popular sites like the Ghibli Museum and the geek mecca of Akihabara and its famed maid […]
Feb 25, 2019
On the Road with pv magazine
Where we’ve been: World Future Energy Summit 2019 Sprawling over four days, and a part of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week events and activities, the World Future Energy Summit is not for those short on stamina. But it does present an excellent opportunity to kick off the new year in solar in one of the […]
Feb 25, 2019
Next generation roundtables for subsidy-free PV
At Intersolar EU /The smarter E 2019, pv magazine is taking a new approach to its successful Roundtable series for the European market. Tackling an overarching theme of subsidy-free PV, the Future PV and Quality Roundtables will delve into enabling technologies and key considerations for suppliers, developers, EPCs, and investors as solar emerges from the subsidized age. With expanded networking opportunities, including the popular poster sessions, the events represent a new format to discuss solar’s new dawn.
Feb 25, 2019
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“The first clear advantage is access to cells”
In October 2018, inverter supplier SolarEdge announced its decision to acquire 75% of South Korean battery manufacturer Kokam for $88 million. The move is indicative of power electronics manufacturers’ desire to strengthen their battery cell supply, and to capture more of the value stream. SolarEdge founder Lior Handelsman says that the low cobalt requirement of Kokam’s lithium-ion cell chemistry was one of the reasons the company was an attractive acquisition target.
Feb 25, 2019
Look who is closing ranks!
Owners of residential PV systems are looking for increasingly more features for their systems. VPPs, smart EV charging, and self-consumption measured by ever higher percentages of autarky have been buzzwords in the industry. The result has been a new breed of smart bidirectional inverters, sometimes dubbed hybrid inverters. And with utilities having found business models that also work out in their favor, could a new dawn of residential installations rise over the suburbias of the world?
Feb 25, 2019
A new frontier in energy
Hornsdale Power Reserve, owned and operated by Neoen, and supplied by Tesla, is the world’s largest lithium-ion battery energy storage system, with a discharge capacity of 100 MW and energy storage capacity of 129 MWh. Located near Jamestown, South Australia, it shares the same 275 kV network connection point as the 300 MW Hornsdale wind farm. It was built, writes Paul Gleeson of Aurecon, to stabilize the state’s electricity grid, to facilitate the integration of renewable energy, and help prevent load-shedding (i.e. blackout events).
Feb 25, 2019
LDK struggles toward renaissance
It was PV’s ‘too big to fail moment.’ LDK’s decline into bankruptcy was closely watched by industry observers and dragged on for years. Now the company is looking to make a comeback, with new investment and a renewed focus on technology, which it hopes will secure its future.
Feb 25, 2019
A battery and inverter powerhouse
In December, pv magazine met with SolaX Power President Li Xinfu and his team, at the company’s headquarters in sprawling Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. The region is a hotspot of the Chinese PV industry, and SolaX belongs to the cutting edge of Chinese inverter and residential battery manufacturers.
Feb 25, 2019
Progressive innovation in China: from modules to inverters
In December 2018 it was time for pv magazine’s fifth annual road trip to mainland China. We take this voyage at the end of each year, since it allows us to review the year drawing to a close, and forecast developments in the coming year. Last year was especially rocky for China’s solar PV industry, coming off of a spectacular 2017 with record PV installations.
Feb 25, 2019
The mainstreaming of mono
In the second half of 2018, monocrystalline silicon technology passed an important milestone: Quarterly production of monocrystalline ingots, wafers, cells, and modules overtook that of multicrystalline for the first time in the mainstream PV era. This milestone was tracked by PV technology and market forecasting firm exawatt. CEO Simon Price sets out how mono’s rapid growth could have been, and was, predicted.
Feb 25, 2019
Case for optimization
While India’s solar potential is unquestionable, the market’s progress has been uneasy and race-to-the-bottom pricing has held back the adoption of technologies such as MLPE. However, that is beginning to change, writes Prasidh Kumar, CEO, Soreva Energy, as the modernization of grids requires proactive monitoring and optimization technologies.
Feb 25, 2019
Heritage building goes with the flow
Urban infill and the repurposing and renovation of heritage buildings can lead to unexpected challenges, when increased occupancy and new building usage results in higher electricity demand. The developers of a 100 year old building in the Australian city of Adelaide encountered exactly this, enlisting the assistance of locally-developed bromide flow batteries to meet peak demand. Redflow’s Ben Shepherd sets out the case study.
Feb 25, 2019
Grid intelligence: Solar to stabilize grids in Europe
The next wave of solar PV generation in Europe is coming, writes Stefan Degener. The most recent advancement is riding not on the back of a game-changing new panel design, or sweeping policy changes. Rather, solar 2.0, as it is called, is breathing new life into the solar industry through a closer integration with the electricity grid, including intelligent controls.
Feb 25, 2019
Inertia, frequency regulation and the grid
The old system of regulating frequency on electricity grids with the help of the inertia provided by large spinning masses is under threat by the rise of wind, solar, and batteries. But what will replace inertia-based control, and how will the transition work?
Feb 25, 2019
All for one, one for all
As one of the leading markets for distributed solar+storage, with sufficiently flexible legislative and regulatory frameworks surrounding its electricity sector, Australia already boasts a strong pipeline of virtual power plants (VPPs). From big utilities to state governments, initiatives to orchestrate distributed energy resources that help support the grid have proliferated in recent years. pv magazine takes a look at Australia’s VPP ecosystem and how market players see it.
Feb 25, 2019
A year for transition: Japan’s move beyond the big scale
For the past few years, Japan’s solar industry insiders have been eyeing 2019 as a year of transition in the residential rooftop market, as the original 10 year feed-in tariffs come to an end. So, what will this post-FIT landscape look like, and how are Japan’s leading PV suppliers preparing for the future? Hanwha Q Cells’ Japan Marketing Manager Junichi Katayama breaks down the main points.
Feb 25, 2019
Zero energy, maximum support
As Japan’s solar appetite shrinks amid questions over everything from falling FIT rates, through the availability of suitable land, to the revival of nuclear generation, Japan’s Zero Energy Homes policies, requiring new buildings to be integrated with solar PV and various energy efficiency measures, could provide a significant boost to installations. pv magazine looks into Japan’s upcoming residential recovery.
Feb 25, 2019
Shifting to storage
To facilitate the growing share of renewables in the world’s energy mix, and the more distributed nature of generation, changes are needed to the way electricity is transmitted and distributed. Claudio Palmieri, CEO of CLS Energy Consultants looks to Dubai, where a robust, distributed system has helped local utility DEWA with the difficult task of securing a reliable water supply in a parched desert region. This system, he argues, could provide an example of how an electrical ‘grid of the future’ might work.
Feb 25, 2019
Nothing boring about Japan’s year of the boar
With tenders coming in for large-scale projects, and decade-old generous FIT programs being phased out, new opportunities and challenges are facing Japan’s PV players. Izumi Kaizuka from Tokyo-based analyst RTS Corporation sets out the major market trends for 2019.
Feb 25, 2019
Gossip reigns in Dutch Solar-land
If the world of solar was a newspaper, it would be a tabloid. There is no sector where gossip spreads quite so quickly and ultimately does not contribute much. For an example, Good! New Energy’s Rolf Heynen looks back to 2013, when Europe introduced the Minimum Import Price on Chinese solar panels.
Feb 25, 2019
Global battery storage pipeline reaches 15 GW
As data drifts in, 2018 is shaping up to have been a record-breaking year for battery energy storage, writes IHS Markit senior analyst Julian Jansen. Especially for front-of-the-meter projects, which experienced rapid growth. This growth was led by significant activity in South Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and China, which together accounted for 78% of battery energy storage projects commissioned in 2018, according to the Q4 2018 edition of the IHS Markit “Energy Storage Company and Project Database.”
Feb 25, 2019
2019: A year for critical adjustments
Since the PV module market has already witnessed intense industrial concentration over the past few years, the top 10 manufacturers didn’t change significantly as 2018 unfolded, writes PV InfoLink Chief Analyst Corrine Lin. On the cell side, the decline of Taiwanese cell makers has Chinese cell makers filling the top three spots this year.
Feb 25, 2019
The snow keeps falling – module prices do not
After a uniquely pleasant but dry summer and autumn, it has been raining and snowing in central Europe for weeks with no sign of letting up. Judging by sheer volume, the god of precipitation apparently wants to make up for his neglect of last year.
Feb 25, 2019
Digital technology to drive evolving electricity markets
There is little doubt that the energy world is changing. This was reflected at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi last month, where leaders from oil and gas rich nations in the Middle East spoke favorably as to the role solar and wind is likely to play in their economies in the future. […]
Feb 25, 2019
