Down to the wires 06-2024
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Excerpt from the magazine
The rapid rise of battery storage
Battery energy storage system (BESS) technology has come a long way since 2012. Kai-Philipp Kairies, CEO and co-founder of Accure Battery Intelligence, reflects on the fast-paced evolution of BESS and asks what will come next for an industry with plenty of stored potential.
Jun 10, 2024
Sponsored: Focus on quality and durability
As low prices present new challenges to industry players, Suntech argues that manufacturers should not lose sight of the need for high-quality products with long-term durability. Customers also need to prioritize quality and durability over price alone.
Jun 10, 2024
Versatile lithium-ion can unpick gridlock
The Swiss Army knife qualities of lithium-ion batteries have helped scale the technology. Now their ubiquitous nature means they are ideally placed to help electricity system operators balance the grid, argues Gerard Reid, co-founder and partner of Alexa Capital.
Jun 10, 2024
US solar slump
Financial and regulatory uncertainty plus rising module prices are affecting project timelines in the United States and domestic companies must contend with a gray market at home and aggressive pricing abroad. Jesse Pichel, of Roth Capital Partners, explores the key trends in a tough month for US solar stocks.
Jun 10, 2024
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On the European front line
In recent years, the Baltic countries have experienced a solar generation boom as the region seeks to kill two birds with one stone. These nations aim to break away from years-long energy dependence on Russia amid growing security concerns while also continuing to prioritize the green energy transition.
Jun 10, 2024
China could lead the world to net zero
China, with an 18% share of the global population, uses 26% of the world’s primary energy and emits 33% of the world’s energy-related CO2. The energy transition unfolding in the country isn’t merely a national affair as its ramifications echo globally, explains Mahnaz Hadizadeh, a researcher for consultancy DNV.
Jun 10, 2024
Cultural considerations for international expansion
Each region has a different way of doing things, whether it’s selecting sites, managing employees, or implementing manufacturing standards. Companies looking to expand into foreign markets need to be prepared to deal with these cultural differences, says Clean Energy Associates (CEA) Vice President Mark Hagedorn.
Jun 10, 2024
Southeast Asian solar’s bright future
Ibrahim Ariffin and JP Grayda, from Afry Management Consulting, examine two promising Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) markets, the Philippines and Malaysia, and the challenges they face as they strive to hit renewable energy targets. The long-term outlook is broadly positive, despite some uncertainties.
Jun 10, 2024
PV curtailment in Poland
Owners of solar plants in Poland face increasingly frequent forced outages due to electricity oversupply in the National Power System (abbreviated, in Polish, to KSE). Piotr Mrowiec, leader of Rödl & Partner’s renewable energy team, looks at the specifics of Polish curtailment, the rules on compensation, penalty provisions, and plans for the future.
Jun 10, 2024
Bigger is better
Larger wafer and module sizes have had a profound influence on module power output in recent years but standardization appears to have taken hold, with no further increases evident in module data, according to Molly Morgan, a senior research analyst at Exawatt, which is now part of the CRU Group.
Jun 10, 2024
‘I couldn’t believe my eyes’
Quality is paramount in solar applications and never more so than in floating PV installations. The combination of water and electricity harbors obvious challenges and there are many other factors, such as the constant movement of the arrays, that must be considered. Failures at a recent project highlight these issues.
Jun 10, 2024
Time to talk curtailment
It’s time to assess curtailment, as rising amounts of excess generation are being wasted in several markets. This can be problematic for the solar industry but Toby Couture and David Jacobs, coordinators of think tank Global Solar PV Brain Trust, argue that curtailment is not always bad.
Jun 10, 2024
Energy storage: behind the data sheets
An annual inspection of the performance of energy storage products that are available in Germany, conducted by the HTW Berlin – University of Applied Sciences, has shown how important it is for buyers to know how effective their devices are at providing electricity during low nighttime loads.
Jun 10, 2024
Getting BIPV into shape
Manufacturing equipment from German supplier Robert Bürkle GmbH is in high demand from solar module producers in Europe and India and the company’s Ypsator laminator line is especially popular. Daniel Klaus, who heads up the Bürkle PV and glass R&D team, told pv magazine about the company’s recently completed installation in France, a solution for building-integrated PV (BIPV), and what it is working on for the emerging vehicle-integrated PV market.
Jun 10, 2024
Spain: Mulling a grid investment boost
Data from Spanish grid operator Red Eléctrica show that renewables accounted for 64.6% of the nation’s energy mix in April 2024 but grid congestion and price “cannibalization” are starting to ring alarm bells. Aurora Energy Research estimates that 1 TWh of curtailed clean energy was not compensated in 2023 – 1.2% of the total generated – at a cost of €2.1 billion ($2.3 billion) to consumers.
Jun 10, 2024
A battery of measures to lift grid congestion
The solar market has had a remarkable three years. During a record year for European PV generation, new solar capacity installed in 2023 was almost equally split between residential, commercial and industrial (C&I), and the utility end-customer segments, with a minor share for self-consumption schemes. Grids must be well prepared for the challenges ahead.
Jun 10, 2024
pv magazine Awards 2024
The first entry window for the pv magazine Awards 2024 attracted more than 100 entries – an outstanding response. It’s clear that our expert jury panels will have their work cut out for them as they choose between so many innovative products and projects. While our jurors deliberate over the first batch of entries, catch up on some of the submissions that have piqued interest among pv magazine editors. If you missed our first entry window, don’t worry, there will be one more chance to submit during the summer.
Jun 10, 2024
Preparing to ship the next gen
Introducing a new technology to the PV marketplace brings many challenges. Oxford PV did so while supply chains were disrupted because of the pandemic, which complicated things further. That hurdle has been overcome and shipments of perovskite tandem modules are set to commence as soon as September 2024, says Chris Case, the company’s long-serving chief technical officer.
Jun 10, 2024
One constraint, several solutions
The rapid growth of renewable energy in Brazil has not been matched by transmission and distribution infrastructure. Connection restrictions for both “distributed-” and centralized-generation sites are leading companies to adopt new strategies to maintain expansion, reports pv magazine Brasil’s Livia Neves.
Jun 10, 2024
New solutions for tandem measurement
The year 2024 has already brought major progress with perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells and research organizations are now looking to scale lab results to full-sized devices and mass production methods. A particular challenge is measuring the different characteristics and efficiency of these devices, as Michael Meixner, chief technology officer at German measurement equipment supplier halm, told pv magazine.
Jun 10, 2024
Cultivating desert power
Though it already hosts several of the world’s largest solar installations, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s solar industry is still young, with limited local infrastructure and expertise. Project developers are learning quickly that building PV in harsh desert environments requires a careful eye on quality. New testing laboratories are looking to meet demand.
Jun 10, 2024
Balancing module oversupply and local solar in Türkiye
Turkish module manufacturing capacity has grown rapidly over the past few years thanks to government incentivization for solar. However, the speed at which this surge has occurred means that manufacturers are now grappling with oversupply, as Vikey Zhao, analyst at InfoLink Consulting, explains.
Jun 10, 2024
Great Britain: Cutting the queue
Connecting to the electricity grid serving Great Britain can be an exercise in extreme patience, as extraordinarily long wait times for new generation projects threaten national climate goals. Policy efforts are in place to try and bring down delays but a transmission network overhaul is required to realize renewables ambitions.
Jun 10, 2024
Sponsored: Runergy strengthens alliances to bolster Europe’s solar energy revolution
In addition to establishing a registered entity in Germany, Runergy has set up expert teams with local knowledge in countries such as France, Italy, Greece, Spain, and Poland, solidifying its position in Europe.
Jun 10, 2024
Time for action
Germany has seen a sharp increase in solar grid-connection issues and many distribution network operators are reaching their limits. Regulators are yet to approve shared connections for solar and wind projects so planners must lay new lines and install transformers themselves.
Jun 10, 2024
V2G: How soon is now?
The bidirectional flow of electricity to and from the grid and electric-vehicle (EV) batteries, known as “vehicle-to-grid” (V2G), could offer substantial opportunities to integrate more renewables. Deploying V2G services at scale has proven complex, however. We Drive Solar, a Netherlands-based supplier of bidirectional charging technology, is one of several companies that have successfully moved past the demonstration stage. Robin Berg, CEO at We Drive Solar, explains how.
Jun 10, 2024
The importance of albedo
As bifacial modules proliferate, estimations of albedo are becoming more important and with developers not prepared to install weather stations to assess solar resource, a popular option has become third-party, on-site measurements over periods as short as a day. Is this an acceptable compromise between costly on-site measuring and less accurate satellite data? Everoze’s Stefan Mau discusses the potential benefits and limitations of this approach.
Jun 10, 2024
Greening Europe’s grids
While solar is booming across Europe, an anticipated flood of future projects is threatened by antiquated electricity networks, insufficient plans for energy storage, and a lack of demand-response measures. pv magazine considers how Europe’s grids are shaping up.
Jun 10, 2024
Prices remain low on Chinese module market
Hanwei Wu, editorial director for energy commodity analyst OPIS, discusses recent developments in China. The nation’s PV module market is currently experiencing a drop in polysilicon prices and additional pressure from recently announced US tariffs.
Jun 10, 2024
Netherlands: No more net metering?
In the Netherlands, grid congestion is slowing projects and hampering development. Despite a robust rooftop PV market and the reliable SDE++ auction program, solar professionals have become concerned enough to set up a National Grid Congestion Action Program to promote smarter use and expansion of the electricity network.
Jun 10, 2024
Data-driven demand
The world’s reliance on the internet, the shift to cloud computing, and the emergence of AI all fuel demand for more and more data centers. The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that by 2026, data centers will consume more than 800 TWh annually, more than double their consumption in 2022. Tristan Rayner takes a look at the role that renewable generation plays in powering a digital world.
Jun 10, 2024
Ukraine solar will prevail under pressure
Energy infrastructure has been a key target since the very beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Vladyslav Sokolovskyi, chairperson of the board of the Solar Energy Association of Ukraine, provides an account of the role that PV has played in powering the nation throughout the conflict and predicts a bright future for Ukrainian solar after the war.
Jun 10, 2024
Strong networks
With PV installations around the world now adding up to well over 1.5 TW, the solar industry is well used to defying expectations. Already in 2024, we see countries in different regions doubling or even tripling their renewable energy targets for 2030. The growing share of solar and wind in the world’s energy mix […]
Jun 10, 2024
The road to 100 GW
Opportunities and challenges abound in the European PV market, according to Susanne von Aichberger, senior clean energy analyst at S&P Global Commodity Insights. Despite continuing oversupply issues, changes in policy direction, and grid connection headaches, Europe is on course to higher annual capacity installations in 2024 and beyond.
Jun 10, 2024
Making its mark on materials
The European Union has drawn up new regulations to boost the domestic mining of raw materials and support production of renewable energy products and materials at home. Will it be enough to incentivize investment, or will Europe trail other major economies, such as the United States and China?
Jun 10, 2024
Are India’s solar production plans PLI in the sky?
While the big winners of India’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme will likely forge ahead with module assembly plans, wafer and polysilicon lines are shrouded in doubt as ever-cheaper Chinese panels undermine the solar business case in South Asia’s biggest PV market, as revealed by data from business intelligence provider Crisil.
Jun 10, 2024
Low prices for TOPCon put pressure on PERC
In May 2024, high-efficiency panels, predominantly glass-glass modules equipped with tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) cells began to converge on price with mainstream offerings, writes Martin Schachinger, of pvXchange. Production volumes for these negatively-doped, “n-type” cells and modules have been ramped up in China while the increasingly restrictive customs situation in the United States may already be having an impact. For the European market, ever-lower prices for the latest module technology would suggest that demand would continue to rise were it not for a number of disruptive factors.
Jun 10, 2024
