photovoltaics

Despite a slow start to the year, BloombergNEF expects Portugal to install another 1,363 MW of solar by the end of 2023. The likelihood of that scenario seems to come down to how quickly projects from the record-breaking 2019-20 solar auctions go online, if they do so at all.

In the second interview of a series held at Intersolar 2023, pv magazine spoke with Karen Tang, Director – Editorial Lead Europe at Singapore-based market research company OPIS, about current price trends in the industry. She said solar panels may soon be bought at an average of $0.185/W but she also revealed that offers under $0.15/W are now becoming more frequent. Furthermore, Tang said prices may continue to drop in the future, with the bottom line being difficult to determine. Much will depend on the actual manufacturing capacity we will see coming online, which may not match the huge number of recent announcements released by module producers.

K2, a mounting system supplier, showcased a range of new solutions at Intersolar Europe, including a new mounting structure for green rooftops. It allows for portrait and landscape module elevation at 10 degrees and 15 degrees, with maximum module sizes of 2,400 mm x 1,350 mm.

Alight says it has obtained a 12-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for a 64 MW solar plant in Sweden. It says it will turn to non-recourse project financing, despite the conventional practice of financing PPA-backed solar assets with equity in the country.

At Intersolar in Munich, pv magazine spoke with Jenny Chase, solar analyst at BloombergNEF, about falling solar module prices, oversupply, bottlenecks in the European markets, and labor issues. According to Chase, lower panel prices won’t instantly create demand, and manufacturers should prepare to deal with very low margins. She also said we can expect to see more consolidation in the industry, and bankruptcies for uncompetitive producers may be unavoidable.

A new report by HelioVolta shows that 62% of inspected PV projects have critical or major issues.

Researchers at Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE have developed an optimized heat pump propane refrigeration circuit for single-family homes.

Scientists in Norway used various imaging and characterization techniques to analyze the cells and other components of silicon PV modules that had been installed in the field for more than 10 years. The group’s aim was to isolate the role of moisture in various mechanisms that cause performance loss over time, and to understand how these mechanisms progress over long-term installation in real outdoor conditions.

The National Energy Administration (NEA) says China installed 61.21 GW of solar in the first five months of this year, bringing the nation to nearly 453 GW of cumulative installed PV capacity by the end of May.

IEA-PVPS has published a report to help the solar industry to choose appropriate surface radiation models and data providers based on location and application requirements.