Rooftop

A report published by the Rocky Mountain Institute makes recommendations for rooftop PV in regions affected by high winds. The study draws on the knowledge of structural engineers asked to analyze 25 solar systems across five Caribbean islands after they were hit by major hurricanes in 2017 and last year.

The nation is targeting an unspecified capacity of solar PV systems to be installed on households and public facilities across several of its regions. The successful projects will be jointly financed by the World Bank and the government of Myanmar.

Part three of our series on solar’s less covered markets takes us to Belgium, where despite impressive instsllation numbers from the rooftop market, a lack of volume means the country is unlikely to hit its EU mandated 2020 targets for renewable energy.

At the Solar Power Summit in Brussels today, the industry group said it is preparing to launch a supply-side oriented industrial policy for the PV sector in Europe. The manufacturing sector on the continent has been hard hit since 2012, and has been buffeted by a range of unfavorable policy decisions.

The system is said to have a maximum estimation error of less than 10% and to reduce the computational requirements for calculating the output of PV systems in complex environments. The approach is based on the correlation between a skyline profile and the annual irradiation received at a particular spot.

The Japanese module maker has set a new record for CIS thin film cell efficiency. The company, with Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, achieved 23.35% conversion on a cell measuring 1 cm². The record was confirmed by the Japanese National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.

Jordan has taken great strides to green its energy mix. In addition to the successful implementation of many large-scale projects, small PV systems – mainly under the net metering scheme – are booming in the country.

Rachel Reeves, Chair of the Committee for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), has released a comment indicating the discontent with which she views government plans to scrap export tariffs on 31 March 2019. The scheme remunerates small-scale generators, and its abolishment has been likened to theft and sparked a feud between the industry and politics. Last week, U.K. Energy Minister Claire Perry also said that forcing generators to export for free would be “wrong”.

At last week’s Intersolar Europe show in Munich, Norwegian headquartered manufacturer REC Group unveiled its latest module innovation, the N-peak series. The new solar PV modules will be the first to combine n-type, mono-cSi and half-cut cell technologies.

The most subscribed event at the recent International Energy and Environment Conference (ICCI), held in Turkey, concerned the host nation’s rooftop PV market – and certain common themes emerged from sessions held on the topic