UP initiative

Buildings are key to our daily lives and significantly impact our health and wellbeing. The majority also have substantial carbon footprints, employing heavy use of fossil fuels across their lifetimes, from their construction, use, and demolition phases. Thus, in Q4 2021, pv magazine’s UP Initiative focused on the role solar and energy storage can play in greening the world’s urban spaces.

There is increasing pressure, globally, for companies to be held more accountable, particularly when it comes to sustainability and just working conditions, and this topic is only growing in importance. With this in mind, pv magazine’s UP Initiative spent Q2 2021 looking at what solar and energy storage companies could do to lead by positive example when it comes to the workers, often far removed, involved in the production of their products and services.

Bangladesh’s first agrivoltaic solar power plant is set to receive government approval on Wednesday, Dec. 29.

2021 marked the second year of pv magazine’s UP Initiative where we shined a spotlight on sustainability in the solar industry. Over the course of 12 months, we focused on four key issues. First up was agrivoltaics – the combination of agriculture and solar energy – in recognition of this emerging market. The goal was to understand the potential benefits and economic, political, and technical challenges of such an innovative partnership. Read on to discover our coverage from this quarterly theme and watch out over the coming days for the topics of Workers’ rights, Sustainable electricity and corporates’ critical solar role, and Urban Solar.

Corporate renewable energy purchases are at an all time high. In Europe alone, a record-breaking 4 GW of corporate power purchase agreements were signed in 2020, bringing the overall total to 15 GW. Globally, this figure is even higher. As part of the UP Initiative’s quarterly theme on ‘Sustainable electricity and corporates’ critical solar role’, pv magazine spoke to Hannah Hunt, Impact Director at RE-Source, a European alliance of stakeholders representing clean energy buyers and suppliers, about how the business model landscape for such purchases is evolving, and the challenges the sector faces, including shortages in renewable energy supply across Europe.

A new report from Bernreuter Research reveals that Wacker Chemie lost its top spot in the 2020 global polysilicon rankings. It was also the only western company among the “Big Six” that are expected to form a new polysilicon super league in the PV industry. Overall, these six reached a total polysilicon capacity of 470,000 MT last year.

Both solar and the farming industry are beginning to see potential in the combined use of land for food production and energy generation. And as innovators begin to experiment with different forms, it’s becoming clear that in most cases it is solar that will have to bend to the needs of agriculture, and not the other way around, to ensure a positive outcome.

Offgrid solar expert GOGLA has just issued an E-waste Toolkit as part of its drive to establish a circular-powered renewable energy economy. Tying into the UP initiative’s Q4 circular manufacturing theme, pv magazine interviewed Drew Corbyn, GOGLA’s head of performance and investment, and the project manager in charge of the non-profit’s new e-waste management project.

The EU Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment remains the primary legislation setting the requirements for the recycling of photovoltaic panels in Europe. pv magazine examines whether the policy is in need of a drastic update, and what it can be done to improve the sustainability of the PV sector through recycling.

Slowly but surely, environmental concerns are making their way into mainstream thought throughout the PV industry. A look at recycling offers an example of this, with stakeholders trying to get ahead of the high volumes of end-of-life modules already on the horizon. pv magazine examines the technologies that will be needed, alongside policy and economic support, to keep the bulk of these modules out of landfill and ultimately to establish a circular economy for PV materials.