James Elsworth of the NREL in the US looks at some of the engineering methods for bolstering PV infrastructure resilience in the face of ever increasing climatic and environmental threats.
By Jack Rankin, Miguel Valderrama and Brian Knowles at Pexapark
The co-location of renewable generation and energy storage demands new contractual arrangements to make such projects commercially viable. Jack Rankin, Miguel Valderrama and Brian Knowles of Pexapark explore how hybrid PPAs are becoming a favoured solution for structuring deals that capture the full value of both assets.
Aside from the immediate, visible damage, extreme weather events have a longer lasting impact on PV systems. NREL’s Dirk C. Jordan, Kirsten Perry, Robert White, Josh Parker, Byron McDanold and Chris Deline report on research revealing the long-term consequences of hail, wind and other weather phenomena on PV production.
PV Tech spoke with Jinko’s Victor Wei and Wally Zang, Senior IR Director and Technical Service Centre General Manager respectively, about the company’s investment in TOPCon, its fully vertically integrated plant currently being built in China’s Shanxi province and how it is looking at module products for deployment in offshore solar projects subject to hail conditions.
The streamlining of all phases of a PV project will be essential to ensuring anticipated deployment goals are met. Tom Kenning looks at the AI-enabled technologies helping speed up project construction and easing a shortage of skilled labour.
Despite having the ideal attributes to become a clean energy superpower, Australia has never quite lived up to its potential. Will Norman assesses the barriers and asks whether recent investment announcements could turn the tide.
