Behind the scenes of Enel Green Power Mexico's ground-breaking Villanueva solar farm. Paolo Romanacci, Enel’s head of renewable energies for Central America, explains how the project was won and how it serves the local community as much as the wider energy market.
SNEC 11th (2017) International Photovoltaic Power Generation Conference & Exhibition (SNEC 2017) in Shanghai, China maybe the largest annual exhibition in the solar industry but its sheer size and number of attendee’s can often mask emerging trends that are better highlighted at other events such as Solar Power International (SPI) in the US.
PLANT PV, has introduced its first major product to enable significant improvements in conventional solar cell power output. PLANT PV’s new ‘Silver-on-Aluminum’ paste is designed for easy implementation with no added investment cost for cell producers and is claimed to lead to a 1% increase in relative power output for c-Si solar cells. The company, which was incubated out of the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will present its Ag-on-Al paste concept and test results at the SNEC 11th International PV Power Generation Conference in Shanghai, China.
After experiencing their own problems with potential induced degradation (PID), Belgium-based Edison Energy took matters into its own hands and developed the Pidbull solution in partnership with imec. Now it sells Pidbull to anyone experiencing issues with PID. As managing director Davy Verheyden explains, it is a problem solar asset owners cannot afford to ignore.
PV Tech’s preliminary analysis of global solar PV manufacturing capacity expansion announcements in the first quarter of 2017, show a strong rebound compared to the significantly subdued environment experienced in the second half of 2016.
Having retroactively damaged its solar sector once before, Spain's latest renewable energy tender does little to repair the damage. While Saudi Arabia embraces a cost-based solar auction, Spain is tipping the scales in favour of the status quo.
Alfartec has introduced its BlueSky-MT240 solar simulator to the market that is based on LED and Halogen technologies, making it ideal for production, research and certification centers, globally. Its long flash duration up to 500 millisecondes and short cycle time are suitable for all module technologies.
PV encapsulant films are crucial in the protection and long-term functionality of solar collection cells in PV modules. Dow's Andrew Yen discusses how choosing an alternative to EVA can lead to greater performance, improved yield and happier asset owners.
Ingeteam has launched its new PV string inverter, which will make it possible to achieve a power output of 100kWAC in a single, 75kg unit. This new three-phase inverter comes under the name ‘INGECON SUN 100TL’, and is suitable for indoor and outdoor installations and is primarily directed at commercial, industrial and large-scale projects.
Hoda Atia Moustafa, Africa regional officer of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the political risk insurance and credit enhancement arm of the World Bank Group, caught up with PV Tech to discuss the challenges of investing in PV in Africa.
