When renewables-novice and coal champion Donald Trump won the US presidential election yesterday, the global energy industry gawked in horror. Initial review of the Republican billionaire’s energy plans might leave the impression that the progress clean energy sources have achieved so far will be undone. A deeper look into Trump’s energy policy under adviser Kevin Cramer reveals a siege on existing regulation and a roll-back on spending.
As Election Day inches closer, the prospect of ballot measure Amendment 1 becoming a bona fide constitutional amendment in Florida becomes even more pressing. In a press conference this week, former Florida governor and US senator Bob Graham detailed the shocking ramifications that the measure would have if it passed on 8 November.
Nuclear reactors approaching end-of-life, a sound PV manufacturing industry and a robust legal system all make a strong case for solar PV to muscle into Taiwan’s energy mix. Last year, a new government set a target of 20GW solar by 2025, but the industry must deal with scarce land availability and the threat of typhoons. PV Tech examines some of the huge numbers being proposed and what it will take to realise them.
As we finalize the agenda for PVCellTech 2017 – to be held in Penang, Malaysia, on 14-15 March 2017 – one of the key goals is to understand how solar cell advances in mass production are driving module availability to the market.
Tesla/SolarCity have announced the launch of a building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) residential roofing system comprised of a range of different tile formats, colours and coatings that aesthetically as possible mirror common conventional tile formats. The solar tiles can be provided as a retrofit option to the replacement of an existing aged tiled roof or as a new build alternative to standard residential roofing systems.
Headquartered in California, Sunpreme has launched the Maxima GxB380 SM, 380W, touted as the most advanced high efficiency bifacial panels with integrated a TIGO optimizer and uses its proprietary ‘Hybrid Cell Technology’ (HCT) platform.
Maxim Integrated Products has introduced a new cell-string optimizer technology that allows PV panels to harvest significantly more energy and simplifies design complexity for solar installation projects, notably shade mitigation and eliminating hot-spots while minimizing the impact of overall power degradation mechanisms.
Solar PV has a strong role to play in the Philippines where energy demand continues to grow and the power mix remains expensive. While significant utility-scale solar deployments peaked ahead of a deadline to qualify for the Feed-in-Tariff in March this year, a new subsidy quota is on the horizon. PV Tech caught up with Pete Maniego, senior policy adviser of the Institute for Climate & Sustainable Cities and of Counsel of Dime & Eviota Law, to gather his insights on solar subsidies and how PV can compete with fossil fuels in the Southeast Asian country.
