Features

While solar has been the backbone of Japan’s renewable energy push, deployment has been stalling in recent years. Chris Wilkinson of Rystad Energy details the benefits of the country’s feed-in premium scheme, the potential for corporate PPAs and the importance of battery storage.

A combination of supply chain disruptions and extreme weather events that damage operational assets can lead to extended solar project downtimes. Rosa van Reyk, a senior underwriter at GCube Insurance, explores how the industry can ease supply chain pressure by rethinking cost efficiency and increased collaboration between developers and insurers.

Innovative power purchase agreement structures enable solar asset owners to boost returns and leverage their positions while providing offtakers with the opportunity to protect against increasing electricity prices and enhance their decarbonisation efforts.

Procuring power purchase agreement tools will be an option for industry players amid an energy pricing crisis and volatility.

Building on the successes of floating PV projects installed on lakes and dams globally, offshore installations are an emerging opportunity for developers, potentially when co-located with wind farms. George Heynes explores how the industry can move beyond pilot projects to large-scale, commercially viable installations, detailing the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Cheap and quick to deploy, solar PV can provide a vital source of power to areas impacted by war, supporting critical infrastructure and helping to keep day-to-day life running. Molly Lempriere details how the technology is helping communities in Ukraine and other war zones

As the PV industry reckons with its social and environmental impact and the byproducts of its processes, beyond the near-term questions over provenance and manufacturing ethics, concerns at the horizon of a module’s lifespan are coming more and more into focus.  

Solitek targets the agriPV and industrial markets in Italy to set itself aside from Chinese manufacturers with its bifacial glass-to-glass modules.

Presenting findings on the exposure of PV panels to the harsh environment of the Arabian Desert, a team from the Qatar Environment & Energy Research Institute details the multiple mitigation approaches to solar soiling.