The solar tracker market continues to mature at breakneck speed, with designs and component selections becoming ever-more complex in the pursuit of better project economics. But a more simplistic design could deliver a triple benefit of lower Capex, EPC and Opex costs. This webinar will set out the ideal single axis tracker design for utility-scale solar farms. The design leapfrogs from decades of experience, with a comprehensive understanding and attention to the three cost structures of Capex, EPC and Opx. Sun and Steel Solar has prototyped a single axis tracker designed to deliver up to US$0.03/W in real savings compared to existing single axis trackers on the market. That’s US$30 million for every gigawatt deployed.

Utility-scale solar is evolving, shaped by higher power modules and demand for increasingly lower levelised cost of electricity (LCOE). Those trends are also changing project requirements elsewhere, with inverters capable of delivering high power density and power capacity in strong demand. In this webinar, FIMER detailed how its innovative high-power, multi-MPPT string inverter and modular conversion solution can both meet those demands and transform the utility-scale solar sector for the better.

As the solar market continues to grow and become cost-competitive with fossil fuels in markets across the world, the industry’s focus has become one of ensuring the best possible levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) for each project. This equation, however, takes into account far more than just the cost or power of the modules and other components, and now the solar industry must learn to incorporate factors such as product reliability, mechanical load and overall system value to truly optimise LCOE and deliver a project that can stand up to the elements. In this webinar, Trina Solar and Fraunhofer ISE experts discussed the need to incorporate these values into project economics.

In this PV Tech TechTalk webinar, JA Solar discussed both Europe’s surging solar forecasts and how its product portfolio is designed to support that growth, utilising the latest technologies to improve your PV projects and ensure maximum reliability and performance.

The utility-scale PV market is poised for exponential growth and yet the industry still has many fundamental opportunities to improve on standards and best practice. Tracker shade loss is one of those topics that deserve more attention, but it has been typically handled by derate factors rather than trying to accurately forecast the loss over the life of the system. This has led to a majority of projects in the industry underperforming against plant yield expectations and yet the low hanging fruit of more accurate financial modeling of plants is not being explored. The industry needs to take a closer look at shade modeling, as project portfolios are primed to grow in number and investors and owners need scalable ways to reduce risk and be able to rely on the forecast return on investment. Nextracker collaborated with PV Tech and DNV to host a webinar on shade modeling for utility-scale solar PV projects, discussing tracker shade loss and its potential remedies.

LONGi has launched its Hi-MO N module, the company's first bifacial module with N-type TOPCon cells, designed to deliver ultra-high value and lower LCOE to utility-scale PV power plants. This PV Tech TechTalk Product Series Webinar provided an overview of the module’s technology and how the introduction of n-type technologies will provide efficiency and performance gains for solar project developers.

PV Tech speaks exclusively to Guoguang Chen, president of Huawei Smart PV and COO of Huawei Digital Power, about the company’s vision for the power sector of the future.

What do new factories and technologies mean for PV module quality, reliability and performance? How can developers, asset owners and investors avoid the high cost of failure when they invest in new products from new factories? During this one-hour TechTalk webinar, Tara Doyle and Tristan Erion-Lorico of PV Evolution Labs (PVEL) and Armando Solis of Lightsource bp joined for a lively discussion of these issues during the official launch of PVEL’s PV Module Reliability Scorecard, now in its 7th edition.

In this 30-minute conversation, Talesun Solar provided an insight into the company’s latest mono-PERC module series for utility scale projects. Available in both monofacial ‘Bistar’ and bifacial ‘Bipro’ formats, using 182mm half-cut cells in 144 and 156 cell configurations, they provide up to 590Wp performance with module efficiencies up to 21.2%.

From residential to utility-scale solar plants, including commercial and building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV), solar installations must meet the growing demand for high-efficiency, allied to ease of installation and high levels of system safety. Regardless of the type of installation, the demand for keeping life-time maintenance costs to a minimum also remains a key priority. This 30-minute webinar discussed the ongoing developments in improved safety and reduced installation times for PV Modules and components in a variety of PV Power Plant installations.