Global floating solar installations had reached 1.1GW as of September this year, a huge rise from just 10MW at the end of 2014, according to the first report on floating PV from the World Bank and Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS).
The distributed renewable energy (DRE) sector, necessary in a world with millions of people without power, is being held back by a chronic shortage of skilled workers. Indeed, Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) has just 16,000 people working in renewable energy in a region with 600 million un-electrified people, according to the founders of a new campaign aiming to fill this skills gap.
PV Tech caught up with Tristan Erion-Lorico, Head of PV Module Business, Laboratory Services, at quality assurance and risk management company, DNV GL, to discuss extended testing of bifacial modules and third-party, outdoor trials using single-axis trackers on 1500V.
‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member LONGi Solar, a subsidiary of leading monocrystalline wafer producer LONGi Green Energy Technology Co is to offer its first AC module to the US market in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Silicon Module Super League (SMSL) member Trina Solar has supplied 17MW of PV modules to what is said to be the largest floating PV plant in Europe, developed by French IPP Akuo Energy.
Leading CdTe thin-film module manufacturer First Solar is building a 58MW (AC) PV power plant using its next-generation large-area Series 6 modules and single-axis trackers for Facebook’s Prineville Data Center located in Oregon.
PV Tech caught up with Daniel Chang, technical director at major China-based PV manufacturer JinkoSolar, to discuss the performance of installed PERC products, new testing regimes, what consumers are asking for and how to release new modules to market.
In part II of PV Tech’s interview with Vikas Bansal, Head of Business Development - International Solar at Sterling & Wilson Solar, one of the world's largest PV EPC firms, we discuss how installers are having to adapt to new technologies in the realm of PV modules, balance of system, robotics and energy storage.
