Operations & Maintenance

Despite the major exhibition having a European tag, Intersolar Europe remains one of the most ‘international’ solar trade shows on the event calendar. As a result, new products launched at this show predominantly reflect trends and developments across multiple markets. On the first day of the exhibition, several new products stand-out for attention. More Day 1 updates are to follow.

Recently, PV Tech sat down with David Zhao, senior vice president at Sungrow Power Supply and president of the company’s PV & storage division, to gain an insight into the company’s market expectations for 2017, notably outside China, and understand key market and technology trends within the APAC and South East Asia regions, areas that have been key to its continued growth in recent years.

Kipp & Zonen is launching a completely new technology and product to monitor PV panel soiling at Intersolar Europe 2017 in Munich, Germany. Based on Kipp & Zonen’s unique optical technology, ‘DustIQ’ measures the soiling ratio (SR) and can be easily added to new or existing solar arrays and integrated into plant management systems.

Imec and EnergyVille are introducing new simulation software that accurately predicts the daily energy yield of solar cells and solar modules under varying meteorological and irradiation conditions at Intersolar Europe. Imec’s model combines optical, thermal and electrical parameters to provide detailed insight on thermal gradients in the solar module.

Austrian O&M provider ENcome has reached the gigawatt threshold for the amount of PV power plants it services worldwide. It also recently entered the Australian market for both O&M and engineering and advisory services.

The ransomware attack earlier this month brought global attention to the scale and sophistication that cybercrime can unleash. Amaranto Asset Management's Stefano Salerno tells PV Tech why it's time for the industry to take the problem seriously.

SOLV, an O&M Swinerton Renewable Energy Company, has completed its new Operations and Control Centre (OCC) in San Diego, California.

Renewable energy O&M analytics software provider QOS Energy has opened an office in New Delhi, India, to meet growing demand from the booming Indian market.

Major photovoltaic (PV) inverter manufacturer Sungrow Power Supply Co has said the largest floating PV power plant with a capacity of 40MW had been grid connected on former flooded coal mining region in Huainan, south Anhui province, China.

The seasonally soft first quarter of the year for the residential solar rooftop market in the US played out again in 2017, with the addition of much heavier rainfall, notably in California. A basket of primarily US residential installers that are publically listed have recently reported first quarter results.