A poor understanding of how European PV arrays perform in Saharan dust outbreaks can have a crippling financial impact on grid operators. Christian Kurz and Lucas Richter of meteocontrol describe a major new research project underway in Germany to improve the forecasting of dust outbreaks and their impact on PV power output.
The technology and financing of the remote microgrid market are maturing. Now improved sales and marketing methods are needed to commercialise the huge potential on offer in this burgeoning market segment.
The past two years have seen a boom in the deployment of mobile PV testing laboratories. Sara ver Bruggen reports on how technological advances are helping investors and developers in new and emerging solar markets get the best from their assets.
Middle East and North Africa special edition - The region has huge potential for both utility and rooftop solar. The gradual removal of fossil fuel subsidies for power generation, the falling cost of finance and, of course, improving project performance have tipped the balance of the economics for PV in the region.
Other highlights include recent market developments in Spain and Chile as well as the hottest emerging markets, increasing use of mobile PV testing facilities, analysis of whether BIPV was set for a rebirth, labour saving in O&M, tax equity funding in the US, microgrids, encapsulants and the 1500V revolution.
PV Tech can reveal the preliminary top 5 solar module manufacturers in 2016, based as usual on final shipment guidance from third quarter financial results.
PV manufacturing capacity expansions planned this year are expected to push production levels beyond anticipated demand in 2016, creating further cost pressures for suppliers.
Producing one multicrystalline silicon solar module per second does not suggest that the technology is about to disappear, based on the headline presentation at the first day of the inaugural PV CellTech conference in Malaysia.
Polysilicon spot prices had bottomed in January, 2016 at just above US$13/kg on overcapacity, notably due to US producers selling excess inventory as access to the China market had been severely curtailed due to new import duties applied as part of the trade war with the US.
High up the debt list is PV module assembly subcontractor and single-axis tracker supplier, via its NEXTracker acquisition, Flextronics International (Flex), which is owed over US$44 million.
Ever since the 1GW production plans were announced back in July, 2014 speculation has remained over the tool selection. Indeed, no conference or exhibition that PV Tech had attended since that time, did the subject of tool selection not arise with industry people.
