PV deployment continues to grow at a remarkable rate. In just under 15 years it has gone from being a niche player, with a little over 1GW installed worldwide, to almost 140GW last year – more than a 10,000% increase. The technology’s onward march looks set to continue well into the future, albeit at a slightly more measured pace, with estimates forecasting as much as 430GW worldwide by 2018.
The combination of storage technology with larger scale solar projects is an emerging science. Andy Colthorpe speaks to PV power plant pioneers, Belectric, about a project completed at the end of 2014 to install battery storage at a utility-scale solar installation in Brandenburg.
The effective operation and maintenance of large PV power plants is critical to ensuring these facilities perform optimally. Sara Ver-Bruggen looks at the latest O&M technologies and strategies emerging as plant owners seek to maximise their investment returns.
Maximising production from a PV system is critical, since nearly all of the investment is made prior to system activation. Monitoring of PV systems allows operators to identify any performance or safety problems early so that they can be repaired quickly, thus minimising energy losses. Joshua Stein of Sandia National Laboratories and Mike Green of M.G. Lightning Electrical Engineering discuss some new monitoring strategies that are necessary for expeditiously identifying and locating system faults.
Project name: Jasper solar power project; Location: Near Kimberly; Northern Cape, Province, South Africa; Capacity: 96MWp; Annual Generation: 180,000MWh.
Evidence is emerging that data used in PV yield modelling, an essential element in optimising a plant’s design and profitability, is leading to erroneous results. Ben Willis reports on the solar industry’s data challenge and how it is responding.
As PV expands its global footprint, logistics – transporting goods from factory to project site – is becoming a complicated challenge for manufacturers. Sara Ver Bruggen reports on efforts by the industry to reduce costs arising from equipment damaged in transit.
Last year First Solar revealed that its 50MW Macho Springs project in New Mexico had become the first to receive a ‘Quality Tested’ certification from VDE and Fraunhofer ISE, as described on the previous pages. Ben Willis asks Azmat Siddiqi, First Solar’s senior vice president of quality and reliability, and John Sedgwick, president of VDE Americas Quality, what the accolade means.
Grid constraints, feed-in tariff fears and the spectre of a nuclear resurgence have all threatened to derail solar’s astonishing rise to prominence in Japan, but the country still looks on course to be 2014’s second largest PV market. Andy Colthorpe reports on the state of Japanese solar as it begins its five-year countdown to grid parity.
In 2014, a number of countries around the world began to develop into serious solar end markets. Ben Willis asks IHS analyst Josefin Berg to give her tips on the emerging markets to watch over the coming year.
