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Policies in the EU and US to impose a carbon price on imported materials and goods will inevitably hit solar manufacturers.

Three of the five new European markets to hit 1GW of solar in 2023 were from the east. Will Norman looks at the shifting dynamics of Eastern Europe’s leading solar markets, which like much of the continent’s solar sector, are struggling to maintain the tempo as the 2022 energy crisis eases.

The EU and the US are leading efforts to reduce the carbon intensity of PV manufacturing through targeted import tariffs. As well as supporting decarbonisation efforts, such policies could also promote geographic diversification in the solar supply chain and greater supply resilience, writes Michael Parr of the Ultra Low Carbon Solar Alliance.

The corporate world is taking an increased interest in community solar, which can take multiple forms, from tax equity to offtake.

“We believe this policy will unlock opportunities for renewables as it increases electricity supply avenues."

Jonathan Tourino Jacobo looks at Southern Europe, where pricing, grid capacity and a recent prohibition of PV on farmland are causing headaches.

Liquidity is rising at great pace in US tax credit transferability for clean energy, helping lenders become comfortable with the market.

Silicon (Si) photovoltaics (PV) are likely to become increasingly popular as part of global efforts to achieve carbon neutrality and mitigate climate change. In recent decades, two major Si solar cell technologies, i.e., aluminium back surface field and passivated emitter and rear contact, have been mass produced to meet market demands. The industry is currently striving to establish long-term plans for technological advancement to align with the evolving and dynamic market environment. Back contact (BC) solar cells, realised through various contact formation technologies, are expected to represent the ultimate evolution of Si PV technology in terms of both efficiency and cost-effectiveness. In this study, the evolution of Si solar cell structures is reviewed. Challenges for BC solar cell manufacturing are discussed. We report the advancement of the BC technology at LONGi.

The foundations of a solar project offer multiple opportunities for driving down system costs. Arash Yazdani of PRI Engineering describes some of the key steps involved in investigating the specific conditions of a project site and developing a foundation design that will stand the test of time.

Even though the solar PV market in Ecuador is currently non-existent, with only a few projects operational and mostly in the distributed generation market, it is about to take off, says José Luis García Pérez, Latin America’s CEO at Spanish developer Zelestra, formerly known as Solarpack.