PV Tech Power Papers

Mini-grids offer a quick route to electrification in parts of the world where grid extensions are unfeasible. Baptiste Possémé looks at the some of the technological and regulatory trends influencing the deployment of mini-grids in Africa and Asia.

Solar engineering, procurement and construction contractors have a central role in ensuring the long-term performance and profitability of PV power plants. Ben Willis speaks to Adele Ara and Ralph Gottschalg of SolarPower Europe’s O&M and Asset Management Task Force, which is drawing up the industry’s first best practice guidelines for EPC companies.

Potential-induced degradation (PID) is still one of the main reasons for unpredictable power losses in PV power plants. Volker Naumann, Otwin Breitenstein, Klemens Ilse, Matthias Pander, Kai Sporleder and Christian Hagendorf of Fraunhofer CSP examine how the PID susceptibility of PV modules is influenced by environmental stress. It is found that PID may develop in originally PID-resistant modules after a period of one to three years of unsuspicious operation, depending on climatic conditions.

The services and skills offered by asset managers have a central role to play in boosting the value of solar PV investments. Adele Ara, Máté Heisz, Magda Martins, Diego Molina and Paul Norrish outline the key recommendations in the solar industry’s first set of best practice guidelines for asset managers.

In August 2019, a team at BayWa r.e. began construction of its 14.5MWp Sekdoornfloating solar project near the town of Zwolle in the Netherlands. Just eight weeks later, it was complete, 40,000 solar panels afloat on the former sandpit.

As the deployment of bifacial solar projects worldwide accelerates, so too is the industry’s understanding of how to design and build systems that play to the technology’s main strengths. Drawing on recent experiences in the field, Beth Copanas and James Willett from RES outline some of the technical lessons learned on realising bifacial’s full potential.

A late rally boosted China’s domestic solar installations in 2019 to a better-than-expected 30.22GW. But Frank Haugwitz asks whether a renewed interest in locally available coal and an economic slowdown could conspire to slow recent momentum in China’s energy transition, in which solar has played a central role.

It has always been anticipated that by the early 2020s, the feed-in tariff would have tapered away in Japan’s booming solar market. Andy Colthorpe speaks with analyst Izumi Kaizuka at RTS Corporation to learn more about what the future holds for post-subsidy solar in Japan.

New stats show Turkish solar has swiftly boomed to 6GW despite the national chaos after the 2016 coup attempt. Can the country continue to dodge volatility as it vies to become a 1GW-a-year PV market via a mix of large-scale and net-metering policies? José Rojo investigates.

India’s government insists that its target of 100GW solar by 2022 is still on track. But after 2019 proved another disappointing year, will the sector’s barriers be overcome in time? Catherine Early reports.