PV Tech Power Papers

While oil falls and Saudi stalls, detractors are questioning the future of solar in the Middle East and North Africa. But rising electricity prices coupled with rising demand mean solar power remains an important investment from Muscat to Marrakech, writes John Parnell.

PV power plants require proportionally more up-front capital investment to develop and build than their fossil fuel counterparts. Modelling the lifetime performance of a PV power plant is therefore a critical exercise in proving a project’s bankability and securing finance to cover that cost. However, inaccuracies and uncertainties in modelling techniques create risk in the structuring of project finance. Evan Riley of Black & Veatch explores methods for improving the reliability of performance models and how then can be used to demonstrate that a PV facility will meet expectations.

Fixed and tracker solar mounting systems offer various relative cost and performance benefits. But as JA Solar’s Zhang Lan Jun and Gong Tie Yu describe, surprising results from field analysis of different systems used in China hold important lessons for developers wondering which ones to choose.

A next-generation PV plant architecture based on increasing direct current system voltage from 1,000VDC to 1,500VDC holds the promise of a more cost-effective and productive utility-scale plant due to lower installation and maintenance costs. Mahesh Morjaria, Kevin Collins and Michael Stavish of First Solar and Greg Ball of DNV-KEMA Renewables explore some of the challenges associated with the development of the technology and the efforts to address some of those challenges.

As PV systems proliferate it is increasingly important to forecast their energy output in order to ensure a safe and reliable integration of their variable output into electric power grids. Dazhi young, André Nobre, Rupesh Baker and Thomas Reindl of SERIS outline a technique for generating large-scale 2D irradiance using data from pyranometers and plane of array cells.

Large-scale PV contractors must perform tests to verify the correct operation of a new installation. Jorge Coello and Leonardo Perez outline the minimum aspects to consider for the commissioning of large-scale PV plants using a methodology that has been successfully implemented in the commissioning of more than 40 PV facilities worldwide.

Project: Stillwater hybrid power plant; Location: Nevada, US; Project capacity: 26MW PV, 33MW geothermal, 2MW CSP.

Solar companies are always looking for new markets in an effort to remain competitive. Monica Wilson offers some advice on how developers and contractors should navigate the legal labyrinth that will face them as they go global.

Investors are popularly characterised as risk averse and fickle when it comes to new technologies. David Giordano, of the world’s largest asset management firm, BlackRock, tells John Parnell what has persuaded the investment community that solar is a safe bet.

Parallels are frequently drawn between the nascent energy storage business and PV 10 years ago – that it needs strong policy direction to take off. Andy Colthorpe profiles some of the areas that emerging as the world pioneers in supporting the deployment of storage.