Technical Papers

Pressures on PV plant performance have led the solar industry to be more demanding and forensic of the data operational projects generate, as well as the power. Jules Scully explores the growing role software is playing in the utility-scale solar arena and how it must evolve further still to meet expectations.

As solar finds itself installed in further flung climes, so it must operate in harsher conditions. PV CAMPER, a collaborative effort including some of the world’s leading academic and research institutes, has set itself the aim of uncovering data to help drive the industry forward. Here, members of PV CAMPER discuss some of their preliminary findings.

Spencer Jansen, head of new technology solutions at developers Hive Energy and Ethical Power, assesses how the introduction of large-format solar modules has had repercussions throughout the solar design and procurement process.

For years California, Texas and Florida have dominated the US solar market, but backed by the investment tax credit, strong state-specific renewables standards and falling costs, new states are coming to the fore. Molly Lempriere takes a look at what is driving them, and the hurdles they face if they are to challenge the ‘Big Three’.

As several large investors exit Australia, Alice Grundy takes a look at how transmission infrastructure and future policies are denting investor confidence while initiatives like the Renewable Energy Zones are creating new potential.

While the supply chain has recoiled from surging materials prices, component shortages and unprecedented volatility in shipping and freight costs, national policies and regulations have also emerged as a sizeable hurdle to frictionless solar trade. Here PV Tech Power recaps the policies to watch in the coming months.

As prices rise and component availability remains tight, both solar’s upstream and downstream are rallying behind the common cause of ensuring which projects can go ahead, do go ahead in a timely fashion. Liam Stoker assesses the industry’s efforts to keep the supply chain moving forward.

Several factors have overseen an increase in the price of modules. Some of them look sure to ease, while others may be more persistent. Sean Rai-Roche delineates the events behind the rise and speaks to industry experts about what businesses can expect moving forward.

Commissioned at the start of this year, the Alamitos Battery Energy Storage System in California is a landmark project for the industry in having competed against natural gas to provide peaking capacity for the grid. Andy Colthorpe finds out the project’s backstory from Fluence’s Ray Hohenstein and AES’ Mark Miller.

What do Ireland, Germany, Poland and Spain all have in common? Well, like the other members of the European Union they all have a requirement to decarbonise and a desire for sustainable economic growth. Andy Colthorpe speaks with energy storage associations from those four countries to hear about their unique situations as well as the opportunities and challenges they share.