Technical Papers

Finlay Colville, head of market research at PV Tech Power publisher Solar Media, discusses what’s inside the Q3 2020 update of the PV ModuleTech Bankability Ratings report and how it details a module supplier’s strengths and weaknesses.

As larger floating solar projects become a more common sight around the world, bankability is increasingly coming to the fore to satisfy the demands of financiers. Jeremy Ong, Ken Tay and Harald Hammer look at some of the areas where careful due diligence is vital to managing and mitigating technical risks for lenders.

Alongside the recent rapid boom in bifacial solar deployment, extensive work has been underway to fine-tune the yield modelling of bifacial systems. Drawing on case studies from the ATAMOSTEC test site in Chile, researchers involved in the collaborative venture describe how it is helping improve understanding of bifacial yield and laying the foundations for a set of new rules to inform system design and installation.

Mark Osborne analyses the sixth instalment of PV Evolution Labs’ annual module rankings and the insights it offers into the state of PV reliability and performance as technological change continues apace.

Despite the importance of reliability to the cost competitiveness of PV, large data sets enabling high-level investigation of the technology’s performance in the field are relatively scarce. Dirk C. Jordan, Chris Deline, Bill Marion and Teresa Barnes of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Mark Bolinger of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study a unique data set of 100,000 PV systems in the US, drawing out tips for better reliability that have relevance to other parts of the world.

Later this year, a new set of industry guidelines will for the first time codify a set of best practices for EPC contractors. Ahead of publication, members of Solar Power Europe’s O&M task force look at some of the critical areas of PV system integration where high-quality EPC work can most effectively influence a project’s lifetime performance.

A comprehensive understanding of the global performance and extra gain offered by a bifacial module remains an elusive goal for PV owners and EPCs due to variations arising from different design, manufacturing and testing methods. Vicente Parra, Ruperto J. Gómez, José C. Vázquez and Francisco Álvarez of Enertis review the main sources of variability and outstanding uncertainties that must be addressed as the industry seeks to define standard rules for reliably selecting, purchasing and deploying bifacial PV modules.

Travel restrictions imposed by countries in response to the coronavirus pandemic have contribution to a slowdown in investment in rural electrification projects. Thomas Hillig examines the extent of the investment freeze and possible solutions to get capital flowing into much needed projects again.

The European Union has pinned its hopes for an economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic on green and digital technologies. Molly Lempriere looks at the part solar could play as details are fleshed out.

With federal support for renewables having been depleted in recent years, utilities in the US have taken a leading role in the deployment of solar and energy storage. Jules Scully examines how integrated resource plans are driving solar deployment.