Technical Papers

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.

Realising the theoretical promise of solar-wind-storage hybrids is far from straightforward, with individual projects likely to vary considerably. Ben Willis examines some of the technical complexities of combining different technologies into a single, profitable entity.

With industry heavyweights eyeing up developments of solar-wind-storage projects, Liam Stoker uncovers what’s really driving hybrid power plants, and the regulatory and financing hurdles that must be surpassed to deliver them.

Despite making huge strides forward, the energy storage industry’s work in helping stakeholders across the value chain understand the technologies and the roles they can play in a renewable energy future is far from done. Andy Colthorpe speaks with Energy Storage Association chief executive, Kelly Speakes-Backman, at the forefront of the industry’s push into unchartered regulatory, policy and public affairs matters.

While lithium-ion batteries get most of the headlines, long-duration energy storage solutions are gaining ground. Alice Grundy and Andy Colthorpe profile some of established and emerging concepts in this this increasingly important class of storage technologies.

As energy storage becomes an increasingly integral part of a renewables-based electricity system, new technologies are coming to the fore. Jens Noack, Nataliya Roznyatovskaya, Chris Menictas and Maria Skyllas-Kazacos from CENELEST, a joint research venture between the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology and the University of New South Wales, chart the rise of redox flow batteries, a promising alternative to lithium-ion-based systems.