Buildings are key to our daily lives and significantly impact our health and wellbeing. The majority also have substantial carbon footprints, employing heavy use of fossil fuels across their lifetimes, from their construction, use, and demolition phases. Thus, in Q4 2021, pv magazine’s UP Initiative focused on the role solar and energy storage can play in greening the world’s urban spaces.

Despite the global Covid-19 pandemic and recession, corporate purchases of clean energy are booming. Several factors are driving this trend, including falling costs, a heightened appetite for sustainability among consumers and investors, and increased political will for net-zero development. In recognition of this, the UP Initiative spent Q3 2021 investigating sustainable electricity supply. How are PPA models evolving? What are the critical issues around residual energy? And how can greenwashing be avoided? Read on to discover more.

There is increasing pressure, globally, for companies to be held more accountable, particularly when it comes to sustainability and just working conditions, and this topic is only growing in importance. With this in mind, pv magazine’s UP Initiative spent Q2 2021 looking at what solar and energy storage companies could do to lead by positive example when it comes to the workers, often far removed, involved in the production of their products and services.

The solar industry cannot claim to be a clean energy source if it leaves a trail of hazardous waste.

In February, non-profit EU solar panel recycling body PV Cycle announced it had collected 5,000 tons of modules in France, of which 94.7% could be recycled. A reader asked us about the remaining 5.3% and here, PV Cycle’s communications manager, Bertrand Lempkowicz, responds.

A survey reveals greenwashing among major U.S. investor-owned electric utilities, which have been accused of using disproportionately high ratios of renewable versus fossil fuel images and language, while at the same time helping to block renewable energy policies. pv magazine speaks to the lead researcher.

In the recently released World Energy Outlook, the International Energy Agency (IEA) foresees a steady decline in the global expansion of PV to 2035. In response, Dutch researcher Auke Hoekstra has updated his graphic, IEA versus reality in solar PV.

Canada-based Silfab Solar has invested US$40 million in U.S. solar PV module manufacturer, Itek Energy, LLC’s Bellingham, Washington production facility.

China has officially filed two complaints with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against the United States, in response to its 30% Section 201 and 25% Section 301 tariffs.