Interview

Fixing a project’s acoustics can be costly and difficult, but easily avoided if considered early in the project’s development.

Also on the rise: Clean hydrogen set for commercial liftoff by 2030. $50 billion solar land boom in Texas. And more.

Wholesale electricity prices were lower in 2024 than 2023, with less price volatility, as solar and battery energy storage expands, and lower natural gas prices stabilize major markets in the U.S.

pv magazine USA spoke with Sheri Givens, president & CEO of the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) and Paul Lau, chief executive officer and general manager of Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and chairman, SEPA Board of Directors.

What is it like being a residential solar and energy storage prosumer living in California? Ahmad Faruqui, economist-at-large, shares his perspective with pv magazine USA .

Larger wafer and module sizes have had a profound influence on module power output in recent years but standardization appears to have taken hold, with no further increases evident in module data, according to Molly Morgan, a senior research analyst at Exawatt, which is now part of the CRU Group.

As part of our Intersolar 2024 interview series, pv magazine spoke with Bill Mulligan, CEO of Singapore-based IBC solar module maker Maxeon. He states the IBC technology will remain competitive despite overcapacity and dropping modules prices and says Maxeon may enforce intellectual property rights with all existing and new back contact competitors that are allegedly utilizing its technologies.

At Intersolar Europe 2024, ESS News spoke with George Hilton, research and analysis manager at S&P Global, about the state of play in the battery energy storage supply chain and falling prices. According to Hilton, the overcapacity at every level of the supply chain has led to prices that are no longer sustainable for many market players. Meanwhile, technological innovation has led to an unprecedented variety of battery storage technologies on offer, and for a great number of markets the right time to jump in is now.

At Intersolar in Munich, pv magazine spoke with Jenny Chase, solar analyst at BloombergNEF, about the incredibly low polysilicon prices, massive overcapacity, and increasing consolidation. According to Chase, this year there will be enough polysilicon capacity to produce 1.1 TW of solar modules, but global module demand is expected to reach around 585 GW. “That is a pretty huge delta,” she said, noting that the solar industry should also prepare for a series of “negative feedback mechanisms,” such as negative prices and excess of solar power.

FranklinWH chief commercial officer Vincent Ambrose met with pv magazine USA to share his view of the evolving home energy storage industry.