Pirates of the PV industry
Product piracy is a well-known threat in many industries, and in solar the risk posed by poor quality products from disreputable manufacturers making their way onto rooftops and other PV installations should not be underestimated. With manufacturers investing in solutions to protect against inferior products bearing their logo, pv magazine looks at the size of the problem.
Energy investment roundup: $50M for drinking water from solar-powered ‘hydropanels’
Also African microgrids, $200 million for solid-state batteries, $20 million for utility field safety, billions for infrastructure, and millions for deep tech.
Data shows solar asset underperformance and bias towards optimistic pricing
Solar assets are underperforming far more frequently than official energy estimates would suggest, according to the industry experts who contributed to KwH Analytics’ 2020 solar risk assessment report.
Fluence’s sixth generation of storage technology has over 2 GWh of commitments at launch
Featuring a monitoring system that tracks system performance, a comprehensive operating platform and stackable system design, Fluence claims its new solution is capable of reaching gigawatt-sized deployments while driving project costs down as much as 25%.
Analyst expects ‘unprecedented’ consolidation of Chinese solar industry
Private PV manufacturers and project developers alike are set to be squeezed out by the state in the world’s biggest solar market, according to Frank Haugwitz, who has compiled a wide-ranging report as preparations for the next five-year plan gather pace.
Panasonic and Span team up for home battery backup and energy management
Span’s ambition is to “transform the electrical panel into an intelligent gateway” and help expand the adoption of solar, EVs and storage like Panasonic’s residential battery.
First Tesla solar tile roof V3 installed in Massachusetts
It’s the first Tesla V3 solar tile roof in the state and the second on the East Coast. The 7.5 kW system includes two Powerwall batteries — although there is no time-of-use pricing and there hasn’t been a local power failure in a few years.
Single-axis bifacial PV offers lowest LCOE in vast majority of world’s land area
Researchers from the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore have concluded that utility-scale PV projects relying on bifacial panels and single-axis trackers deliver the lowest levelized cost of energy in most of the world. They found that the combination of bifacial products with dual-axis trackers is still too expensive, despite the higher yield. The second-lowest LCOE is offered by monofacial single-axis tracker plants.
Silfab’s high-profile, high-reliability, North American-made solar installations
Silfab PV modules are found on NFL stadiums for the Panthers, Browns, Lions, and Steelers — as well as other prestige locations.
JinkoSolar receives favorable judgment of non-infringement in Hanwha Q CELLS patent claim
The U.S. International Trade Commission has determined that JinkoSolar’s products do not infringe any patent claimed by Hanwha Q-Cells. At the patent’s core is a passivation technology that significantly increases the efficiency of modules.
