Opinion & analysis

The energy sector continues to face challenges like increasing power demands and grid instability, intensified by AI growth and climate change, despite recent policy changes. States are addressing these issues by promoting flexible solutions such as microgrids and utilizing predictive modeling for future energy projects.

Extreme weather is no longer a rare event for PV sites across the United States. It’s a costly, recurring reality eroding performance, reliability, and profitability. Wayne Burnett, chief strategy officer and chief technology officer at sensor equipment supplier EKO Instruments, offers insights from projects in hard-hit regions. With lessons learned from the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, he examines how these are shaping best practices for long-term energy yield and resilience.

With U.S. domestic steel mills booked solid through 2025, a sudden doubling of tariffs on imported steel has created a critical bottleneck for American industries. The move, which hits specialized Indian steel particularly hard, is now delaying projects for builders and renewable energy developers who rely on steady, affordable supply.

Inadequate data management in renewable energy projects can result in significant financial losses due to forfeited payments and poor market performance. Reliable data systems and proactive commercial strategies are essential for financial viability.

In the high-stakes world of solar development, a project’s journey from concept to completion is fraught with challenges, with financing representing the ultimate hurdle. At the core of a project’s viability lies the energy assessment, where a single miscalculation can jeopardize millions and send a project back to the drawing board.

The distributed energy value stack is the collection of benefits and revenue streams that distributed energy resources (DERs) — such as solar, storage, demand response, and flexible generation — can deliver to customers, utilities, and the grid. As the market evolves, the value stack has become increasingly complex. For sellers of DERs and virtual power plants (VPPs), transparency into this value stack is no longer optional.

As off-grid solar systems expand to serve remote and underserved communities worldwide, digitalization has become a crucial need for efficient project development, implementation, and long-term sustainability. A new report from IEA PVPS Task 18 systematically explores digital tools across the entire off-grid energy project value chain, providing much-needed guidance for practitioners looking to optimize their operations.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that fire and storm activity across North America shaped solar conditions during August, with irradiance down in central and eastern regions but above average in the northeast.

Turning challenges into opportunities as the U.S. solar and storage sectors enter a phase of major policy and market realignment.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick look at the main price trends in the global PV industry.