Opinion & analysis

With rising electricity costs, now is the time to go solar. To facilitate this, solar experts share six myths about solar.

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.

PV module prices have fallen by around 5% to 8% across all technology classes in recent weeks. says Martin Schachinger, the founder of pvXchange.com. This means that prices are moving strongly back toward the level we saw at the beginning of the year, which can only be described as unhealthy for module producers.

Supply chain challenges, subsidies and tariff uncertainties are forcing the solar energy industry to find significant cost efficiencies. As older models of installed solar panels become harder to source, the growing second-life solar market helps industry find replacement panels and other equipment.

In a new monthly column for pv magazine, the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) debunks old and new urban legends about solar energy.

Mitigating sub-surface risks long before the construction phase is one of the best ways to prevent cost escalation and delays during construction, while also setting solar arrays up for maximum productivity over its lifespan.

This series describes the process of designing and building a sustainable home, which is passing tests for airtightness and proved to retain heat in winter. This installment focuses on water sustainability design and practices.

The final, third part of this series explores how DERs and Virtual Power Plants are participating in today’s energy markets—including a close look at ISO/RTO-specific programs, qualification requirements, and market rules. We examine how these policies and procedures affect the real-world ability of aggregated DERs to operate as grid resources and the complexity stakeholders face when navigating these systems.

Part Two of this three-part series shifts focus from regulatory reform to the technological breakthroughs that make DER participation possible. From the falling cost of microprocessors to the rise of advanced metering infrastructure and predictive analytics, we explore how data, telemetry, and intelligent control systems have become the backbone of the distributed energy economy.

The evolution of energy markets from vertically integrated utilities to open access competitive markets has created a power grid increasingly integrating smaller and more diverse distributed energy resources requiring robust interaction for integration and management.