Opinion & analysis

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that the Tropical Storm Beryl caused a large but temporary dip in solar generation potential across Texas on July 8. However, cross-referencing with grid operator reports revealed that very little production went offline due to the storm, showing the resilience of Texas’ solar infrastructure.

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.

Consumer protection and transparency are the keys to reigniting industry growth. Josh Levine, vice president of marketing, EnergySage shares his perspective.

As the urgency of mitigating the impacts of climate change intensifies with each passing year, it is the collective responsibility of grid operators and renewable energy producers to spearhead the transition to a renewable energy system.

It’s time to assess curtailment, as rising amounts of excess generation are being wasted in several markets. This can be problematic for the solar industry but Toby Couture and David Jacobs, coordinators of think tank Global Solar PV Brain Trust, argue that curtailment is not always bad.

It may seem counterintuitive to operators who are familiar with traditional grid management methods, but the key to stabilizing the destabilizing effects of more renewables on the grid is–more renewables.

As bifacial modules proliferate, estimations of albedo are becoming more important and with developers not prepared to install weather stations to assess solar resource, a popular option has become third-party, on-site measurements over periods as short as a day. Is this an acceptable compromise between costly on-site measuring and less accurate satellite data? Everoze’s Stefan Mau discusses the potential benefits and limitations of this approach.

Martin Schachinger, founder of pvXchange.com, says that solar module prices are falling across the board, while batteries and inverters are hitting historically low prices due to market oversupply.

By combining a rapid shift to 100% clean energy with large-scale deployment of carbon removal solutions, we can create a true climate restoration future – one with a healthy, livable planet for generations to come.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that summer weather and a heat dome have brought increased irradiance to both US coasts. As a result, much of the continental United States saw irradiance moderately above average, 5-10% above historical June averages, with the increase most notable along the East Coast.