From the Magazine

Central America’s solar boom: Central American nations have emerged from obscurity to a leading role in the deployment and integration of large amounts of renewable energy. But the Energy Transition in this region is just beginning.

Thin film: First Solar is moving to a much larger format for its Series 6 modules, which are due to begin production next year. Is this the signal that the thin film industry has been looking for to move to larger formats?

PV power plants: Corporations want in on the falling costs and predictable prices of wind and solar. Bilateral power purchase agreements have emerged as one new business model among several that businesses are employing as they get serious about renewable energy, both in the United States and abroad.

Interview: In December Energy Democracy, a book telling the story of Germany’s Energiewende from the perspective of citizen ownership of renewable energy, hit the shelves. The book is the latest collaboration of Political Scientist Arne Jungjohann and renewable energy writer Craig Morris, currently a senior fellow at the IASS in Potsdam, who worked together on the German Energy Transition website (energytransition.de). pv magazine caught up with Jungjohann to talk about the book, and why citizen involvement in energy is important.

In the most recent election, Populist candidates issued thinly veiled calls to return to an America that makes tangible goods. But can solar be part of a manufacturing renaissance in the United States? And what would be needed to make solar in America?

Conspicuous solar: Getting the public to embrace solar energy has never been a straightforward task, but as the technology moves past its awkward teen phase, some genuinely impressive and innovative adaptations of solar PV are beginning to turn heads.

Texas has been only a modest solar market to date, but that is changing fast. A boom started by municipal utilities and enabled by free transmission is expected to lead to a massive amount of utility-scale solar coming online over the next five years, and even more over the next decade.

New York City should be great for solar PV. But it isn’t. Despite policy leadership from the state, local installers are facing crippling bureaucratic challenges, and many have chosen to build rooftop solar elsewhere.

Solar+storage: As the U.S. residential solar market matures, a growing number of homeowners are looking at various battery storage options as an addition to their arrays. pv magazine examines the state of the market, the challenges ahead and the leading players in this increasingly competitive space.

European markets: In a continent seeking ever closer union but ever stronger opposition, solar’s ability to stand on its own two feet – free from subsidy – will prove crucial in the coming years, as seen in the disparate approaches many European nations are taking towards PV.