North America

Does it seem like every month there are new or changing requirements for products in the solar and storage industry? How is it possible to make sense of all the changes? This series will consider requirements used for the certification of grid support utility-interactive inverters and how they have and continue to evolve. This article will focus is on grid support utility-interactive PV inverters, regardless of the primary power source. Some of the standards discussed cover more product categories than solely grid support utility-interactive inverters. The rapid growth of the PV and storage industry has been the main driver for the updates covered.

Communities LEAP Program aims to provide supportive services valued at up to $16M for community-driven clean energy transitions.

Also on the rise: PVEL teams up with drone inspection specialist. Job moves at CleanCapital, Lumio, Factorial Energy, and more. FERC Commissioner Phillips’s views on how to improve transmission, interconnection. Solar advocates reaffirm their approval of Duke Energy’s proposed NEM 2.0 in North Carolina. Solar forecasting teams win prizes from government competition. Longi achieves 25.47% efficiency for gallium-doped p-type heterojunction solar cell. SolarJuice Technology launches American-made modules for commercial solar projects.

The Solar Energy Technology group awarded $50,000 to five groups for most accurately predicting solar generation data over a four week period, at ten geographically diverse sites across the US.

While the proposal includes policies that have been considered harmful in the past, the market certainty it provides is immensely more valuable to the health of the state’s market than a worst-case scenario where the incentive program expires entirely, according to advocates.

Using electroluminescent imaging the team can perform an inspection of an entire solar project much faster than ground-based imaging.

Manufacturers in every leg of the solar value chain are requesting long-term PV tax credits in the budget reconciliation legislation.

SolarJuice modules are manufactured in the company’s new facility in Sacramento, California–at the former, revamped Sunergy PV solar plant.

Commissioner Phillips spoke of fixing interconnection dynamics that can result in only 20% of projects in a queue ultimately getting interconnected. He favors “substantial transmission,” he said, as well as near-term transmission improvements using grid-enhancing technologies and higher-capacity wires.

Job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities, and energy transition finance.