PV Tech Power Papers

ESG is now at the centre of many investor requirements when it comes to finalising deals, and while solar is obviously a destination of choice from an environmental perspective, that is only part of the puzzle. Galp’s head of Renewable Energy Innovation Centre Emilien Simonot and its environment and CSR manager Claudia Montenegro detail the essential considerations for the solar industry from an ESG perspective.

Manufacturers and developers alike have felt the pain of supply chain constraints of the last two years but, amidst sky-high prices and contractual disputes, how have relations between manufacturers, distributors and developers changed? Liam Stoker reports.

Consistently high levels of inflations seen across the world are impacting all industries in different ways. And solar PV is no exception. Alexa Capital examines the risk and reward profiles for different company structures and moots than greater market consolidation may be on the way.

As solar becomes more sophisticated, the industry is leaning on more advanced software and AI to determine the best sites and optimum system designs. Molly Lempriere explores the role AI and other advanced techniques are playing in solar development.

Using an in-house tool and PVsyst simulation software, a team from Chint New Energy Technology Co. analyse the LCOE of utility-scale solar systems in various countries based on three technologies: PERC, TOPCon and HJT.

With accurate power forecasting becoming more essential than ever for solar asset owners, Yoojin Lee, a systems engineer and power forecast specialist at Enerparc, reveals how the company’s artificial intelligence approaches are used to make day-ahead forecasts more accurate.

With numerous markets reporting problems with overly optimistic P50 estimates, attention has also been drawn to similar issues with PAN files. TÜV Rheinland’s Yating Zhang and Christos Monokroussos discuss the subject at length.

The US has a massive interconnection problem, with more than 14TW of clean power sat dormant in its queues. The DOE i2X initiative is seeking to unleash this power and catapult the US closer to its climate targets. But how will it achieve this? Sean Rai-Roche finds out more.

Inverters are essentially the brains of a PV plant and while their key function remains the conversion of DC power to AC, their design and configuration is continually evolving. So are the strategies of the companies making this important piece of kit, writes Jonathan Touriño Jacobo.

Curtailment is a rising threat to solar PV, exacerbated by antiquated grids and a power system in transition. But green hydrogen electrolysis is emerging as a potential solution to the problem, taking excess solar and converting it into hydrogen for either long-duration storage or use by other industries, writes Alissa Tripp, senior research and commercial analyst at Octopus Hydrogen.