PV Tech Power Papers

Jonathan Tourino Jacobo caught up with Vladimir Tabutov, founder and CEO of Bulgarian solar power project developer HEC Solar, following Solar Media’s Large Scale Solar Europe event in Lisbon, Portugal. They spoke about recent and upcoming changes in the Bulgarian regulations regime for adopting renewable energy technology.

Tom Kenning on one of the most promising up-and-coming solar power players of Southern Europe, Greece. He asked experts about the challenges and opportunities for PV in the country.

Innovative power purchase agreement structures enable solar asset owners to boost returns and leverage their positions while providing offtakers with the opportunity to protect against increasing electricity prices and enhance their decarbonisation efforts. By Norton Rose Fulbright partners Rob Marsh and Laura Kiwelu, counsel Suncica Miletic and associate Charlie Winch.

A combination of supply chain disruptions and extreme weather events that damage operational assets can lead to extended solar project downtimes. Rosa van Reyk, a senior underwriter at GCube Insurance, explores how the industry can ease supply chain pressure by rethinking cost efficiency and increased collaboration between developers and insurers.

Simone Mandica of asset manager WiseEnergy details how solar installations can be repowered to extend their service life and maintain high standards of technology.

While bifacial modules promise advantages in power production, they can create complex performance monitoring challenges. That will need to be resolved if project production uncertainties are expected to remain at levels and expectations currently set with the deployment of mono-facial modules, write Ajay Singh and Derek Jones of Campbell Scientific Inc.

Amid an increasingly unpredictable environment and a rise in extreme weather events, the solar industry must properly use its available data to protect assets and reduce risks, writes Gareth Brown, CEO of digital asset performance technology provider Clir Renewables.

Falling solar module prices in recent years mean it can be beneficial to oversize the DC capacity in PV plants. John Leslie of BTY presents findings from a study that suggests developers should, in certain cases, investigate using higher DC/AC ratio designs.

Building on the successes of floating PV projects installed on lakes and dams globally, offshore installations are an emerging opportunity for developers, potentially when co-located with wind farms. George Heynes explores how the industry can move beyond pilot projects to large-scale, commercially viable installations, detailing the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Renewables deployment in the US is at risk of stalling unless distributed interconnection policies are improved to make them more efficient. Fortunately, there are a host of well-developed solutions for many of the major interconnection challenges being seen in the country today, writes Gwen Brown of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council.