Grid storage | The advent of grid-scale energy storage means a whole raft of new technical, safety and risk-mitigation requirements for the industry to understand. Martijn Huibers, PhD and Paul Raats, MSc of DNV GL report on guidance designed to help stakeholders get to grips with this fast-emerging sector

This edition’s bifacial focus looks at cell types and module configurations, IEC standards to improve labelling and system design under varying climatic conditions. As an important component of utility-scale PV, we cover a range of energy storage news, analysis and technical briefings. We also take a look at module failure detection, the role of robotics, executing commercial scale projects, a summary of the core arguments involved in the US ITC section 201 vote and much more.

It wouldn’t be an Intersolar Europe edition of this journal without a look at a solar market closer to home; we touch on the resurgent French solar market which looks set to provide a major source of demand. As module and inverter swap outs are a growing line of work for O&M providers, we also examine the issues that emerge, such as potential induced degradation and exposing the shortcomings of projects built without adequate monitoring capabilities. TUV Rheinland presents a technical paper that could prove to be an investor’s best friend by providing a method to push energy yield performance calculations for modules beyond an extrapolation of their standard test conditions. We also introduce our new conference, PV ModuleTech, to be held in Malaysia this November, dedicated to scrutinising the technical performance claims of manufacturers and seeking out best practice.

Who’d be solar market forecaster? Shifting sands in the two largest global markets coupled with a patchwork of emerging demand, that could as easily deliver several gigawatts as they could nothing at all, make the job a tricky one. A swell of registered projects in China in H1 slowed progress in H2 and there are signs of more of the same in 2017. Beijing based consultant Frank Haugwitz takes a deep dive (p.18) into China’s 13th five-year plan including the real meaning behind its decreased PV targets and the benching of efforts to promote distributed generation.

This PV Tech Power special report is a unique industry resource exploring the trends shaping the fortunes of PV in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region that harbours some of the world’s most promising emerging solar markets.

Middle East and North Africa special edition - The region has huge potential for both utility and rooftop solar. The gradual removal of fossil fuel subsidies for power generation, the falling cost of finance and, of course, improving project performance have tipped the balance of the economics for PV in the region. Other highlights include recent market developments in Spain and Chile as well as the hottest emerging markets, increasing use of mobile PV testing facilities, analysis of whether BIPV was set for a rebirth, labour saving in O&M, tax equity funding in the US, microgrids, encapsulants and the 1500V revolution.

Highlights in this issue include an in-depth piece from the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory on how the market is understanding and dealing with the issue of potential-induced degredation modules. We also feature an exclusive paper from the EU-funded Solar Bankability Project on its work to develop a methodology for assessing the economic impact of technical failures in PV power plants.

This issue turns the focus on energy storage with guides on the top 20 technologies, understanding the costs involved and the how Germany is integrating it as part of its energy transition. We also look at the threat of cyber-attacks on solar plants, why there are still reasons to be cheerful about the large-scale European market and how one link of the US supply chain has clubbed together for a greater say in policy-making. Our regular technical papers cover climate stress on module degradation and the quest for accurate irradiance measurements and we get under the skin of West Africa's first utility-scale solar plant.

Our PV Tech Special Report: Scaling up solar in Sub-Saharan Africa, is a comprehensive guide to the off-grid, micro-grid and large-scale sectors and the financial models that can underpin their successful growth. The comprehensive guide is available to download for all our PV Tech members.

This issue of PV Tech Power explores how the solar industry can capitalise on the momentum from December’s Paris climate agreement, and the policy and finance levers it must pull to cement its place as a major global energy source. We also feature a series of articles focusing on Japan, whose future growth as a solar end market looks less certain than it has in recent years as it encounters political headwinds. We also feature the usual in-depth offering of technical briefings, with module handling, large-scale storage deployment and PV forecasting among the key themes in this edition.