Issue 13 of PV Tech Power is finally here. This volume includes a three-part inverter special report, insight from First Solar about how its recycling procedures impact a project’s lifecycle costs, and must-read material from our colleagues at Energy-Storage.News. Alternative views on the role of blockchain in a modern power grid are revealed, and we bring you an exclusive report from the U.K.’s first unsubsidised, large-scale solar plant. A clean power investor offers his inside look at clean energy finance, energy storage as a replacement for traditional grid infrastructure is explored and so much more.

Storage integration | Our team profile 10 of the leading global system integrators working in energy storage today. This is a handful of the names that are designing systems, solving problems, executing projects and shaping the industry around us. By: Andy Colthorpe and John Parnell with Tom Kenning, Danielle Ola, David Pratt and Liam Stoker

Policy | State governments and agencies have a key role to play in fostering the growth of energy storage. Todd Olinsky-Paul of the Clean Energy States Alliance looks at the key policies, programmes and incentives being used by America’s pioneering storage states

Markets | The UK government has placed energy storage at the forefront of its industrial strategy. David Pratt and Lauren Cook report on how this is creating the right conditions for what many believe will be a boom market in years to come

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.