North America

Tara Doyle started her career in the solar energy industry more than 15 years ago, and today serves as the chief commercial officer at PVEL, which claims to be one of the first testing laboratories to focus on bankability for the downstream PV buyer community. The lab serves developers, financiers, O&M companies, asset owners, and insurers.

New analysis predicts more than 150 GW of tracker capacity will be installed in the next five years – around a third of all ground mount projects up to 2024. Rapid growth in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and the better cost structures possible from combining trackers and bifacial modules are singled out as key trends.

Today we have heard of farmers in Australia unhappy at the approval given for three solar projects on agricultural land and also learned the benefits PV can bring for fish and shrimp farmers. In this op-ed for pv magazine USA, Stoel Rives LLP attorneys Sara Bergan and Thomas Braun discuss the balancing act to be made between solar and agriculture in the emerging Midwestern PV market.

While based in Munich in Germany’s south, renewable asset management software provider 3megawatt’s first major clients were in the United States. However, as the European markets have transitioned beyond feed-in tariffs to the complexity of subsidy-free solar and wind arrays, the understanding of the need for asset management tools is rapidly increasing, says 3megawatt founder and CEO Edmee Kelsey.

While the damage is largely done for cells, modules and inverters, increased tariffs on U.S. module components and 15% measures on lithium-ion batteries are not good news for either sector.

The pressure building for the US to water down decades-old federal energy policy risks further tilting the scales in utilities’ favour, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

PV Evolution Labs (PVEL) is including a number of key module reliability tests to its PV Module Product Qualification Program (PQP) that is more responsive to downstream market needs.

A solar project likely to become Canada's largest to date has received provincial approval, paving the way for construction of the 400MW operation to start next year.

Fully tapping into Latin America’s bullish solar market will require challenging preconceptions around a region that is more stable than is sometimes assumed, local operators have told PV Tech.

Standard Solar and Pivot Energy have expanded their partnership to co-develop five more community solar projects across Colorado.

With the anti-dumping and countervailing duties imposed in November 2013 set to expire nine months ago, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal has extended them for another five years, ruling their expiry would harm the nation’s only domestic manufacturer.

Reports of fires at Amazon facilities look set to pile fresh controversy on Tesla’s US solar installs, with new claims emerging only days after Walmart took Elon Musk’s firm to court over blaze incidents.

Hawaiian Electric Co (HEC) has kickstarted a colossal clean energy tender, seeking providers of 900MW worth of renewables and energy storage projects.

Johnson Controls announced a partnership with Capital Dynamics to increase the amount of capital available for customers in North America working on solar or battery storage projects. The agreement will grant easier access to funding for Johnson Controls customers using a Power Purchase Agreement for projects of varying sizes, starting at $1 million, by aggregating them into a larger portfolio of projects.

Standard Solar has completed a seven-site solar project for Flushing Community School District in Flushing, Michigan. In a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership, Standard Solar designed, built, financed and will operate and maintain solar arrays at all seven schools within the Flushing Community School District. The renewable energy generated by the 956.8 kilowatts of combined arrays is estimated to save the school district $45,000 annually and $900,000 over the course of the contract.