iSol

Many of the estimated 3.2GW of solar PV systems being installed in the US this year are sure to outlive many a marriage.

As the downstream part of the industry is the most promising segment for US solar, news of declining quality is unwelcome for those into one-night stands or a timely warning for those looking for something more steady.

"Modelling companies were out selling data and overstating the accuracy of their products and not providing a realistic view of the uncertainty. It didn't work in the wind space, it led to a lot of under-performing projects. Let's not do the same thing in the solar space. Let's not have selection bias, where there is an over abundance of enthusiasm and too little empirical evidence to the risks."

the need for materials innovation that carries through from c-Si cells to modules and shifts the emphasis away from a cost per-watt basis to a reduction in the cost per kilowatt-hour produced.

he solar industry, in sum, has promised itself into a precarious state where margins are memories and company failure is accepted instead of mourned. 

The photovoltaic industry is currently in a state of extreme contraction brought about by overbuilding, which was brought about by the belief that the feed-in tariff incentive model would continue expanding from region to region and which was exacerbated by decades of fighting for profits and incentives in a world that largely considered the PV industry either a science experiment or the lifestyle choice of hippies.

A slowing global economy complicates recovery for an industry that needs significant investment on the manufacturing and installation sides of the solar value chain. Decreasing incentives are further straining margins and the new incentive paradigm, PPA and tender bidding, does not support the true value of solar.  Business models, including the US lease model, need maturing.

or the most part, Germany’s new energy producers are home owners, small and medium-sided businesses, and farmers, many of the latter who faced ruin only a decade ago.

It is the equivalent generation capacity of 20 nuclear power plants. “The state“ owns none of it and the major utlities only 7 percent.

Around 80,000 citizens are members of several hundred energy collectives today — and the number is growing.