As has been the case with many good science fiction inventions of the last century, we are finally getting around to building virtual power plants (VPPs), or a software-and-wire linked network of small residential and commercial electricity generators, that together resemble a multimillion-dollar utility power plant. While the wires linkingRead More

Improving the electricity yield in photovoltaic solar energy long has been a game of incremental additions of new technology. Over the past few years, bifacial panel adoption has been tested at a utility scale, and designs have been refined to the point that a high single-digit gain from a single-axis trackerRead More

It only takes one hurricane, tornado or wildfire for the value of a resilient home energy system to sink in. Add to such increasing natural disasters the unpopular new utility practice in California of Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) — a preemptive shut down of swaths of the grid toRead More

The integrated solar roof has long been a solar technology goal — combining solar power with a watertight roof covering — but the category (often seen as just “solar shingles”) is perceived as too expensive or too experimental compared to the cost of separately installing solar and a traditional roof usingRead More

This article appears in the Spring issue of Solar Builder magazine. Get your free subscription (print or digital) here. Sunfolding’s pneumatics One unique tracker design on display at Intersolar 2020 back in February was the bellow-actuated Sunfolding single axis tracker. The bellow, manufactured with a DuPont polymer, uses no motorsRead More

The concept of offering operations and maintenance (O&M) to solar asset holders is not new. A host of O&M companies now provide soup-to-nuts service for commercial and utility-scale PV plants. But none of these service providers is also an inverter manufacturer, much less one that offers a 99 percent inverterRead More

Corporate investors in solar energy are modifying their expectations and demands for future utility-scale solar projects, bolstering the profile of the industry as a long-term asset class, and altering PPA and contract terms that make more deals possible, said financiers at Intersolar 2020 in San Diego. The impact of thisRead More

Along with the doubling of the U.S. residential solar + storage market last year, new system providers have cropped up like spring weeds, helping to make the consumer decision about which to select a more difficult proposition. Many of these new providers are banking on well-known brands, strategic acquisitions andRead More

Solar engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies have all too often been forced to choose solar components for projects as a function of what is available in a given timeframe rather than what is preferred. While cost may not be a great issue in these cases, making all the partsRead More

Large-scale solar + storage is on the drawing boards of a host of major EPCs, with the current round of demonstration plants leading to wholesale installations by 2020, say several industry players. “While we are early in the deployment cycle for large-scale solar + storage, we expect a ramping atRead More