Category: Exclusive Articles

No getting away for solar thieves

With innovative GPS/GSM-based security systems for solar panels and solar parks, viamon has made a name for itself globally for protecting solar parks around the world from theft. PES invited, engineer, founder and managing director Oliver Strecke, to give us his insight into the company’s technology and the expanding market. PES: Welcome back to PES… Read more »

A plethora of batteries

PES met up with Stacey Delzeit, Sr Applications Engineer at Trojan, which as you know is a world-famous name in batteries. Despite making batteries for almost 100 years, R&D continues to produce new, exciting and innovative products, which provide great flexibility to the end user. There are still more markets to conquer and they relish… Read more »

A small component of paramount importance

Matthias Mack, Director Global Alternative Energies and member of the Management Board at Stäubli, came to talk to PES about electrical connectors. These small components play a crucial role in a long-term partnership between our company and the customer. This is built on reliability, thoughtful expertise, dynamism and exceptional quality, in both products and services…. Read more »

Everything that high-performance PV monitoring has to offer

With over 500 GW of installed capacity, photovoltaic power generation has long since become a global industry. Financial and economic interests depend on the reliable production of PV energy. The German PV expert, Solare Datensysteme, has specialized in monitoring PV power generation since 2007. Solar-Log™ data loggers and the Solar-Log WEB Enerest™ online portal offer… Read more »

Sputtering competence at a glance

Sputter deposition is a technology for the surface treatment of substrates. The technique is based on ion bombardment of a target, resulting in a vapor. One of the most common approaches for growing thin films by sputter deposition is the use of a magnetron source, in which positive ions present in the plasma. Well known… Read more »

Measurement technology for best-in-class accuracy

Meyer Burger has been providing the most accurate cell and module measurement equipment worldwide for over 30 years. Solar cells and modules are sold based on performance categories. Therefore, precise performance measurement is critically important. Cell and module inspection systems detect possible quality insufficiencies and measure the performance. The PV market is driven by the… Read more »

Grid stability, transparency and planning security

The importance of reliable grid code compliance in times of increasing requirements Markus Holzapfel, Product Manager at meteocontrol GmbH spoke to PES about the reasons, the process and benefits for the industry of the certification of meteocontrol’s Power Plant Controller. PES: Welcome to PES Solar, it’s great to meet you. How did you end up… Read more »

Merger makes recycling process chain for photovoltaics more sustainable

LOSER CHEMIE GmbH, Chemische Werke Tangermünde GmbH and FRESITEC GmbH are merging and bundling their expertise in to the LFFICIENCY Holding. Why? So far, many related technologies of recovery of precious raw materials have been located in various holding companies. In order to be able to offer our customers even more consistent solutions from a… Read more »

Clean panels give optimum return

PES was interested to find out from Donald van Velsen, Product Manager at Kipp & Zonen, about the latest developments and feedback on their DustIQ. We also wanted to learn if the recent changes, following the merger with the Meteorology division of OTT HydroMet, would make any difference to their solutions. Read on to find… Read more »

Mirror concept for silicon heterojunction solar cell smart manufacturing

Silicon heterojunction solar cells (SHJ) have gained more attention during this past decade as a good candidate for being the next generation of mainstream photovoltaics. This might be explained as a consequence of high solar cell power conversion efficiency at a moderate cost. The efficiency potential of SHJ solar cell is now demonstrated, with outstanding… Read more »

New metrics in highly accurate power measurements – from standard test conditions to energy rating

Standardization efforts by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for measuring PV devices have played a key role in the widespread application of this technology. With the maturing and diversification of the PV industry new standards, which define power measurements beyond standard test conditions (STC) are becoming more relevant. Such measurements, which are used for yield… Read more »

Colors of the sky: evolution of the spectral measurement technology and applications

‘Observe the evening red sky, which gives a reliable forecast of fair weather next day’. We’ve all heard this expression, which has a long history and valid phenomena for mid latitude regions. What is behind the ordinary bright and white sunlight, which is actually composed of a spectrum of colors that grade from violets and… Read more »

Flexibility, simplicity and modularity

PES caught up with Laura Sartore, CEO at Ecoprogetti, to get the latest from this innovative European provider of Turnkey lines for Photovoltaic Panels production, who has been in our business for over 20 years. Cost reduction and reduced downtimes are always in the forefront of R&D work, as well as European and safety regulations…. Read more »

The new challenges of the ultralight bifacial modules

New developments of transparent plastic materials in frontsheets and backsheets as valid alternatives to glass. The strong development of new types of cells and modules, like bifacial ones, has on the one hand been accompanied by glass-glass solutions and on the other has encouraged many manufacturers of plastic films to develop new products that are… Read more »

Bridging the energy gap with hybrid solutions

In the past decade, significant progress has been made to move the world towards a cleaner era in electricity production. Investment in renewables and advancing technology has resulted in a decrease in the overall cost of generating renewable power. In solar photovoltaic power, this decrease has been particularly marked. The cost of generation has plummeted… Read more »

Technological innovation and increasing investments drive the solar tracker market

Global energy consumption is steadily increasing, with an average increase in energy demand twice the year before. The demand was primarily met by fossil fuels, followed by renewable energy sources. In the year 2018, renewables accounted for more than 25% of global electricity supply capacity and this share is expected to increase significantly in the… Read more »

Origami secures multiple UK trials to develop local energy services

London, 23 April 2019 – Origami, the platform provider for energy markets, has announced plans to develop its technology to support delivery of locational-based energy services. Driven by the shift to decentralised energy, the industry is moving to new distribution models, replacing DNOs (distribution network operators) with DSOs (distributed system operators) who will take a… Read more »

Supporting a changing industry with wind data

Data is the cornerstone of every energy project. Whether it is wind resource data for the purpose of project development, operational data used in the monitoring and optimisation of an existing power plant or power performance data used in the verification and acceptance testing of existing or newly installed individual turbines, the need for low… Read more »

More than component suppliers

Seher Kaygusuz, Business Development, Marketing and Sales Manager at WINDSOURCING.COM, dropped in to tell us about the success of their product training courses, which provide added value to their customers. This ever-growing company knows how to respond to customer requests. PES: Hi Seher, it’s great to be talking with you again. The good thing is… Read more »

Continued operation pays off: how to extend the service life of wind turbines

A wind turbine that has reached the end of its designed service life does not necessarily have to be shut down and dismantled. Using suitable methods and tools as well as the necessary competence and experience, independent experts today are able to assess whether a plant has service life reserves after the designed service life… Read more »

A sure way to improve efficiency

Theresa Trevor, Director of Marketing, SkySpecs brings PES her view on how to improve efficiency in our industry, by the use of data: not just its collection. Digitization is the answer. The past two years have revealed the near-term need for digital transformation of the energy industry in order to maximize ROI and minimize risk… Read more »

Service life of rescue devices extended

At great heights, maintenance technicians around the world ensure that wind turbines reliably deliver energy to private households and industry. Employees cannot do without fall protection. In most cases, a rescue device stored on a wind energy plant is also indispensable for their safety. This is the only way they can leave their workplace quickly… Read more »

Test case: cold start-up validation of transformer pumps using a large climatic test chamber

The new trend in the installation of wind turbines is the choice of remote areas, where wind conditions are very often optimal leading to new investments for the implementation of wind energy parks. On the other hand, such locations have to deal with extreme inhospitable climatic conditions: extreme cold and/ or hot temperatures, strong winds… Read more »

Northern conditions pose challenges to wind power transport

Wind power transport requires extreme precision during the planning phase. The route choices and changes required by the roads can be anticipated during the planning phase, but the changing weather conditions in northern Europe can still surprise. The northern conditions require special transport expertise and an ability to act even in unforeseen circumstances. When large… Read more »

Towards an integrated energy union

Despite Brexit being just around the corner and a number of other trends towards greater nationalism, Europe is growing closer when it comes to its energy supply system. Siemens has just delivered a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) system connecting the power grids of Belgium and the UK. Other interconnectors are already online and many more… Read more »