Solar Latest News Round-Up Issue 48

This issue covers:

Global solar growth continues

EnergyTrend estimates that new global solar PV installations will reach up to 52GW in 2015 and the installed PV capacity in China, the US and Japan will account for about 63% of this total.

Based on its latest analysis, global PV installations at the first quarter of 2015 surpassed 12GW, with the total in China peaking at 5.04GW. Although Japan continued to reduce FiT payment for solar, its PV installations during the first quarter still reached 1.9GW, with the USA coming next at 1.31 GW.

In fact, new solar PV installations in the USA accounted for 51% of new generating capacity added during the three month period, surpassing conventional power for the first time.

The EnergyTrend report also noted that dollar PV growth in several Central & South American national including Chile, Honduras, Uruguay, etc. will significantly increase as well. Details at www.pv.energytrend.com/

Checklist to boost solar on commercial rooftops

The UK Solar Trade Association has published a simple checklist to give managers in commerce and industry the confidence to put solar on their roofs.

Commercial and industrial roofs dominate the solar market in Europe, but in the UK commercial roofs account for only 5% of all solar deployment to date. However, as part of DECC’s 2014 Solar PV Strategy, the emphasis is now changing significantly towards boosting rooftop installations and the STA and its members are working closely with Government to help unlock the huge potential across the UK.

The small commercial roofs sub-market (50kW-250kW) is growing steadily but slowly, with 170MW installed in total across 1200 installations. One of the limiting factors to the market is commercial awareness and confidence from rooftop owners who need reliable guidance.

However, the latest DECC data shows there are only 70 larger-scale (250kW+) solar roofs installed across the UK, and this is where more focus and support is required to tackle the limited deployment.

The checklist, which can be downloaded from the STA website, is applicable to all size of commercial rooftop installation from schools and small businesses to large supermarkets and factories.

Solar has been installed on a huge range of structures across the UK including bridges, airports, city skyscrapers, railway station roofs, car parks and even motorway sound barriers. Solar can also be integrated in to buildings, embedded in glass as windows, and also included as a vertical building façade. Full details at www.solar-trade.org.uk

Predicted surge in building integrated photovoltaics

New research predicts that the building-integrated solar photovoltaic (BIPV) market will grow from about $3 billion in 2015 to over $9 billion in 2019, and surge to $26 billion by 2022, as more truly "integrated" BIPV products emerge that are monolithically integrated and multifunctional.

This new BIPV market research believes that BIPV's best chance to take off commercially is for vendors to emphasize aesthetics, and even the "smarts" of BIPV, and not just energy efficiency. This will allow them to tap substantial addressable markets, especially in the USA, Germany, Japan and China, where the demand for solar panels is already large.

BIPV roofing is still the largest segment of this market throughout the forecast period, although a significant growth is expected in both glass and walling applications. For the "true" BIPV leading into monolithic and multifunctional products, the real opportunities are in the glass sector in particular, representing roughly $2.1 billion in shipments by 2018 and $6.3 billion by 2022.

Further details of the report are available here

UK solar offer: Save over £500 on the Seaward Solarlink™ Test Kit

A sizzling hot summer offer is now available to customers in UK and Eire. For a limited period only, the Solarlink Test Kit is available for just £879, saving over £500 on list price.

The PV150 is the only all-in-one PV tester that can complete simple, fast and comprehensive PV testing in under one minute.Test open circuit voltage, short circuit current and insulation resistance simultaneously and store the results internally, at the touch of a button.

The Solarlink™ Test Kit combines the PV150 with a Solar Survey 200R to enable a seamless way of recording irradiance, PV module and ambient temperature measurements simultaneously to electrical tests being conducted by the PV150 tester.

In addition, the Solarlink™ Test Kit includes SolarCert Elements software so that customised test reports and certificates can be created, stored and compiled to create client handover packs. Offer is available to customers in UK and Eire only.

For full details and to find out what’s included in the kit click here.

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