Technical Papers

With grid availability, plenty of land and a new contracts for difference scheme that is set to go live this year, Romania is proving an increasingly attractive market for solar developers. Lena Dias Martins finds out more.

While solar has been the backbone of Japan’s renewable energy push, deployment has been stalling in recent years. Chris Wilkinson of Rystad Energy details the benefits of the country’s feed-in premium scheme, the potential for corporate PPAs and the importance of battery storage.

With appropriate policy support and investment incentives, agrivoltaics could play a crucial role in Africa’s green energy transition, writes Dr Richard Randle-Boggis of the University of Sheffield.

Many companies working in the Australian utility-scale solar sector are exploring opportunities to integrate agricultural production into projects, writes Lucinda Tonge, a senior policy officer at the Clean Energy Council.

With France’s rooftop and ground-mount solar tenders featuring a sub-family for agrivoltaics, Xavier Daval of France Agrivoltaïsme details routes to market for new projects.

To make agrivoltaics a widely available option for developers in the US, questions about cost, liability and other business, legal and regulatory issues need to be addressed, writes Michele Boyd of the US Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office.

Max Trommsdorff of Fraunhofer ISE and Jens Vollprecht, a lawyer at Becker Büttner Held, detail the legal aspects of agrivoltaics deployment in Germany.

Combining solar plants with agriculture is becoming more prevalent in markets globally, increasing the availability of sites for new PV projects while reducing land-use conflicts. Will Norman details how the industry can take advantage of agrivoltaic opportunities while navigating construction, operation and maintenance challenges.

Energy storage is among a number of key technologies which can bring much-needed flexibility to electricity networks and therefore to energy markets. With Europe at an unprecedented crossroads in its energy system planning, now is the time to factor in that critical flexibility, argue Julian Jansen and Lars Stephan of Fluence.

There has been an uptick in energy storage investment in Southeast Asia, a region still largely powered by coal and experiencing high growth in population and energy demand. Andy Colthorpe speaks with companies working to establish a framework of opportunities in the region.