Interview

As part of our Intersolar 2024 interview series, pv magazine spoke with Bill Mulligan, CEO of Singapore-based IBC solar module maker Maxeon. He states the IBC technology will remain competitive despite overcapacity and dropping modules prices and says Maxeon may enforce intellectual property rights with all existing and new back contact competitors that are allegedly utilizing its technologies.

At Intersolar Europe 2024, ESS News spoke with George Hilton, research and analysis manager at S&P Global, about the state of play in the battery energy storage supply chain and falling prices. According to Hilton, the overcapacity at every level of the supply chain has led to prices that are no longer sustainable for many market players. Meanwhile, technological innovation has led to an unprecedented variety of battery storage technologies on offer, and for a great number of markets the right time to jump in is now.

At Intersolar in Munich, pv magazine spoke with Jenny Chase, solar analyst at BloombergNEF, about the incredibly low polysilicon prices, massive overcapacity, and increasing consolidation. According to Chase, this year there will be enough polysilicon capacity to produce 1.1 TW of solar modules, but global module demand is expected to reach around 585 GW. “That is a pretty huge delta,” she said, noting that the solar industry should also prepare for a series of “negative feedback mechanisms,” such as negative prices and excess of solar power.

FranklinWH chief commercial officer Vincent Ambrose met with pv magazine USA to share his view of the evolving home energy storage industry.

The energy storage provider has grown rapidly from $200 million in sales in 2021 to over $2.2 billion in 2023.

pv magazine USA connected with the founders of Transect and Paces AI, both of which provide tools to enable automated permitting, due diligence and siting solutions for the community solar and distributed generation project development market, as well as utility and grid stakeholders.

SunVest expects to double its 2025 pipeline to 3 GW from its current 1.5 GW threshold, with an expectation of 215 MW of operating assets by year end 2023.

BloombergNEF solar analyst Jenny Chase says 268 GW of new solar capacity came online in 2022, with annual installations expected to hit 315 GW in 2023.

The company’s first 46 kW solar canopy was recently deployed in Brownsville, NYC, and features a low 4.5% shading factor.

With a public utility market prohibitive of solar development, Alabama constituents are hopeful that the Inflation Reduction Act could create a market for behind-the-meter distributed generation activity.