The top five articles of 2021 show that pv magazine readers really pay attention when innovative new technologies show great potential, are concerned about the lifetime of components in a solar installation, and are tracking the electric vehicle revolution.
pv magazine at the Roundtables USA 2021 in November.
While 2021 started with many of us hunkered down in isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the solar industry was anything but quiet and stagnant in the past year.
Here are the articles most widely read and shared articles at pv magazine USA in 2021:
This energy storage technology, based on gravity and kinetic energy, shows much promise in theory but the tide was turned when it landed its first customer order. Watch the video here to see how it works. DG Fuels signed a $520 million deal for 1.6 GWh of energy storage from Energy Vault to manufacture synthetic aviation fuels with no carbon emissions. Energy Vault estimates that this agreement will generate up to $520 million in revenue across three projects, the first of which expected to commence in mid-2022.
When Boston-based startup Form Energy introduced its new battery technology, they claimed would “reform the global electricity system to run on 100% low-cost renewable energy.” The rechargeable iron-air battery can store electricity for 100 hours at costs– the company says–are competitive with legacy power plants. In July the company had secured $200 million Series D funding and announced that its first project is a 1 MW / 150 MWh pilot installation with Minnesota-based utility Great River Energy, which Form Energy said it expects to have deployed by 2023.
Ryan Kennedy’s three-part series took a look at the cost of individual components of residential solar installations including rooftop residential solar panels, residential energy storage batteries, and this one on inverters. While all three articles topped the charts in our most-read category, this one garnered the most attention likely because the inverter is a critical piece to the installation due to the fact they have the shortest lifespan of all the components and are the leading cause of system failure.
According to a report issued last spring by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, electric vehicles made up only 3% of all global car sales but that figure is expected to jump to 58% of global passenger vehicle sales in 2040. The ramp in EV adoption will be led initially by reaching price parity with internal combustion engine, which is dependent on policies and regulations such as those on fuel economy and CO2 emissions.
In May, Maxeon launched a line of solar panels based on its Air technology platform, which was unique because it promised to bring solar to previously inaccessible roof spaces. According to Maxeon, the Air solar panels can be adhered directly to the roof without the need for racking or other mounting systems. Because of their adhesive and low-weight nature, the technology will initially target installations on roofs that are not engineered to support the weight of conventional solar systems. Maxeon recently announced that the Air panels would be launched first in Europe.
Your avid readership shows what the hot trends are in the industry, and you can expect that pv magazine USA will bring you follow-up coverage on these stories and more as we head into 2022. Thank you for your loyalty!
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
More articles from Anne Fischer
Please be mindful of our community standards.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Notify me of follow-up comments by email.
Notify me of new posts by email.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.
Legal Notice Terms and Conditions Privacy Policy © pv magazine 2022
Welcome to pv magazine USA. This site uses cookies. Read our policy. ×
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.