Alternative Energy White Papers

Ensuring safety and security for the next era of the solar PV rollout. You're not just investing in solar energy; you're investing in the future of your business. The European C&I solar market has established itself as a global leader, but there's a factor that often gets overlooked: Safety. At Solnet Group, we believe safety is not a mere checkbox—it's the cornerstone of a profitable and sustainable solar investment. Our latest white paper unpacks the latest advancements in safety and examines how a safer solar system can greatly improve the economic outlook of your investment. If you are in charge of commercial roof space in Europe, and are ready to leverage it to drive down costs for your business, this white paper is for you.

A reliable solar tracker system should not only perform well on challenging sites, but also weather storms and strong winds. High wind events can damage assets on solar tracker sites—resulting in higher remedial costs and increased downtime. Thus, the ideal tracker solution should be aerodynamically stable during bad weather to mitigate risks and maximize returns. But designing trackers for strong winds presents its own challenges. Due to the complex characteristics of wind turbulence on solar arrays, traditional wind tests based on standard building codes often fail to capture the nuances of how different scenarios might affect a tracker’s design. A comprehensive approach—one that not only accounts for a specific tracker design, but also tests for various possibilities that may arise from different wind loading and aerodynamic scenarios—is key to ensuring the success and longevity of your tracker project.

When it comes to developing PV sites in the Midwest, every great opportunity comes with an equal number of challenges. Developers typically face two major setbacks in this region: heavy snow loads and frost heave. Failing to plan for these harsh weather challenges could lead to disastrous consequences such as increased remedial costs, asset downtime, and loss of power purchase agreement (PPA) competitiveness. What makes the Midwest so challenging is its variability. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for the region as sites in Ohio vs. Michigan or even Kansas vs. Minnesota can be drastically different. For this reason alone, it is important to find a partner that has a broad portfolio and can adapt to site-specific concerns.

Solar trackers have revolutionized the utility-scale solar segment providing the economics necessary to make solar supplied energy very affordable and competitive with non-renewable sources. Learn how in this whitepaper.

Snake Tray’s patented Solar Snake Max XL is a completely trenchless cable management solution for utility grade solar and renewable energy plants.

Download Sunfolding’s new paper, The Power of Air, to find out how the advantages that pneumatic power brings to other industries—applying brakes to fast-moving trucks and trains, creating vibration for industrial hoppers and bins, or pressing and cutting raw materials for metalworking and machine tooling—make air a superior source of power in the solar industry.

Learn the benefit of adding a desiccated butyl edge sealant to the photovoltaic (PV) module package by examining the impact of desiccant on moisture breakthrough time and the test results demonstrating adhesion to qualify as a cemented joint.

The call for renewable energy projects around the globe is apparent from private sector emissions reduction targets through federal government and state plans and legislation. This whitepaper from Guidehouse Insights explores how the monitoring and controls (M&C) technology market is evolving to meet the need for advanced solutions to optimize solar and storage assets both behind-the-meter (BTM) and front-of-the-meter (FTM). The research outlines how industry stakeholders should be thinking about their solar and storage project portfolios and the ways advanced M&C technologies improve performance, create new value stream opportunities over time, and reduce asset risk.

California is the largest solar market in the United States in installed capacity and number of solar projects, with 15,967 megawatts of utility-scale installations at the beginning of 2023. California also leads the nation in lost revenue from asset underperformance, with an estimated $90.5 in revenue anticipated to be lost by the state’s utility-scale solar installations through the end of 2023. If rigorous inspections are not performed and hardware is not remediated, these losses are a conservative estimate of the state-wide tally of equipment-driven underperformance.

The studies have been carried out by an independent consultant, with data provided by Soltec for a 50 MW plant using proprietary software.

Soltec’s new algorithm for bifacial modules searches for the optimal position of solar trackers in a PV plant taking into account the sum of front and back radiation.

Learn which BOS & revenue levers have the largest impact on your project NPV. You'll get: Real-world project examples that show why rules of thumb can't be assumed; Insights into CapEx and Revenue levers such as labor, foundation and racking costs, and module energy degradation and production; Detailed breakdowns of the calculations and comparisons you'll need when sourcing modules for your large-scale projects.

Solar + Storage is hot. Really hot. Like the market is going to double six times in the next 15 years hot, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. This whitepaper covers a variety of topics from the basics of what Solar + Storage is all about through to the benefits its provides, different topologies for deployment and the details of what is really involved in executing a successful Solar + Storage project. The article seeks to explain every buzz word you may have heard about Solar + Storage, so it’s a great lead for both experts as well as those looking to learn more about this exciting field. In particular, the article highlights the benefits Alencon’s unique PV-Centric DC-coupled approach to deploying Solar + Storage by using the SPOT family of DC-DC optimizers.