Residential PV

The first installations featuring the Tesla Powerwall 3 are currently being completed in the United States, with the company promoting a fully integrated solar-plus-storage and electric vehicle (EV) residential system, with big backup power capacity. While the first Powerwall created a new market segment, the latest iteration enters a marketplace in oversupply.

The state government stated that more than 100,000 people have been registered on the portal under the PM Suryaghar Yojana for residential rooftop solar systems in the state so far.

Under the Net Zero Buildings Initiative, Mahindra Group and Johnson Controls have launched a cost-free toolkit that will help building and facility owners to learn about the best practices of sustainable buildings, implement tools to assess building parameters, identify and implement conservation measures, and understand building regulations in India, available incentives, technology, financing models, and more.

The novel methodology is reportedly able to track global maximum power point and reduce power losses in partially shaded PV systems by up to 33%. It uses a backstepping controller (BSC) algorithm to adjust the pulse width modulation signal and a genetic algorithm to compute the BSC gains to achieve an optimal PV system outcome.

Austrian manufacturer Aerocompact has developed the SN2 Q PLUS solar mounting system, which can support PV modules measuring up to 1,310 mm x 2,500 mm. It has an installation angle of between 5 degrees and 10 degrees.

The residential rooftop solar scheme provides a central financial assistance (CFA) of 60% of the system cost for 2 kW systems and 40% of the additional system cost for systems between 2 to 3 kW capacity. The CFA will be capped at 3 kW. At current benchmark prices, this will mean INR 30,000 subsidy for 1 kW system, INR 60,000 for 2 kW systems, and INR 78,000 for 3 kW systems or higher.

Perovskite technology, with its potential for large-scale deployment and local production, presents a compelling pathway towards a more secure and sustainable energy future.

The Indonesian government has ended net metering for rooftop solar installations. The Jakarta-based Institute for Essential Services Reform says this could make it harder for the country to meet its solar deployment targets, as PV installations will become more expensive for households and small businesses.

Polycab has unveiled three-phase inverters for residential and commercial rooftop solar PV projects. The inverters have a nominal power rating ranging from 5 kW to 30 kW and a maximum efficiency of 98.4%.

As rooftop solar racks up records in Australia, price cannibalization has resulted in a “struggling” large-scale market segment. Bruce Mountain, head of the University of Victoria’s Energy Policy Centre, says that increasingly depressed wholesale electricity prices during the day are squeezing out big PV.