| | Dec - Jan8IN MY OPINIONBy Tracy Thatcher, Senior Director of Technology Product Development, Valmont SolarKEEPING-UP WITH TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT IN SOLAR ENERGYPrimary Challenges Faced by Companies in the Development SpaceEven though new technologies and new business models continue to rapidly change and emerge, one of the biggest challenges is the supply chain. Developing a new product design is one thing, but being able to get the right materials at the right time and at the right price continues to be a challenge. Having a global footprint and global supply chain is one of the strategies we have utilized at Valmont Solar to overcome that challenge and bring that needed flexibility and stability without sacrificing quality. We leverage our regional teams and diverse regional supply bases to supply locally in a region where it makes sense, which allows us to be more responsive in terms of overall project timing, which customers appreciate. Key Breakthroughs or Innovations in Making Solar Power Accessible and AffordableThree breakthroughs are very much underway but need to continue to gain momentum and scale. The first, and perhaps most apparent, is energy storage. As we continue the energy transition into electrification of nearly everything, like tractors, semis, of course, buildings, etc., we will face major issues with the grid. Distributed generation, along with energy storage, will play a pivotal role as we move away from point generation systems. However, our storage technologies are limited by issues with sustainability, so we need further breakthroughs with storage technologies and their deployment. The second is mixed-use and difficult land use. Let's face it: we have finite space for renewable generation at scale, and the easy projects with flat land close to grid infrastructure are mostly done. The push now is to develop projects on more difficult topographies such as the sides of mountains, on water, brownfield sites, and, what I am excited about, in mixed-use cases such as agrivoltaics. The last breakthrough we need is to keep up the trajectory of steadily lowering costs while also increasing generation. That has been the success story of the solar industry over the last decade or so, where we now have payback periods of just a few years on some projects. There will continue to be a huge emphasis on energy density, especially considering what I mentioned earlier with site scarcity and as we move to a distributed model of energy generation. This balance of increasing generation while lowering costs is what made trackers a breakthrough in recent years. Tracker technology has existed since the 1980s, but the project economics finally penciled out as costs came down. Now, it's hard to find large, ground-mount projects that don't utilize single-axis trackers because that additional 20 percent generation makes the project economics that much better.
< Page 7 | Page 9 >