Press Releases

Please find here our press archive. For your convenience we provide all press releases as PDF.

2010-12-08
New solar siting tool launched at focussolar.de  ›››
»How profitable is the installation and operation of solar systems of all sizes?« Whether it's residential, commercial or utility-scale solar, reliable information is key to ensuring profitability. focus solar has developed a unique siting and reporting tool that makes this information highly desirable to the institutional investor as well as to the solar homeowner.

Website visitors at focussolar.de enter their address, view the prospective site on aerial imagery, and order yield reports for their solar system. The service is addressing different aspects of solar planning – related to the building itself and atmospheric weather influences – merging them into one single assessment tool. How much solar insolation is incident on a particular rooftop? To answer that question, not only the geometry and structural form of the roof need to be known, but it's equally important to have access to long-term on-site solar insolation records. All these different aspects are covered by focus solar's online planning tool. The aerial imagery is sourced from Microsoft Bing Maps and shows houses and rooftops from a bird's eye perspective. Determining roof pitch and azimuth angle is now an entirely web-based process carried out on the computer screen. The solar insolation records are derived from geostationary weather satellites such as Meteosat (for Europe), GOES (for America) and MTSAT (for Asia and Australia). Processing of weather satellite imagery is carried out by focus solar's own solar radiation algorithm.

All these powerful tools, aerial imagery and insolation data, are made available online, which sets a new stage in solar planning. Rather than working with desktop software, browser-based platforms allow to exploit larger data resources. Users benefit from more realistic environments better representative of the situation as it really is. Bing Maps Bird's eye provides a detailed view of your house, from which you determine your roof's parameters. You'll do everything by what you see which takes the guesswork out of planning. And focus solar's satellite data archive has detailed solar insolation records for your site on file, a completely new quality level in assessing solar microclimates. It's comparable to conducting on-site surveying and extensive radiation measurements without the associated cost.

Who is this service for? Both buyers and installers of solar systems have an interest in independent and accurate yield assessments by a neutral third party. Buyers gain confidence that the estimate comes from a neutral source and installers emphasize the trustworthiness of their offer.

For large-scale solar installations, including PV, CPV and CSP power plants, focus solar serves as meteorological data provider and scientific consultant in all questions related to solar radiation, its computation, measurement and validation.

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2010-04-12
focus solar website in new design  ›››
focus solar unveils new website with new design, new logo and colors, giving fresh look and improved services. Planners of residential and utility-scale solar systems alike will benefit from the new online presence. This website sets a new stage in online planning and reporting for solar systems. Designed for users seeking documentation on the expected energy yield, the site combines easiness of use with high scientific standards. Yield predictions are based on satellite observations of solar insolation. Simultaneously, the potential installation site can be viewed on aerial imagery directly online.

The new look of focus solar is live from April 12, 2010. At first, German speaking visitors will enjoy the new features at focussolar.de. The international solar community is invited to join the experience with the launch of focus solar's English and Spanish sites by fall 2010.

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2009-07-02
pvresources.com releases extended version of global PV market review  ›››
pvresources.com releases the Extended Version (100 pages) of its global market review on large-scale photovoltaic power plants. The pdf file on CD is now available for purchase.

Denis Lenardic, author of the report, summarizes the market situation by saying: “The past year was characterized by several projects of MW-range photovoltaic power plants, and it was also the year with the highest market growth ever.”

ISBN 978-961-245-739-6

107 p., CD-ROM

Language: English, country-specific parts also in German, Spanish, French, and Italian

Author: Denis Lenardic (pvresources.com)

Co-authors: Sibylle Petrak (focus solar GmbH), Ulrich Dewald (RWTH University of Aachen)

Distributor: www.solarserver.de

Price: 198,- € including mailing
            168,- € discounted rate for Solarserver customers and Solarserver newsletter subscribers

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2009-05-19
pvresources.com publishes global market review on large-scale PV power plants  ›››
Regardless of whether you are an engineer, market analyst, investor or customer – in this report you will find useful comprehensive information and statistical data about large-scale photovoltaic power plants available nowhere else, covering a wide range of their applications.

The press edition of the report was released today at pvresources.com. It highlights the key findings on installed capacity, capacity by region / country, solar cell and mounting technologies, investment costs and electricity price. pvresources.com’s database includes more than 1,900 large-scale photovoltaic power plants, each with a peak power of 200 kWp or more.

Impressive increases in installed capacity have been realised for a couple of years, but 2008 was the ultimate boom year for MW-range PV power plants. Not only in Spain, where progress is abundantly clear, but in some other countries the cumulative installed power increased significantly. In the European Union progress was, among others, observed in Italy, the Czech Republic and France. The German market decreased slightly, however, without impacting the overall growth of the European market due to the market explosion in Spain.

Europe is still by far the most advanced region with more than 1500 large-scale PV power plants currently in operation, followed by the USA with about 400 PV plants. The US market share now amounts to 7% and represents the third biggest market after Spain and Germany. In Asia, Korea took on a leading role. Several MW-range power plants were put into service in Korea last year. The cumulative power of all these photovoltaic power plants is now more than 3.6 GWp.

The pvresources report was co-authored with several partners; among them are: focus solar; the Department of Economic Geography, RWTH University of Aachen; Suravia, S.A. and the Solarserver web portal. An extended edition will be released in June 2009 featuring some exclusive, never before published information like maps on various themes, basic economical calculations related to investments, and the electrical yield of large-scale photovoltaic systems.

The “Annual Review 2008 Extended Edition” report on CD will become available for purchase at pvresources.com and solarserver.com within the next month.

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