The PEARL PV Country Reports 2020 are out and available online! This full package is an absolutely interesting work about the PV sector in different countries located in Europe. In this report you can find fruitful findings about almost all European countries. Information about 34 countries in Europe is available in this package which is classified in two main categories (i) general findings, and (ii) maps with collected data. In this report, almost all European countries have collaborated. To each of these countries one chapter is dedicated about detailed PV related findings. For instance information about PV installations, policies, meteorological findings, total annual electricity production, PV production per capita, national programs, future plans for PV performance, etc. This comprehensive information together with informative graphs and images are gathered in the PEARL PV Country Reports 2020 as one package.
Please feel free to download the digital version of PEARL PV Country Reports 2020 using this link:
We would like to thank specially the editorial team consisting of Prof. Istvan Farkas, Amrita Raghoebarsing, Divine Atsu, Dr. Eli Shirazi, Simon Boddaert, Dr. David Moser, Prof. Nicola Pearsall, and Prof. Angèle Reinders.
Please note that PEARL PV Country report is published every (two) year(s), consequently please update your data in the last quarter of year 2023.
The conference which was attended by about 150 colleagues, opened with a fruitful plenary session on Monday 14 March. In the plenary session the following respected colleagues presented, after opening talks by the conference organizers: Dr. Teresa Barnes, about Predicting and Extending PV Module Lifetime. Prof. Monica Lira-Cantu presented about Perovskite Solar Cell Stability. After a short break Prof. Christophe Ballif gave a talk entitled “Photovoltaics go fast: improved technologies and carbon footprint for a wider range of applications”. Finally, Prof. Jan Kleissl talked about Solar Forecasting. On Monday afternoon, different researchers and scientist presented their research in two parallel sessions on resp. PV Monitoring and PV in Grids.
The conference continued on the second day by parallel sessions in the morning on resp. Reliability and Durability of PV and Simulation of PV. The presentations continued after the lunch break with the topic of PV in the built environment. The second day of the conference finished with a very interesting plenary session where Prof. Istvan Farkas talked about the PEARL PV Country Reports 2020, and wrap-up talks by Prof. Angèle Reinders, Dr. David Moser, and Prof. Wilfried van Sark.
On the third and last day of the PEARL PV Conference an amazing excursion took place during which the participants visited HyET Solar in Arnhem for their production line for flexible solar modules. Then the bus travelled to Helmond to visit the fabulous company Lightyear, to see the solar powered Lightyear One car which is an excellent example of Vehicle Integrated PV. Finally, we had a chance to visit the Solar-Beat facility and their rooftop test site at the campus of Eindhoven University of Technology. This attractive hybrid event was not possible without the efforts of the following organizers: Dr. David Moser, Prof. Dr. Jeff Kettle , Prof. dr. Nicola Pearsall, Dr. Bogdan Burduhos, Dr. Jonathan Leloux, Prof. Dr. Wilfried Van Sark, and Prof. Dr. Angele Reinders.
Most presentations have been uploaded on the webpage of this event, and can, hence, be easily downloaded.
The conference was rated very high regarding the relevance of its program (88,9% of the attendees on site ranked this with a 5 out of 5), networking opportunities and organization.
The fourth Training School ““Potential of monitoring tools and advanced operation and maintenance practice for security and predictability of PV performance” organized by EU COST Action PEARL PV, has been executed in collaboration with University at Twente, the Netherlands, from 8 to 11 March 2022. This 4-day Training School was another successful hybrid events of Pearl PV with both online and live platforms and attracted 20 Trainees from 11 countries. The Training School started on March 8 with an informative opening lecture presented by Prof. Angèle Reinders, On the same day all of the trainees successfully presented their research by posters . On this day, Dr. Jonathan Leloux, Prof. Angèle Reinders and Prof. Jurriaan Schmitz presented fruitful lectures about data monitoring, product development with PV, Fabrication of Al-BSF cells and PV reliability, respectively.
The second day of the training school started with an interesting presentation by Prof. Wilfried van Sark about PV performance monitoring in a 100% renewable society, followed by a lecture from Dr. Mahmoud Dhimish about potential-induced degradation. Subsequently all trainees who attended this event in person enjoyed an excursion and ended the day with a workshop about a group assignment facilitated and presented by Dr. Cedric Caruana. On the third day of the training school, Dr. Sara Golroodbari and Dr. Eli Shirazi presented about the monitoring system for floating PV and Solar Forecasting, respectively, followed by a presentations about the role of digitalization in advanced operation and maintenance practices, by Dr. Atse Louwen. This four-day training school was wrapped up and finished by group presentations on the group assignments.
This attractive hybrid event was not be possible without the efforts of the following organizers: Dr. Cedric Caruana, Prof. Aleksandra Krstić-Furundžić, Prof. Dr. Jeffrey Kettle, Ms. Saskia Groenendijk, Mr. Peter Jansen, Dr. Eli Shirazi, Prof. Dr. Wilfried Van Sark and Prof. Dr. Angele Reinders.
All Trainers and Trainees, on site and online, on the second day of this Training School
We invite you to take part in the PEARL PV Data Challenge. By participation you will contribute to the further development of the joint CKAN Data Server of PEARLV and new insights in big data analysis of installed PV systems. Also you will be invited to co-author scientific papers resulting from the PEARL PV Data Challenge. Those are already good reasons to participate. Moreover, in addition, you will get the stage for the presentation of your results at the PEARL PV Conference which will held from 14 March ’22 onwards, in the Netherlands.
Therefore sign up and participate in the PEARL PV Data Challenge. Registration will be possible until 23 Dec ‘21. We offer two interesting topics, which you can explore during this challenge, see below:
Timeline for both challenges: • Participants express their interest to the contact person of the challenge (deadline: 23 Dec 2021) • Participants submit/upload their datasets in the CKAN data server (deadline: 15 Jan 2022) • Participants develop, train, test and validate their algorithms • Participants submit results to the contact person of the challenge (deadline: 28 Feb 2022)
During this challenge you will use the advanced CKAN Data Server of COST Action PEARL PV. For questions about the use of this data server please contact the admins: (1) Dr. Eli Shirazi (e.shirazi@utwente.nl) and (2) Dr. Atse Louwen (atse.louwen@eurac.edu)
The third Training School “Simulation tools and models for the analysis of PV system performance” organized by EU COST Action PEARL PV, has been completed in collaboration with Transilvania University of Braşov, on the 6th of July 2021. This 4-day Training School was one of the successful hybrid events of Pearl PV with both online and live platforms and attracted 23 Trainees. The Trainees who preferred to attend the Training School in person stayed at the Transilvania University of Braşov, Romania.
Throughout the Training School, the role of modeling and simulation in assessing and monitoring PV system performance, energy harvesting, degradation, fault detection and floating PV systems was demonstrated. Also, some powerful tools like, PVLIB, and LightTools for modeling and simulating solar PV systems were studied.
Specifically the Training School focussed on simulation tools and models to investigate the design of PV systems, predict their output and assess their performance in operation. Moreover the program addressed current software developments and modelling principles and approaches for PV system analysis, including system optimisation, performance prediction and fault and loss identification.
This hybrid Training School had attendees, including researchers and students, who had the opportunity to learn about simulation and modeling of different solar PV systems from PEARL PV Working Group members and external experts through multiple scientific lectures. A study tour and a site visit were offered to the attendees who participated in person and all Trainees received a certificate of attendance at the end of the course.
The following organizers have been the driving force behind this interesting Training School: Local organizer, dr. Bogdan Burduhos, Training School Managers: Prof. dr. Aleksandra Krstić-Furundžić and dr. Cedric Caruana, and Chair of PV Simulation Working Group (WG3): Prof. Dr. Nicola Pearsall. They are all warmheartedly thanked.
PEARL PV is a networking science Action funded by the COST Programme of HORIZON 2020 and HORIZON Europe with the aim to improve the energy performance and reliability of PV solar energy systems in Europe leading to lower costs of electricity produced by PV systems by a higher energy yield, a longer lifetime and a reduction in the perceived risk in investments in PV projects. For further developments, activities, and results of the ongoing work of the PEARL PV network, you may access https://www.pearlpv-cost.eu/ or follow PEARL PV on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Attendees of the 3rd Training School of COST Action PEARL PV listening to a lecture.Site visit to the PV test facilities at Transilvania University of Braşov (Romania) during the 3rd Training School of COST Action PEARL PV
The PEARL PV seminar on “Designing with Photovoltaics”, has been successfully held on July 5, 2021, at the Transilvania University of Braşov in Braşov, Romania. The event hosted 50 attendees out of which 30% on location and 70% online. The Chair of COST Action PEARL PV opened the seminar at 9:00 AM, followed by talks from local organizer Bogdan-Gabriel Burduhos, from the Transilvania University of Braşov (TUB) – Romania, Mihai Lates, the vice-dean of TUB and Anca Duță, the coordinator of RESREC research center of TUB. Francesco Frontini from SUPSI, Switzerland extensively presented about the interesting BIPV Status Report in Europe. Next Angele Reinders introduced the broader context of designing with photovoltaics with many illustrations. Furthermore, Moritz Kitshhoff and Mathieu Baudry from Sono Motors, Germany presented about the challenges in the integration of solar on BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle). After a short break Neel Patel from Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany, had a presentation about the VIPV (Vehicle integrated Photovoltaic) modeling method for dynamic scenarios. After a lunch break we had two interesting sessions, in the first session, Bonna Newman from TNO, The Netherlands presented about Designing PV for vehicles, secondly, Marjan van Aubel from Studio Van Aubel, The Netherlands talked about solar design in everyday environments. In the final session, Tom Minderhoud from UNStudio, The Netherlands presented “The future evolution of PV in architectural design” and the last but not least presentation was “Soft and embodied solar design: a practice-based perspective on weaving solar energy into everyday life” which was presented by Pauline van Dongen from Studio Van Dongen, The Netherlands It was a fruitful seminar with speakers from 10 different organizations. The presentations can be accessed in due course on this webpage: Seminar on “Designing with Photovoltaics” – PEARL PV (pearlpv-cost.eu)
The EU COST Action PEARL PV (Performance and Reliability of Photovoltaics Systems Evaluations of Large-Scale Monitoring Data) is organizing a weeklong of events between the 24th and 27th of February 2020 in Utrecht, The Netherlands. The PEARL PV events kicked off on Monday 24 February with the Management Committee Meeting. The Meeting is followed by plenary meetings and five parallel workshops, each one covering the different topics of the working groups. PV big data analytics, PV systems integration, simulation of performance, sustainability in the built environment etc. are only some of the themes of the sessions, which are organised by the working group leaders. A technical tour will take place during the last day to various PV projects in the vicinity of Utrecht and Amsterdam. All events are hosted by prof. Wilfried van Sark of University of Utrecht.
This COST Action’s aim is to improve the energy
performance and reliability of photovoltaic (PV) solar energy systems in Europe
leading to lower costs of electricity produced by PV systems by a higher energy
yield, a longer lifetime and a reduction in the perceived risk in investments
in PV projects.
The objective will be achieved by analyzing data of the actual monitored long-term performance, defects and failures in PV systems installed all over Europe to quantitatively determine the absolute influences of components rated performance, key design of systems, installation, operation, maintenance practice, geographic location and weather factors on the performance, performance degradation over time and failure modes of these PV systems. For more information, you may visit the Action’s webpage pearlpv-cost.eu. (sources of figures: Sark)
With 28 oral presentations and posters, Pearl PV members had a prominent presence at the recent 36th European PV Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC) that was organised in September in Marseilles. More specifically, during the insightful presentations given between the 9th and 13th September 2019, PV experts and researchers presented their work on the following topics among others:
Data bank development for PV monitoring data,
analysis and simulation;
International
Collaboration Framework for the Calculation of Performance Loss Rates: Data
Quality, Benchmarks, and Trends;
Error
Analysis of Aged Modules with Cracked Backsheets;
Weathering
Stability of Alternative Polyolefin Encapsulants in Glass-Glass Modules; and
Comparative
Analysis of a Very Large CIS and Small c-Si PV Systems under Tropical Climate.
More information and links to the papers and
presentation can be found on the Pearl PV website here.
At EU PVSEC this year 2000 delegates from 70
countries were present to listen to 884 presentations in the Scientific
Programme as well as more than 120 additional presentations in 12 parallel events.
International exhibitors from research, laboratory equipment and special
materials were attracting project managers and developers.
Save the date for the next edition of EU PVSEC 2020 during 7th-11th September 2020 in Lisbon, Portugal at the CCL Lisbon Congress Centre.
EU COST Action PEARL PV, short for Performance and Reliability of Photovoltaic Systems: Evaluations of Large-Scale Monitoring Dataâ€, has recently completed a Seminar focusing on the topic of PV Reliability and Durability, which took place in Malta, on the 14th of October 2019 in collaboration with the MCAST Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology. Throughout the Seminar the importance of performance and durability of solar PV power systems for the growth and competitiveness of the market was demonstrated.
The Seminar was followed by a four-day Training School between the 15th and 18th October 2019, on the topic of Evaluation of the performance degradation of PV systems influence factors, failure modes and their detectability and effect on economic viability. More than 50 researchers, students and other trainees had the opportunity to learn about key topics of reliability for state-of-the-art and emerging technologies from PEARL PV Working Group members and external experts through multiple expert lectures, interactive seminars, and practical courses including team action work and study tours.
PEARL PV is a networking science action funded by the COST Programme of HORIZON 2020 with the aim to improve the energy performance and reliability of PV solar energy systems in Europe leading to lower costs of electricity produced by PV systems by a higher energy yield, a longer life time and a reduction in the perceived risk in investments in PV projects. For further developments, activities and results of the ongoing work of the PEARL PV network, you may access https://www.pearlpv-cost.eu/ or follow PEARL PV in LinkedIn and Twitter.
The Management Committee of the COST Action Pearl PV(Performance and Reliability of Photovoltaic Systems: Evaluations of Large-Scale Monitoring Data) has recently successfully completed its third meeting at University of Lisbon (Faculdade de Ciencias) in Lisbon, during which representatives from 24 countries were present. The Management Committee discussed among others the Action’s progress and the next steps with regards to the short-term scientific missions, the work plan of the various working groups, valorization panel meetings, training schools, seminars and other important matters. After the MC meeting had taken place on the 25th February, workshops started during which Working Group leaders and participants discussed the results to date, the work plans and tasks of the Working Groups. At these WG workshops the individual research plans were updated, while links with other WGs were also discussed. Prior to the workshops that were organized on the 26th February, both a proposal writing workshop and a plenary meeting took place. Finally, on the last day of the Pearl PV events in sunny Lisbon, an interesting excursion to a CPV plant in Evora took place!
Pearl PV like every Cost Action is a bottom-up science and technology network, open to researchers and stakeholders with a duration of four years. In the framework of this Action, a range of networking tools will be actively utilised, such as workshops, conferences, training schools, short-term scientific missions (STSMs), and dissemination activities. The next meetings – comprising a Seminar and a Training School – will be held in Malta in Fall of this year. Exact dates and location will be announced soon on the website of Pearl PV.
