With the continuing maturation of national and state-level policy, India is now at the forefront of emerging solar markets globally. GTM Research and BRIDGE TO INDIA forecast India's total solar installations to expand from just 54 MW in 2010 to more than 9,000 MW by 2016.

Today’s smart grid revolution is driven by energy and sustainability concerns. But utility, engineering, technology and software firms need to get behind the hype to understand the projects and partnerships characterizing the market today, and the companies and solutions with high potential to shape the future smart grid. They must also navigate the practical complexities of a dynamic smart grid ecosystem by addressing issues such as interoperability, transmission, distribution, metering, connecting consumers and cyber security.

The PV industry currently faces the greatest challenge of its 30+ year lifetime. Incentives that drove torrid industry growth over the last several years are drying up. Prices for cells and modules have dropped precipitously as a result of over-capacity and over-production. Module buyers are now becoming more selective, preferring higher-value and higher-quality modules at low prices. As a result of these dynamics, hundreds of rapidly-growing cell and module manufacturing companies that have sprung up in the last decade face a daunting challenge: How to reduce costs faster than prices and return to profitability as the industry transitions to grid-parity?

What does 2012 hold for the smart grid market? With global utilities on the precipice of large-scale smart grid technology deployment, vendors are proliferating and evolving to meet the complexities and requirements of their utility clients. As a result, utilities are flooded by solutions providers vying for their business and are now approaching strategic crossroads that will set the course of their smart grid roadmaps.

The global polysilicon industry will undergo a major shakeout over the next two years, as the feedstock's epic 2011 price declines will continue through 2013. With new entrants bringing capacity online and incumbent suppliers fulfilling expansion plans fomented in the PV demand boom of yesterday, global polysilicon capacity is forecasted to double by 2013 over 2010 levels. In today's market of waning PV demand, this over-supply has already begun to open significant gaps in production scale and therefore cost structure between industry leaders and an increasingly marginalized group of new entrants.

The concept of "bankability" has taken the PV industry by storm. Modules, inverters, systems, and even developers are assessed according to their place on a bankability scale in order to receive project financing. But what does bankability mean, and how can suppliers achieve it? 

This year, technology will drive the industry forward to Smart Grid 2.0. Data analytics software will help utilities put to good use the data now pouring in from over 150 million installed smart meters globally. This year will see consumer getting new options for dynamic pricing, detailed usage information options, and prepayment from upgraded utility IT systems. We saw new consumer products emerge in 2011, and 2012 will be the year that brings wide adoption of these exciting new energy management devices, especially smart thermostats. And, renewables will continue their march across the world, as more businesses and residences begin adding power to the grid along with continued renewable initiatives by utilities. Changes in IT technology will able to better manage and control these resources in 2012.

 Join Mintz Levin and GTM Research for a webinar based on the release of their recent greenpaper Renewable Energy Project Finance in the U.S.: 2010-2013 Overview and Future Outlook. This webinar will focus on the market analysis, future demand scenarios, and league tables for the top 10 providers of debt, tax equity, and direct equity to solar, wind, and other renewable energy projects in the United States.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is one of the key focus areas in the Utility Industry today. It is a leap towards cleaner and energy efficient options and, opens the doors towards tomorrow’s Smart Grid. It transforms the entire Utility Business Process value chain and has an impact on operations, customers and stakeholders. Given the large scale impact of this implementation, success assurance is a big challenge in AMI implementations.

It’s no secret that the smarter your infrastructure gets, the more data you have at your disposal. But as anyone who has implemented a smart grid solution knows, dealing with petabytes of data is no simple task. In addition, just having lots of data doesn’t mean you’ll gain a better understanding of your business, or be able to make better decisions, than before. To do that, you also need software to transform the data into information you can use. So what’s the answer?

The U.S. had a record-setting growth year in 2011, installing 1,855 MW of solar - 109% growth over 2010. While the past few years' growth trajectory has been impressive, and the market will surely grow in 2012, there are hurdles to overcome. With the expiration of the 1603 Treasury Grant, an anti-dumping trade case targeting Chinese producers pending, and political hostility toward renewable energy subsidies, it's imperative that developers and installers choose a module supplier can support and bolster their project development efforts.

Ten years ago, BlackBerry 5810 was the coolest gadget for business people to communicate over 50kbps GPRS link. Today you can buy new iPad with 4G LTE at around 6 to 7Mbps. What lessons does power industry learn from this? Five years ago early adopters of AMI were astounded by 100kbps. Once they had it, they started to devour – they noticed that it was not sufficient for remote firmware update, getting more power quality data, and so on. Furthermore, it was so natural that those early adopters started to think of leveraging AMI to cover distribution network, which is still left as a blind spot in between smart meters and substations in terms of visibility and control from remote operation center.

No other PV technology has seen as many false fits and starts or held as much promise as thin-film PV. While First Solar has demonstrated the scalability and low cost potential of thin-film PV, as of yet, no other thin-film PV manufacturers has been able to replicate First Solar's success. With the current PV module oversupply environment, which caused module ASPs to free fall by over 40% in 2011, accelerating the speed at which thin film manufacturers need to reach efficiency, scale, yield, and ultimately cost targets, the potential of thin-film PV has been significantly undermined. What happened to the promise that thin-film PV once held, who will survive the imminent shakeout, and does thin-film's value proposition still hold true in the brave new module manufacturing market?

Are solar modules really a commodity? Is the quality of all major module brands really the same? Is a bankable manufacturer automatically investment-worthy? Have cost reductions in manufacturing been achieved without affecting quality? Can audit reports paid by the manufacturer really be trusted? SolarBuyer believes the answer is no!