After more than two years of Covid and the feeling of existing, discussing, and solving problems with our clients in a vacuum, it was great to be back at Intersolar again this May.
Networking and showcasing our offerings
The Intersolar tradeshow is the world´s leading exhibition for the solar industry, and Prediktor was there, with a team of 6, at the Messe München exhibition center in Münich, Germany, from May 11th to 13th. Finally, we could meet up with clients face-to-face, do some serious networking and showcase Prediktor´s offerings.
We participated with our own booth in hall A3 and at the Norwegian Pavillion.
The days turned out to be long and intense, meeting with people and having interesting discussions about IPPs and Asset Managers and the O&M team´s challenges concerning meeting the market's needs as more and more PV assets are being implemented.
Massive interest in decision-support systems for AM/O&M
Never before have we experienced such massive attention, but the way the future of renewable energy is turning, with solar power becoming ever more central in the energy transition, is how the world is turning.
For us at Prediktor, some issues especially marked themselves as essential and relevant, and it was interesting to see how the market is resonating with our core values:
- The increased complexity of portfolios and assets puts increased demand on the O&M organizations.
- There is a general agreement in the business that there is a lack of competence in delivering high-level decision support to O&M.
- How will it be possible to ensure that AM/O&M systems are scalable in an efficient and relevant way with the way the situation is developing, with more stakeholders involved and increasing complexity; how can actual and relevant decision-support be secured?
Having the technology that supports the utilization of solar energy, making it possible to harness the sun and get the highest yield possible from solar plants, is becoming increasingly important in the ever-more competitive markets.
Two trends are central to the development of solar power:
1. Demands are growing.
Solar will continue to be the most critical technology in the continued development of the energy transition.
In April 2022, the world reached a total of 1 terawatt-hour of installed solar energy globally, and by 2025 this capacity will, at the current rate, be doubled. In Europe, the EU has a solar strategy that aims to double the solar photovoltaic capacity by 2025 and have 600 gigawatts installed by 2030.
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/european-commission-presents-repowereu-plan
2. Digitalization and software solutions are becoming crucial in the optimization of operations
In taking down O&M costs and increasing asset utilization, digitalization and software solutions are becoming the focus of attention. The pressure on O&M service prices likely drives this increase in interest. Also, the dawning realization is that improperly done O&M leads to significant profit losses.
Several cases of assets not performing on par concerning initial development scenarios have been reported. According to kWh Analytics Risk Assessment, as much as 1 in 8 solar assets underperform their P99 estimates (read more here).
Four other essential takeaways from the Intersolar 2022:
- Technologies are continuously improving year by year. Panels are getting bigger, and efficiencies of production of electricity are improving.
- Hybrid set-ups specifically for PV integrated with battery systems are maturing. Technologies supporting this, e.g., so-called hybrid inverters covering PV and storage, are becoming more ubiquitous.
- Floating solar seems to be getting increased traction, and a whole range of new technologies and projects were showcased.
- There is an increasing demand for digital solutions to support efficient operations in more technically complex scenarios.
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