In its first monthly column for pv magazine, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) explains how a team of its experts is currently working on the definition of new standards for VIPV systems.

Tariffs on solar glass harm the European solar industry. This problem can now be easily solved without jeopardizing the European solar glass production.

In another article of a series, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu) gives voice to Claire Gardner, Marketing Manager Europe at Chinese inverter manufacturer Solis. She tells how she had to deal with her own insecurities rather than with a women-hostile environment at the beginning of her career in the renewable energy industry.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that warm sea surface temperatures and disturbances increased onshore moisture along China’s southern coast, which in turn increased solar irradiance by 5-15% on long term averages.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, offers bite-sized analysis on solar PV module supply and price trends.

Australian battery company Li-S Energy claims to have taken a significant step toward proving the safety of its semi-solid-state lithium-sulfur batteries, with the third-generation technology successfully passing a series of nail penetration tests.

SJVN is now accepting bids to develop 1.2 GW of solar projects, connected to India’s interstate transmission system, anywhere in the country. Bidding closes on June 17.

The UK-based manufacturer said the new Ecomod 290HT products have a size ranging from 15 kW to 50 kW and a coefficent of performance of up to 4.9. The systems can reportedly achieve a flow temperature of 75 C.

The 3.33 kW / 6.65 kWh lithium-ferro-phosphate battery offers home backup and storage of rooftop solar generation.

Wiki-Solar’s latest league table finds the cumulative installations of the top 34 engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors now globally stands in excess of 100 GW (AC).

AleaSoft Energy Forecasting recorded electricity price increases in all major European markets during the fourth week of April. It also registered historical daily records for solar production in Portugal and Spain.

Researchers in Spain has found that combining PV power generation with fuel cells and battery storage may help homes considerably reduce their levelized cost of energy. Their simulation reportedly demonstrated homes may also become completely self-sufficient.

Luxembourg-based Ardagh Group is installing solar PV at several of its packaging manufacturing sites in the United Kingdom and Europe. The latest is a 1.75 MW rooftop system installed at a glass packaging facility in Irvine, Scotland.

The German authorities have granted 2.23 GW in a utility-scale solar tender, with bids ranging from €0.0362 ($0.039)/kWh to €0.0549/kWh, oversubscribed to 4.1 GW.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) says a new 100 MW solar project in Bangladesh will be the country’s first private sector utility-scale PV facility to secure ADB support.

The European Hydrogen Bank’s pilot auction is delivering €720 million ($768.3 million) to seven renewable hydrogen projects in Finland, Norway, Portugal and Spain. Together, they plan to produce 1.58 million tons of renewable hydrogen over a period of 10 years.

Chinese manufacturer Huasun says it has achieved an efficiency of more than 26% for both G12R and G12 heterojunction (HJT) solar cells.

An international research team has developed a new type of perovskite solar cell by using 4-phenyl thiosemicarbazide (4PTSC) as a precursor additive. The device showed an improved open-circuit voltage and “exceptional” long-term stability.

Taiwanese manufacturer Winaico says its new 430 W glass-glass tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) modules have a power conversion efficiency of 22.02%.

Scientists led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have designed a new PV-powered desalination system based on the time-variant electrodialysis reversal (EDR) technology. The proposed system reportedly achieves lower levelized cost of water than conventional solar-powered desalination techs.

A team from Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems has reduced silver consumption in the fabrication of PERC solar cells by screen-printing ultra-fine metallization lines measuring just 14 μm. The resulting solar cell offered remarkable efficiency levels, which were confirmed by Fraunhofer ISE CalLab.

Arctech says it plans to open a 3 GW tracker factory in Saudi Arabia. The tracker manufacturer says the facility in Jeddah will be designed to reach up to 10 GW of capacity.

The Indian government has reinstated the so-called Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) mandate from April 1, 2024. The move creates a non-tariff barrier for Chinese products.

Researchers at the Delft University of Technology have fabricated an interdigitated back contact and heterojunction solar cell that uses a thin full-area molybdenum oxide layer as a blanket layer. The device reportedly ensures well-passivated gaps between electron and hole collecting regions.

The Aswan High Dam Reservoir is one of the world’s largest water reservoir and suffers from high water evaporation rates due to the region’s very hot and dry climate. Floating PV installations may be a remedy, while also offering a good match for hydropower generation.

Alberto Boretti was a senior research professor at Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University in 2021 when he first started discussing the idea of a hydrogen city in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. The New Zealand-based independent tells pv magazine that it is now commercially feasible, as the city’s 200 MW of energy demand would necessitate 1 GW to 1.3 GW of solar and wind capacity, 509 MW to 997 MW of electrolysis capacity, and 145,000 MWh of hydrogen storage capacity.

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. (CATL) has shown its latest lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery at an auto show in Beijing. The Chinese company says it has an energy density of 205 Wh per kg, almost 8% higher than the current state of the art for such batteries.

The Middle East Solar Industry Association’s (MESIA) latest Solar Outlook Report says that despite rapid growth in solar deployment across the Middle East and North Africa, the area’s power mix is still dominated by fossil fuels. It says growth will be led by utility-scale solar, but it calls for a balanced approach involving distributed energy projects.

Cordier, a winery in Bordeaux, France, is building solar carports at two of its facilities in southern France. The two PV arrays will be tied to 20 EV charging stations.

The Hungarian government has earmarked HUF 62 billion ($169 million) for grid-scale energy storage projects in a bid to facilitate further deployment of renewable energy sources.