Clean Energy Associates (CEA) has calculated the price premium that solar developers will swallow in return for the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) savings offered by the latest generation of high-efficiency PV panels.

Saudi Arabia aims to add 10 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2027, with solar to account for the lion’s share. The Middle East Solar Industry Association (MESIA) describes the main market drivers that could make this target achievable.

PV deployment is gathering pace in the EU member state but grid capacity shortfalls and unpredictable shifts in government policy need to be addressed if the nation is to harness its full solar – and European energy security – potential.

Despite the ever-growing number of nations committing to attaining a net-zero economy, there appears little prospect yet of a future free of fossil fuels, as Roger Lewis, an environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) expert at Downing LLP explains.

A new report by IEA PVPS Task 18 provides a blueprint guide on how to conduct feasibility studies for off-grid and edge-of-grid power systems. The optimal system size and specifications vary depending on the client’s priorities. The desired project outcomes can be identified using pure financial analysis (NPV, IRR) or additionally taking environmental performance into account.

The off-grid solar sector has shown resilience in the face of pandemic-related challenges, with 70 million people gaining access to electricity from early 2020 to the end of 2021. However, the ability to pay for solar energy kits has taken a hit.

The African Development Bank has announced that European and US donors will provide $20 million of concessional loans to support pay-as-you-go solar companies in sub-Saharan Africa.

The International Renewable Energy Agency’s latest annual report on the progress towards UN sustainable development goal seven estimates 670 million people will still lack electricity in 2030, and more than 2 billion will be reliant on unhealthy, polluting cooking methods.

The European Commission wants to introduce legislation to back semiconductor research and to address the immediate problem of supply chain bottlenecks by drumming up more than €43 billion, with member states and the private sector expected to contribute.

The input costs of the two biggest contributors to solar plant development expense have gone through the roof since the world began to come out of Covid-19 lockdowns, to leave project developers with some difficult choices.

The government of Cape Verde is seeking developers to build four solar plants across four islands in the archipelagic nation.

Global renewable capacity increased by 295 GW last year, bringing the world to a cumulative installed capacity of 3,372 GW, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

Karolina Attspodina, the CEO of Germany-based We do Solar, speaks with pv magazine about the tech behind the startup’s balcony solar kits. She discusses potential savings, shading impacts, and concerns about electrocution and fire risks with plug-in solar modules.

Green Akku’s “selfPV” solution is available in versions featuring one or two solar modules, with prices ranging from €2,057 ($2.215) to €2,434. It says homeowners can self-consume all of the generated solar power, without having to feed it into the grid.

Bureau Veritas tells pv magazine that there is a great deal of interest in hydrogen certification schemes in Europe, Australia, the United States, and the Middle East.

Phaesun and Solar Cooling Engineering have developed a PV-powered cold room for small-scale farmers in Africa. The solution, which has been installed at a farm in Kenya, includes a 2.8 kW solar array and vapor compression heat pumps.

The European Heat Pump Association has compiled an up-to-date overview of subsidies for residential heat pumps in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Switzerland.

State-owned IndianOil says it plans to have around 2 million metric tons of green hydrogen capacity in its portfolio by 2050.

Skylab, a solar tracking distributor and renewable energy project developer, has unveiled ambitious plans to build about 1 GW of solar and battery energy storage facility in the Australian state of Queensland.

An international group of researchers has calculated the potential for floating solar across the world. The results show a generation potential of 9,434 TWh per year across 114,555 global reservoirs, with 30% of their area covered. The United States leads with 1,911 TWh per year of potential, followed by China at 1,107 TWh per year and Brazil at 865 TWh per year.

Rather than using solar or wind to power electrolysis, researchers are testing the competitiveness of photoelectrochemical cells to produce emissions-free hydrogen fuels.

Solarix, a building-integrated PV (BIPV) manufacturer in the Netherlands, has developed a white variant of its facade solar panels. It says demand for white BIPV products is rising across Europe, especially among architects.

Samsung and the city of Oxford in the UK have announced the trial of a neighborhood heat pump scheme in Rose Hill, Oxford. The project aims to connect communities to local installers, helping to remove key barriers to heat pump uptake, including cost. Up to 150 Samsung air-source heat pumps will be installed at a reduced price of GBP 2,600 ($3,185) each.

SolarinBlue has deployed the first units of an offshore PV pilot plant in the Mediterranean Sea, 1.5 km off the port of Sète, France.

Researchers in China have built a perovskite solar cell with a 2D/3D heterojunction architecture. The device has an open-circuit voltage of 1.19 V, a short-circuit current of 25.21 mA cm−2, and a fill factor of 82.61%.

SEG Solar says it will invest $60 million in a new US factory. It currently produces panels at factories in Vietnam and Indonesia.

EnergyBin has released its annual PV module price index, which shows that module prices have fallen from their 2022 peak – but they are still more expensive than they were in 2020.

Reshoring crystalline silicon PV panel manufacturing to the United States by 2035 could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30% and energy consumption by 13% from 2020 levels, according to scientists from Cornell University.

Solitek has revealed plans to build a new manufacturing facility in Benevento, Italy.

Huasun’s new PV modules have an open-circuit voltage of 49.46 V, a short-circuit current of 17.57 A, and a fill factor of 83.29%. Germany’s TÜV SUD has confirmed the results.

Lhyfe has revealed plans to jointly develop offshore renewable green hydrogen with Centrica in the United Kingdom. Separately, the Paris-listed hydrogen producer said it has also acquired a stake in Finland’s Flexens.

The Polish government says it will launch the fifth round of its Mój Prąd program in April. The scheme will offer rebates for air and ground heat pumps, as well as residential batteries.

Relectrify, an Australian battery technology startup, has secured approval from the International Electrotechnical Commission for its ReVolve energy storage product, which opens the way for it to globally scale up its cell-level control tech.

Germany’s Bosch has developed an air-source heat pump that uses propane (R290) as the refrigerant. It can produce between 3.9 kW and 6.7 kW of heat, and domestic hot water to a temperature of up to 75 C. It says the heat pump can be paired with rooftop solar to maximize self-consumption.

Australian materials tech developer Kinaltek has unveiled a one-step production process that it says can convert common silica powders into battery-grade nanosilicon for less than 5% of the cost of existing technologies. The innovation paves the way for the use of silicon nanoparticles in high-performance lithium-ion batteries.