In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that Ireland, the west coast of Great Britain, Northern Italy, and the rest of Eastern Europe saw 10-30% above average November irradiance while other areas saw lower or close to average irradiance than normal.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick look at the main price trends in the global PV industry.

Strong solar and wind meant MIBEL recorded the lowest energy prices compared to the other major European markets in the final week of November, according to data collected by Aleasoft Energy Forecasting.

Solar-industry companies need to forget ideas about office-based roles and look far afield to source the recruits necessary for the energy transition – and then they need to keep them loyal by offering a rewarding career.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that, in November, weather patterns have started to resemble the characteristic El Niño signature, with low pressure in the northwest Pacific, and an enhanced subtropical jet stream spreading from the Pacific across the southern United States.

The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero says the latest round for its Boiler Upgrade Scheme – an initiative awarding GBP 7,500 ($9,500) to families in England and Wales to replace traditional boilers for heat pumps – “surged” with a threefold increase in applications.

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has prepared a report, funded by the US Department of Energy, to thoroughly quantify the amount of lithium in an underground reserve in the Salton Sea, California.

Rolls-Royce has told pv magazine that it prefers sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) for large commercial flights, but it continues to invest in hydrogen for mid-size aircraft in partnership with easyJet.

Delhi-based Bluebird Solar, which currently operates 400 MW of annual panel manufacturing capacity, says it will ramp up capacity to 1.2 GW by March 2024 and to 2 GW by March 2025.

The South African Government’s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy announced French utility Électricité de France (EDF) will develop 257 MW of battery energy-storage systems across three projects, while South African renewable energy company Scatec Africa will develop one 103 MW project.

Scientists in Spain have proposed to combine anaerobic digestion plants with photovoltaic-thermal panels and have found that this combination may achieve an LCOE of $0.045/kWh across several locations in Europe and North America.

Daikin has released a line of residential air-to-air heat pumps, using difluoromethane (R32) as the refrigerant, with outdoor unit dimensions of 662 mm x 442 mm x 1022 mm. The output ranges from 2.5 kW to 3.5 kW, and the seasonal coefficient of performance (SCOP) is between 4.85 and 5.17.

Lithuania-based Solitek has launched a carport product line featuring 370 W glass-glass frameless modules. It is designed to withstand a snow load of up to 2.5 kN/m2 and 27m/s of wind loads.

China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) says the nation’s renewables capacity includes 420 GW of hydropower, 404 GW of wind power, 536 GW of PV, and 44 GW of biomass.

Developed by researchers in China, the novel calculator uses current and voltage sensors, a Raspberry Pi, and an algorithm for fuzzy logic to determine variations in frequency and demand. The tool sends Email notifications with the tariff values to the PV system owners.

Toshiba has developed a 1.5 Ah lithium-ion battery prototype with a voltage of more than 3 V. The device retains its initial efficiency for over 6,000 charge/discharge cycles and enables rapid charging to 80% of capacity within just five minutes.

A research group in South Africa has developed a novel method for PV output forecasting in commercial buildings. The proposed approach is purportedly able to accurately forecast the output power of a PV plant using real-time weather data.

Australian energy giant AGL will install a nickel-hydrogen battery at its Torrens Island power station site in South Australia as it explores the potential opportunities that the technology could provide for stationary energy storage applications

The application of busbarless cell interconnection approaches could unlock the potential of heterojunction (HJT) technology, primarily by reducing the historically high silver usage of negatively-doped, “n-type” cell technology. As HJT manufacturing increases, a wave of applications may very well be on the horizon.

K2 Systems and Solarmotion deployed the vertical array on a retaining wall along a car road in the Swiss canton of Appenzell Ausserhoden. The system utilizes 756 glass-glass modules and is operating under Switzerland’s feed-in tariff program.

Scientists from Trina Solar, Longi, Fraunhofer ISE, and other entities have looked at light and elevated temperature-induced degradation (LeTID) in gallium-doped Czochralski silicon (Cz-Si:Ga) PERC cells. They have found little relevant degradation.

Solar, at 34.9 GW of installed capacity, now accounts for 15.8% of Brazil’s energy mix, ranking second after hydroelectric plants at 49%, but ahead of wind power at 12.2%, according to the Brazilian Association of Photovoltaic Solar Energy (Absolar).

A study by engineers at Australia’s University of New South Wales (UNSW) shows that aerosols and greenhouse gas emissions reduce the productivity of PV installations, with variations across regions.

Up to 1,600 schools in Ireland can apply from today to receive 6 kW of solar systems to be installed on their rooftops through a federally funded scheme, the Irish government recently announced.

A US research team has tested mini solar modules in marine data collection devices, using animal hosts for water column profile measurements. The findings suggest that submarine PV can effectively operate in these applications at depths of up to 22 meters.

Madrileña Red de Gas is testing a heating system prototype developed by Germany company Vaillant that uses exclusively green hydrogen. The 25 kW system is equivalent in shape and size to a current natural gas heating system.

Danish investment group Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has tapped Canadian PV and battery manufacturing heavyweight Canadian Solar to provide energy storage solutions for the first of several large-scale battery projects it has planned for Australia.

Solar Energy Corp. of India (SECI) has started accepting bids from developers to supply 1.5 GW of renewable energy with storage systems.

BloombergNEF says it has recorded a 14% decline in battery prices this year, mainly due to cheaper raw materials, following an unprecedented rise in 2022.

GreenGo, a Danish developer, has unveiled plans for the Megaton Moon project in Mauritania. It will purportedly feature 60 GW of visible-from-space wind-solar capacity and 30 GW of green hydrogen capacity.