The Paris-based body expects the world will have installed almost 160 GW of solar this year, a record number, but still not enough to keep the prospect of a net zero global economy by mid century in sight.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) took place between October 31 and November 12 in Glasgow, Scotland, and ended with the adoption of the Glasgow Climate Pact by bringing 200 countries closer to keeping global temperature rise under 1.5°C by 2100.

There’s a famous saying: “Never let a crisis go to waste.” The current energy crisis has had a terrible impact on many consumers, but it has also given the energy sector a golden opportunity to get in shape for the energy transition. Jon Slowe, the director of Delta-EE, examines the impacts and opportunities of the energy crisis currently playing out in Europe and what it could mean for the renewables sector.

While the adoption of large-format wafers has driven a wave of capacity expansion for PERC, existing manufacturers and new entrants continue to evaluate TOPCon and HJT. An increasing number of HJT pilot lines and gigawatt-scale capacity expansion projects are appearing, as manufacturers see the advantages of fewer process steps, higher efficiency ratings, and better yield rates. The localization of equipment is also a driving factor. PV InfoLink’s Derek Zhao offers an update on the latest developments and process routes for HJT.

Next year will set new records for the U.S. solar market, with 30.4 GW of installations expected. The utility-scale PV pipeline in 2022 is nearly 50% greater than 2021 and 2023, due to the combined effects of pandemic-related supply chain impacts, the solar Investment Tax Credit schedule, and other module procurement challenges. Over the next two years, solar installations will be concentrated in Texas, California, Ohio, Indiana, and Nevada, with large portions of the pipeline being developed by a few key players in each state. IHS Markit’s Eric Wright takes a closer look.

The latest edition of a clean power jobs survey produced by IRENA and the International Labour Organization has stressed the important role which will need to be played by the public sector if the energy transition’s employment benefits are to be shared equally.

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 latest, seven-year investment attracted offers worth more than €100 billion from investors and means the European Union has already generated €54 billion of the €80 billion of bond proceeds it is aiming for this year, as part of its five-year, €800 billion NextGenerationEU support package.

A note issued by Norwegian analyst Rystad has hinted it may be time to consider abandoning the 1.5-degree average global temperature rise ceiling agreed upon in Paris six years ago, because the world will never be able to pump out enough solar panels in time.

An independent third-party has approved the European Commission’s safeguards to ensure the projects in member states financed by €250 billion of green bonds over the next five years, will have genuine emission reduction credentials.

Scientists in the United States turned to artificial intelligence to speed up their search for new materials for use in a flow battery. The group developed a machine learning algorithm that could search a dataset of potential materials and identify those with the ideal balance of different characteristics that make it suitable for use in a flow batteries. The group says its algorithm could be applied to other battery technologies, and even in other fields.

Swedish scientists have developed a structural battery that purportedly offers “massless” storage, as its weight vanishes when it becomes part of the load-bearing structure. The device has an energy density of 24 Wh/kg and is designed for easy integration into solar-powered vehicles.

Taiwanese module manufacturer Inventec Solar has accumulated about $70.2 million of debt.

Amazon has announced 5.6 GW of solar throughout the world. The first U.S. projects are planned for Arizona and Georgia.

Reclaim PV has added another partner to its national solar panel recycling and recovery program with South Australian-based manufacturer Tindo Solar committing to a program that will see close to 100% of the solar PV panels that it handles recycled and re-used in the industry.

Developed by scientists in Turkey, a system prototype has operated at lower PV module temperatures and removed most of the dust accumulation. The researchers are now planning to improve the device by applying MPPT converter topologies.

According to U.S.-based Grizzly Research LLC, many of the company’s European solar projects appear not to exist. Renesola has said it will review the report and address the key inaccuracies with detailed explanations on its upcoming earnings conference call.

Creditor Chongqing, which has been owed more than $100 million by the embattled developer for 14 months, will force through a sale of 180 MW of solar capacity to a third party. Shunfeng had originally wanted to sell the projects to Chongqing six years ago.

One of the schemes is linked to household and commercial electricity customers who want to install a PV array to charge electric vehicles.

Tata Power Solar has secured the engineering, procurement, and construction contract for a 100 MW solar field with a 120 MWh battery. The project, awarded by the Solar Energy Corporation of India, will be in the state of Chhattisgarh.

A German-Italian research team has designed an inverted perovskite solar cell with a short-circuit current of 1.184 V and a remarkable fill factor of 85%. The device was built by modifying its interfaces with large organic cations.

There is still much to debate over the benefits of moving a vehicle via solar, but the market has been getting creative and is evolving quickly.

Scientists in China have used a fused-thiophene spacer to build a two-dimensional perovskite solar cell. It has an open-circuit voltage of 1.03 V, a short circuit current of 22.38 mA cm2, and a fill factor of 81.64%.

MIT researchers have created a semisolid flow battery that might be able to outperform lithium-ion and vanadium redox flow batteries. It features a new electrode made of dispersed manganese dioxide particles shot through with an electrically conductive additive, carbon black.

Malta announced a partnership with Betchel to deploy electro-thermal energy storage systems that are capable of durations of 10-150+ hours.

The Canadian Solar chief repeated his belief the trend of ever-cheaper solar panels has come to an end and revealed, at the online BNEF event, his company is set to launch a 700 W module.

Developed by Spanish manufacturer Alusín Solar, the new mounting system is claimed to be, currently, the only one on the market that provides six fixing points for a solar panel in ballast-secured structures.

Taiwanese solar manufacturer Motech is expanding its TOPCon module capacity to meet rising demand. Its flagship product is a TOPCon 360 W panel with a power conversion efficiency of 21.1%.

According to a new report from Brazilian consultancy Greener, the Latin American country imported 1,049 MW of solar panels in October alone.

The company today told pv magazine it did not reduce any of its PV module prices in the July-to-September period.

Australia’s Stanwell Energy and Spanish renewable energy company Acciona Energia have signed a deal that could use energy generated at the proposed 600 MWp Aldoga Solar Farm to power a 3 GW green hydrogen project being developed in Queensland.

As part of their efforts to bring lithium-ion battery degradation under control, scientists in China have looked to emulate natural defenses many organisms have evolved to reduce oxidation reactions and related damage. With an additive that ‘scavenges’ reactive particles before they can contribute to degradation, the group was able to demonstrate significantly lower electrolyte decomposition in a working battery.

Varta’s Element Backup battery is available in three versions with storage capacities of 6.5 kWh, 13.0 kWh, and 19.5 kWh.

The battery features a modular design with pre-integrated segments that contain batteries, thermal management, and safety systems. The design offers scalability and supports up to 200 MWh storage per acre.

Also, Petroleum Development Oman wants to become the main player in the country’s plans to become a hydrogen hub and Emirates Global Aluminium says it wants to increase its hydrogen consumption.