Warnings about the need to decentralize Ukraine’s electricity grid, made 10 years before the Russian invasion, fell on deaf ears at the time. In the wake of war, nations across Eastern and Central Europe are alive to the risks embodied in traditional energy networks.

Solar module prices have never fallen so sharply in such a short period of time. One reason for this is the “PV module glut” in warehouses in Europe, according to pvXchange’s Martin Schachinger.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, explains that the climatology of Africa leads to very different seasonal generation patterns from what European solar producers experience. Data analysed by Solcast, via the Solcast API, shows this seasonal variance from summer to winter in 2023.

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.

Calls for barriers and duties are resurfacing in Europe as solar module prices sharply fall. German PV analyst Karl-Heinz Remmers recalls the 2009-13 period, when the European Union introduced anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties. This drove the loss of 80,000 jobs in the solar industry, despite or perhaps because of the tariffs on PV modules and raw materials.

New statistics from Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator show that 2023 could be another record year for distributed solar.

Italy’s NHOA Energy says it has commissioned a 107 MWh energy storage project for a Taiwan Cement Corp. cement plant in Guangdong province, China.

Germany’s new solar installations surged to 1.05 GW in August, contributing to 8.99 GW of newly installed PV capacity for the first eight months of this year. This marks significant growth from the 4.8 GW installed during the same period in 2022.

Sunmaxx PVT, a photovoltaic-thermal solar module specialist, has started building an automated 50 MW module factory near Dresden, Germany.

Panasonic unveiled its new residential solar modules – including half-cut heterojunction (HJT) models, along with a home battery system and energy management device – at the recent RE+ trade show in Las Vegas.

Chinese solar inverter and battery producer GoodWe has completed the construction of the 10.95 MW Solar Citra Project in Malaysia, with Apricum senior advisor Moritz Sticher telling pv magazine that although the scale of the plant is ‘small’ every project in the Southeast Asian country counts.

TSE has installed a 2.9 MW agrivoltaics plant in northern France with sensors to trigger an irrigation system. The irrigation setup can reportedly achieve significant water savings. The company is selling the electricity under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA).

Researchers in Sweden investigated the complex non-linear tradeoffs between capacity expansion costs and reliability levels of off-grid PV mini-grids and found that capacity expansion based solely on cost-minimization may result in several reliability issues.

Power purchase agreement (PPA) prices increased by 1.4% on average in Europe in August, according to Pexapark. It says that only nine deals with a combined capacity of 193 MW were closed.

The new heat pump can purportedly provide hot water at a temperature of up to 70 C. It is specifically designed for climatic conditions with temperatures ranging from -10 C to 42 C, as well as coastal locations.

UK researchers have developed ultra-thin nanoribbons, just 1 atom thick, by combining phosphorus and arsenic alloys. The nanoribbons offer excellent conductivity, even at temperatures exceeding -143.15 C, and have the potential to enhance charge flow in solar cells.

Honeywell purchased $27.5 million in ESS common stock and intends to purchase $300 million in ESS product, with $15 million prepaid. The collaboration enables Honeywell to integrate ESS technology into its global offering, and ESS gains license to Honeywell’s flow battery intellectual property.

Riello Solartech has developed new hybrid inverters for rooftop PV, designed for commercial and industrial applications The Italian manufacturer says they have a European efficiency rating of roughly 98%.

The two research institutes said the multijunction solar cell is based on silicon, gallium indium phosphide (GaInP) and gallium arsenide (GaAs). The device utilizes a specially designed metal/polymer nanocoating that reportedly optimizes the distribution of light scattering beyond the total internal reflection critical angle in the cell.

S&P Global Commodity Insights says it expects China to install 170 GW of solar in 2023, with global capacity additions to potentially surpass 400 GW.

Researchers from the Netherlands have assessed the potential integration of heat pumps, electric vehicles, and PV systems into distribution grids. They have discovered that suburban grids could face a higher risk of overload. By using actual data from Dutch distribution grid operators, they believe their methodology could be applied to study energy systems in other nations.

China’s GoodWe has introduced specialized carport solar panels to the Australian market. The panels are designed to address concerns related to water drainage and wiring.

Maxeon is set to buy shingled cell solar patents from Complete Solaria. Along with its solar panel patent portfolio, Maxeon will also acquire Complete Solaria’s dealer channel operations and contracts.

The Chinese manufacturer also inked new strategic cooperation agreements while displaying the new line of solar modules at RE+ 2023 in Las Vegas.

Hydrogen is nothing new, but it could become a decarbonized energy vector to transform renewable electrons into renewable fuels, displacing fossil fuels in multiple applications. Laurence Boisramé, global director of hydrogen at Bureau Veritas, recently spoke with pv magazine about improving hydrogen market transparency, but she noted that “global consensus will take time – at least a few years.”

Tesla has submitted a proposal to the Indian government to set up a Powerwall battery storage factory in India.

Energy storage is rapidly expanding as the sector scales to match growing renewable energy supplies, according to a new report by Interact Analysis.

The International Energy Agency has warned that lagging policy support, rising costs, and supply chain disruptions threaten the profitability of low-emission hydrogen, while the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has identified hydrogen seeps in South Australia.

The battery packages include a battery, an inverter and a control system. The US manufacturer claims its storage systems have a lifespan of over 10,000 cycles and a depth of discharge of 80%.

The South African authorities awarded project agreements to two wind-solar-storage hybrid projects that were selected in a 2 GW tech-neutral tender held under the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP) in 2021.