In a new monthly column for pv magazine, the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) debunks old and new urban legends about solar energy.

Mitigating sub-surface risks long before the construction phase is one of the best ways to prevent cost escalation and delays during construction, while also setting solar arrays up for maximum productivity over their lifespan.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that the first half of 2025 has delivered favourable solar conditions across several key solar generation regions around the globe, with many population centres experiencing above-average irradiance.

This week Women in Solar+ Europe gives voice to Jesús Alijarde, founder and CEO of Spain’s Ibersyd / Cerfo. He says one of the earliest biases he had to confront was the idea of men as protectors of women. “It may sound noble, but in practice, it reinforces inequality,” he states.

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.

Thyssenkrupp Nucera reports a more than 20% drop in third-quarter electrolysis sales, with narrowing losses in green hydrogen and falling profits in the Chlor-Alkali segment.

Scientists have developed a wireless charging system for electric vehicles, with a three-port DC–DC converter at its core. They have simulated the system and tested a prototype in their lab and have found it achieved an improved efficiency of 88%.

Construction of the 106 MW Lancaster Solar Farm in Victoria, Australia, is gathering pace. Western Australian contractor Pilecom is now installing the first of the more than 23,000 piles that will be used in the project.

India reached 484.82 GW of total installed power capacity as of June 30, 2025, with 242.8 GW from non-fossil fuel sources, including 8.8 GW nuclear, 49.4 GW hydro, and 184.6 GW from renewable energy.

Researchers in China have used electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to analyze the state of health of sodium-ion batteries. Extracting four features from the measurements, they were able to create a machine learning model for a temperature-resistant state of health estimation method.

Changes announced ahead of seventh Contract for Difference (CfD) allocation round widely viewed as key to achieving government’s clean power targets for 2030. Target commissioning window for solar projects also extended in anticipation of larger capacity projects.

Mexico’s energy regulator has issued new provisions to streamline the permitting process for self-consumption power plants between 0.7 MW and 20 MW, aiming to improve legal certainty for project developers.

During last month’s SNEC exhibition in Shanghai, pv magazine met with Wanfei Qu, CIO of Skyworth Group and CEO and director of Skyworth PV (also named Solavita in Europe), at the Chinese manufacturer’s impressive booth. The company utilizes the “Solavita” brand in Europe, but whether the brand is “Skyworth” or “Solavita” the it can leverage its strong foundation in manufacturing, electronics and IT, which it has built up in over 37 years. The Shenzhen-headquartered manufacturer only entered the solar PV industry in 2020, but in the span of just four years the company went from $10 million in PV-related revenues to $3 billion in 2024. The young CEO of Skyworth PV has ambitious goals for the future, targeting $1 billion in overseas PV revenues in the next three years. Germany and Italy are the company’s target markets in Europe.

A European research group has developed a new “empirical” method for measuring the backside irradiance of bifacial PV system. The proposed approach was tested across several European locations and it was found to enable annual performance calculations with a fixed backside irradiance share value.

To evaluate the outdoor performance and stability of perovskite solar cells using contactless and noninvasive methods, an Australian and Chinese research team found a way to use photoluminescence imaging as well as demonstrating a proof of concept for implied open-circuit voltage (iVOC) imaging. Their research relied on cost-effective equipment that operates under direct sunlight.

Conceived for industrial applications, the novel heat pumps can reportedly deliver hot water at 65 C from -10 C up to 35 C of external air, and hot water at 55 C down to -20 C of external air. Their coefficient of performance reaches up to 3.47.

Wattlab has installed a PV system capable of delivering up to 35 kW to a cargo ship’s high-voltage propulsion system, allowing it to temporarily replace one of four diesel generators under optimal conditions.

Nanyang Technological University researchers have milled solar panel glass waste for use in cathodes used in solid state lithium metal batteries. When used as a functional filler in solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) material, the resulting battery performance was maintained over 80 charge cycles with an 8.3 % improvement over the reference device.

Scientists in india have created a wind-solar system in a tree shape, which combines wind turbines and a PV system with two-axis trackers. The team constructed a hardware-in-the-loop prototype that can generate up to 444.5 Wh per day.

Germany’s Ait Group has introduced residential ground-source heat pumps using less than 150 grams of propane, based on results from the Fraunhofer ISE LC150 research project. The new systems deliver up to 6 kW of heating with a seasonal coefficient of performance of 5.14.

The US Department of Commerce (DoC) says it will investigate the potential for export restrictions by foreign countries, as well as their ability to “weaponize” their control over supplies of polysilicon. 

China Railway Construction Corp.’s IT unit has named 10 preliminary winners for its 2025 solar module framework procurement. The 3 GW contract covers n-type monocrystalline bifacial tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) modules, with delivery required within 170 days of signing.

Researchers in Portugal have used the so-called Arrhenius aging model to measure the temperature behaviour and reliability of different solar modules. Their analysis showed that long-term module performance can diverge significantly depending on the manufacturing processes.

pv magazine visited a 1.9 MW agrivoltaic plant in Austria where pumpkins and soy are cultivated beneath vertically mounted PV structures supplied by Next2Sun.

Chinese companies made up nine of the 10 largest global inverter suppliers in 2024, with total inverter shipments reaching 589 GW (AC), according to Wood Mackenzie.

New fire-resistant container aims to enhance the safe transport of waste lithium-ion batteries across the United Kingdom and Ireland.

New data from Rho Motion shows that over half of June’s installations were concentrated in China, maintaining the country’s dominance in the global energy storage market.

Electric utility company St Lucia Electricity Services is set to tender a 10 MW solar project with accompanying battery energy storage later this year.

Iberdrola has started approval processes for a 1.32 GW pumped-hydro storage project in Portugal. The Proyecto de Aprovechamiento Hidroeléctrico de Minhéu is set to become the country’s largest facility of its kind once completed.

AGL Energy has bought the 150 MW solar, 90 MW thermal, and 720 MWh storage Yadnarie Project from Dutch developer Photon Energy, following the award of development approval in June.