2025

The European Commission has proposed amending the European Climate Law to enshrine a new target: a 90% cut in net greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, compared to 1990 levels.

Researchers in Italy have tested how perovskite solar cells could perform underwater and have found that, at very shallow depths, they may even achieve a higher power conversion efficiencies compared to reference devices operating under out-of-water conditions.

Israel has introduced requirements for PV system installations on all new non-residential buildings with rooftop areas above 250 square meters and new detached residential buildings with roofs larger than 100 square meters.

IEA PVPS Task 16 recently introduced SolarStations.org, a global catalogue of solar irradiance monitoring stations designed for researchers, developers, and policymakers. This openly available resource catalogues more than 800 multi-component stations –of which more than 400 are currently active – offering a comprehensive view of high-quality ground-based solar data.

Robotics company Luminous has secured almost AUD 5 million ($6.9 billion) in federal government funding to support the deployment of a fleet of AI-powered robots designed to accelerate the construction of utility-scale solar farms.

WorldOne Energies has announced plans to build a 1 GW solar module factory in Ontario, Canada, marking a major step in its global expansion beyond India. The facility will produce tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) bifacial modules and cater to the North American market.

Scientists in Malaysia have developed a novel deep-learning method for PV suitability mapping. Applying the new approach to the Middle East, they found that approximately 5.8% of the region has very high suitability and 11.5% is highly suitable for PV energy development.

The Japanese conglomerate and the Osaka Metropolitan University are testing an aquifer thermal energy storage system that directly uses 10,000 m3 of groundwater stored at 5 C in a cooling well. It is intended to store renewable energy and produce cooling for air conditioning in the summer or heating for the winter.

Industry leaders react to passage of the Senate-approved bill, warning it will pull the plug on domestic manufacturing, billions of dollars worth of investment, new jobs, lower energy costs and increasing clean energy capacity.

A Swiss research team has developed a novel single-step annealing process for tunnel oxide passivating contact (TOPCon) solar cells. Demonstrating the approach, the scientists built a proof-of-concept TOPCon device with a 21% efficiency.