2025

A delegation from Chinese module maker Longi met with officials from Algeria’s Ministry of Energy and Mining last week to discuss cooperation that would support Algeria’s domestic solar market, including a solar manufacturing facility.

Germany’s IBC Solar has developed two new mounting systems for rooftop and facade PV installations: the WallFix system, made of aluminum and stainless steel, and the AeroFix G3.1, designed for modules up to 3 square meters.

Bert Thin Films has developed a copper paste for solar cell manufacturing that keeps the copper from oxidizing during the air-firing process while at the same time avoiding it to make direct contact with the silicon. The new product can be used in existing production lines and with different cell configurations.

Sunora has unveiled new grid-connected and hybrid inverters at the RenewX 2025 clean energy trade show in Chennai, India.

New research from Germany has shown how improving top-cell transparency and performance remains key to the commercialization of tandem perovskite-silicon solar cells, as well as for all other types of tandem devices. The analysis demonstrated, in particular, that the top cell must achieve higher single-cell efficiency to compensate for reduced transparency.

Bright Saver, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, aims to bring the European balcony solar trend to US homes with low-cost, plug-in systems that require no interconnection approvals or permits in some jurisdictions.

Scientists in South Africa have used computational fluid dynamics to investigate whether a dummy panel, placed in front of a working PV panel, can mitigate soiling. They have tested this setup with various inclination angles, heights, and distances and have found that the dummies accumulated up to 58% more dust than the PV panels.

Polysilicon prices fell again this week amid weak market activity and elevated inventories, according to industry sources. Downstream wafer, cell, and module prices also continued to slide, with modules now trading as low as CNY 0.68 ($0.09)/W.

Heat pump manufacturers will need to meet ‘smart ready’ standards under new appliance regulations, including stricter rules on cybersecurity. Utilities will be obligated to ensure battery energy storage systems, heat pumps and electric vehicle smart charge points can work across different tariffs under tariff data framework.

Guatemala has launched a 1.4 GW energy auction for renewable and low-emission projects to secure 15-year capacity contracts starting in 2030.