This week, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu) gives voice to María del Puy Ayerra, Head of Business Development Iberia at Spain’s Zelestra. She encountered isolated experiences that reflected subtle gender bias – particularly the assumption that women in leadership must adopt a “tough” character to survive in a male-dominated environment. “These stereotypes can be limiting and disheartening, especially for women who lead with empathy, collaboration, and strength of vision,” she 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.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, writes that while findings from the The European State of the Climate 2024 report align with its own solar analysis covering last year, differences in anomaly magnitude between the two datasets stem from the climatology periods used.

In a new monthly column for pv magazine, the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) reveals that Sweden, Australia, Netherlands, Germany and Denmark are the leading countries for per capita solar and wind generation capacity. Furthermore, it explains that global solar capacity has been doubling every 3 years, and wind every 6 years, whereas fossil and nuclear capacity and generation have been almost static in recent years.

Since 1993, the World Energy Outlook (WEO) of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has been an authoritative report on energy statistics and guiding future energy supply and demand developments. An examination of these reports, however, indicates that even the most progressive of WEO scenarios has vastly underestimated the growth of renewable energy technologies, especially solar PV.

Scientists in China have developed a novel PV-powered cooling and heating system that combines a water-cooled gas cooler and an air-cooled gas cooler. The system went through a series of simulations and showed it can potentially achieve a coefficient of performance of up to 7.34.

While President Donald Trump’s sweeping levies on foreign imports have captured global headlines, antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) investigations into Southeast Asian products, along with a potential expansion of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), could pose even greater risks for US solar and energy storage.

ReNew has inaugurated a 1.3 GWp solar project in Rajasthan, India, using mostly in-house solar panels to supply power at INR 2.18 ($0.026)/kWh. The project spans 3,500 acres and is expected to generate 2,490 million units of electricity per year.

Turkey’s rapid rise in solar deployment has been largely attributed to the installation of unlicensed solar power plants for self consumption in the commercial and industrial sector.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have patented a grid-forming inverter algorithm that stabilizes frequency while protecting devices from damage by independently controlling frequency, voltage, and current.

Scientists have tested the performance of floating PV panels at a height of 800 mm and 250 mm above their floating structures. Their thermal and electrical performance was compared to that of a reference land-based system and the highest panel was found to show the greatest cooling effect.

Pexapark registered a notable increase in power purchase agreements (PPA) in March, with solar deals accounting for almost 1.4 GW of the total disclosed capacity.

Germany installed just 787.2 MW of new PV capacity in March – the lowest monthly total since December 2022.

The Greenlink Interconnector comprises two high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cables reaching across the Irish Sea connecting the grids of Ireland and the United Kingdom at the Great Island substation in County Wexford and Pembroke substation in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Somalia’s Ministry of Energy and Minerals is searching for a developer to design, supply, install, test and commission a solar-plus-storage project in the northwest of the country. The deadline for applications is June 14.

The result was confirmed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

South Korean researchers have fabricated a copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cell with a 90 μm-thick UTG provided by South Korea’s Unique Technology Integral. The device uses a cadmium-free buffer layer made of zinc oxide and magnesium oxide, instead of cadmium sulfide.

Underwriters Laboratories (UL) says the fifth edition of its ANSI/CAN/UL 9540A standard addresses technology such as sodium-ion batteries and new use-cases including rooftop installations.

Rept Battero’s new 392 Ah battery energy storage system (BESS) cell is an all-rounder, with the same size but increased energy density over a previously manufactured cell.

Demand for silver in the PV industry hit 197.6 million ounces in 2024, according to a new report from the Silver Institute. It says the average silver price stood at $28.27 per troy ounce last year, up from $23.35 in 2023.

Researchers at the German institute are seeking to reduce silver use in heterojunction PV devices under the umbrella of an extensive research projects. Among their recent achievements there is the fabrication of a heterojunction cell that requires a minimal silver consumption of only 1.4 mg per W.

Clean Energy Associates (CEA) has inspected more than 600 industrial PV systems and has found widespread safety risks, largely stemming from poor installation practices, but many issues are easily identifiable and fixable.

The Austrian manufacturer said its new hybrid inverters can increase the usable output of the PV system to up to 150%. They are available in six version with rated AC power ranging from 15 kW to 33.3 kW.

The Chinese manufacturer said its new product uses inverter units with an output of 800 kW, of which 12 can be connected in parallel. It can work in weather of up to 52 C.

Solar cells are not exempt from the recent US reciprocal import tariffs, and recent reporting by major media outlets appears to be a misinterpretation of government documentation.

The competition in the development of large-capacity cells is heating up, with the industry’s top player stepping up to shape the new standard in the battery energy storage space.

The European Commission has cleared a €400 million ($455.2 million) Spanish aid program to scale renewable hydrogen output, backing up to 345 MW of electrolyzer capacity and targeting 221,000 tons of production via the EU Hydrogen Bank’s 2025 auction round.

Eskom has issued a tender for partners to help launch a standalone renewables division, in a bid to speed up clean energy development in South Africa. The utility says it will evaluate bids based on sector experience, financial expertise, and project delivery record.

The Chinese manufacturer said that several battery energy storage system integrators have already started incorporating the 587 Ah cell into their platforms and believes this new specification is well-positioned to become an industry benchmark for lithium iron phosphate (LFP)-based energy storage systems.

Wood Mackenzie says Europe’s power purchase agreement (PPA) market was dominated by solar and wind deals in 2024, with an increase in battery-linked contracts as buyers looked to hedge against negative pricing periods.