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.

This week Women in Solar+ Europe gives voice to Bárbara Linares Turnkey Engineer Director Iberia & Latam at Sunotec Iberia. She says diverse and inclusive teams in the renewable energy sector drive innovation, resilience, and long-term success by combining technical expertise with collaboration, empathy, and clear communication. “I have encountered subtle biases, particularly in international and multicultural environments. At times, there was scepticism linked to being a young woman, assumptions that I was not the decision-maker, or complex discussions being directed toward male colleagues,” she states.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that Central Europe, led by Germany, experienced strong solar generation in December due to clear skies from a blocking weather pattern, while Iberia, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe saw reduced irradiance from storms and cloud cover. Late-month Arctic cold and snowfall further suppressed PV output in Eastern Europe through snow soiling, exacerbating already weak solar conditions.

Once considered isolated incidents, spontaneous glass breakages in solar modules are becoming more frequent, highlighting the limits of some manufacturing choices and the need for closer quality control.

Sensors are an indispensable tool to inform utility managers of the state of the electricity grid and the occurrence of disruptions of any kind. The IEC provides the standards and conformity assessment that enable them to operate safely and efficiently.

A research group from the European Commission Joint Research Centre has developed a new PV climatic classification, the first to address annual yield and performance ratio. Their work resulted in 10 globally applicable clusters. “It challenges the assumption that many more classes are needed to capture PV-relevant climate,” the researchers said.

Four agencies told 16 leading firms to rein in irrational competition as China tightens oversight of power and storage batteries.

Egypt’s Kemet has signed three agreements with Chinese companies over the last week, covering plans for a 5 GW solar cell complex, a 5 GWh battery energy storage factory and Egypt’s first solar inverter factory.

Czechia’s solar market slowed in 2025, largely due to a downturn in residential deployments. The country’s solar association says that while it remains to be seen if the rate of installations will pick up this year, significant growth is expected in the storage market.

The Polish Photovoltaic and Energy Storage Association (PSFiME) says proposed changes to Poland’s energy law could impose high upfront costs on developers, raising market entry barriers and unfairly favouring large, well-capitalized players.

The Abu Dhabi-based developer has secured $225 million ($193.6 million) for the development of a 300 MW solar plant linked to 75 MWh of energy storage in Uzbekistan, as part of its commitment to deploy 2 GW of renewables in the country.

United Arab Emirates software specialist Planno has launched software to automate prospecting for roof surface sites with potential for solar PV generation.

Oxford PV CEO David Ward spoke with pv magazine about the prospects of its company and the perovksite-silicon tandem PV technology at the WFES event in Abu Dhabi. He said Oxford PV is expanding manufacturing beyond Germany while focusing on global licensing partnerships.

The Norwegian company started production in the Ain Sokhna Industrial Zone, while Brazil’s Federal Court provisionally ordered the suspension of construction activities of Solatio’s project in the State of Piauí.

SoftBank Group is piloting AI-controlled cellular base stations powered by solar panels and a 3 kW wind turbine to reduce energy use while maintaining service quality. The system stores excess power in batteries and can automatically switch to the grid when needed.

Researchers in China developed a novel two dimensional (2D) seeding agent to regulate crystallization in a 1.80-eV wide-bandgap perovskite film. A perovskite-silicon tandem device made with the resulting optimized subcell achieved an efficiency of 31.13%, outperforming a control device.

With lithium prices reaching a two-year high in early 2026, sodium-ion batteries are once again in the spotlight, as innovators on both sides of the Atlantic announce major milestones.

Vikram Solar Ltd today announced the adoption of G12R format across its entire PV module portfolio. The company said the move reflects broader industry trends toward larger-format wafers, high-efficiency n-type technologies, and bifacial module designs aimed at improving energy yield and project economics.

The launch of the new product suggests Tesla could renew its focus on residential solar and expand U.S. lease options with Powerwall.

UNSW researchers found that some POE encapsulants can trigger severe corrosion in TOPCon solar modules, causing up to 55% power loss under damp-heat conditions. Their study highlights that module reliability depends on the exact encapsulant formulation, not just the polymer type.

JA Solar, TCL Zhonghuan, JinkoSolar, Trina Solar and Daqo each announced significant losses for full fiscal year 2025 amid continued price declines and overcapacity.

The patent infringement case was related to an unspecified TOPCon solar cell technology.

A team of scientists has simulated covering 20% of the Qush-Tepa irrigation canal with PV panels. To this end, the researchers developed a framework, termed an integrated techno-economic-environmental assessment, that can be applied elsewhere. “It explicitly quantifies energy production, water-evaporation reduction, land-use savings, and economic performance within a single analytical structure,” one of the researchers said.

An international research team has developed a new two-dimensional perovskite interlayer based on a co-crystal engineering strategy for more robust perovskite films. It demonstrated improved performance in small area perovskite solar cells and, in a 48 cm2 module, contributed to retain 95% of initial efficiency after 5,000 h.

The factory will be located in Jeddah and supply solar trackers across Saudi Arabia and the MENA region.

Abu Dhabi-based developer Masdar and Montenegro’s state-owned power company EPCG have entered into a framework agreement that could see a joint venture company belonging to the two parties develop, build, own and operate large-scale solar projects in the country.

The Brazilian Association of Energy Storage Solutions (ABSAE) predicts that installations in Brazil’s commercial and industrial (C&I) segment should exceed 2 GWh in 2026. In addition, the group expects procurements of approximately 8 GWh in the auction scheduled for April, which will procure projects for delivery from 2028.

Rajasthan Solar Park Development Co. Ltd. (RSDCL) has issued a tender inviting bids to develop 2,450 MW of state transmission utility (STU)-connected solar PV capacity paired with 1,600 MW/6,400 MWh of battery energy storage systems at the Pugal Solar Park in Rajasthan’s Bikaner district. The projects will be implemented on a build-own-operate (BOO) basis.

Researchers from Australia’s national science agency are working with Malaysian authorities to assess how different battery chemistries perform under tropical conditions, including high temperatures, humidity, and corrosion, and how these factors affect durability, safety, and cost effectiveness.

Latest report from energy think tank Dii Desert Energy says that with the Middle East and North Africa’s project pipeline of renewables now standing at 202 GW, solar is likely to drive the region past its aggregated national ambitions for renewables of 235 GW by 2030.