Women in Solar+ Europe (WiSEu Network) analyzes how psychological safety, inclusive leadership, and bias awareness influence decision-making, innovation, and energy security after hosting a workshop during the SolarPower Summit this week. Through interactive discussions and real-life scenarios, participants reflected on the growing importance of human judgment, trust, and collaboration in an AI-driven industry, highlighting that resilient energy systems are ultimately built not only through technology, but also through people and leadership.

UK-based consultancy Ricardo, part of the WSP Group, reports that EU-27 day-ahead power markets saw 1,223 negative-price hours in Q1 2026, more than double Q1 2025, driven mainly by Spain, Portugal, and Greece, while Nordic markets fell back to zero after prior spikes. Germany’s April 2026 data shows negative prices aligning with large renewable forecast errors and likely curtailment during oversupply periods.

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.

A single benchmark no longer exists. In some cases, charging speed is what matters; in others, it is energy density, and in still others, cost and scalability. In other words, the battery is ceasing to be a simple component. It is becoming the transversal energy infrastructure of the next industrial cycle. And those who can control not only the technology but also production, integration, and the grid will have an advantage that will be difficult to recover.

Women in Solar+ Europe highlights this week the insights shared by industry leaders during the panel “Impact Leadership in Solar & Storage: securing the energy transition through people, purpose and systems thinking,” organised by the leadership ecosystem Solar+ Leaders at Solar & Storage Live London. Bringing together voices from across the value chain, the discussion explored how leadership is evolving in response to growing system complexity, skills gaps, and the need for greater alignment across the industry.

Moroccan researchers say floating PV (FPV) installations on the country’s dams could simultaneously cut evaporation losses and generate electricity, but the country lacks a regulatory framework to enable large-scale deployment.

A research team in Italy developed a PVT-driven heat pump system for domestic hot water production that combines packed-bed latent heat storage with sensible thermal storage to better balance supply and demand. Their simulations showed that hybrid storage coupled with temperature-based routing significantly improves system efficiency, raising heat pump coefficient of performance and increasing renewable energy utilization.

In a bid to rid itself of diesel dependence, the world’s smallest island nation of Nauru has signed a landmark memorandum of understanding with Sydney-based Smart Commercial Energy to develop a clean energy solution.

Private equity firm FH Capital reached an agreement to acquire a 75.1% majority stake in JinkoSolar’s U.S. manufacturing subsidiary to expand domestic module and battery production.

A new report from the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity explores the potential for data centers to become flexible assets in Europe’s electricity system, as well as how to manage grid planning and grid security.

The latest bulletin from Generadoras de Chile highlights the continued expansion of BESS systems linked to solar plants, with over 2.5 GW in operation and an additional 6.3 GW under construction, amid rising renewable energy curtailment and transmission grid congestion in southern Chile.

The new draft law on electricity and renewable energy, developed by the Ministry of Hydrocarbons and Energy, is entering its technical, legislative and public consultation phase, with anticipated changes to generation, transmission, distribution and regulatory frameworks.

Spain has expanded its energy community programme with 20 new projects, bringing the national total to 262 and unlocking €108.4 million in EU-backed funding. Unevenly distributed across regions, the energy communities deployed in Spain to date combine solar generation, storage, efficiency, and mobility solutions, delivering 175.3 MW of PV capacity and involving more than 111,000 citizens.

The Czech government is reviewing proposals to streamline procedures for new solar power plants, including increasing the threshold for paying electricity tax to 100 kW and preventing double taxation on projects installing both solar and storage.

Nel ASA states that its new electrolyzer can achieve an estimated turnkey full-scope cost of below $1,450 per kW for a 25 MW plant, with additional cost synergies expected at larger scales.

Sunwoda conducted a large-scale fire test of its 5 MWh liquid-cooled energy storage system, showing contained thermal runaway in one unit without fire spreading to adjacent systems under extreme UL 9540A conditions.

CEA’s 2026 manufacturing quality report finds that yield rates vary widely based on the age of solar module assembly facilities, with mature Chinese firms nearing 100% and U.S. outlier facilities ranging all the way down to 30%.

New research from China reveals that ultraviolet degradation in TOPCon solar cells is governed by interface-level physical mechanisms involving hydrogen dynamics, defect formation, and charge evolution. These processes are strongly influenced by the design of the silicon nitride/aluminum oxide passivation stack, which determines long-term device stability.

Germany risks leaving taxpayers liable for at least €34.7 billion ($40.8 billion) in unrecovered hydrogen infrastructure costs by 2055, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) says in a new report, putting the true regulated cost base at approaching €50 billion against the commonly cited €19.8 billion construction figure.

U.S. researchers developed a meta-weakly solvating electrolyte that optimizes sodium-ion solvation structure, enabling faster ion transport, reduced side reactions, and improved interfacial stability in high-voltage sodium-ion batteries. This design significantly extends cycle life and outperforms conventional and localized high-concentration electrolytes by promoting more uniform and stable electrode–electrolyte interfaces.

Kalyon PV has launched a new 1 GW solar cell factory in Ankara, raising its total cell production capacity to 2.1 GW

China’s leading solar manufacturers all reported first-quarter net losses, despite improving margins and continued high shipment volumes across the sector.

An international research team has improved the performance of perovskite indoor photovoltaics by tuning the absorber bandgap to better match the emission spectrum of indoor LED lighting. The approach enables improved spectral alignment under low-light conditions, with devices demonstrating efficiencies of up to 37.44% alongside long-term stability exceeding 2,000 hours.

The $200 million investment will bring the company’s total domestic production capacity to 6 GW by late 2026.

In the latest article of a new series on solar manufacturing facilities around the world, pv magazine presents SoliTek’s solar manufacturing facility in Vilnius, Lithuania. The company recently commissioned an upgraded 200 MW production line, as it transitions from semi-automated to fully-automated processes for critical assembly stages.

A remote Western Australia First Nations community with its sights set on reducing diesel dependence and energy insecurity has had a solar and 3.25 MW battery energy storage project approved for development.

Project owner told ESS News that fire at one of the UK’s oldest grid-scale BESS projects was caused by fault with nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) technology used in some early UK BESS projects. The fire occurred days before scheduled augmentation to upgrade Rufford Colliery BESS site.

BlackRock‑backed developer Akaysha Energy says lenders require 60% to 80% contracted revenue before committing project debt to utility‑scale battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in Germany – a threshold that structured offtake products borrowed from its home market can meet.

Continuous negative and zero wholesale electricity prices, weak demand, and Greece’s inadequate energy storage policy are leaving small- and medium-sized PV investors exposed, despite abundant solar resources.

An international research team has developed and tested a hybrid energy system combining photovoltaic-thermal collectors, borehole thermal energy storage, and a dual-source heat pump to supply low-carbon heating for livestock buildings. The full-scale prototype, demonstrated on an Italian swine farm, showed high efficiency, strong seasonal performance, and reduced reliance on fossil fuels while enabling partial self-supply of electricity and heat.