This week Women in Solar+ Europe gives voice to Maria Ardila, construction engineer at UK-based Cubico Sustainable Investments. She says that progress remains slow in the energy industry because gender matters are often viewed as personal choices rather than the systemic issues they truly are. “Until society challenges the outdated norms and organizational structures that penalize mothers, meaningful advancement toward gender equity in leadership will continue to be constrained,” she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, reports that solar irradiance in June was impacted by Mexico’s earliest major hurricane on record, while wildfire smoke and persistent cloud suppressed irradiance over most of central and eastern U.S.

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.

Oversupply of lithium-ion battery precursor and active materials – and of lithium iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries, especially in China – has driven energy storage system costs down, fueling a record 330 GWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) shipments in 2024. Edward Rackley, head of the energy storage team at Business intelligence specialist CRU, shares his analysis.

Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) says Germany could deploy up to 500 GW of agrivoltaic capacity, based on a nationwide assessment of all agricultural land types and site suitability criteria.

Tesla deployed 9.6 GWh of battery storage in the second quarter of 2025, with year-to-date volumes up nearly 50% from 2024. The company recorded flat quarterly growth and says its 10 GWh Nevada cell factory is close to completion.

Solar executives and other clean energy industry members sound off on the passage of the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.”

German solar glass manufacturer Glasmanufaktur Brandenburg GmbH has filed for insolvency, affecting 247 employees at its Tschernitz facility, according to multiple media reports.

Shakti Pumps (India) Ltd. has raised INR 2.93 billion ($34.2 million) through a qualified institutions placement to fund a greenfield 2.2 GW solar cell and module manufacturing facility in central India.

The Netherlands-based solar façade panel and mounting system provider has added a new terracotta rooftop module to its product range. It also announced it is expanding it sales network and boosting its manufacturing capacity after raising €5.5 million in financing.

A recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (PVPS) covers guidance on improving the performance of PV systems deployed in climates such as deserts, tropical regions and snowy areas. 

Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory grew tomatoes under translucent solar panels, which could play a promising role in agrivoltaics.

Australian company Solspan has unveiled a 6.4 kW vertical solar wall system for applications in agrivoltaic projects. It measures 4 m x 4 m and can be interconnected with other units to create MW-sized systems.

Moldova’s government says developers have returned 30 grid connection permits for renewable energy projects since it introduced a financial guarantee scheme aimed at freeing up network capacity for viable investments.

SunCable has welcomed the Australian federal government’s decision to renew major project status for its Australia-Asia PowerLink, which aims to deliver up to 6 GW of renewable power from the Northern Territory to industries and urban centers in Darwin and Singapore.

Researchers in Europe are investigating semi-transparent solar windows, applying microfabrication technniques to both CIGS and perovskite devices, to overcome the view-impeding properties of earlier solar window concepts.

Researchers in Hungary have developed a model to calculate the optimal PV and battery storage balance to support the European grid in the next few years. They found that the cost-optimal range is at 530–880 GW of PV, combined with battery storage equivalent to 2.5–7.5% of the total intermittent capacity.

Scientists in India have proposed to design new tandem solar cells using transition metal dichalcogenide as an absorber material for the bottom PV device. Their simulations showed these tandem cells may reach an efficiency of over 35%.

The U.S. company held the first test deployment of its solar arrays designed to power solar-electric propulsion systems for the Gateway space station.

The European Patent Office has ruled that Borealis AG can continue producing polyolefin encapsulation (POE) material for solar applications, rejecting a patent challenge by Japan’s Mitsui Chemicals.

H&H Aluminium Pvt. Ltd. has opened a new solar panel frame manufacturing plant in India, with an annual production capacity of 24,000 metric tons.

French engineer André Buhart has published the plans and open-source software to create a DIY “solar energy router” to manage PV overproduction. Depending on the configuration, the device can direct excess photovoltaic energy to water heaters, pool motors, or underfloor heating, among others.

SolarPower Europe has underscored the role of domestic mounting system manufacturers in driving PV deployment across Europe, while calling for the adoption of international customs codes, stricter quality standards, and the inclusion of fixed-tilt racking systems in national resilience technology lists under the EU Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA).

Trina Solar has agreed to supply more than 700 MW of high-efficiency PV modules for projects in Spain and Italy under a five-year deal with Verbund Green Power, while EVE Energy says it will invest CNY 8.65 billion ($1.2 billion) in a new battery plant in Kedah, Malaysia.

A giant solar-plus-vanadium flow battery project in Xinjiang has completed construction, marking a milestone in China’s pursuit of long-duration, utility-scale energy storage.

Around one-quarter of all new rooftop PV systems installed in Spain in 2024 included battery storage, underscoring continual growth in distributed energy, despite a decline in total installed storage capacity.

DJI previously offered a Power 1000 battery, released in 2024, but the company’s new Power 2000 model is uniquely compatible with its ecosystem, plus expansion batteries.

Scientists in Iran have developed a novel framework to optimize the capacity of PV and battery storage in smart homes, using a two-stage stochastic programming model. They considered the uncertainties in the grid, market price, and PV output, while also looking at different operation cases.

Envision recently completed a large-scale, CSA C800 witnessed burn test of its 5 MWh energy storage system, demonstrating robust thermal containment and adding to industry-wide safety efforts.