This week, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu) gives voice to Josef Kastner, the CEO of Austria-based Nexun. He says professional decisions must be based on ability, not gender. “Societal expectations influence leadership styles, but fairness is non-negotiable. Everyone deserves the same rights and opportunities,” he states.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, analyses a new AI-driven weather model from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). 

Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada investigated hydrogen as a potential decarbonization strategy for remote communities in Canada and Malaysia. They reviewed the two countries’ respective situations before presenting a value proposition for continued work – both separately and collaboratively.

India aims to install 500 GW of renewable energy by 2030, with solar expected to account for nearly 300 GW.

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.

Carbon has obtained €2 million ($2.1 million) from 11 independent power producers (IPPs) and two consulting firms to support its new gigafactory project in France. The French solar module maker is also launching a crowdfunding campaign to raise at least €1 million.

With two cycles per day, the Forton can be loaded without voiding its 15-year performance guarantee. That opens the possibility of trading on the electricity market, enabling companies to recoup their investment more quickly.

The new batteries have a nominal DC voltage of 26.5 V and a maximum DC voltage of 28.8 V, with the operating AC voltage range being 176-276 V. Their nominal battery capacity is 280 Ah and the rated battery energy is 7 kWh.

NTPC has commissioned 245 MW of its 735 MW Nokh solar project in Rajasthan, India. The project consists of three 245 MW blocks and uses modules that are compliant with domestic content requirements (DCR).

German energy storage sales are shrinking, especially home systems, but commercial and industrial (C&I) and utility-scale numbers are rising and the Federal Association of Energy Storage Systems (BVES) wants faster permitting and better regulation.

An international research team studied the solar PV impact of emissions from a coal-fired power plant in the Atacama Desert, finding that after five months of exposure, the deposited dust on co-located PV panels reached a maximum of 1.63 mg/cm2 with a 23 % reduction in photocurrent. The accumulation at the co-located plant was 3 times greater than nearby PV sites with similar coastal climate conditions.

The Tunisian government has granted licenses to four PV projects with a combined capacity of 500 MW. The selected developers are Qair International, Voltalia, Toyota Tsusho and Scatec.

The US-based company unveiled a battery designed for balcony applications and a storage system for rooftop PV systems. Both products are AI-powered.

European power purchase agreement (PPA) prices fell in February amid sliding energy commodity prices, but deal flow held steady, says Swiss energy consultancy Pexapark, noting that a “landmark” 40-year, 15 MW solar PPA was signed in Wales.

Chile’s economic development agency Corfo has selected three companies – two Chinese and one Spanish – to build electrolyzer production facilities in the country. The projects, set to begin operations by mid-2026, will assemble alkaline and proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers ranging from 50 kW to 5 MW.

Scientists in Saudi Arabia have simulated a solar-powered single-effect absorption cooling system that uses water-lithium bromide as a working fluid, under the environmental conditions of Riyadh. Exergy and exergy rates are calculated for each level of the system, with optimal generator performance being found to peak at 80 C.

An Italian research team has found that radicchio seedlings grown in a lab-scale greenhouse with a perovskite solar PV roof exhibited faster growth and larger leaves than the bare glass reference. In addition, simulations of such a PV roof revealed a positive energy balance, satisfying the energy demands of a typical greenhouse located in Italy.

German researchers have found that the majority of subsidies required to reach the country’s renewable energy targets have already been paid, with an estimated 80% to 90% of subsidies for units in operation covered. The costs of newer renewable energy sources have decreased and are often competitive with remunerations from the wholesale market.

Researchers in Canada have compared strawberry growth under uniform illumination from semi-transparent thin-film cadmium telluride panels and non-uniform illumination from semi-transparent crystalline silicon modules. Their analysis considered metrics such as fresh weight, height, leaf count, chlorophyll content, soil temperature and humidity.

Researchers at Thailand’s Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology demonstrated a novel hydrogel that has high cooling effect on silicon PV panels. The lightweight technology purportedly enables a temperature drop of 23 C, from 70 to 47 C, and a relative 12.3% power conversion efficiency increase.

Mission Solar says it will invest $265 million to build a 2 GW solar cell factory at its campus in San Antonio, Texas. The facility, which is expected to create 500 jobs, aims to produce 1 GW of cells by early 2026, with plans to reach full capacity later.

The U.S. Department of Commerce dramatically increased tariffs on imports from Chinese solar producers operating in Vietnam after the agency concluded that China is subsidizing raw materials for its companies to use in their Vietnamese factories.

An international research team has conceived a dual-component controller for three-phase inverters that can reportedly achieve faster settling times, reduced overshoot and more stable current tracking compared to conventional controllers.

The second Donald Trump administration has put up roadblocks to clean energy investment but renewable energy analysts say superior technology and its economic benefits will ultimately prevail.

China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) says that the country added 39.47 GW of new solar capacity in January and February, taking total installed PV capacity to 930 GW.

Greece’s latest auction has awarded subsidies to 188.9 MW of standalone, front-of-the-meter, utility-scale battery energy storage. The auction was the third and final edition of a battery storage subsidy program launched in 2023, with the country now turning its focus towards a new 4.7 GW unsibsidized BESS scheme.

Somalia has changed the deadline for a tender seeking a developer for a 55 MW solar plant with a 160 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) at the Jazeera power plant in Mogadishu. The new deadline is May 5.

The procurement exercise has attracted 67 battery energy storage companies but only six have emerged as winners. The average bid stood at CNY 0.473/Wh ($65/kWh).

The Canadian government has announced further investment in the country’s heat pump subsidy scheme, which offers homeowners an up to CAD 20,000 ($21,695) payment towards heat pump installations, aimed at the province of Manitoba.

Chinese inverter and energy storage maker Sungrow invited 300 guests from 20 European countries to its ESS [energy storage system] Experience Day event in Munich, Germany. Discussions focused on energy storage, projects, market figures, and the energy transition. The conclusion: More storage and grid expansion are needed.