Sola Group and Tronox have finally reached financial close on two 100 MW solar projects in South Africa, roughly six months after signing power purchase agreements.

Lithuanian energy company Ignitis has purchased a 200 MW hybrid solar-wind project in Latvia. The installation is in the early stages of development, with construction scheduled to begin in 2025.

IHS Markit said it expects the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands to be the top three markets for cumulative shipments of module-level power electronics in the 2022-26 period. Cumulative shipments are set to hit almost 100 GW by 2026.

PV panels cost around €420 ($419) for a small 0.3 kW to 0.5 kW installation in 2021, according to data from service-hiring app Fixando. This year, installation costs have risen by about 40.5% to around €590.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) says that the deployment of 600 million heat pumps by 2030 could cover 20% of the annual heating requirements of buildings throughout the world.

France’s AX Solar Robot has unveiled two battery-free, hydraulic-powered cleaning solutions for ground-mounted PV plants. It is also distributing a modular battery-powered solution suitable for rooftop installations.

Panasonic has revealed plans to increase the annual production of heat pumps at its facility in Czechia to 500,000 units by March 2026.

Portugal’s cumulative PV capacity hit 2.19 GW in June, outpacing the growth of other energy sources.

Zendure has developed a residential storage system using a semi-solid state battery with 6.438 kWh capacity. Each unit is scalable with up to four batteries, bring the capacity of one unit to 32 kWh and of two units to 64 kWh. The system can be used with solar panels.

Sungrow told pv magazine at the recent Intersolar South America event in Sao Paulo that its cumulative delivered capacity in Latin America now stands at 9 GW, with 6 GW of the total delivered to Brazil alone.