Highlights

Ireland’s national solar capacity has risen to 2.1 GW as buildout has accelerated since the first utility-scale project came online in April 2022.

The South Korean government says all public parking lots larger than 1,000 square meters will be required to install solar power systems from the end of this month, as part of a nationwide policy to accelerate renewable energy adoption in urban areas.

The PPA price for pure photovoltaic projects has fallen by 20% over the past year, making such contracts less competitive. However, clear structures for bankable hybrid PPAs are now beginning to take shape, says Pieter van der Meulen, Senior Account Manager at LevelTen Energy, in an interview with pv magazine.

A 2 MW solar park in Wallonia, Belgium, will rely 50 kW of hydrogen-producing solar modules developed by Solhyd, a spin-off from KU Lueven. The installation will be the first demonstration of Solhyd’s technology at a commercially-relevant scale.

Italy’s 2026 budget law limits its “Iperammortamento2026” fiscal incentive to European-made heterojunction (HJT) and tandem perovskite solar panels. Experts say the move gives Italian manufacturer 3Sun a strategic advantage and warn that the exclusion of tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) and back-contact (BC) technologies could distort competition and create market inefficiencies.

Armenia’s installed solar capacity has reached 1 GW, and the government is likely to replace its subsidy program for standalone solar projects with one focused on hybrid and storage systems, according to the nation’s infrastructure ministry.

Woodside Energy says its Beaumont New Ammonia Project is nearly complete, while Australia and India have agreed to collaborate on green hydrogen tech, supply chains, and workforce development.

South Korea has announced plans to introduce legislation next year to expand the deployment of agrivoltaics, enabling broader use of solar panels on agricultural land.

At the Modules and Material Worksop in Konstanz, organized by solar manufacturing engineering company RCT Solutions and ICS Konstanz, experts from the European PV equipment production industry gathered to discuss the current and future trajectory of manufacturing costs, technology advancements and equipment and raw material capabilities. RCT Solutions CEO, Peter Fath, told pv magazine that a European 1 GW module assembly facility using the same supply chain as Chinese Tier 1 counterparts could reach module manufacturing costs of €0.11-0.12/W.

Statistics from Enedis show that 4.2 GW of solar connected to France’s grid in the January-September period, including 82 MW paired with storage, marking a slight decline from 2024.