Commercial & Industrial PV

The annual European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference (EU PVSEC) got underway today, this year in Bilbao. Conversations on the first morning focused on the need for strong policy support across multiple areas of renewable energy. While the week is sure to be filled with new ideas on the technological side, it’s clear that ensuring policies to support further growth in renewable energy is a growing challenge. Those working in the solar industry and research community need to reach a wider audience, and one that may not be as easy to convince.

A Slovak research team has developed a mathematical model for determining the optimum tilt angle of a solar system ranging from 0° to 90°. Their framework was tested on an experimental setup in Czechia and attained 93.9% accuracy in predicting the system’s energy balance.

The German manufacturer said its full-black back-contact solar panel has a power conversion efficiency of up to 23.52%.

Scientists have developed a new optimization approach that combines both day-ahead optimization and real-time optimization to improve operations of PV-driven EV charging stations. The framework is based on the autoregressive moving average and the Latin hypercube sampling models.

Hail damage has become a real headache for project developers in the United States, where growing deployment has increased exposure to weather-related risk. As project owners seek to limit the impact of hail on their bottom line, innovations in tracking systems and insurance can help.

The Chinese storage manufacturer said its new energy storage system has a capacity of 261 kWh per cabinet. It can be expanded up to 50 units in parallel, scaling to multi-MWh projects.

EverWatt, a French solar developer, entered receivership this summer after investors withdrew support, leading to layoffs and the sale of its assets while the company seeks buyers for regional solar projects.

Cologne-Bonn Airport has installed 80 adhesive photovoltaic panels on the 27-meter chimney of its cogeneration plant in a pilot project using Heliatek modules.

South Africa’s cumulative solar capacity surpassed 9.4 GW by mid-2025, according to figures from the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA). The country also has a solar project pipeline in excess of 10 GW.

Scientists in Hungary have built a prototype of a thermal distillation device, supported by PV power. The PV panels use an IoT component that self-cleans when dust is detected and cools itself when the temperatures are too high. The system achieved a daily freshwater yield of 6.1 L/m2⋅day.