Installations

At the Solarpower Summit in Brussels, two Ukrainian representatives highlighted the role photovoltaics and battery storage can play in the country, as well as the lessons the European Union can draw from Ukraine’s experience of living through war. Particular emphasis was placed on systems installed at hospitals and schools.

A remote Western Australia First Nations community with its sights set on reducing diesel dependence and energy insecurity has had a solar and 3.25 MW battery energy storage project approved for development.

A China-based research team conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 147 studies on how solar PV systems alter land surface processes, covering 609 installations worldwide and 11 key climate variables. The results show mixed but mostly significant environmental effects, including reduced wind speed, albedo, and land surface or soil temperatures, alongside increased soil moisture, while air temperature changes remained largely non-significant.

The German manufacturer launched two mounting systems for utility-scale solar projects and small- and medium-scale installations, respectively. Both are designed to streamline installation with simplified components and modular layouts.

Finnish energy company Fortum has switched on two industrial-scale heat pumps in southern Finland that will utilize excess heat from two local data centres belonging to Microsoft from next year. The company states data centre waste heat could cover around 40% of the total 2 TWh annual district heating demand of users in the area.

The Austrian manufacturer said its new glass-glass module features 108 back-contact TOPCon half-cells and a power conversion efficiency of 23.52%.

Negative electricity prices are making a strong comeback in the French energy market. Driven by rising photovoltaic output and reduced nuclear flexibility, they dominated much of April, often falling close to the regulatory floor.

An international research team has developed and tested a hybrid energy system combining photovoltaic-thermal collectors, borehole thermal energy storage, and a dual-source heat pump to supply low-carbon heating for livestock buildings. The full-scale prototype, demonstrated on an Italian swine farm, showed high efficiency, strong seasonal performance, and reduced reliance on fossil fuels while enabling partial self-supply of electricity and heat.

Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) says it will install 95 MW of solar capacity across 500 substation sites nationwide by 2030, using surplus substation land to meet South Korea’s K-RE100 public-sector renewable energy target.

Two of Argentine’s most popular football clubs – River Plate and Vélez Sarsfield – are advancing solar energy projects at their Buenos Aires stadiums to cut operating costs and expand on-site renewable generation.