Residential PV

A scoping review examining the barriers to residential PV installations in South Africa says that no studies have considered how income effects the the likelihood of households adopting rooftop solar. The researchers claim this is “a glaring omission given debates on just transitions.”

Midea says its new outdoor residential Evox G3 Heat Pump ranges in size from 1.5 tons to 5 tons, with a coefficient of performance of 1.8. It features enhanced vapor injection technology and uses A2L as the refrigerant.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that April’s weather in Europe presented a north-south divide impacting solar generation across the continent. High pressure systems over the Mediterranean meant sunnier than normal conditions in Southern Europe, benefitting PV output.

The competition regulator in the Netherlands says that the grid fees that big energy suppliers are applying to PV system owners are legitimate. Solar customers currently pay between €100 ($107) and €697, depending on the system size.

UK scientists have proposed a way to combine photovoltaic-thermal energy with Stirling engines and battery storage in residential buildings. Despite the high upfront costs, they said the cost-effective hybrid co-generation system could significantly reduce CO2 emissions.

Despite this growth, fossil fuels dominate U.S. electricity. A 3% increase in total electricity generation across the U.S. is expected to be served primarily with solar, said a report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Prices in the majority of major European electricity markets fell during the first week of May, according to analysis from AleaSoft Energy Forecasting. The exception was in the Iberian market of Portugal and Spain, but prices remain lower there than anywhere else.

The Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation in Malaysia is teaming up with private and public partners in the country to offer citizens financial incentives and discounts when adopting solar. It follows a government rebate scheme introduced in April.

Modeling shows that shifting just one-third of the electricity consumption of commercial and institutional buildings in Australia to the middle of the day, coinciding with peak solar supply, would create almost 12 GW of new peak capacity in the National Electricity Market.

Austrian manufacturer Sonnenkraft has developed a terracotta glass-glass module that aesthetically blends in with tiled roofs. It has an efficiency rating of 20.02%.