Utility Scale PV

While solar modules and batteries have become icons of rapid progress, most energy models are still stuck in the past. A new global analysis shows that the cost of renewable energy has fallen far faster than expected. Solar PV, wind power, and battery technologies have already reached price levels that models once placed many decades ahead – a misplaced pessimism that risks misdirecting billions in climate investment and could distort long-term defossilization strategies.

UK consultancy GlobaData projects Indonesia will surpass 1 GW of cumulative solar capacity this year, before growth accelerates towards 9.1 GW by the end of the decade and 23.2 GW by 2035.

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.

Scientists in China have developed a new deep learning model based on the so-called “You Only Look Once” algorithm, which requires only one forward propagation pass through the neural network to make predictions,

The Philippines Department of Energy (DOE) says its fourth green energy auction marks a shift from pilot to mainstream deployment, with final approvals raising total capacity across solar, wind, and storage projects to nearly 10.2 GW, including 4.1 GW of ground-mounted and 2.2 GW of floating solar.

The EU Innovation Fund has awarded €2.9 billion ($3.4 billion) to 61 projects, including eight advancing hydrogen technologies across aviation, shipping, and heavy transport.

Open Climate Fix says its Quartz Solar tool saves Great Britain’s grid operator GBP 30 million ($39 million) per year through more accurate forecasting, which reduces the reserve capacity needed for balancing the electricity system. The non-profit company has used machine learning techniques with satellite, weather and historical generation data to reduce forecasting errors by half.

A group of scientists in China conducted a comprehensive review of existing low-cost photovoltaic monitoring approaches. They found that only 11 out of 88 studies related to PV monitoring incorporate machine learning. The researchers urge the scientific community to place greater emphasis on lightweight machine learning solutions and smartphone-based integration.

Researchers in India have developed a novel layout design tool to identify the optimal locations for solar panel installation on undulating terrain. The tool consists of two components: a filtering module that excludes unsuitable land patches, and an algorithm that determines the optimal distribution of panels across the remaining usable area. The approach was demonstrated on a test site in India.

IEC Standards help to make the grid more resilient as the impact of climate change intensifies.