Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

Software company Aether Energy has launched in Europe to support residential and commercial rooftop solar PV installer businesses, from pre-sales to after-sales and energy monitoring. It recently secured seed capital to finance its plan to expand its business.

GoodWe has developed a residential solar carport that features its Polaris building-integrated PV (BIPV) panels. The carport, which is available in 4.8 kW and 8.0 kW variants, is designed to host one or two vehicles, respectively.

Algeria has long limited the use of solar to villages in the Sahara, but two large-scale tenders for 3 GW of generation capacity are expected to change that. By including a local content clause, the North African nation aims to build an industry around renewable energy.

A Saudi-Chinese research team has fabricated a perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell without a hole transport layer (HTL) in the perovskite top cell. This innovative strategy, based on the co-deposition of copper(I) thiocyanate and perovskite in the top cell absorber, was intended at solving typical issues of HTLs in tandem devices.

India installed about 17.4 GW of solar capacity from January to September 2024. This included about 13.2 GW from utility-scale PV installations, 3.2 GW rooftop projects and 1 GW distributed offgrid PV capacity.

The battery maker reports that acquiring the module manufacturing assets is the first step in its plan to build out a vertically integrated domestic manufacturing footprint that will next include a 5 GW solar cell facility.

A Chinese-Italian research team has analyzed the influence of different tilt angles on the thermal failure of the photovoltaic façades or roofs in fire conditions, finding that when the tilt angle exceeds 30 degrees, the time to failure increased significantly.

A random malware variant affected about 800 remote monitoring devices at ground-mounted PV plants in Japan in May 2024. Tokyo-based cybersecurity firm Girasol Energy has told pv magazine what happened and how PV asset owners can protect themselves against such incidents.

An international research group has proposed a low-cost testing methodology for solar water pumping systems that can reportedly improve water access in developing countries. The novel approach enables ongoing borehole monitoring without additional fuel costs or interruptions to the water supply.

Aptera Motors, a California-based solar electric vehicle maker, has demonstrated its first production-intent design vehicle. It says it will offer up to 40 miles (64 km) of daily range from its onboard solar cells.