Markets

Swedish thin-film solar manufacturer Midsummer has secured its largest-ever order for production equipment, covering a complete solar cell factory. It follows an initial order in May 2025 for a 15 MW line producing thin-film copper, indium, gallium and selenide (CIGS) solar cells.

TU Berlin researchers say early demand for round-the-clock carbon-free electricity could help bring advanced energy technologies to market faster through technology learning effects. Grant funding for the research was provided by Google, which has since announced plans to build the world’s largest iron-air battery.

Australia’s rooftop solar market has bounced back into record-setting territory with 281 MW of new capacity registered across the country last month, marking the largest February total on record.

Key – The Energy Transition Expo was held last week in Italy, featuring 1,065 exhibitors and 530 buyers. The event focused on energy-as-a-service and agrivoltaic projects, with operators saying agriPV standardization should be reached by 2030-32. Italian Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin told pv magazine that coal and gas are strategic assets, noted that the “PV sector is maturing,” and urged the European Union to coordinate on gas storage and supply chains for modules and storage solutions.

The electricity grid is a real bottleneck for energy in the United States, and it’s not only utilities and grid operators who are struggling. Grid congestion also puts pressure on renewable energy project owners and is as much a business problem as it is a technical one, writes Alon Mashkovich, CEO of energy management business software supplier enSights.

Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) says solar generation rose to 70.1 TWh in 2025, up 17.4% from the previous year, even as wind and hydropower output declined and natural gas generation increased 10.2%.

Qcells says it has resumed solar panel production at its Georgia manufacturing facilities after US Customs and Border Protection released seven solar cell shipments from South Korea that had been held under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), forcing a furlough of 1,000 workers and temporarily halting output at the second-largest module factory in the United States.

Malaysia’s rising power demand, driven by industrial growth and data centers, is exposing grid and capacity constraints, prompting policies like Corporate Renewable Energy Supply Scheme (CRESS) to enable corporate renewable procurement while maintaining system cost recovery. A key factor is the System Access Charge (SAC), whose uncertain future trajectory affects long-term solar PPAs and investment decisions, making scenario-based modelling crucial for assessing project bankability.

The country’s first solar-plus-storage project will be located on a 400 hectare surface near Kébili, a town in the south of Tunisia and one of the main cities in the Nefzaoua region.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that destabilized polar circulation in February produced wet and cloudy conditions in some parts of North America, while the central and eastern regions enjoyed elevated irradiance under clearer conditions.