Policy

The European Commission is revising its Cybersecurity Act. While presenting the proposals in European Parliament, the commission’s Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen, said dependency on a very limited number of solar inverter suppliers could “pose a significant security risk.”

Iola Hughes, Head of Research at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, tells ESS News that 2026 is set to be another strong year for BESS, with forecast additions exceeding 450 GWh and no material supply constraints in sight. Meanwhile, the initial impact of rising lithium prices is already visible at the cell level, but the full effect has yet to ripple through to system pricing.

WFES 2025 in Abu Dhabi underscored growing momentum for solar, storage, and C&I renewables across MENA, with batteries emerging as a key enabler for grid stability, agriculture, and data centers. Industry leaders pointed to Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia as key growth markets, highlighting rising interest in AI-driven data centers, solar-plus-storage solutions, and a broadening regional supply chain.

A research group from the European Commission Joint Research Centre has developed a new PV climatic classification, the first to address annual yield and performance ratio. Their work resulted in 10 globally applicable clusters. “It challenges the assumption that many more classes are needed to capture PV-relevant climate,” the researchers said.

Four agencies told 16 leading firms to rein in irrational competition as China tightens oversight of power and storage batteries.

The Polish Photovoltaic and Energy Storage Association (PSFiME) says proposed changes to Poland’s energy law could impose high upfront costs on developers, raising market entry barriers and unfairly favouring large, well-capitalized players.

The South African energy utility is seeking applicants to provide design and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services, as well as operations and maintenance services for a solar PV plant at its Duvha Power Station with a minimum 17 MW AC capacity and a maximum evacuation capacity of 30 MW AC on a site with an environmentally authorized land of 35.2 hectares.

This week Women in Solar+ Europe gives voice to Bárbara Linares Turnkey Engineer Director Iberia & Latam at Sunotec Iberia. She says diverse and inclusive teams in the renewable energy sector drive innovation, resilience, and long-term success by combining technical expertise with collaboration, empathy, and clear communication. “I have encountered subtle biases, particularly in international and multicultural environments. At times, there was scepticism linked to being a young woman, assumptions that I was not the decision-maker, or complex discussions being directed toward male colleagues,” she states.

Scientists have analyzed the competition between photovoltaics and agriculture for land use in Spain by studying 134 different crops in 15 regions. Using a real options framework, they found that falling solar PV costs and high irradiance in southern Spain could make solar more profitable than farming by the mid-2040s, highlighting growing land-use competition.

The Brazilian Association of Energy Storage Solutions (ABSAE) predicts that installations in Brazil’s commercial and industrial (C&I) segment should exceed 2 GWh in 2026. In addition, the group expects procurements of approximately 8 GWh in the auction scheduled for April, which will procure projects for delivery from 2028.