Policy

While Brazil is making progress in customer-side, “behind-the-meter” and off-grid battery solutions – with more than 700 MWh – it still lacks guidelines for a planned gigawatt-scale national auction. Markus Vlasits, president of the Brazilian Association of Energy Storage Solutions (ABSAE), tells pv magazine about the nation’s utility-scale battery bottleneck.

JA Solar has set up a manufacturing partnership with South Africa’s ARTsolar to annually produce 340 MW of PV modules, supporting domestic content rules under South Africa’s procurement programs and reducing reliance on imports.

A US Senate committee has advanced a bill to phase out the investment tax credit by 2028 and end the residential solar tax credit by the end of this year, proposing major rollbacks to clean energy incentives. The “One Big Beautiful Bill” includes broader tax code changes that could impact project economics across the renewable energy sector.

Renewables remain cost-competitive in the United States despite rising natural gas competitiveness, according to Lazard’s 2025 “Levelized Cost of Energy+” report, which estimates combined cycle gas at $0.048/kWh to $0.107/kWh, solar at $0.038/kWh to $0.212/kWh, and nuclear at $0.141/kWh to $0.220/kWh.

Romania’s energy regulator ANRE has adopted new grid connection rules, introducing changes to the solution study process, financial guarantee requirements, and connection agreement terms to prioritize mature projects and ease grid congestion.

Solar Energy Corp. of India (SECI) has launched a tender for 2 GW of solar generation capacity paired with 4 GWh of energy storage, requiring bidders to install a minimum of 500 kW/2 MWh storage per megawatt of solar awarded.

Ahaan Solar, part of Airox Nigen Equipments, plans to start production from the first 600 MW phase of its 2 GW solar module factory in Haryana, India, by mid-2025. The facility will use tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) technology to produce high-efficiency modules for domestic and export markets.

Researchers in the Netherlands have identified all major solar power plants in the Dutch Province of Gelderland and have analyzed all of their spatial measures in an effort to assess their impact on landscape. They have specifically focused on land use competition, biodiversity, and landscape experience.

In an exclusive interview with pv magazine, Panamanian Energy Secretary Juan Manuel Urriola said the government will open the electricity market to private investment and revise regulations to enable energy storage. Urriola also emphasized the importance of long-term planning and transparent bidding to attract developers.

Women in Solar+ Europe – WiSEu Network attended the launch of POWERful Women’s Annual State of the Nation Report this week, where leaders and changemakers called for faster action to close the gender gap in energy.