Grids & Integration

The 204 MW Zwartowo solar power plant is the first large-scale solar project authorized to provide balancing services in Poland.

Swimsol says the 2.4 MW floating PV array will supply the resort island of Cheval Blanc Randheli, reducing diesel consumption and saving about $1.5 million in fuel costs. The company’s engineering team told pv magazine how the system will operate.

Researchers in the United Kingdom developed a scheduling model for residential heat pumps that reduces electricity costs while maintaining thermal comfort under dynamic tariffs and uncertain rooftop PV generation. It optimizes when to use grid power, PV energy, and building thermal storage.

Jinko Power signed a framework agreement with Zhongwei to develop a 1 GW data center in Ningxia, marking its entry into green computing under China’s “Eastern Data, Western Computing” initiative. The project, however, remains subject to approvals and funding scrutiny.

Spain and Portugal recorded a surge in negative electricity prices in Q1, driven by strong solar generation and relatively low demand on the Iberian Peninsula. Further records are likely in 2026 as solar capacity grows, with more frequent price volatility expected across Europe.

Researchers in Italy analyzed air-to-water heat pump performance in Alpine regions, focusing on how start-up and defrost cycles affect efficiency under current and future climate conditions. Their simulations show that while warmer temperatures slightly reduce defrosting losses and modestly improve efficiency, start-up cycling losses remain significant and continue to limit overall performance gains.

Cloud and SaaS platforms are now central to PV plant operations, but their centralization creates a high-impact cybersecurity risk where a single compromise can expose or disrupt entire fleets of installations. Attackers exploit weaknesses like stolen credentials, insecure APIs, multi-tenant flaws, and platform vulnerabilities, making strong identity controls, secure APIs, and continuous monitoring essential defenses.

Supply chain attacks compromise PV systems by targeting trusted vendors, software, or hardware components, allowing attackers to infiltrate systems indirectly through legitimate channels. These attacks can disrupt operations, introduce hidden vulnerabilities, and impact multiple assets at once, making vendor security and system validation critical for resilience.

A new metric for assessing total system costs puts a least-cost mix of offshore wind and solar at about €46 ($54.20)/MWh in a future climate-neutral energy system for Denmark. Researchers tell pv magazine that figure is less than half the equivalent cost of nuclear under the same conditions.

Denial-of-service attacks overwhelm networked systems with massive traffic from compromised devices, disrupting communication and making critical services like PV system monitoring and control unavailable. They can cause operational instability, reduced energy production, and safety risks, requiring layered defenses such as filtering, redundancy, and automated mitigation to maintain system resilience.