Technology and R&D

New research from Poland has suggested installing 891 PV panels along the entire tram platform and inter-track spaces of four major transportation hubs. The analysis showed that the PV system could power all of the city’s tram stops, the passenger information system, and meet 10% of demand from service depots.

The International Solar Energy Society’s (ISES) Solar World Congress (SWC) has been held biennially since the 1970s, and in November 2025 will take place in Brazil. With the sharp and continuous drop in PV costs, photovoltaics has become the lowest-cost solution in Brazil and worldwide, and this is reflected in the number of articles accepted for presentation at the SWC. The Solar World Congress program has traditionally been dominated by presentations on solar radiation and solar thermal applications, but this year, photovoltaics is the focus of most of the accepted papers. In Brazil, where large-scale hydropower plants have traditionally dominated the electricity generation mix, PV is now the second-largest generating source, and the country is adding every year the equivalent of its largest hydropower plant Itaipu, which took more than 10 years to build and reach installed capacity.

A research team in Egypt has proposed a new architecture for kesterite solar cells using a copper oxide hole transport layer and optimized configuration. The simulated device had a maximum efficiency of 33.56%.

The U.S.-based ocean technology company has developed a range of data-collecting uncrewed surface vehicles (USV) powered by solar and wind. They are designed to operate in harsh maritime conditions, above and below the sea surface, to carry out science, commercial, and defense missions.

Brazilian scientists have investigated the potential of agrivoltaics on sugarcane fields and have found this combination may provide benefits in terms of both agricultural and electricity yield. Their results showed that under certain conditions the sugarcane yield below the panels can be higher than that of plots without PV.

The Belgium-based company announced that its panorama-style solar roof for passenger cars is ready for mass production. The glass-glass design features high-efficiency back contact solar cells and a uniform full black appearance.

Is the solar industry’s focus on cutting costs undermining module reliability, safety and lifecycle economics?

An international researc team has included an interlocked self-assembled monolayer in perovskite indoor PV to enhance its stability and durability. Fabricating cells, mini modules, and a prototype device of an electronic price tag, the novel structure was tested. It was found to exhibit a lifetime approaching 6,000 hours.

Researchers from Trina Solar and China’s Nanchang University claim to have verified that back-contact solar modules outperform TOPCon modules only when fewer than three cells in a substring are shaded. Their findings were published in a peer-reviewed scientific paper.

The team produced a 16.53% inverted 1.08 cm2 perovskite solar cell using atomic layer deposition to apply a buffering layer of tin oxide to prevent electrode sputtering damage.