Matching ambition with implementation
Portugal’s renewables sector is maturing fast. Curtailment is increasing, flexibility is scarce, and grid-connection queues are crowded. For many asset owners, the obvious answer – retrofitting with storage or wind – has long been obstructed by red tape. Recent legal updates are starting to change this situation and unblock Portugal’s slow permitting regime.
Commercial battery opportunities in the UK playbook
Europe needs battery energy storage and the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector is poised to play a key role, writes James Allston, co-CEO and head of growth at feasibility modeling software provider Orkestra Energy. But to accelerate adoption at business sites, installation companies must clearly demonstrate the value of solar-plus-storage systems and focus on solving customer challenges.
Land ahoy
As a lawyer arranging land leases in the renewable energy sector, Mattan Lass noticed his clients had a very hard time acquiring land to develop solar on. The problem isn’t so much a lack of land availability, but the difficulty navigating land registries in various countries. Lass founded his company Solsign to tackle what he describes as “the disconnect between solar developers and the land.”
PV plugging the gaps in Nigeria
Nigeria, home to one of Africa’s largest manufacturing sectors, has a population of more than 200 million people and a thriving workforce. Daniel Maduagwu of Lagos based PV developer 3KM Energy Systems argues that significant challenges that have affected Nigerian industries could be solved with off-grid solar.
pv magazine Awards: Modules
PV module technology stands at a crossroads in 2025, as reflected in highlights from the pv magazine Awards entries received so far. Tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) cells have rapidly taken over the mainstream, but manufacturers are already lining up their next move to higher performance, with back-contact and heterojunction products coming to the market in increasing numbers.
At the same time, the crowded marketplace has suppliers searching for niches to fill, and modules designed for specific applications, such as repowering or vertical installations, are becoming more common. Award winners will be chosen by a panel of expert jurors and announced in December 2025. Until then, we’ll be highlighting some of the top entries received across all seven categories. This month, it’s modules that take their turn in the spotlight.
Green economy dominance
Both the solar module and battery manufacturing industries have been dealing with excess production capacity in recent years, and each is undergoing its own set of market adjustments in 2025. This has meant challenging conditions for manufacturing equipment suppliers in either sector. But there is still plenty of opportunity to deploy the latest technologies at scale, and to assist suppliers moving into new regions. The long-term outlook for both sectors is strong, as pv magazine heard from Wang Yanqing, Chairman of solar and battery production equipment supplier Lead Intelligent, headquartered in Wuxi, China.
Non-stop solar innovation
It’s no secret that prices throughout the solar supply chain have been at rock bottom over the past 18 months. Alex Barrows and Molly Morgan of CRU Group explore how the market reached the imbalance that caused PV prices to crash, what this has meant for innovation, and how it might affect future technology transitions.
Recovery discovery
Can you give some background on recent industry concerns around ultraviolet-induced degradation in PV modules? For around two and a half years, we have been involved in several projects where larger module buyers benchmark different module types against each other in terms of reliability. In this context, we realized that there was strong UV degradation […]
Pain in the glass
Solar modules are getting bigger, thinner, and more powerful. But from Texas to Thailand, the same problem is appearing: broken glass. These breakages are not caused by hail, dropped tools or obvious mishandling. Instead, cracks spider out from frame edges, splinter near clamps and web across modules. In cases seen by Jörg Althaus, director of engineering and quality assurance services at Clean Energy Associates (CEA), it starts with a few panels – then dozens, hundreds, even thousands.
The pv magazine Awards 2025
In a year that has posed challenges for the solar industry, the 2025 crop of pv magazine Award entrants presented our expert jurors with a vision of what the future might hold. From world-first technologies supporting grid stability to second-life solutions that bolster sustainability, along with activism in rapidly growing PV markets and innovations for emerging market segments, technical progress is driving the energy transition. The time has come to reveal the pv magazine Awards 2025 winners.
