Magazine Archive

Robots on solar sites are not new; they have been deployed to automate everything from operations and maintenance to inspection and cleaning. In recent months, there has been an uptick in interest in robots for installation, particularly among utility-scale solar developers dealing with staff shortages, safety concerns, rising costs, and pressure to build.

When it comes to module durability, we need to think differently, according to research from Austria’s Polymer Competence Center Leoben (PCCL). Researcher Chiara Barretta reveals study results that saw modules in a tropical environment suffer significant degradation. Even stabilizer materials in the encapsulants had a limited effect.

The Polish market is shifting toward greater integration of photovoltaics and energy storage. Cable pooling with wind turbines is also gaining traction and installations exceeding connection capacity are becoming standard.

Electricity market liberalization, plus growing demand from corporate energy offtakers has kicked Japan’s power purchase agreement (PPA) market into gear, as Brian Publicover reports.

Residential and commercial solar arrays in China are likely to remain overshadowed by utility-scale projects due to new legislation that will shift prices from fully subsidized to market-driven models.

It’s a remarkable achievement by the global scientific and engineering community that silicon solar cell technology is now approaching the fundamental limits of its efficiency. The search is now on for the next generation of photovoltaic materials that can take efficiencies to 30% and beyond. Anthony Chesman, a research scientist and group leader in renewable energy systems at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), reports on efforts to accelerate discovery.

India marked a major milestone in the renewable energy (RE) space in January 2025, when installed solar capacity hit 100 GW. Solar installations show no sign of slowing as the year moves forward, writes Sehul Bhatt, of ratings agency Crisil.

For the past five consecutive years, US tech and retail giant Amazon has been the world’s largest procurer of renewable energy, investing in projects and signing power purchase agreements (PPAs) all over the world. pv magazine spoke with representatives of the company about its ambitious energy plans.

Artificial intelligence-powered technology can manage electrical demand, bringing production and consumption closer together. François Puthod, of pv magazine France explains how that market is using AI to monitor the consumption of water heaters, electric vehicles (EVs), and other household devices to contribute to better grid balance.

India’s cumulative installed, open-access (offsite) solar generation capacity reached 20.2 GW at the end of 2024. The market is set for significant expansion, driven by corporates’ sustainability goals and favorable economic and policy factors.