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In light of the slew of trade shows and industry events canceled over the Covid-19 pandemic, solar companies and industry leaders have moved online, with virtual presentations, information sessions, and product debuts to get you through quarantine.

Rio Tinto Chairman Simon Thompson is urging governments across the world to take “urgent” action on climate change despite the twin evils of Covid-19 and economic recession. The call comes amid criticism that Rio Tinto’s own emission reductions schemes are too weak.

The Ministry of Environment and Climate Action will permit 220 self-consumption projects with generation capacities of no more than 1 MW to be connected immediately. The usual long-winded permitting process has been side-stepped as the government seeks to enable financially-stricken enterprises to benefit from lower energy bills during the public health crisis.

Even as global PV forecasts fall, tax equity dries up and unemployment rises, investor Jim Spano believes the right type of government stimulus could not only help the solar industry recover – but drive it to new heights.

Industry body SolarPower Europe hosted a webinar to consider how the global public health crisis will affect solar. While workers and materials are still available, industry experts are concerned about the state of the financial sector. Banks could become more conservative and raise the cost of capital for renewables projects.

Grenergy was this week due to ship 400,000 face masks to Latin America as European developers today voiced a fear project finance will become increasingly difficult to find as the coronavirus lockdown continues.

With its sonnenVPP, German battery company Sonnen wants to improve the efficiency of virtual power plants which it says can offer primary balancing energy from houses with solar and storage and can operate up to 90% more cost-effectively.

German companies Uniper and Siemens will cooperate on joint projects to advance the use of green hydrogen and sector coupling. Conventional, gas-fired hydrogen production plants will be gradually transformed as part of the initiative.

Researchers in Australia and China used intensity-modulated photoluminescence to map the series resistance of perovskite solar cells with a technique which could further understanding of the causes of instability issues in such devices.

Scientists at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory are developing a communication system to coordinate and control the volumes of solar power injected into grids by small scale solar arrays.