Germany added an estimated 6.57 GWh of stationary battery storage capacity in 2025, an increase of about 8% year on year, lifting total installed capacity to roughly 24 GWh. Growth was driven by industrial and large-scale systems, even as home storage installations declined alongside weaker rooftop solar demand.

This article of the Women in Solar+ Europe series brings together experts and leaders featured throughout 2025 to reflect on why leadership must be redefined for today’s realities. Their insights highlight inclusion not as an add-on, but as the very heart of effective, future-ready leadership.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick look at the main price trends in the global PV industry.

India’s power system is rapidly decentralizing as electricity demand, rooftop solar, electric vehicles, and distributed generation expand, turning a one-way grid into a dynamic network that increasingly depends on decentralized data systems such as RF mesh networks.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that December’s solar resource reflected a classic La Niña pattern, with suppressed irradiance in the Pacific Northwest and above-normal conditions across the southern U.S. A blocking ridge brought clear skies and strong solar gains to the Southwest and Texas, while cloud cover and fog reduced output farther north.

Solar Energy Corp. of India (SECI) has concluded a tender for 1.2 GW of interstate transmission system-connected solar projects paired with 600 MW/3,600 MWh of energy storage, with tariffs as low as INR 3.12 ($0.035)/kWh.

Scatec has inked a 25-year power purchase agreement in Egypt for a 1.95 GW solar, 3.9 GWh battery energy storage project, representing the developer’s largest investment to date.

China is on track to reach a fully renewable energy system by 2051, nearly a century earlier than the United States, according to a global study covering 150 countries.

China will scrap value-added tax export rebates for PV products from April 1, 2026, while cutting battery rebates ahead of a full phaseout, raising export costs for manufacturers and potentially pulling shipments forward into early 2026.

Effective since January 1, 2026, the Solar Accelerated Transition Action Programme (Solar ATAP) aims to build on Malaysia’s previous net metering program’s efforts to maximize the use of rooftops for solar generation by incentivizing consumers to export excess generation to the grid. The capacity limit has been set at 100% of the consumer’s maximum demand, or 1 MW.

RWE has started commissioning a 100 MW electrolyzer in Germany to supply renewable hydrogen under long-term contracts, while Hydrogen Utopia International and Hydrogen Systems are advancing plans to build waste-to-hydrogen plants in Saudi Arabia.

New UNSW research found that about 20% of solar modules in large PV plants degrade much faster than expected. They recommend holistic strategies such as robust materials, advanced designs, and proactive monitoring to decouple degradation pathways and prevent cascading failures.

The 500 MW/1 GWh Jiayuguan NingSheng project combines lithium batteries and supercapacitors to support grid stability and renewables integration.

Wood Mackenzie’s 2026 market outlook for hydrogen expects non-biological origin hydrogen to gain momentum and ammonia crackers to reach commercial scale but predicts the Middle Eastern market to retreat and the EU to abandon its industrial hydrogen mandates.

A Husqvarna researcher developed a fast, interpretable PV hotspot-detection method using IR thermography and Lab* color-space features instead of heavy neural networks, achieving up to 95.2% accuracy with shallow classifiers. The lightweight system works in real time on drones or edge devices and could save 17,620 kWh and 8.9 tons of CO₂ annually by improving fault detection in solar panels.

The use of a novel roll-to-roll process and optimization technology resulted in polymer foils for use in colored PV modules in a potentially wide range of colors with low iridescence and low levels of efficiency loss.

By 2050, sodium-ion batteries with fast learning rates could deliver storage at 11–14 €/MWh – cheaper than lithium-ion at 16–22 €/MWh – while also offering higher energy-to-power ratios and high cycle durability, a new research finds.

Spain-based Izpitek has developed an 86 kW building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) installation for tunnel entrances and exits that supplies power for lighting, demonstrating how solar energy can be adapted to complex architectural environments.

The Chinese perovskite solar technology developer said the result is currently under testing by an unspecified third-party authoritative laboratory in China. The achievement is part of the company’s efforts to bring its perovskite cell technology closer to commercial production.

JinkoSolar has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with XtalPi, an “AI for Science” platform company, to pursue high-throughput R&D on perovskite-crystalline-silicon tandem solar cells using an AI platform and quantum-physics-based models.

Polysilicon prices in China rose sharply this week as reduced output, higher costs, and strong downstream demand pushed transactions above CNY 60,000 ($8,590) per metric ton (MT). Module prices, however, remained stable, supported by firm procurement and tight wafer supply.

UNSW researchers boosted TOPCon solar cell efficiency by locally thinning the rear poly-Si layer, reducing parasitic absorption while preserving wafer integrity. The champion cell built with this approach achieved 25.10% efficiency with improved bifaciality and maintained strong passivation.

China’s Astronergy says its ASTRO N7 Pro module targets utility-scale PV plants and commercial rooftops, offering quarter-cell architecture, bifacial gains, and a 30-year performance guarantee.

France-based DOTSun has developed an on-site repair solution for solar panels with degraded backsheets, compatible with PA, PVDF, and PET types. The system uses a compact laminator to apply a protective film to the rear side of the module, reportedly restoring insulation and extending the service life of up to 2,000 panels per site.

UNSW researchers developed an experimentally validated model linking UV-induced degradation in TOPCon solar cells to hydrogen transport, charge trapping, and permanent structural changes in the passivation stack. They show that thicker aluminum oxide layers significantly improve UV resilience by limiting hydrogen migration, offering clear guidance for more robust TOPCon designs.

France’s energy regulator says wider use of flexible grid connections is becoming essential as solar and battery projects compete for limited network capacity, with storage connection queues now totaling 2.8 GW.

The first stage of the biggest approved battery project in Australia is now fully operational with Origin Energy announcing the initial stage of the 700 MW / 3,160 MWh battery energy storage system being built next to its Eraring coal-fired generator in New South Wales has commenced commercial operations.

U.S. startup Quilt has introduced a new three-zone ductless heat pump for residential use, offering independent temperature control across three areas with a single outdoor unit. The system uses R32 (difluoromethane) as the refrigerant and can reportedly achieved a coefficient of performance of 4.2 at 8 C.

A startup led by Cambridge University scientists and the former chair of Oxford PV is attempting to commercialize flow battery electrolytes with greater energy density than vanadium-based batteries. Kodiaq Technologies claims its electrolytes can be deployed as a drop-in solution for redox flow batteries.

Poland’s Central Transport Port company tendered 20 MW of solar PV plus 50 MW of battery storage capacity with a working time of two hours. The project’s capacities could be expanded in the future, when the Port Polska airport will be fully operational.