Soaring energy costs have grabbed headlines around the world the past two months, but prices across the solar supply chain are marching to their own beat, writes Hanwei Wu of OPIS. Oversupply in Asia continues to distort markets, with either sharp price falls or tepid price gains.

This week Women in Solar+ Europe gives voice to Marián Giner, Head of Engineering at Sweden’s Alight. She speaks about systemic barriers, impostor syndrome, and lessons from sport and mentorship to redefine leadership as collaborative, transparent, and team-focused.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that April 2026 was one of Australia’s driest Aprils in recent years, with widespread rainfall deficits driven by persistent high pressure and ENSO returning to neutral, leading to mostly clear skies and above-normal solar irradiance across much of the continent. New South Wales and Victoria saw the strongest sunshine surpluses, while remnants of ex-Tropical Cyclone Maila brought cloud and rain to the north, creating regional contrasts in rainfall and solar conditions.

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.

An engineer and home-energy enthusiast installs the Anker Solix E10 on a fire-prone California hillside, and documents the entire process in a deep dive review for ESS News

Redeia used advanced simulation to test anti-cascading transmission towers under extreme multi-tower collapse scenarios. The results confirm that current Spanish grid design standards effectively prevent cascading failures and support overall grid resilience.

China’s ZOE Energy Storage will manufacture in Saudi Arabia, scaling production to 18 GWh

The Australian government has officially launched the latest tender in its Capacity Investment Scheme initiative, a competitive round targeting 5 GW of renewable energy generation capacity in the National Electricity Market.

Cuba has introduced a new tariff of CUP 90 ($3.75)/kWh for surplus renewable electricity exported to the national grid, replacing a lower differentiated pricing system for residential and non-residential producers.

The European Commission has awarded €400 million ($465.7 million) to 65 industrial heat decarbonization projects across 10 European countries in its first Innovation Fund heat auction, targeting electrification and renewable heat technologies in energy-intensive industries.

Research from the UK finds aerosols reduced global solar output by 5.8% in 2023, equivalent to 111 TWh. While China accounted for over half the global total in 2023, the country is the only major solar-producing region found to be demonstrating a decline in annual losses.

One of Australia’s biggest miners has commenced construction of a 690 MW solar farm and 650 MWh battery energy storage system in Western Australia as part of plans to eliminate diesel and gas from its iron ore operations.

SolarPower Europe estimates that EU solar generation is significantly underreported, with actual PV output projected at 410 TWh in 2025 versus 275 TWh in official statistics. The group attributes the gap to incomplete rooftop PV registration, data transfer delays, and the difficulty of measuring self-consumed solar electricity.

The new pan-European digital platform is designed to enhance transparency and improve access to information on the hosting capacity of European electricity grids, including both transmission and distribution networks.

Regulators in 27 U.S. states are shifting residential electricity pricing toward higher fixed monthly charges and lower usage-based rates, weakening the economics of rooftop solar and home battery systems. This redesign reduces incentives for distributed energy, compresses savings from peak-rate arbitrage, and reinforces reliance on costly centralized grid expansion, potentially raising long-term electricity costs for consumers.

Researchers in China have developed a heating pipeline compressed-air energy storage (HP-CAES) concept that repurposes urban district heating networks as large-scale storage vessels for surplus renewable electricity. The system stores compressed air and recovered compression heat within existing pipelines, enabling both energy storage and heating functions with improved efficiency and lower infrastructure requirements compared to conventional tank-based CAES.

The result was certified by TÜV Rheinland and represents the highest efficiency ever recorded for a single-junction silicon solar cells.

Researchers from UNSW and DAS Solar developed a zero-busbar metal grid optimization approach for tunnel oxide passivated back-contact (TBC) silicon solar cells, enabling more efficient current collection at the rear surface while reducing silver consumption by 3–4 mg/W. The first TBC cells produced in mass manufacturing using this technique have demonstrated efficiencies exceeding 27%.

Researchers have developed a low-temperature, hydrogen peroxide-mediated oxidative liquefaction process to recycle end-of-life solar panels by selectively breaking down polymers into useful chemical feedstocks. The proposed method reduces energy consumption, eliminates hazardous solvents, and minimizes landfill waste compared to traditional recycling techniques.

Gasunie has launched a 32-km hydrogen pipeline in the Port of Rotterdam linking Maasvlakte and Pernis, marking the first operational section of the Dutch hydrogen backbone and enabling future expansion toward national and cross-border hydrogen networks.

JinkoSolar has won a key patent invalidation in China against First Solar’s TOPCon-related patent, with the China National Intellectual Property Administration ruling it fully invalid.

Polysilicon prices stayed flat in China as production and demand moved closer into balance, easing recent supply–demand pressures.

The ultra-thin TOPCon solar cell uses dual-sided polysilicon passivated contacts formed by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition. The champion device, with a thickness of only 80 μm, achieved 19.7% efficiency with 719 mV open-circuit voltage and demonstrated strong passivation, optical performance, and mechanical flexibility.

The Plug and Play Solar Act, which passed on a 35-1 vote, would allow portable solar generation devices with up to 1,200 W of output to connect to a building through a standard outlet. The bill now moves to the state Assembly, which has until August 31 to pass it during the current session.

Stray voltage is unwanted electrical potential differences in barns that can cause small shocks to livestock, especially dairy cows, through damp floors, metal equipment, and water systems, leading to stress and reduced productivity, and in some cases even to death. While PV systems are sometimes blamed, experts told pv magazine that the real causes are faulty or poorly designed grounding and electrical infrastructure, and that proper equipotential bonding is key to prevention. With attentive design, these risks to animal health can be avoided.

The Brazilian Association of Energy Storage Solutions gathered executives to debate applications that could solve systemic challenges facing the Brazilian electricity sector. The issue, they argue, goes beyond a “BESS vs. thermal or renewables vs. energy security” debate, but involves finding the best combination of security, price, ‘renewability’, and flexibility.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is backing a five-country merchant battery storage push by Slovenian developer NGEN Energetske Rešitve with a €70 million ($81.3 million) loan supported by an EU first-loss guarantee, in one of the first multi-country merchant BESS portfolios in central Europe.

The Chinese manufacturer said the system is designed for easy AC-coupled integration with existing PV systems and scalable expansion up to 7.5 kW three-phase output. The system purportedly delivers 800 W–2.5 kW AC output, supports up to 5.76 kW PV input with 96.5% efficiency.

The measure raises the import tariff from 18% to 25% for 48V LFP batteries intended for stationary applications in telecommunications and photovoltaic systems of up to 4.8 kW until May 2027, following a request from the domestic industry via LETEC. For other batteries classified as lithium-ion electric accumulators, the reduced rate of 18% remains.

The scheme targets projects of 0.7 MW and above, with a 935 MW indicative storage need, and is part of broader reforms to streamline investment while strengthening state-led planning of the electricity sector.