This week Women in Solar+ Europe gives voice to Melodie de l’Epine, Senior Project Manager/ Head of Research & Innovation at France’s Becquerel Institute. She says that ncouraging men to shift from strict hierarchy to informal exchanges fosters more equitable rapport. Women can benefit from noticing how men address each other and consciously joining in, since subtle forms of address strongly shape power perceptions.

In all ages, humankind decided to spend considerable amounts of the available productivity on special monumental projects. Managing climate change and rebalancing within the planetary boundaries is such an activity. The enormous energetic productivity of solar PV may evolve as the central pillar to create a sustainable civilization.

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.

Energy storage for homes — anchored by hybrid inverter systems — will lead the next phase of solar growth in India. Not as an upgrade, but as a necessity for a nation building toward energy independence by 2047.

The twelfth edition of the International Renewable Energy Agency’s Renewable Energy and Jobs report, in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO), provides the latest data and estimates of renewable energy employment globally. It finds global renewable energy jobs reached 16.6 million in 2024, but growth slowed. The solar photovoltaic sector is by far the largest employer in the renewable energy industry, accounting for over 7.2 million jobs worldwide. The report calls for stronger public action to build domestic supply chains and ensure a more inclusive workforce.

Researchers in Hong Kong have developed a hybrid-energy heat pump that seamlessly combines absorption and compression cycles using crystallization-free ionic liquids, improving efficiency and reliability across varying solar conditions. Simulations in multiple Chinese cities show the system can significantly cut electricity use and cooling costs, making it promising for sustainable building cooling and future commercial scaling.

New 2.4 GWh adiabatic compressed air energy storage (CAES) plant now operational in in Jiangsu province. The large-scale CAES uses molten salt and pressurized thermal water storage to achieve high efficiency, with power generated through two 300 MW units.

SunWiz market data ranks the manufacturer as the top energy storage supplier in Australia, Ireland, and South Africa.

A York County circuit court judge has dismissed a resident-led lawsuit seeking to halt construction of Silfab’s PV module assembly plant, ruling that the plaintiff lacked standing and failed to exhaust administrative remedies.

A new wireless, wifi-connected solar solution featuring three Sungrow 100 kW inverters is now allowing more than 300 kW of solar generation to be dynamically balanced across distribution boards throughout a school in Australia, significantly offsetting grid electricity use.

Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) is developing the world’s first medium-voltage PV plants in Germany to cut material use, reduce costs, and simplify grid integration. They will test 1,500 V and 3 kV string configurations to create cost-effective, voltage-resistant components for large-scale solar.

China’s PV module prices are expected to hover around $0.12/W in the second half of 2026 as the removal of export VAT rebates, front-loaded demand, and persistent oversupply keep market sentiment volatile.

The Solar Energy Association of Ukraine estimates around 1.5 GW of solar was added in the country last year, driven by growing interest in projects co-located with battery energy storage systems across market segments.

Space-based solar could power AI more efficiently than on Earth, with full-scale deployment possible in two to three years, Elon Musk said last week in Davos, Switzerland. SpaceX’s Starship launch vehicle and its reusable rockets aim to sharply reduce space access costs, enabling solar-powered AI satellites and potentially large-scale extraterrestrial energy infrastructure.

The 7 MW solar array will be built by the Nigerian unit of China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation after the company won a contract awarded by Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency.

TU Delft researchers have developed a liquid-based solar module encapsulation that performs on par with conventional EVA panels while offering improved recyclability and circularity. The approach is compatible with silicon and tandem perovskite/silicon cells and could support thermal management and integration into photovoltaic-thermal modules.

A more than 15% increase in silver prices over the past week is adding cost pressure to the solar supply chain, as silver paste costs currently represent around 30% of total PV module costs.

Researchers in Spain developed a new model incorporating dynamic shading conditions in Madrid to evaluate the yield and test control algorithms for vehicle-integrated PV (VIPV) systems.

Solar Energy Expo 2026, Poland’s flagship PV-plus-storage trade fair, returned this month with a small show-floor footprint but a sharp focus on flexibility and market reform, as well as the storage, inverter and grid-forming technologies shaping the nation’s next phase of grid integration.

Conceived for stationary energy storage, the proposed sodium-ion battery configuration relies on an P2-type cathode material and an hard carbon anode material that reportedly ensure full-cell performance. Electrochemical testing revealed initial capacities of 200 mAh/g for the cathode and 360 mAh/g for the anode with capacity retentions of 42% and 67.4% after 100 cycles.

With silver prices rising, more large solar manufacturers are expected to switch to copper for cell metallization. Radovan Kopecek of ISC Konstanz tells pv magazine that he expects the entire industry to follow. Ning Song of the University of New South Wales says a small efficiency tradeoff may be acceptable if the cost savings are significant and do not introduce new reliability risks.

A research team from Osaka Metropolitan University have developed a donor-acceptor-donor molecule that can spontaneously self-assemble into nanoscale structures and offer a more stable route to built-in p/n heterojunctions in organic solar cells.

A Chinese-Swedish research team has boosted the performance of tin-lead perovskite solar cells by modifying additives and post-treatment processes. The device also demonstrated improved stability, retaining 60% of its initial efficiency after 550 hours at 85 °C under maximum power point conditions.

Chinese manufacturer Sungrow has introduced a new utility string inverter, a three-phase hybrid inverter for commercial and industrial (C&I) applications, and a liquid-cooled energy storage system.

Spanish tracker manufacturer Solar Steel has introduced an upgraded 2P single-row tracker designed to simplify assembly, improve standardization, and support deployment on complex terrain, including agrivoltaic projects.

Germany has launched a market-based mechanism for procuring instantaneous reserve, allowing inverter-based assets and battery energy storage systems (BESS) to participate for the first time, creating new revenue opportunities while raising questions over long-term profitability and regulatory risk.

China’s SDIC subsidiary commissioned a 1 GW photovoltaic plant on the Yalong River in Sichuan, making it the world’s third-highest-altitude PV facility at 4,600 m. The project integrates with hydro assets to optimize energy output in the challenging plateau environment.

Oze Grup’s Sivrihisar project pairs a 49.2 MW solar plant with 34.1 MWh of battery storage, marking Turkey’s first grid-connected hybrid facility approved under the sustainable finance framework (DGES).

MyEnergy Engineering has completed an off grid 100 kW solar and 256 kWh battery system for a large-scale pig farm north of Adelaide, Australia.

Juniper Green Energy has fully commissioned a 100 MWh merchant battery energy storage system in western India, marking the nation’s first operational project of its kind.