Achieving a system cost of $0.65/W through the secondary market and do-it-yourself assembly demonstrates a viable pathway for US plug-in solar to provide immediate utility bill relief to renters and apartment dwellers.

An industry analysis argues that agrivoltaic systems using trackers or vertical designs can outperform conventional solar on both revenues and land use, challenging conclusions from a recent German study.

This week Women in Solar+ Europe gives voice to Irene Mihai, Policy Director at the Romanian Photovoltaic Industry Association (RPIA). She says her personal experiences show how mentorship, collaboration, and inclusive workplace practices are essential for attracting and retaining talent while empowering the next generation to contribute to a sustainable future.

Marine energy is renewable and generally predictable. It could thus compensate for the unplanned intermittency of solar and wind generation, its proponents argue. But several challenges still need to be overcome for the energy to become widely used.

Global solar PV continues its rapid growth, reaching around 650 GW in 2025, with record solar irradiation extremes across regions such as East Asia, India, and Latin America. With current production capacity and emerging technologies like perovskite-silicon tandem modules, PV is poised to surpass all other electricity generation technologies combined by the end of the decade.

The UAE capital is expanding its solar self-supply policy to the residential sector, after first launching for the agricultural sector in February.

Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) is set to present a framework for future network fees in May 2026, with industry discussions highlighting how these charges could interact with flexible connection agreements and affect battery energy storage system (BESS) returns.

France’s Association Environnement Juste has proposed a storage mandate for renewables projects exceeding 10 kWp in order to integrate flexibility at the source. The association argues European sodium-ion batteries could present an economically and environmentally viable solution, capable of stabilizing grids without depending on imported metals.

Latest analysis from Ember finds major grid bottlenecks in transmission and distribution networks across Europe, threatening the viability of both future utility-scale and smaller-scale residential solar in the most impacted countries.

Sassmann, a Germany-based company, has developed a modular “solar panel grid” system designed to prevent pigeons from nesting beneath photovoltaic modules.

Distributed solar accounted for 15% of all new US power capacity in 2025, as residential and community projects reached record installation levels.

Swiss analytics firm Pexapark says the latest developments in the Middle East are having a visible effect on long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) valuation in Europe, as the market begins to reprice the coming years.

The European Union Agency for Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) is running a public consultation on the evolution of the bloc’s power purchase agreement (PPA) market to identify existing initiatives and challenges.

The Department of Energy of the Philippines says it is fast tracking 12 solar projects for grid entry in April in response to changes in the global oil markets caused by conflict in the Middle East.

A study of 20 solar parks in southern France found that soil biodiversity and respiration drop significantly under panels, especially in mown areas, while plant traits like height and leaf area can increase under grazing. The researchers highlighted that climate, management type, and solar shading all shape soil and plant responses.

Available in 80 W and 108 W versions using high-efficiency SunPower Maxeon cells, the kit offers wind resistance up to 25 m/s and easy installation on unused boat surfaces, according to the manufacturer.

SolarEdge has outlined a transition pathway to integrated 800 V (DC) infrastructure for data centers, arguing that legacy alternating current (AC) systems introduce inefficiencies that could constrain the growth of AI workloads. It says rising compute demand and next-gen NVIDIA GPUs are increasing urgency, while data centers lose an estimated 10% to 30% of input power through multiple conversion stages.

Researchers in India demonstrated that ion beam implantation enables precise boron doping in silicon solar cells, reducing defects and improving charge transport. The proposed approach could support more efficient and reproducible p–n junctions, offering a pathway to higher-performance silicon photovoltaics.

Investors at the Battery Business & Development Forum (BBDF) 2026 signaled continued confidence in the energy storage market, while warning that regulatory uncertainty, particularly around grid fees in Germany, could affect project economics and investment decisions.

UNSW researchers developed a chemically selective, nitrate-based, single-sided accelerated ageing method for TOPCon solar cells that replicates the mildly acidic environment inside EVA-encapsulated modules. The proposed approach enables rapid, physically meaningful screening of front-side metallisation stability, reliably predicting module-level degradation and reducing development time and costs, according to its creators.

JinkoSolar has formally terminated its 4 GW Hai Ha solar cell project in Vietnam, citing US antidumping duties that undermined its export economics. The company will maintain other Vietnamese operations while shifting focus to localized supply chains and Asia-Pacific and Middle East markets.

Premier Energies Ltd has commenced trial production at its 5.6 GW solar module manufacturing facility in Seetharampur, Telangana. The new facility produces G12R TOPCon modules with zero busbar (0BB) architecture.

The International Finance Corporation is providing an A Loan to Malaysian polysilicon producer OCI TerraSus that will partly finance the development of a semiconductor-grade polysilicon production facility in Sarawak, Borneo.

Multi-year field trials conducted in Italy show that agrivoltaic systems can support healthy potato yields without major losses. Strategic shading and dynamic light management during critical growth stages proved key to maintaining productivity.

Researchers in Finland found that dishwashing liquid reduces solar module transmittance and performance, leaving residues even after rinsing. They recommend avoiding its use for cleaning solar panels.

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev has inaugurated a major battery energy storage system (BESS) project as part of a 500 MWh rollout to strengthen grid stability and support renewable energy integration.

Italy’s energy regulator ARERA has approved a proposal from the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security to target 16 GWh of storage capacity in the 2029 MACSE auction, while urging caution on final volumes to reflect existing pipeline capacity.

Lithuania added approximately 600 MW of solar last year, taking total capacity to 3,040 MW. Technical permits have been issued for an additional 4 GW of solar but with grid congestion becoming a primary constraint, future deployments will be increasingly dependent on integration with storage technologies.

SOSV-backed Qnetic is aiming to raise $20 million in 2026. Over the next two years it will work with the National Lab of the Rockies and other partners on field testing and validating its technology across multiple use cases.

Bosa Energy in Hubei, China, has launched sodium-ions cells for stationary energy storage, with a volumetric energy density of 206 Wh/L