2026 Defense authorizations highlight the need for U.S.-made photovoltaics in satellites to compete with foreign adversaries, writes Rob Gardner, vice president, congressional and regulatory affairs, for the SEMA Coalition.

This week Women in Solar+ Europe gives voice to Antonio Arruebo, Market Analyst at SolarPower Europe. He says that widespread lack of awareness about the barriers women face throughout their professional journeys is currently the major hurdle for change. “Many obstacles are invisible or completely normalised,” he also stated. “Without more education and conscious effort, this self-perpetuating cycle will not be reversed.”

As smart grid tech is rolled out around the world to modernize legacy assets and integrate renewable energy generation, it is also making the electricity network more prone to cyber attacks. IEC Standards provide protection but they also are challenged to keep up with the latest threats.

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.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that solar irradiance levels were well below average in western and northern United States in November, while southern parts of the country and Mexico enjoyed strong positive anomalies.

Seventh allocation round (AR7) budget for onshore technologies assigned by the government, with enough cash for solar to support 4 GW of capacity. Success for solar at the next two contracts for difference (CfD) seen as key to achieving UK government’s 2030 clean power targets.

The new floating PV structure removes traditional maintenance walkways between module rows to enable more solar modules to be installed per hectare. Ciel & Terre has also developed a motorized trolley system capable of rolling over the structure.

Sunwafe says it has formally applied to reserve land in Asturias, Spain, for a 20 GW silicon wafer and ingot factory backed by Chinese capital, EIT InnoEnergy, and a €200 million ($232.6 million) Spanish government grant.

A pair of research studies led by the Argonne National Laboratory have demonstrated how “ecovoltaic” installations in the midwestern United States are home to more bird and bat activities than nearby fields used for agriculture.

Insolation Energy says construction, equipment procurement, and certification steps across its solar cell, module, and aluminum frame facilities in India are moving ahead on schedule as the company scales national manufacturing capacity.

The Chinese company said its Power Max 1800 SE has a rated power of 1.8 kW and a surge power of 2.4 kW. It weighs 15.5 kg and measures 39 cm x 23 cm x 25.4 cm.

The Finnish company said its novel AmbiSteam system can produce process steam above 5 bar. It is based on the company’s SteamLevel heat pump technology.

Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corp. (Toshiba ESS) has started testing batteries and energy management solutions to stabilize electricity in remote Saudi Arabia through a hybrid wind-solar pilot project. The project will run until May 2028 to evaluate power- and energy-oriented batteries and optimize battery use.

Solarpro has developed a steel deck mounting structure with a drilling-free fixing system for rooftop solar panels.

An engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) tender is open in Zambia for a 25 MW solar project. The deadline for applications is Jan. 9, 2026.

UNSW researchers have found that annealing copper-plated contacts in heterojunction solar cells creates only localized stress. Their analysis also showed that, at typical annealing temperatures around 200 C, the probability of silicon fracture is very low.

Researchers in China developed a monolithic perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell using a steric-complementary interface design, achieving a certified efficiency of 32.12% and enhanced long-term stability. This strategy optimizes molecular fit in the perovskite lattice, improving both charge transport and device longevity.

The Dutch research institute’s highly automated research line offers customized, flexible solar semi-finished PV products to partners developing integrated PV applications.

Researchers studying PV panels in Chile’s hyper-arid Atacama Desert found that cemented soiling can cause annual energy losses of up to 9.8%. Their combined field and laboratory work shows that dry cleaning leaves residue that accelerates future cementation, making wet cleaning the more effective long-term strategy despite higher costs and scarce water.

During a pv magazine Week Europe 2025 webinar, panelists forecast back contact (BC) solar cells’ market share will draw level with TOPCon towards the end of the decade, before tandem technology begins large-scale momentum in the early 2030s.

Emmvee Energy has signed a long-term supply agreement with a domestic buyer to deliver 4.5 GWp of tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar cells.

Excellence was on display across all eight categories in the pv magazine Awards 2025 with plenty of innovation in both established and new market segments. From world-firsts to second-life solutions, this year’s winners brought cutting edge solutions to challenges facing solar and storage. The time has come to reveal the winners and highly commended finalists…

Kanazawa University has begun long-term outdoor testing of tandem perovskite solar cells in collaboration with Toshiba. The research project aligns with Japan’s broader push to scale perovskite PV technologies toward large deployment by 2040.

Researchers in Italy have simulated an agrivoltaic-powered anaerobic digestion plant for biomethane production and optimized it across eight scenarios, using vertically mounted panels in some cases with one-axis tracker and with two-axis trackers in others.

The Japanese conglomerate has deployed its Panasonic HX hydrogen solution at its facility in Munich. The system uses an AI-based energy management system that reportedly makes battery storage unnecessary.

European energy storage hardware startups have secured €2.14 billion ($2.5 billion) in equity funding for commercial, industrial, and grid-scale applications, says Avnet Silica. Nearly half of that funding was raised in the past three years, and more than 80% in the last five.

The government of Belize is seeking a consultancy firm to help implement a 40 MW solar plus 20 MW/80 MWh battery energy storage project. The deadline to submit expressions of interest is Jan. 5, 2026.

A 500 MW/2,000 MWh lithium iron phosphate battery energy storage system has entered commercial operation in Tongliao, Inner Mongolia, after five months of construction, with total investment of CNY 1.5 billion ($212.2 million) and designed for peak shaving and renewable integration.

A report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) recommends three strategies to accelerate the deployment of distributed solar and battery energy storage systems (BESS) in Ukraine as the country works to increase its energy security.

Prolux Solutions is recalling all Storac home energy storage systems in Germany and exiting vanadium redox flow technology to switch future residential products to lithium iron phosphate batteries.