In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, explains that the solar cycle does tend to increase the earth’s average annual extra-terrestrial irradiance, but only by a very small amount. It also explains that, while the annual cycle of extra-terrestrial irradiance causes a steady, predictable and significant 3.5% change through the seasonal cycle, the peak of the 11-year cycle of solar activity causes a smaller, more sporadic and unpredictable set of fluctuations.

This week, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu) gives voice to Oana Ijdelea, the founder and managing partner of Romanian law firm Ijdelea & Associates. She says there is no objective blockage impeding women from pursuing a career in the renewable sector. There is, however, a vicious circle where women may become reluctant to apply for a position where males appear to be more present, and on the other hand, the lack of female presence in such roles does not encourage other women to step in.

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.

The requirements of measures such as the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) mean that solar panel prices in the United States can be twice as much as in Europe.

Prices for tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar panels continue to fall. pvXchange.com founder Martin Schachinger explains how this will affect the sale of PV modules based on passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) cells.

Twenty-one US states have accepted the grid modernization challenge as part of the Federal-State Modern Grid Deployment initiative, which aims to shore up the US energy grid for future challenges and opportunities in the power sector.

The power purchase agreement will see Clean Energy Connect Co Ltd, an Itochu portfolio company, develop around 72 MW of dedicated solar plants for Google by 2026, to help reach the search engine company’s renewable energy targets.

High energy prices and levies are becoming strong drivers for commercial and industrial (C&I) solar projects in Pakistan. Omar Malik, the CEO of Pakistani C&I solar developer Shams Power, speaks with pv magazine about market trends and challenges.

Solutions for Our Climate (SFOC) says in a new report that blue hydrogen might not be an effective climate solution, while TotalEnergies and its partners have agreed to explore green hydrogen potential in Tunisia.

Brazil added 6 GW of new PV capacity between January and April. ABSolar, the Brazilian PV association, says the country has now cumulatively deployed 43 GW of solar capacity, with around 24 GW from PV systems below 75 kW in size.

Italy installed 1.72 GW of new solar capacity in the first quarter, bringing its cumulative installed PV capacity to 32.0 GW by the end of March, according to Italia Solare, the nation’s solar energy association.

Anywhere Solar says its new trackers have a module area of 75 m2 and can host PV systems up to 19 kW in size. When deployed horizontally, the systems allow vehicles up to 4.3 meters high to pass underneath.

The Japanese electronics manufacturer has launched the NU-JC440 and NU-JC430B panels with efficiencies of 22.53% and 22.02%, respectively. Both products are IEC/EN61215 and IEC/EN61730-certified and rely on M10 wafers.

Genex Power has appointed UK-based engineering and design company Arup as owners’ engineer for the first stage of the 2 GW Bulli Creek solar project. The installation is set to become the biggest solar farm on Australia’s main grid.

CEZ Group has developed a new solution for securing solar photovoltaics in areas of unstable subsoil from the central section of conveyor belts previously used in strip coal mines. Several pilots of the steel structure have already been deployed on a reclaimed area near the Bílina Mine in northern Czechia.

Scientists in South Africa have modeled a photovoltaic system connected to a thermoelectric cooling device and have found it may produce around 9.2% more electricity than conventional PV system without cooling. The research team claims the proposed system guarantees a minimum cost saving of 10.56%.

A Chinese research group including scientists from module maker Tongwei has designed a perovskite solar cell with remarkable perovskite film quality through the so-called self-disintegrating seed strategy. The device not only achieved one of the highest fill factor values ever recorded for perovskite solar to date, but also showed remarkable stability.

Researchers at the University of South Carolina have successfully transitioned their highly-durable lithium-sulfur battery technology from coin to pouch cells and reported competent energy densities.

Researchers in Nigeria have proposed to build inverted perovskite solar cells exclusively with all-inorganic transport materials and a lead-free perovksite absorber. Through a series of simulations, they showed these device may achieve efficiencies over 30% with low production costs.

U.S. scientists have developed a thermophotovoltaic cell that could be paired with inexpensive thermal storage to provide power on demand. The indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) thermophotovoltaic cell absorbs most of the in-band radiation to generate electricity, while serving as a nearly perfect mirror.

India’s solar module exports hit $1.9 billion in fiscal 2023-24, with shipments to the US market accounting for the lion’s share of the total.

Wood Mackenzie says in its latest report that low prices and integrated supply chains allow Chinese manufacturers to supply more than 65% of total global demand for renewables equipment, with its exports growing by 35% between 2019 and 2023.

The versatility of solar mounting manufacturer and balance-of-system provider Clenergy’s ezShade 2.0 solar shade system has been put to the test with the solution at the core of a standalone power system fuelling an off-grid communications site in remote northern Queensland.

Perovskite PV devices are set to become the next big thing in solar with market analysts at S&P Global Commodity Insights predicting 1 GW of production by the end of 2024, rising to 6 GW in 2025. Perovskite tandem devices are at the front of the queue for commercialization but their characterization presents technical challenges.

Developer Loop Energia has built a 1.2 MW offgrid solar plant that now serves a center-pivot irrigation system in the Brazilian state of Bahia. The project reportedly enables local farmers to double soybean harvesting by achieving considerable savings through significantly lower diesel consumption.

Reliance Industries has signed a technology licensing agreement to gain access to Nel Hydrogen’s platform for alkaline electrolyzer production.

Nikola plans to sell 100 hydrogen fuel-cell trucks for logistic operations in California, Volvo has started developing hydrogen combustion trucks, and Airbus has announced plans to launch a study into hydrogen projects in the US state of Georgia.

BloombergNEF (BNEF) says in a new study of 1,600 planned hydrogen projects that governments will miss their 2030 hydrogen targets. Analyst Adithya Bhashyam tells pv magazine that most of the announced projects to the end of this decade lack the key conditions for success.

An international research group has utilized a newly designed coalitional game system to ensure economic fairness between members of energy communities. The game system considers different types of prosumers relying on stand-alone and combinations of solar and storage.

Ausgrid, a distributed network provider in the Australian state of New South Wales, has powered up its third battery energy storage system under the federal government’s AUD 200 million ($132 million) Community Batteries for Household Solar program.