In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that, despite record rainfall in the middle of April, areas of the Arabian Peninsula still saw above-average irradiance through April, with the UAE and parts of Saudi Arabia seeing irradiance about 5% above normal.

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.

With California’s NEM 3.0 legislation having gutted panel sales and Arizona heading a bevy of other US states preparing to reduce solar-export payments, it’s time the United States solar industry stepped up, for ourselves as well as our customers.

This week, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu Network) takes a significant step by shedding light on health and safety issues for women in the solar and energy storage industry, a crucial topic that gained even more relevance after the observance of World Day for Safety and Health at Work on April 28th.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that April’s weather in Europe presented a north-south divide impacting solar generation across the continent. High pressure systems over the Mediterranean meant sunnier than normal conditions in Southern Europe, benefitting PV output.

India Ratings and Research says India will maintain its current pace of renewable-energy capacity additions due to a significant drop in equipment prices and ongoing policy support.

The new government coalition in the Netherlands says the nation’s current net-metering scheme will be maintained until the end of 2026. The previous Parliament had rejected a proposal to cancel the scheme by the end of 2025.

SolarPower Europe has developed an agrisolar digital map showcasing more than 200 projects across 10 European countries, with a total capacity exceeding 15 GW.

Spanish consultancy AleaSoft Energy Forecasting says France, Germany, Spain and Portugal all broke records for daily PV energy production in the second week of May, as prices in all major European electricity markets, except for the French market, continued to increase.

The first day of the RE-Source Southeast Conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, this week underscored European and regional interest in renewable-energy projects based on corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs). Negative or very low electricity prices in European electricity markets affect the appetite for such projects, but the solution for investors and policymakers is to approach the issue systematically.

US-based Quilt has unveiled a residential heat pump with a coefficient of performance (COP) of up to 4 and noise levels of 27 dBA to 47 dBA. The startup recently raised $33 million (€30 million) from a group of investors.

A Chinese-Canadian research team proposed a new PV mounting solution relying on two types of spacers and two types of clamps that can be printed with common printing materials. The cost of the different solutions presented varies from CAD1.50 ($1.10) to CAD3.83.

The share of coal in India’s total installed power capacity fell below 50% in the first quarter of 2024. This is well ahead of the government’s target to establish 50% cumulative power generation capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030.

UNSW scientists have suggested to use dual-fuel reciprocating engines for adding gas-to-power operations in large scale production of hydrogen based on PV power. The preliminary findings of their research show that the proposed system is still achieving a too high LCOE for commercial maturity. Decreasing electrolyzer costs, policy interventions and changing energy market dynamics, however, may more than halve the LCOE values in the future.

Eight of the 10 transmission corridors proposed by the US Department of Energy (DoE) could facilitate transmission between grid regions. One would expand transmission within the Mid-Atlantic’s PJM grid region, and one would expand transmission in the Northern Plains.

Researchers at the German research institute have found that indirect gravure printing for metallization of silicon heterojunction solar cells reduces silver consumption and cycle times to below 0.5 seconds per cell, while still enabling conversion efficiencies of up to 20.7%.

Atess Power has developed a new series of battery energy storage system (BESS) containers. The Chinese manufacturer is offering 20 HC and 40 HC containers, as well as battery-only containers with storage capacities up to 3,440 kWh.

A Chinese-Canadian research group has utilized for the first time a cadmium iodide doping technique to stabilize the blade coating process in the manufacturing of solar cells based on formamidinium lead iodide (FAPbI3) perovskite. The academics built a cell showing a considerable increase in efficiency compared to an identical device without cadmium doping.

China Southern Power Grid has deployed a 10 MWh sodium-ion battery in China’s Guangxi Zhuang region. It is the first phase of a 100 MWh project.

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and German battery analysis specialist Twaice have jointly evaluated 26 battery fires between 2018 and 2023. They say that the diversity of components plays a critical role in igniting fires.

Intensified trade measures against China via higher tariffs on imported solar and battery cells are a significant policy step, but the impact is clouded by global manufacturing shifts, price decreases and looming US Department of Commerce trade complaints.

Praveer Sinha, CEO and managing director of Tata Power says the company’s 4 GW solar cell factory in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu will be commissioned from next month. It will reach peak production capacity of 4 GW over a period of three months.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has raised tariff rates on PV cell imports from China from 25% to 50%. It has also increased the tariff rates for semiconductors, electric vehicles, and EV batteries from China, among other goods.

SEG Solar has secured a land-use agreement for a solar-focused manufacturing site in an industrial zone on the Indonesian island of Java. The $500 million plan will involve the production of 5 GW of silicon wafers, 5 GW of solar cells, and 5 GW of PV modules.

Scientists in China have demonstrated a photovoltaic-thermal system that utilizes Tesla valves to increase cooling and efficiency. The system was found to have better performance compared to PVT systems made with several different cross-sectional structures.

A startup spun out of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has secured a grant to build a 5 kW electrolyzer that will be deployed at a UK power plant operated by French energy utility EDF.

Japan’s Asahi Kasei is testing a new alkaline water electrolyzer, while China has started developing its first 100 kg vehicle-mounted liquid hydrogen system.

According to new data from trade body UNEF, Spain reached 1.823 MWh of cumulative storage capacity at the end of December 2023.

The Selfmade Energy online platform says that prices for PV systems and battery storage systems fell by more than 4% between November 2023 and March 2024. In March, for example, 6 kW PV systems without batteries were sold for between €1.66 ($1.79)/W and €2.10/W.

Development of green hydrogen production in Europe is moving forward in fits and starts, but the ongoing World Hydrogen 2024 event in Rotterdam calls for blue hydrogen adoption, which suggests that the oil and gas industry aims to maintain control of the hydrogen market.