PV plant

Italy’s Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) says 747 projects have been selected under the nation’s first agrivoltaic program, backed by €1.7 billion ($1.9 billion) from European recovery funds.

While solar modules and batteries have become icons of rapid progress, most energy models are still stuck in the past. A new global analysis shows that the cost of renewable energy has fallen far faster than expected. Solar PV, wind power, and battery technologies have already reached price levels that models once placed many decades ahead – a misplaced pessimism that risks misdirecting billions in climate investment and could distort long-term defossilization strategies.

The PPA price for pure photovoltaic projects has fallen by 20% over the past year, making such contracts less competitive. However, clear structures for bankable hybrid PPAs are now beginning to take shape, says Pieter van der Meulen, Senior Account Manager at LevelTen Energy, in an interview with pv magazine.

A group of scientists in China conducted a comprehensive review of existing low-cost photovoltaic monitoring approaches. They found that only 11 out of 88 studies related to PV monitoring incorporate machine learning. The researchers urge the scientific community to place greater emphasis on lightweight machine learning solutions and smartphone-based integration.

Researchers in India have developed a novel layout design tool to identify the optimal locations for solar panel installation on undulating terrain. The tool consists of two components: a filtering module that excludes unsuitable land patches, and an algorithm that determines the optimal distribution of panels across the remaining usable area. The approach was demonstrated on a test site in India.

The Chinese firm says its new EnerCube product is designed for commercial and industrial applications. It has a capacity of 2,250 kWh.

The researchers have used computational fluid dynamics-based modelling of snow patterns in an effort to establish best practices to mitigate snow accumulation in alpine PV plants.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that North America experienced a highly variable solar performance in October, as a strong high-pressure system boosted irradiance across the eastern regions while cooler, cloudier conditions reduced solar potential in the Pacific Northwest.

After a record year, the European power purchase agreement (PPA) market has declined sharply. At an industry gathering this week in Amsterdam, participants highlighted rising PPA complexity and potential solutions, including how to handle negative prices in solar PPAs and the move toward hybrid PPAs with battery storage.

The French authorities have concluded a commercial and industrial (C&I) rooftop PV tender with an average price of €0.09648 ($0.1108)/kWh. The government allocated 300.9 MW of PV capacity in total.