Rooftop PV

A new solar mapping tool in the Philippines shows that the country’s rooftop solar capacity exceeds 1.8 GW. Its creators say the platform can be used to track unregistered solar rooftop capacity.

Scientists in Morocco have developed a method that uses the metadata of PV plants’ infrared images to label them geographically. The automatic database can then be used in deep learning models and significantly reduce the time required for data labeling.

The Cyprus Ministry of Energy, Commerce says it will accept applications for new net metering and net billing systems until Oct. 1, 2025. While the government has not announced its next steps, pv magazine has learned that it plans to phase out net metering.

The German authorities have selected 118 MW projects totaling 255 MW in the nation’s latest rooftop PV tender.

In a new monthly column for pv magazine, the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) debunks old and new urban legends about solar energy.

Mexico’s energy regulator has issued new provisions to streamline the permitting process for self-consumption power plants between 0.7 MW and 20 MW, aiming to improve legal certainty for project developers.

During last month’s SNEC exhibition in Shanghai, pv magazine met with Wanfei Qu, CIO of Skyworth Group and CEO and director of Skyworth PV (also named Solavita in Europe), at the Chinese manufacturer’s impressive booth. The company utilizes the “Solavita” brand in Europe, but whether the brand is “Skyworth” or “Solavita” the it can leverage its strong foundation in manufacturing, electronics and IT, which it has built up in over 37 years. The Shenzhen-headquartered manufacturer only entered the solar PV industry in 2020, but in the span of just four years the company went from $10 million in PV-related revenues to $3 billion in 2024. The young CEO of Skyworth PV has ambitious goals for the future, targeting $1 billion in overseas PV revenues in the next three years. Germany and Italy are the company’s target markets in Europe.

Residential solar is about to get more expensive as the 30% investment tax credit expires at the end of 2025. OpenSolar, operator of a free solar design and project management platform, highlights cost-savings opportunities for the industry.

Germany’s Ait Group has introduced residential ground-source heat pumps using less than 150 grams of propane, based on results from the Fraunhofer ISE LC150 research project. The new systems deliver up to 6 kW of heating with a seasonal coefficient of performance of 5.14.

Researchers have combined the theory of planned behavior, the technology acceptance model, and diffusion of innovations theory to investigate rooftop solar adoption in China. From a 1,200-person survey, they found that subjective norms and social influence from peers and community had a surprisingly more substantial effect than personal attitudes or perceived ease of use.