Early tropical storm cuts solar in Philippines, while East Asia sees La Niña gains
In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that in January most of East Asia experienced normal to above-average solar irradiance, with southeastern China seeing surges due to reduced clouds and low aerosol levels under lingering La Niña effects. In contrast, the Philippines faced below-average irradiance from early Tropical Storm Nokaen, while other regional cities like Seoul, Tokyo, and Taipei recorded modest gains.
Dutch utility testing ‘silent’ residential heat pumps
Dutch utility Eneco is testing low-noise air-to-water heat pumps from startup Whspr in around 20 homes, aiming to ease installation constraints near property boundaries. The systems reportedly achieve coefficients of performance of up to 5 and show up to 80% noise reduction in laboratory testing.
A closer look at Tesla’s new residential solar panels
The new Tesla Solar Panel and mounting system pairs with the company’s inverter, Powerwall battery, EV charging and vehicles, creating an all-Tesla residential solar offering for the first time.
France’s largest rooftop solar project begins construction
The largest single-unit rooftop solar power plant in Europe, developed by French independent power producer Urbasolar, is under construction on the Delta 3 multimodal logistics platform in Dourges, in France’s Hauts-de-France region.
France installs 5.9 GW of PV in 2025
The country’s cumulative installed PV capacity reached 31.1 GW at the end of December.
Jackery releases 2 kW solar gazebo
Jackery continues to expand its product range beyond storage with a new 2 kW solar gazebo designed for creating outdoor space, starting with US availability in 2026.
Ikea, Svea Solar launch dynamic electricity tariff in Germany
Ikea is expanding its energy offerings in Germany with a dynamic electricity tariff in partnership with Svea Solar, changing every 15 minutes based on day-ahead market prices and available even to customers without its PV systems, storage solutions, or heat pumps.
IEA PVPS invites modelers to join first coloured BIPV intercomparison
IEA-PVPS Task 15 has launched its first modeling intercomparison exercise on coloured building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) and is inviting PV modelers and researchers to evaluate their methods using real-world performance data.
Italy installs 6.4 GW of PV in 2025
The country reached a cumulative installed PV capacity of 43.5 GW at the end of December, according to new figures released by Italian grid operator Terna.
EU Joint Research Centre proposes novel PV climatic classification
A research group from the European Commission Joint Research Centre has developed a new PV climatic classification, the first to address annual yield and performance ratio. Their work resulted in 10 globally applicable clusters. “It challenges the assumption that many more classes are needed to capture PV-relevant climate,” the researchers said.
