Solar Power

Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) has developed a new way to quantify PV self-consumption in Germany using national register and grid-operator data, amid a steady rise in onsite use as installations and storage capacity expand.

UK energy regulator green-lights transmission network operator budgets for five-year period. Initial budget of GBP 10.3 billion ($13.7 billion) approved with an upper-bound estimate of GBP 70 billion transmission investment by 2031. At least GBP 44 billion of transmission spend has already been committed, according to the regulator.

SMA Solar Technology announces the commercialization in Europe of its new MVPS-9200 medium voltage station in a 12-meter containerized version for battery energy storage systems (BESS) and large-scale photovoltaic power plants.

Chinese researchers have proposed a new methodology for designing utility-scale solar power projects in mountainous regions. They simulated a 386.4 MW solar farm near Pu’er, a city in southern China located 1,037 meters above sea level.

France’s Genelios has developed an 8 kW modular solar canopy for motorhomes, offering manufactured-in-France construction, multiple installation options, and services that include design, monitoring, and maintenance for users across France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxembourg.

Researchers at Fraunhofer ISE have developed a perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell using a TOPCon bottom cell with standard textured front surfaces. Their results show that TOPCon bottom cells can perform comparably to heterojunction cells in tandem devices in terms of shunt resistivity, supporting scalable, cost-effective industrial production.

AirWater and Suichoku Solar K. K. have launched a 178 kW vertical PV system at a Tottori parking lot, operating under an on-site PPA. The Verpa-based system, a first for the San’in region, maximizes space, avoids snow damage, and reportedly delivers power equivalent to rooftop solar installations.

Researchers in the United States found that shading from agrivoltaic systems reduces grain numbers in both sorghum and soybean, but sorghum can partially compensate by increasing grain weight while soybean cannot. The study shows that sorghum and soybean respond differently due to their physiology, offering guidance for crop selection and management to minimize yield penalties in agrivoltaics.

Chinese module manufacturer Longi says its Hi-MO 9 series with HPBC 2.0 cells achieved watt-for-watt power gains of 1.21% to 3.92% in real-world tests across multiple countries and climates, lowering the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) compared with mainstream tunnel-oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) modules.

Researchers in China developed a new compressed air energy storage system that uses flooded roadways in abandoned coal mines to store compressed air and heat for nighttime power generation. Simulations show the design can achieve 71.5% thermal efficiency, stable performance, and higher energy density at greater depths, with minimal long-term impact from air leakage.