In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that a significant high-pressure anomaly in the Pacific fostered more settled conditions and pushed a deep layer of dryer air over the Western United States, resulting in clearer skies. Whilst coastal regions saw average to slightly more irradiance than normal, Midwestern states including Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Wyoming, received up to 110% normal levels.

In another article of a series, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu) gives voice to Angelika Möbius, the founder of the startup Solar AI Twin. She says addressing the gender gap in the solar industry is a complex task that requires a deep understanding of the unique challenges women face. Key barriers include a lack of mentorship opportunities and the absence of professional networks.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, offers bite-sized analysis on solar PV module supply and price trends.

The United Kingdom is playing catch-up with many of its European neighbors when it comes to solar but recent signs have been hugely promising and the nation remains primed for a solar revolution.

In its first monthly column for pv magazine, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) explains how a team of its experts is currently working on the definition of new standards for VIPV systems.

India has accepted bids to set up 69.8 GW of renewable energy capacity, far surpassing its annual bidding target of 50 GW in fiscal 2024. Activity surged due to large-scale potential for market growth, central government support, and higher operating margins.

A study led by Russia’s Skoltech and China’s HPSTAR suggests that rubidium and cesium additives could improve the efficiency of hydrogen batteries. Researcher Dmitrii Semenok tells pv magazine that “it is a question of changing the approach to the search for promising hydrogen storage materials.”

Ministers from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan have agreed to connect their energy systems. They will lay an energy cable along the bottom of the Caspian Sea to facilitate the sale of green energy to Europe.

A European consortium including Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE is researching suitable crop and PV system combinations, conducting tests under Nordic conditions, and developing software to expedite adoption.

Sunrun, a US-based residential solar installer, says nearly 1,800 customers have already signed up to its PowerOn Puerto Rico virtual power plant (VPP). The program deploys stored solar energy from customers’ batteries to the grid, preventing power supply shortfalls on the island.

Turkish developer YEO and Zambian sustainable energy company are constructing a 60 MW solar plant with a 20 MWh battery energy storage system in southern Zambia.

Scientists in China have developed a PV-driven direct-drive refrigeration system for electronic device cooling. The proposed system has so far provided low exergy levels, but its costs are much lower than those of conventional vapor compression refrigeration technologies.

Indian manufacturer VSole has introduced single-phase hybrid inverters 3 kW to 6 kW with power output ratings. The inverters reportedly allow uninterrupted power to the connected loads, with a UPS-level switching time of four milliseconds.

The European Commission has selected the winners of European Hydrogen Bank’s first auction, with bids coming in below €0.50 ($0.54)/kg, while Chile and Namibia have revealed new hydrogen plans.

University of Michigan researchers have found that the value of rooftop solar will increase by between 5% and 15% by the mid-century across a range of US cities under moderate climate change, and by up to 20% by the end of the century.

A collaborative project led by German battery supplier Varta aims to develop industrial-scale sodium-ion battery technology. The final product of the three-year, €7.5 million ($8.08 million) project will be a small series of round cells for electric vehicles and stationary storage systems.

New research from Sweden suggests that low platinum fuel cells for hydrogen vehicles, when scaled up for the same number of cells, may achieve similar or higher efficiencies compared to commercial fuel cells. Their modeling is expected to act as a bridge between material science research and vehicle implementation.

Conceived by researchers from Iran, the new conductive adhesive ink is made of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and is used as an interlayer between the cell’s hole transport layer and carbon foil. It reportedly ensures higher cell stability while also providing remarkable efficiency.

The so-called “network checker” will allow residential PV customers in Belgium to check if there have been any inverter failures in their local area. It comes after Belgian grid operator Fluvius launched a compensation scheme for those who are not reconnected within 30 working days of a curtailment.

The new cell category includes perovskite/silicon, perovskite/CIGS, III-V/silicon and perovskite/organic tandem PV devices. It will list the absolute record efficiency for all-perovskite, two-terminal tandems regardless of the number of junctions.

A World Trade Organization (WTO) official and several Italian lawyers recently spoke with pv magazine Italy about the timing of a potential Chinese legal challenge against Italy’s new solar measures, which exclusively provide incentives for high-performance PV modules produced in the European Union.

GCL Technology says revenue and profits fell in 2023 due to losses on certain assets, higher financing costs, and an uptick in R&D spending.

An international team of researchers has proposed a series of processes to recover silicon and other metals from recycled solar cells. Their goal is to reuse the recovered silicon in the PV supply chain.

Australian researchers have developed multi-stage algorithms to remotely detect and accurately diagnose underperforming solar panels in residential and commercial PV systems.

US-based First Solar recorded $794 million of revenue in the first quarter, beating consensus estimates by about 10%.

Battery prices reached an all-time low in India in 2023, led by a moderation in raw material prices amid rising production across the value chain, according to credit rating agency ICRA.

British Gas has developed the Carbon Cruncher tool for the UK market. It contextualizes emissions by comparing them to other emitters.

The U.S.-based PV system provider for infrastructure and industrial equipment without grid access has launched a battery health monitoring software module for its flagship Core Solar Power Systems product line.

The authorities in the Philippines say the nation is on target to add 1.98 GW of solar this year, alongside 590 MW of battery storage, as part of more than 4 GW of renewable energy projects.

Conceived by scientists in China, the device consists of a Fresnel lens, a PV cell, and liquid ionic thermocells (iTECs) with electrolyte flow. In can reportedly outperform CPV systems built with thermoelectric generators, both in terms of costs and efficiency.