This week Women in Solar+ Europe gives voice to Jesús Alijarde, founder and CEO of Spain’s Ibersyd / Cerfo. He says one of the earliest biases he had to confront was the idea of men as protectors of women. “It may sound noble, but in practice, it reinforces inequality,” he states.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick look at the main price trends in the global PV industry.

Industrial regions in Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu are emerging as key markets for captive solar in India. High electricity tariffs, state-level incentives, and environmental targets from export-focused firms are accelerating adoption of distributed solar across the country’s industrial sector.

The technology which combines solar PV panels and agriculture is gaining ground. IEC Standards for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems already exist, but more might be required, dealing with some of the more specific issues relating to agriculture.

This week Women in Solar+ Europe gives voice to Maria Ardila, construction engineer at UK-based Cubico Sustainable Investments. She says that progress remains slow in the energy industry because gender matters are often viewed as personal choices rather than the systemic issues they truly are. “Until society challenges the outdated norms and organizational structures that penalize mothers, meaningful advancement toward gender equity in leadership will continue to be constrained,” she states.

Shakti Pumps (India) Ltd. has invested INR 120 million ($1.4 million) in its solar-focused subsidiary, Shakti Energy Solutions Ltd, in exchange for equity shares to support manufacturing expansion.

Nanyang Technological University researchers have milled solar panel glass waste for use in cathodes used in solid state lithium metal batteries. When used as a functional filler in solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) material, the resulting battery performance was maintained over 80 charge cycles with an 8.3 % improvement over the reference device.

Renewables developer Edify Energy has unveiled plans for a major 2.4 GWh solar and integrated battery energy storage facility in Australia, adding to its growing portfolio of power generation and storage projects.

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.

The Fari Islands in the Maldives are developing a mix of floating and ground-mounted solar installations expected to meet up to 50% of the archipelago’s electricity demand on sunny days. The systems form part of a broader plan to expand renewable energy use across the four-island resort development.

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.

AGL Energy has bought the 150 MW solar, 90 MW thermal, and 720 MWh storage Yadnarie Project from Dutch developer Photon Energy, following the award of development approval in June.

Solar accounted for 22.1% of electricity generation in the European Union in June, as 13 member states set new records for the share of solar in their national power mixes.

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.

Researchers in Portugal have used the so-called Arrhenius aging model to measure the temperature behaviour and reliability of different solar modules. Their analysis showed that long-term module performance can diverge significantly depending on the manufacturing processes.

The Dutch company says its short-term trading solutions for solar and other renewable energy technologies, supports grid balancing, reduces the costs of imbalance, and optimizes energy flows in an “increasingly volatile” energy market. It is growing internationally, and expanding its support of battery-related trading.

A U.S.-based collaboration between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and CubicPV has yielded a perovskite minimodule with certified efficiency of 24.0%. The two noted that it is the first time a U.S. effort has set a record in the perovskite mini module category.

Testing conducted by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) in Germany has shown that perovskite solar cells operating at high latitudes in Europe may suffer from higher performance losses in winter compared to conventional PV devices. The scientists warned, however, that at lower latitudes this seasonality may be less pronounced.

Record solar generation across Europe and limited storage capacity are driving a surge in negative electricity price hours, with below-zero pricing expected to hit new highs in the third quarter, according to Montel Analytics.

Superdielectrics launches the Faraday 2 battery, advancing a water-based, metal-free approach to home storage, from a UK-based facility.

Chinese companies made up nine of the 10 largest global inverter suppliers in 2024, with total inverter shipments reaching 589 GW (AC), according to Wood Mackenzie.

German software company PVRadar Labs has released a Python programming package for solar asset owners and engineers that want to build site-specific models.

The Dutch government said it remains vigilant on potential cybersecurity threats coming from solar inverters. It minimized, however, the risk of hidden hardware components in inverters and said these devices would be “easily detectable” by the Dutch authorities.

The European Commission has told pv magazine that it will unlikely prioritize operating expenditure (opex) support for solar and clean technology manufacturers, citing concerns about potential market distortion, even as insolvencies rise across the European PV sector.

French solar installer France Solar has entered liquidation after failing to secure a buyer, following its placement in receivership on April 28.

Ukraine’s 200 MW/400 MWh battery project dwarfs most Eastern European installations, and is expected to come online in October 2025, ahead of the winter.

A request for proposals from six qualified bidders interested in developing a 22.5 MW solar-plus-battery project is now live in the Cayman Islands. The project will be the islands’ largest solar site to date and first to integrate battery storage.

Lucky Cement’s 22.7 MWh battery is the largest in Pakistan, and the project is now just months away, according to a company executive.

More than half of the first phase of the 3.5 GW solar and 4.5 GWh battery storage MTerra Solar project in the Philippines is now complete, eight months after its groundbreaking. The 778 MW of solar installed so far makes it the largest solar installation in the country.

eCap Marine says it will supply 8 MW of hydrogen fuel cell systems for four zero-emission vessels under construction for Norway’s Møre Sjø and logistics firm Samskip, with deliveries expected in 2027.