This week, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu) gives voice to Frank Niendorf, Vice President Europe at JinkoSolar. He says that assumptions about women’s capabilities or work-life balance can unfairly impact their career progression. “While women are primarily affected, men who value diversity and inclusion can also find themselves outside traditional leadership expectations,” he states.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, reports that TOPCon modules from China held steady at between $0.085-0.090/W. It also reveals that Europe prices for TOPCon modules of over 450 W rose by 0.96%, assessed at €0.105/W.

In another weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that strong jet stream and Eastern storms split solar conditions across the US in April, with the east experiencing a downturn in solar irradiance while the northwest saw irradiance gains.

This week Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu) gives voice to Canan Koç Yasar, VP HSSE-S at Germany’s Uniper Renewables. She says that policies and practices that shape workplace safety, health, and security are mostly intended to satisfy men’s needs and stresses the importance of designing workplace systems that reflect the realities of everyone on the team.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, reports that prevailing pessimism in the global polysilicon market continues to intensify, with current conditions still favoring buyers to a certain extent, allowing them to retain a degree of leverage in negotiations.

BYD has launched its new Gen4 home battery known as HVB, and is expected to be a popular addition to the residential storage space.

The EcoLife series brings Longi’s back contact technology to the residential solar market with panels that reportedly offer quicker system payback and reduced power degradation over time.

The world’s biggest battery maker unveiled its latest utility-scale battery energy storage product- the Tener Stack – at the Smarter E show. The 9 MWh system supports both centralized and string power conversion system architectures, offering flexibility for a range of deployment scenarios.

Despite Ohio’s intensified local opposition and restrictive solar restrictions in recent years, the state’s Supreme Court sided with the Ohio Power Siting board to allow a 350 MW project in central Ohio.

The latest analysis from SolarPower Europe reveals that, in 2024, Europe installed 21.9 GWh of new battery energy storage systems (BESS), just 15% higher than 2023. The predictions of slower growth has come true, but the details reveal a big shift in where installations are happening.

Work is underway on a 1.1 GW solar project with 100 MW/200 MWh of accompanying battery energy storage in Egypt. The first phase of the project is scheduled for commercial operation during the first half of next year.

The Chinese manufacturer said that up to 10 battery cabinets can be connected in series to reach a total storage capacity of 2.33 MWh.

Researchers investigated which solar module stockpiling conditions could help to ensure stable solar PV deployment at the lowest cost in Europe. The scientists demonstrated that stockpiling is cost-effective primarily under unfavorable import conditions.

Global PV installations could reach 655 GW in 2025, up from 597 GW in 2024, according to SolarPower Europe’s latest market outlook, which puts total installed capacity at 2.2 TW.

The battery unit of the Chinese PV manufacturer said its new large-scale battery has a lifecycle of over 12,000 cycles. The system has a nominal capacity of 5 MWh and a roundtrip efficiency of up to 95%.

Europe’s largest solar power event now fills 18 very large rooms at the Munich trade show. Intersolar predicts greater than 200,000 visitors will see the almost 5,000 unique exhibitors showing off their hardware and services.

Longi has developed the Hi-MO S10, a residential heterojunction (HJT) back-contact solar module with 25% efficiency, combining 27.6%-efficient cells with up to 510 W output and 252.3 W/m² power density.

Researchers in China have investigated how transparent smart radiation devices (TSRD) can be used to protect space solar cells from extreme thermal fluctuations. Through a series of simulations, they have shown that the proposed technique could become an “effective” solution for spacecraft solar cell thermal management.

The inverter and energy storage provider posted a second straight quarter of positive cash flow as it recovers from a difficult year.

The Germany-based testing equipment manufacturer has launched mini-module testing equipment targeted at researchers working on scaling perovskite solar cell technology, thin film devices, and wafer-based PV.

Tongwei says it recorded a $969 million net loss for fiscal 2024, while GoodWe posted an $85 million loss and Ginlong’s net profit fell 11.3% to $95 million.

In its latest monthly column for pv magazine, IEA PVPS provides a comprehensive overview of the recently released edition of the “Dual Land Use for Agriculture and Solar Power Production: Overview and Performance of Agrivoltaic Systems” report. The 91-page handbook was developed by IEA PVPS Task 13.

Scientists in Thailand have assessed which technology between PV, wind, or piezoelectric energy is better for powering street lighting and have found solar is the winning tech, as it proved both economically and technologically feasible.

Switzerland’s WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) is investigating how solar yield can be optimized in snow-covered terrain. It is envisaged the results will help to place PV systems on mountains so they make use of light that is reflected from neighbouring slopes.

Experts set to speak at the NetZero Milan Expo-Summit 2025 on May 15 have told pv magazine that tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) will remain the dominant cell technology in the near term due to ongoing advancements, despite rising competition from back-contact and heterojunction technologies.

The PV-driven redox flow battery can reportedly achieve a maximum solar-to-output electricity efficiency of 3.11% during a 36-hour period. The system incorporates a 25 cm2 heterojunction photovoltaic device and is based on a neutral pH aqueous iodine-bromine redox couple.

Solargik has announced the official debut of its SOma Pro AI-powered platform for solar tracking and system diagnostics. The company says one of its main advantages is the ability to support smarter, faster decision-making.

Scientists in India have built a solar-powered thermic solar geyser prototype based on a nichrome wire heating rod and a flexible pipe heat exchanger with aluminum fins. The system is designed to generate domestic how water and can reportedly achieve a levelized cost of energy of $0.051 per kWh.

The Japanese manufacturer said its new heat pump system features a coefficient of up to 5.42 and a seasonal energy efficiency ratio of up to 33.2

Japan allocated 1.4 GW of battery energy storage (BESS) in the latest round of its Long-Term Decarbonization Auction (LTDA). The results showed BESS was the most oversubscribed technology, with only a fifth of the bid capacity awarded.