This week, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu) gives voice to Dounia Ziyati, Solar Engineer at EDF Renewables. She urges women to envision themselves thriving in leading roles. “Today, we witness women in uniforms operating heavy machinery on construction sites and bravely tackling risks head-on,” she states.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that February saw a stark contrast in solar conditions across Europe, with eastern regions benefiting from strong irradiance while western and southern areas faced setbacks due to storms and persistent cloud cover.

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.

The solar energy industry continues to push the boundaries of efficiency and reliability. However, as innovative photovoltaic cell and module technologies emerge, they also bring a new set of challenges in durability and performance. A new report from IEA PVPS Task 13, titled “Degradation and Failure Modes in New Photovoltaic Cell and Module Technologies,” offers a comprehensive analysis of degradation and failure mechanisms in current photovoltaic technologies.

Taking inspiration from the 3D photonic structures on a Morpho butterfly’s shimmering blue wings, scientists at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE have developed colored solar panels that can be incorporated into a building’s exterior practically invisibly while maintaining high efficiency.

India’s solar capacity additions could double to 30 GW in fiscal 2025, with further growth driven by rooftop demand and policy support, according to SBICAPS.

The German PV company saw revenue plunge nearly 20% last year. SMA expects revenue and profit to stabilize in 2025 due in part to restructuring measures, which are already having an impact.

The Somali government is running a tender for the development of a 12 MW solar/36 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in the northeastern part of the country. The deadline for applications is May 5.

Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency (REAN) has issued a tender for companies to provide operations and maintenance (O&M) services for seven hybrid solar plants at educational institutions, totaling 32 MW of PV capacity.

US solar facilities lost $5,720 per megawatt in 2024, with global losses from equipment failures and extreme weather reaching $10 billion. Raptor Maps says 193 GW of projects recorded rising power losses, primarily from inverters, strings, and combiners, with regional weather risks varying significantly.

Scientists have used simplified 2D view factor and advanced 3D approach to calculate energy fluxes on green roofs with PV systems. They have also constructed an experimental setup to verify their model and have found that without the detailed model, evapotranspiration would be underestimated by 18%.

The Chinese manufacturer has collaborated with Japan’s Daidohant on the new product. It reportedly suppresses deformation with a special bar attached to the back of the solar module.

The Sri Lankan government has approved the land transfer for a 100 MW solar project in the south. The site will be handed over to the Sustainable Energy Authority to advance the project.

To respect the architectural harmony of the northern French commune of Rives-en-Seine, a municipal technical services building, located not far from a former 17th-century convent, underwent renovation work during which a 1,200 m2 roof of PV tiles was installed.

Serbia’s solar market is set to expand with a 3.9 GW project pipeline and 80 MW added in 2024, bringing total capacity above 200 MW, the country’s renewable energy association tells pv magazine.

Sungrow’s new residential battery energy storage system features a compact 182 mm design and is capable of handling a maximum charge/discharge current of 50 A.

A team led by University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) has found that pyrrodiazole as an additive in formamidinium iodide (FAI)-based inverted perovskite solar enables larger area devices made with industry-compatible slot die coating. Modules made using the technology achieved 20.3% certified power conversion efficiency and retained 94% of initial efficiency after 1,000 h in standard testing.

Scientists in China have analyzed the performance of a system linking a solar-air source heat pump heating system to sand-based thermal storage floor and have found it can maitain an average indoor temperature of 18.8 C, even when outdoor temperatures range from −18.4 C to 12.3 C.

Blackhillock in Scotland is not only Europe’s biggest operating battery storage project. It is also the first one to provide a special set of grid stabilization services, procured under the electricity system operator’s Pathfinder 2, while also generating revenues from other critical services.

An international research team has developed a novel approach for predicting inverter temperature through symbolic regression based on particle swarm optimization.

The translucent 320 W solar module will be presented for the first time in Rimini, Italy. It will be produced by production partner Agora in Slovakia from the third quarter.

Ecoprogetti has supplied US solar manufacturer CS Solar MFG LLC with an 800 MW production line to produce bifacial glass-glass passivated emitter rear cell (PERC) panels with over 22% efficiency.

A research group in India has embedded a hybrid heterojunction solar cell as a bottom device in a four-terminal perovskite-silicon solar cell using a solution processing technique. The novel cell architecture, according to its creators, could be produced at significantly lower costs compared to conventional perovskite-silicon tandem designs.

UNSW researchers were able to recover silicon from end of life solar PV panels pure enough for re-use in silicon carbide-based devices. Their novel multi-step method which includes thermal and chemical processes, also recovers silver.

Goldi Solar has opened a PV module manufacturing line, powered by automated optical inspection (AOI) and artificial intelligence, at its Kosamba factory in India.

China Huadian has started building a 19.24 GW wind-solar-coal-storage project in China’s Qinghai province. The $11 billion project will deliver 36.5 TWh of electricity per year to Guangxi province.

The aim of the European Energy Storage Inventory is to record all European energy storage projects by status – in operation, planned and under construction -, by location and by technology. Most projects have been recorded in Germany so far.

Plug Power reported an almost 6-fold increase in electrolyzer revenues in 2024, despite the financial troubles. Meanwhile, Finland’s first large-scale plant goes into operation.

The Spanish company says its new storage system has a capacity ranging from 2.4 kWh to 9.6 kWh and a depth of discharge of 90%.

Sumitomo Electric’s new system comes in three versions, providing up to 10 hours of storage. It achieves improvements in output and energy density, through component enhancements, thereby reducing cost and physical footprint.