This week, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu) gives voice to Jalen de Jesus, managing director and founder of Germany-based Co-Heller GmbH. She says the solar sector’s progressive and forward-thinking nature ensures that contributions are valued regardless of gender. “Being part of such an inclusive environment has allowed me to thrive and focus on innovation and growth. It reinforces that the solar industry is a place where talent and dedication are what truly matter,” she 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.

By offering cheap energy storage, concentrating solar power has a huge potential. However, it requires international standards to become a competitive market proposition.

This week, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu) gives voice to Anna Sauter-Getschmann, co-founder of Germany-based Academy for Climate Jobs. She says that the renewable energy industry must reshape vocational training and make new opportunities visible. “We can start to redefine the typical image of an electrician or plumber,” she stated.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that October delivered record-high irradiance across much of the United States, with a high-pressure system over the Eastern and Central regions driving a sustained period of warm, dry, and clear weather. Meanwhile, contrasting conditions in Canada’s coastal provinces and extreme weather in Florida underscored this month’s diverse impacts on North American solar generation.

State utility Rajasthan Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd (RVUNL) is tendering for 500 MW/1 GWh of standalone battery energy storage systems (BESS) and may allot double that capacity, given sufficient demand.

The Chinese manufacturer said its new Heco series uses propane (R290) as a refrigerant and includes five models with a nominal capacity ranging from 6 kW to 17 kW.

Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co. (Masdar) is teaming up with Malaysia’s Sarawak Energy and Gentari to assess the potential for a large-scale floating solar array on the northwestern coast of Borneo.

UK-based Wondrwall says its new heat pump has a coefficient of performance of up to 4.99, with an inlet-outlet temperature of 30 C to 35 C. The system is based on the company’s AI-powered Home Energy Management System (HEMS) to efficiently manage household energy flows.

Software company Aether Energy has launched in Europe to support residential and commercial rooftop solar PV installer businesses, from pre-sales to after-sales and energy monitoring. It recently secured seed capital to finance its plan to expand its business.

Scientists in Egypt have created an anti-soiling coating for solar panels by mixing ethanol, deionized water, ammonium hydroxide and tetraethyl orthosilicate. They tested a coated panel outdoors for ten months and found that the panel showed a 64.7% higher current compared to reference modules without coating.

Simon Renwick, the founder of Australian wave energy specialist WaveX, says the wave power generator it is developing can be combined with solar to lower costs and ensure dispatchability.

Turkey’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources has launched a tender for 800 MW of solar across six proposed projects. The deadline for applications is Jan. 27, 2025.

The Ontario Court of Appeal has rejected a claim from the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), which accused solar suppliers with feed-in-tariff (FIT) contracts of breaching their agreements by repowering their systems.

Algeria has long limited the use of solar to villages in the Sahara, but two large-scale tenders for 3 GW of generation capacity are expected to change that. By including a local content clause, the North African nation aims to build an industry around renewable energy.

A machine learning model has identified Na[Mn0.36Ni0.44Ti0.15Fe0.05]O2 as the optimum composition to attain the highest energy density for sodium-ion (Na-ion) devices.

GoodWe has developed a residential solar carport that features its Polaris building-integrated PV (BIPV) panels. The carport, which is available in 4.8 kW and 8.0 kW variants, is designed to host one or two vehicles, respectively.

Kiwa PI Berlin has fixed faults in inverters at a PV plant in South Africa by using root cause analysis. The project had experienced up to 130 failures related to insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs).

Researchers in Japan have developed an optimized hydrogen gas measurement using TDLAS technique. It is reportedly able to achieve a detection range of hydrogen gas concentration of 0.01% to 100%. The group said that it can improve hydrogen safety and in turn, its adoption.

A Saudi-Chinese research team has fabricated a perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell without a hole transport layer (HTL) in the perovskite top cell. This innovative strategy, based on the co-deposition of copper(I) thiocyanate and perovskite in the top cell absorber, was intended at solving typical issues of HTLs in tandem devices.

The battery maker reports that acquiring the module manufacturing assets is the first step in its plan to build out a vertically integrated domestic manufacturing footprint that will next include a 5 GW solar cell facility.

A random malware variant affected about 800 remote monitoring devices at ground-mounted PV plants in Japan in May 2024. Tokyo-based cybersecurity firm Girasol Energy has told pv magazine what happened and how PV asset owners can protect themselves against such incidents.

A Chinese-Italian research team has analyzed the influence of different tilt angles on the thermal failure of the photovoltaic façades or roofs in fire conditions, finding that when the tilt angle exceeds 30 degrees, the time to failure increased significantly.

An international research group has proposed a low-cost testing methodology for solar water pumping systems that can reportedly improve water access in developing countries. The novel approach enables ongoing borehole monitoring without additional fuel costs or interruptions to the water supply.

Aptera Motors, a California-based solar electric vehicle maker, has demonstrated its first production-intent design vehicle. It says it will offer up to 40 miles (64 km) of daily range from its onboard solar cells.

Australian Vanadium Limited (AVL) has moved a vanadium flow battery (VFB) project to design phase with the aim of developing a modular, scalable, turnkey, utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS).

Argonne Lab uses magnetic resonance to track chemical changes inside working lithium battery cells. without destroying the test cells.

The OffGrid portable power station provides power for outdoor adventures as well as in hurricane-ravaged areas.

Uniper has told pv magazine that it has delayed its 2030 hydrogen investment target.

Indielux and EPP Solar have released the “world’s largest” plug-in PV system, a 6 kW unit with a power storage option that connects to existing electrical setups via a safety plug. It is available in Germany, France, Austria, Poland, and Spain.