This week Women in Solar+ Europe gives voice to Irene Mihai, Policy Director at the Romanian Photovoltaic Industry Association (RPIA). She says her personal experiences show how mentorship, collaboration, and inclusive workplace practices are essential for attracting and retaining talent while empowering the next generation to contribute to a sustainable future.

Marine energy is renewable and generally predictable. It could thus compensate for the unplanned intermittency of solar and wind generation, its proponents argue. But several challenges still need to be overcome for the energy to become widely used.

Global solar PV continues its rapid growth, reaching around 650 GW in 2025, with record solar irradiation extremes across regions such as East Asia, India, and Latin America. With current production capacity and emerging technologies like perovskite-silicon tandem modules, PV is poised to surpass all other electricity generation technologies combined by the end of the decade.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that Australia’s wettest February in 15 years produced solar irradiance deficits of 15–30% across the country’s central and eastern regions.

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.

Low Carbon Hub plans to add battery energy storage system (BESS) to existing solar plant. The developer is offering shares in what’s thought to be the first community-owned co-located battery in the United Kingdom.

Designed for commercial and multi-residential buildings, the Aqua‑G EVO heat pump can replace gas boilers, cascade up to eight units, and integrate with Panasonic’s complete HVAC ecosystem.

Enphase Energy has introduced an AI software platform in Australia and New Zealand that enables homeowners to reduce energy costs, increase clean energy self-consumption, and control key household appliances.

California Senator Josh Becker says proposed legislation would require regulators to allow distributed energy resources (DERs), including batteries and electric vehicles, to participate in the state’s grid reliability market.

Germany’s Federal Network Agency will use a new, structured framework developed by Fraunhofer IOSB-AST to classify cybersecurity incidents in the energy sector. The methodology enables comprehensive risk assessments, from initial reports to systemic and economic impacts, supporting consistent evaluation across the entire energy value chain.

Researchers in Canada found that semi-transparent cadmium telluride and low-transparency crystalline silicon solar panels can boost turnip root and leaf yields in agrivoltaic systems by optimizing light quality, distribution, and heat stress. Their study highlights that PV module type, transparency, and spectral transmission must be carefully matched to plant physiology to maximize both crop productivity and renewable energy generation.

Government data reveals 2.5 GW of new solar added in 12-months period, the fastest pace for a decade. Deployment expected to accelerate as pipeline of utility-scale projects grows and subsidy support for residential installations kicks in.

The Croatian government’s latest set of energy support measures includes new financing for residential solar, batteries and heat pumps, expected to support up to 15,000 applications, as well as an extension of existing electricity price subsidies for homeowners.

The Chinese manufacturer has unveiled a hybrid photovoltaic–geothermal heat pump system that uses solar electricity to directly power the unit, boosting efficiency and self-consumption. The 8–112 kW ground- and water-source system delivers heating, cooling, and domestic hot water with coefficients of performance often exceeding 4–5, while smart controls and the ground loop act as a thermal battery to optimize year-round performance.

Saudi Arabia had a record year for solar deployment last year, taking cumulative capacity past 12.4 GW. GlobalData is forecasting annual deployments to increase in the coming years but notes that they remain behind the pace required to meet the country’s target of 130 GW of renewables by 2030, instead nearing the goal by 2035.

TransnetBW says its pilot with Octopus Energy shows 700 electric vehicles can deliver grid flexibility within existing redispatch processes, with potential to scale to gigawatt-hour levels.

The Terawatt PV 100 ranks the top 100 solar manufacturing companies using a new methodology based on production scale, financial strength, and corporate transparency, with Tongwei leading the Q1 2026 list and most top firms headquartered in China. The analysis highlights increasing global supply-chain scrutiny driven by tariffs and ESG mandates, while also showing rising influence from Indian companies and strong positions for key materials and equipment suppliers.

The result was certified by China’s National Photovoltaic Industry Metrology Test Center (NPVM). The cell utilizes a perovskite top device with MBT-ligand-controlled crystallization on a TOPCon silicon bottom cell, achieving a void-free, high-efficiency tandem structure.

Accelerating energy transitions in major economies can create positive spillover effects worldwide, even amid geopolitical tensions, with North America and the Eurozone boosting progress in other regions.

Spain’s grid operator Red Eléctrica and regulator CNMC have launched real-time voltage control services, allowing renewable energy installations to provide dynamic grid support under a new regulatory framework.

SMA Solar Technology AG says revenue declined slightly and losses widened significantly in 2025 due to weak demand and one-off effects from its restructuring program.

A Japanese consortium is piloting agrivoltaics using film-type perovskite solar cells over rice paddies to study energy generation alongside crop production. The three-year project will assess impacts on rice yield, land use, and emissions while testing the technology’s performance and commercial viability.

Researchers found that widely deployed smart meters pose a “massive” cybersecurity risk, potentially enabling data manipulation, energy theft, and service disruption. They propose a new detection method using state estimation and statistical boundaries to more accurately identify cyberattacks, outperforming traditional techniques despite higher computational demands.

Swansea University researchers found that perovskite solar cells can tolerate dusty fabrication environments, performing almost as well as those made in cleanrooms. The findings suggest low-cost, scalable production may be possible without ultra-sterile conditions, potentially accelerating cell and module manufacturing.

Waaree Energies has approved a capital expenditure of INR 39 billion ($415 million) to build a solar glass manufacturing facility with a capacity of 2,500 metric tons (MT) per day through its subsidiary Waaree Green Glass.

The United States added 18.9 GW of energy storage capacity in 2025, a 52% increase year on year, according to Wood Mackenzie.

France’s energy regulator plans to link PV support to storage as negative power prices increase and reduce solar revenues.

In an interview with pv magazine, Jay Johnson, the CTO of US-based cybersecurity firm DERSec, explains that PV systems face cybersecurity risks that extend far beyond inverters, as demonstrated by a December attack on Polish solar plants where wiper malware targeted substation equipment rather than the inverters themselves. Vulnerabilities often lie in backhaul communication channels like APIs and mobile apps, making layered defenses, network segmentation, and vigilant monitoring essential to safeguard distributed energy resources.

Data centers are using batteries to run more AI on the same grid connection.

Researchers in China demonstrated that integrating energy tower heat pumps with evaporator-side boilers, air-source heat pumps, or solar-assisted systems can significantly improve winter heating efficiency and economic performance in commercial buildings. Among the four configurations tested, the evaporator-side boiler and solar-assisted systems delivered the highest performance and energy savings, offering a sustainable, low-carbon alternative to conventional heating.