The U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran is unlikely to materially affect solar manufacturing projects in the Middle East for now, as most of these investments remain at an early stage. OPIS analyst Brian Ng sees the most immediate risk in logistics. If disruptions persist, shipments of solar products into the region could be delayed and export pricing may turn volatile.

This week Women in Solar+ Europe gives voice to Ilse Cappelle, Head of Marketing & E-commerce at Netherlands’ Libra Energy. She explains how returning from maternity leave directly into a leadership role showed her the company’s strong support for career growth and work-life balance.

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.

Solar energy, driven by excellent resource conditions and rapidly improving economic attractiveness, is expected to emerge as a bulk energy supplier in future energy systems. The self-limiting effects of solar power can be circumvented through solar-hybrid solutions, such as PV-geothermal hybrid configurations.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that Saharan dust caused widespread panel soiling in southern Europe in early May, while much of central and eastern Europe benefitted from above-average solar resources. Favourable conditions broke down later in the month as cold polar air and a powerful storm system brought cloud, snow and damaging winds to many parts of the continent.

The German manufacturer has launched an integrated energy system combining inverter, storage and energy management in a modular, scalable solution for new and existing PV installations. The system supports AC/DC coupling, backup power and smart energy optimization.

The Tunisian government is inviting private developers to submit applications for solar power plants under the sixth licensing round for full electricity sale to national utility STEG.

A year-long study in the UK finds vertical bifacial PV systems achieve an up to 26.91% higher output during morning hours compared to traditional tilted PV systems. The vertical bifacial system bettered the tilted system across all four seasons, with average power gains as high as 24.52% during winter.

The German manufacturer said that its new air-to-water heat pump system uses propane as a refrigerant and is available in three variants with outputs of 5 kW, 7 kW, and 11 kW. The new product can reportedly achieve a coefficient of performance of up to 4.93.

Entering a competitive small-scale energy storate field is Chinese maker Mova, well-known for its kitchen applicances and growing robotic homewares including vacuums and more.

Analysis of longitudinal survey data has explored the link between intended and actual solar panel adoption in UK households. It finds that while most households that had intention of installing solar in 2012-13 were yet to do so by 2021-22, serious intention to install solar still increases the likelihood of adoption more than other factors such as income and environmental perceptions.

Ransomware attacks encrypt or lock critical PV system data and control platforms, preventing operators from accessing or managing their assets until a ransom is paid. These attacks can disrupt operations, reduce energy production, and create safety risks, making robust backups, segmentation, and incident response essential for resilience.

Atmoce’s new MI microinverter series connects two PV modules per unit while still providing module-level power optimization.

Scientists in Chile have developed a low-cost, easy-to-deploy hydrogen system powered by end-of-life solar panels. The residential solution reportedly achieves a levelized cost of hydrogen of approximately $5.8/kg.

Oman’s Naqaa Sustainable Energy LLC is set to design, finance, construct and operate a 500 MW solar project in northwestern Botswana. A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled to take place later this week.

Researchers in China found that PV plants in arid regions create a measurable cool island effect that varies strongly with season, location, and plant design, influencing surrounding vegetation in complex and spatially uneven ways. They showed that cooling intensity and distance differ widely across sites, are driven mainly by plant morphology,

Indian scientists have fabricated perovskite mini-modules with reduced graphene oxide interface engineering, achieving 16.6% efficiency and over 1,300 hours of stable operation. The graphene oxide layer improves film quality, reduces defects, enhances charge transport, and enables scalable fabrication, offering a promising route toward efficient and durable perovskite solar modules.

Researchers in Austria discovered a wasp nest inside the junction box of a 1998 rooftop PV module, illustrating how insects can exploit even sealed electrical components. The affected module showed significant degradation and partial failure, though overall results confirmed the surprising durability of older PV module designs.

An ongoing collaboration between Australia’s Halocell Energy and U.S-based Sofab Inks finds that perovskite modules incorporating Sofab’s Tinfab electron transport layer maintain approximately 100% of their normalized efficiency after 1,300 hours under accelerated combined light and damp-heat testing.

Man-in-the-middle attacks are a serious threat to networked PV systems, allowing attackers to intercept, modify, or disrupt communications, potentially causing operational failures, physical damage, financial losses, and safety hazards. Effective defense requires a layered approach combining encryption, strong authentication, network segmentation, firewalls, IDS, and continuous monitoring to detect, prevent, and limit the impact of such attacks.

Reliance Industries Ltd has become the first company to secure the inclusion of heterojunction solar cells in the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) published by India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

An international research group has developed a novel solar module passive cooling system that integrates three-dimensional oscillating heat pipe (3D-OHP) with different combinations of nanofluids based on hybrid graphene oxide (GO) and a two-dimensional titanium carbide known as MXene (Ti3C2Tx). MXene compounds take their name from their graphene-like morphology and are made via selective etching of […]

The TOPCon solar cells with fabricated with screen-printed, fire-through copper rear contacts and silver front contacts, using laser-enhanced contact optimization (LECO) to significantly reduce contact resistivity. Optimized copper cells achieved 24.3% efficiency, comparable to Ag-contacted cells, with excellent stability.

A Czech team developed an IoT system using MQTT to autonomously cool PV panels, boosting daily energy yield by 7.38% with a positive net energy balance.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE have reduced silver consumption in solar cell metallization to 1.1 mg/Wp using an electrodeposition-based process, down from current levels of 10–12 mg/Wp.

The electric utility of St. Kitts is launching a tender for a 50 MW solar plus 30.5 MWh battery storage project on the island. Interested developers are asked to register on the utility’s bidding portal to receive the request for proposals document.

The rollout is accelerated to eliminate the use of diesel from iron ore mining and processing.

San Francisco-based Merino Energy has launched the Merino Mono, a plug-and-play indoor heat pump that can be installed in under an hour and is priced at a flat $3,800 including installation.

Adana-based WHS introduced a PV-powered water heating system that operates without an inverter, using 1.6 kW of direct DC solar input with integrated MPPT. The system supports hybrid operation with a 2 kW AC backup, runs at extra-low voltage of less than 50 V, delivers around 3 kWh/day of thermal energy, and heats water to 65–85 C for residential and small commercial use.

BMW says its new hydrogen tank enables longer range and flexible production, while South Korea has revealed plans to develop large-scale liquid hydrogen storage systems.