In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that solar production across much of Europe is expected to dip over the weekend as a significant low-pressure system draws polar air across the continent, bringing the first large widespread snowfall of the season.

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.

Martin Schachinger, founder of pvXchange.com, says the 8% price drop in November for solar modules could mark the end of sustained declines, as market signals are pointing to a possible recovery.

“The MENA region – the next hot market for energy storage?” I asked in an article back in October 2017. It took a bit longer than I expected, but seven years later it’s time to replace the question mark with an exclamation mark. It’s hot indeed.

Radiative cooling is an emerging technology that holds the potential to enhance the performance and longevity of PV modules. Researchers from the Institute of Nanotechnology of Lyon explain how this technology may reach commercial maturity.

pv magazine USA spoke with Aaron Halimi, founder and president of Renewable Properties, and Derek Chernow, Western Regional Director for the Coalition for Community Solar Access, about the impact of California Public Utilities Commission’s final decision on the state’s community solar projects.

Similar to last year, battery energy storage systems (BESS) made up almost all new-build capacity selected in recent Capacity Remuneration Mechanism (CRM) auctions in Belgium. Simon De Clercq, senior research associate at Aurora Energy Research, tells ESS News that there is even more room for BESS players to participate in the procurement exercises.

Developers Wigton Energy and SunTerra Energy Jamaica are each set to build, own and operate large-scale solar projects in Jamaica after successfully bidding in a 100 MW renewables tender held in 2023.

The Greek government, the European Commission, and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have launched the Islands Decarbonisation Fund. They have initially secured €1.6 billion ($1.7 billion) to finance decarbonization projects across the Greek islands.

The UK government will make GBP 295 million ($308.4 million) in grant funding available to homes switching from gas boilers to heat pumps in the 2025-26 fiscal year. Meanwhile, forthcoming reforms will allow air-source heat pumps to be installed without the need to submit planning applications.

A new approach aims to reconnect commercial and industrial (C&I) energy users to the grid, supplying daytime power from solar and batteries through grid infrastructure funded by PV installers, with diesel as a backup when needed.

The US Department of Energy has revealed plans to allocate up to $1.2 billion for a hydrogen hub in Texas and the Gulf Coast and up to $1 billion for a similar project spanning Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Michigan.

Up to €103 million ($107.2 million), from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Raiffeisen Bank International, will support the development of a fully-merchant, 237.6 MW solar project in southeastern Bulgaria.

BoucL Énergie says it will install wooden-framed parking canopies in southern France, as part of a future collective self-consumption plan.

A scientific group has proposed adding thermal solar panels to air-source heat pumps while also using grid heating to keep temperatures stable at night. The group modeled a system that could reportely achieve a coefficient of performance of 10.11 and represent an optimal solutions for cold climates.

Researchers from University of Miyazaki in Japan have published a technical background paper about testing protocols to address the unique challenges of vehicle integrated photovoltaic (VIPV) modules. It features the background on a new numerical probability model that incorporates shading, partial-shading, dynamic shading, uneven terrain and modules’ curvatures.

Eaton says its new xStorage commercial and industrial battery energy storage system (BESS) offers storage capacities ranging from 250 kWh to 1,000 kWh, using lithium iron phosphate batteries with self-contained liquid cooling.

Scientists in the United Kingdom have designed an ice-source heat pump system that utilizes existing gas pipelines to transport water. The system is designed to achieve a coefficient of performance of 4.77.

Scientists in China have conceived a perovskite solar cell that uses a back mirror based on silver to improve light harvesting. The device could reportedly achieved a power conversion efficiency of over 27%.

Western Australia’s state-owned regional energy provider Horizon Power has officially launched the trial of a vanadium flow battery in the northern part of the state as it investigates how to integrate long-duration energy storage into its network, microgrids, and other off-grid power systems.

Chinese manufacturer JA Solar has agreed to build a 2 GW solar cell and module factory in Egypt with support from UAE-based Global South Utilities.

China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) says developers installed 181.3 GW of new PV capacity from January to October 2024, including 20.42 GW in October alone.

Research led by the University of Sheffield installed an off-grid agrivoltaic system in Tanzania and a grid-tied agrivoltaic system in Kenya. They found the installations helped boost crop yield and conserve water while generating electricity at a lower cost than the national grid.

German PV equipment company Coatema Coating Machinery says its roll-to-roll processing solutions cover from lab or pilot to production scale.

An international research team has developed a perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell with a hole transport layer based on methyl-substituted carbazole and submicron-sized textured silicon bottom heterojunction cells. The proposed cell configuration uses commercially available Czochralski silicon wafers and promises efficiencies over 30%.

Brazil’s largest microgrid has gone online at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp). The CampusGrid project combines a 565 kW solar system with a 1 MW high-capacity battery energy storage system (BESS).

German manufacturer Solarwatt says its new battery can be flexibly configured as an AC or DC system. It also features an emergency power function and can only be combined with Solarwatt inverters.

The sites, with a total 9.6 MWp generation capacity and 13.5 MWh of energy storage, were built in the Loreto department by Amazonas Energía Solar for Electro Oriente.

China-based Envision Energy says that its 5.5 MW /14 MWh grid forming energy storage demonstration platform is the first and biggest single-unit grid-forming energy storage system globally to receive certification under rigorous, full-scenario testing standards.

The U.S. solar microinverter provider introduced a 1500 Wh portable battery bank.