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The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) announced it would provide University of Sydney researchers with AUD 7.25 million ($5.2 million) towards a AUD 19.5 million project to develop more durable Silicon (Si)-perovskite tandem solar cells in order to maintain their high efficiencies for commercial use.
The University of Sydney team will partner with Brisbane-based solar panel manufacturing startup Unison Solar Energy and scientists from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University to take the next-generation technology from research towards commercial-scale production. 
“Our ambition is to pioneer a new era of Australian solar manufacturing and commercialize leading technologies here at home,” Unison Solar Chief Executive Officer Allen Guo said.
Si-perovskite tandem cell technology has demonstrated the potential to overcome the performance limitations of current solar technologies that rely on silicon as the sole semiconductor. Silicon’s conversion rate – the amount of solar energy it converts into electricity – currently peaks at about 25% but the researchers said Si-perovskite tandem cell technology could theoretically deliver conversion efficiencies of about 40%.
Team leader Professor Anita Ho-Baillie, John Hooke Chair of Nanoscience at the University of Sydney Nano Institute and School of Physics, said the researchers’ efforts have focused on stacking perovskites, made from synthesising metal with halogens, on top of silicon to form a tandem solar cell, rather than using silicon as the sole semiconductor. 
“There isn’t much room for silicon to improve because its theoretical limit is only 30%, but for perovskite-silicon tandem, it is about 40%,” she said. 
The research team has already shown the greater efficiency of the Si-perovskite technology, achieving Australia’s first 30% efficient Si-perovskite tandems on small and large areas. The team has also reported tandem cells passing industry standard tests against thermal extremes and moisture.  
Despite the potential of the technology, scaling devices beyond the laboratory and ensuring their stability under real-world conditions has proven challenging. Perovskite materials can break down when exposed to light, heat, moisture and mechanical stress.
Ho-Baillie said the new funding will help the researchers prove the reliability of Si-perovskite cells under a series of industry standards and take tandem-cell technology one step closer to becoming commercially viable. The ultimate goal is to improve the cells’ ability to maintain their conversion rate over the life expectancy of solar panels. 
“This is a fantastic opportunity for us to make research we’ve been doing at the university for the last six years translational,” she said. “Our next round of testing will prove this technology’s ability to cope with UV light and mechanical stresses.”
Unison Solar, which is establishing a solar panel production facility in Brisbane’s outer suburbs with an initial 500 MW manufacturing capacity, will work with the researchers during the commercialisation stage.
Guo, a former chief operating officer at Jinko Solar, said the Queensland-headquartered company will assess manufacturing costs, supply chains, customer needs and pathways to pilot production and scale-up.
“This project marks the beginning of collaboration with leading Australian research institutions for Unison Solar Energy,” he said, with the company aiming to establish gigawatt-scale production of advanced solar products in Australia.
Goa, a former chief operating officer at Jinko Solar, said Unison’s goal is to establish a manufacturing-ready technology platform capable of delivering next-generation tandem solar products with outstanding performance and long-term field reliability.
“Australia has been at the forefront of global solar research for more than 50 years, but local manufacturing remains limited and has not reached the scale our energy transition demands,” he said. “By combining Unison’s capability, technology and vision with ARENA’s support and the University of Sydney’s research expertise, we intend to deliver affordable, high-quality Australian-made solar products to Australian families. This is the start of our exciting journey.”
The project is one of 20 research and development initiatives to secure funded as part of a $105.6 million funding round announced by ARENA.
The funding will support projects spanning improved efficiency, cost and stability across advanced cells and modules, to innovations that can help improve solar farm deployment, operations and maintenance. and reduce the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE).
“Australia has played a leading role in the development of solar technology, and these projects will help ensure we continue to strengthen that position,” ARENA acting CEO Chris Faris said.
“The portfolio brings together a mix of near-term improvements and breakthrough technologies that have the potential to lower costs, improve performance and accelerate the deployment of solar energy both in Australia and around the world.”
“Achieving ultra low-cost solar requires innovation across the entire value chain. From the solar cells and modules themselves through to the way solar farms are built, operated and maintained, these projects will help unlock practical solutions that support a faster, more affordable energy transition.”
The funding is to be delivered over five years, commencing in 2027.
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The global perovskite solar cell market size was valued at USD 241.68 million in 2025 and is estimated to grow from USD 346.47 million in 2026 to USD 6181.48 million by 2034, registering a CAGR of 43.36% during the forecast period (2026–2034). Asia Pacific dominated the perovskite solar cell market with a market share of 47.14% in 2025.
Perovskite solar cells are photovoltaic devices that use perovskite structured semiconductor materials to capture sunlight and convert it into electricity. These cells offer high power conversion efficiency, low-cost manufacturing potential, and compatibility with flexible and lightweight solar modules. They are widely used in utility-scale solar projects, building integrated photovoltaics, portable electronic devices, and tandem solar cell applications.
The perovskite solar cell market demand is increasing due to the growing adoption of renewable energy, the rising focus on high-efficiency photovoltaic technologies, and the need for cost-effective solar power generation. Manufacturers are adopting perovskite solar cells to improve energy conversion efficiency and reduce production costs. Advances in material stability, increasing investments in the next generation of solar technologies, and expanding renewable energy infrastructure are also contributing to the perovskite solar cell market growth.
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The perovskite solar cell market is highly exposed to supply chain disruptions due to its dependence on specialty precursor materials, transparent conductive substrates, encapsulation materials, and advanced manufacturing equipment. Disruptions in the supply of critical materials and production equipment have delayed pilot-scale manufacturing, increased production costs, and slowed the commercialization of perovskite solar technologies across global markets. Logistics constraints and trade uncertainties have also affected research collaborations, technology transfer, and the expansion of manufacturing capacity within the photovoltaic ecosystem. The market is experiencing a J-shaped recovery, supported by accelerating investments in next-generation solar technologies, expanding commercial production capacity, and strong policy support for clean energy deployment.
Shift toward Lead-Free and Eco-Friendly Perovskite Materials
Environmental regulations and sustainability goals are encouraging manufacturers to develop lead-reduced and lead-free perovskite materials. This transition improves the environmental profile of perovskite solar cells and supports their adoption in commercial and utility-scale projects. It also helps manufacturers meet future regulatory requirements while expanding market acceptance. For example, Oxford PV is advancing more sustainable perovskite silicon tandem solar technologies for commercial deployment.
Adoption of Protective Barrier Films in Perovskite Solar Cells
The need for improved durability is driving the adoption of advanced encapsulation materials and protective barrier films in perovskite solar cells. This transition enhances resistance to moisture, heat, and ultraviolet exposure, resulting in longer operational life and better performance. Improved reliability is supporting the commercialization of perovskite solar technology for outdoor energy applications. For example, Microquanta Semiconductor has developed encapsulation solutions to improve the stability of its perovskite photovoltaic modules.
The perovskite solar cell market forecasts continued investment activity driven by the growing adoption of renewable energy, increasing demand for high-efficiency photovoltaic technologies, and the commercialization of next-generation solar cells.
Key Investment and Funding Activities in Perovskite Solar Cell Market, 2025–2026
Sofab Inks
USD 6 Million
In July 2026, Sofab Inks secured a seed funding round led by Cloudberry Ventures to accelerate the commercialization of its specialty durability-focused layers for perovskite solar modules.
Tandem PV
USD 50 Million
In March 2025, Tandem PV secured a Series A and debt financing round led by Eclipse to build a commercial-scale manufacturing facility.
Demand for Efficient Solar Panels and Government Support for Advanced Solar Technology Drives Market
The need to generate more electricity from limited installation space is driving demand for high-efficiency solar panels. Perovskite solar cells offer higher energy conversion efficiency and lightweight designs, making them suitable for residential, commercial, and utility-scale projects. This is encouraging manufacturers and developers to accelerate their adoption. For example, Oxford PV has commercialized perovskite silicon tandem solar cells with higher efficiency than conventional silicon modules.
Government funding and clean energy policies are accelerating the development of advanced photovoltaic technologies. Financial incentives and demonstration programs are encouraging manufacturers to scale perovskite solar cell production and commercial applications. This support is reducing commercialization barriers and strengthening demand from renewable energy developers. It is also accelerating the transition toward next-generation solar technologies.
High Commercialization Costs and Lack of Standardized Manufacturing Processes Restrains Market Expansion
High commercialization costs remain a major restraint for the perovskite solar cell market. Scaling production from laboratory research to commercial manufacturing requires significant investment in production facilities, process optimization, and quality control. This increases financial risks for manufacturers and slows the large-scale adoption of perovskite solar technologies.
The lack of standardized manufacturing processes is limiting the commercial deployment of perovskite solar cells. Variations in material composition and fabrication methods make it difficult to achieve consistent product quality and large-scale production. This affects customer confidence and delays adoption across residential, commercial, and utility-scale applications.
Integration with Electric Vehicles and Growth in Off-Grid & Remote Power Applications Open New Revenue Avenues
The growing adoption of electric vehicles is creating opportunities for perovskite solar cell manufacturers and automotive companies to integrate lightweight solar cells into vehicle roofs and body panels. This enables auxiliary power generation and improves vehicle energy efficiency without adding significant weight. As vehicle-integrated photovoltaics gain commercial acceptance, demand for flexible perovskite solar cells is expected to increase. For example, Hanergy and Toyota have explored solar-powered vehicle technologies using lightweight photovoltaic materials.
The need for reliable electricity in remote locations is creating opportunities for perovskite solar cell manufacturers, telecom operators, and rural energy providers. Their lightweight design and easy deployment make them suitable for off-grid homes, telecommunications infrastructure, disaster relief systems, and remote monitoring equipment. As rural electrification and decentralized renewable energy projects expand, the adoption of perovskite solar cells is expected to accelerate.
Limited Bankability for Large-Scale Projects and Complex Certification & Qualification Requirements Hinder Growth
The limited long-term operating history of perovskite solar cells makes it difficult for developers to secure financing for utility-scale projects. Investors, lenders, and project developers continue to prefer commercially proven photovoltaic technologies with established performance records. This slows large-scale project deployment and delays market growth.
Perovskite solar cell manufacturers face challenges in meeting international reliability and certification standards required for commercial deployment. Extensive testing under different environmental conditions increases product validation time and delays market entry. This slows technology adoption across residential, commercial, and utility-scale applications.
The rigid perovskite solar cells segment accounted for a share of 54.74% in 2025, owing to the deployment in utility-scale and commercial solar projects, higher structural stability, and compatibility with conventional photovoltaic module manufacturing processes. Continuous improvements in module durability, large-area fabrication, and production scalability further supported the segment’s dominant position.
The flexible perovskite solar cells segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 45.26% during the forecast period, driven by the demand for lightweight and bendable photovoltaic solutions across portable electronics, wearable devices, and building integrated applications.
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The perovskite silicon tandem solar cells segment accounted for a share of 58.84% in 2025 due to higher power conversion efficiency, compatibility with existing silicon manufacturing infrastructure, and growing commercialization by photovoltaic manufacturers.
The single junction perovskite solar cells segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 41.57% during the forecast period, fueled by lower manufacturing complexity, ongoing material innovation, and expanding research for lightweight photovoltaic applications. Their cost-effective production potential is supporting adoption across emerging solar technologies.
The utility scale power generation segment accounted for a share of 42.74% in 2025, supported by investments in renewable energy infrastructure, deployment of large-scale solar farms, and demand for high-efficiency photovoltaic technologies. Utility developers are evaluating perovskite solar cells to maximize energy generation while optimizing land utilization.
The building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 44.83% during the forecast period, propelled by increasing construction of energy-efficient buildings, demand for aesthetically integrated solar solutions, and supportive green building regulations. The ability of perovskite solar cells to be integrated into windows, façades, and rooftops is supporting segment expansion.
The solution processed segment accounted for a share of 61.48% in 2025 due to its low production cost, simple fabrication process, and compatibility with large-area manufacturing. High material utilization, reduced manufacturing waste, and scalability further supported its widespread commercial adoption.
The vacuum deposition segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 40.92% during the forecast period, driven by its ability to produce highly uniform thin films with improved device quality and performance. Investments in precision manufacturing and high-efficiency photovoltaic technologies are supporting the adoption of vacuum-based fabrication methods.
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Asia Pacific: Market Dominance Led by Strong Solar Manufacturing Base and Large Scale Renewable Energy Deployment
The Asia Pacific perovskite solar cell market accounted for the largest regional share of 47.14% in 2025. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Asia accounted for the majority of newly installed renewable power capacity globally in 2025, supporting demand for advanced photovoltaic technologies.
The China perovskite solar cell market was valued at USD 89.41 million in 2025, driven by its dominant position in global photovoltaic manufacturing, continuous investment in next-generation solar technologies, and expanding pilot production of perovskite and tandem solar cells. Government support for clean energy manufacturing, strong research capabilities, and the presence of major photovoltaic companies are accelerating commercialization across the country.
The India perovskite solar cell market was valued at USD 21.75 million in 2025, supported by expanding solar power capacity, government initiatives to strengthen domestic photovoltaic manufacturing, and growing investments in advanced renewable energy technologies. India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is supporting the development of next-generation photovoltaic technologies, including perovskite and tandem solar cells, through its renewable-energy research and development programs, strengthening the country’s advanced solar technology ecosystem.
The Japan perovskite solar cell market was valued at USD 18.63 million in 2025, supported by strong research and development activities, commercialization of lightweight and flexible solar technologies, and increasing adoption of building-integrated photovoltaics. Japan is targeting the deployment of approximately 20 GW of perovskite solar power by 2040, supporting long-term commercialization and adoption of lightweight solar technologies across buildings and other space-constrained applications.
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Europe: Fastest Growth Driven by Strong Research Funding and Commercialization of Next-Generation Solar Technologies
The Europe perovskite solar cell market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 44.82% during the forecast period, showcasing the fastest regional growth. According to the European Commission, the EU Solar Energy Strategy continues to support the deployment of advanced photovoltaic technologies and strengthen Europe’s solar manufacturing ecosystem.
The Germany perovskite solar cell market was valued at USD 19.42 million in 2025, driven by strong investments in photovoltaic research, expanding pilot production facilities, and collaboration between research institutes and solar manufacturers. Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy is supporting the “PrOSub” project with around USD 3.2 million to develop industrially scalable perovskite solar-cell production processes, strengthening the country’s domestic perovskite PV manufacturing ecosystem.
The United Kingdom perovskite solar cell market was valued at USD 12.84 million in 2025, supported by increasing investments in advanced photovoltaic research and commercialization of perovskite silicon tandem solar technologies. In 2025, UK-based Oxford PV began commercial production of perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cells at its Brandenburg facility, supporting the transition of perovskite technology from research toward commercial-scale manufacturing.
The France perovskite solar cell market was valued at USD 10.96 million in 2025, driven by growing investments in advanced photovoltaic research, supportive clean energy policies, and increasing collaboration between research institutes and solar technology companies. The country’s focus on carbon neutrality, expansion of solar power capacity, and development of next-generation photovoltaic materials is supporting the commercialization of perovskite solar cell technologies.
The perovskite solar cell market competitive landscape is moderately fragmented, with competition centered on technology developers, photovoltaic manufacturers, research institutions, and clean energy companies advancing next-generation solar technologies. Leading players compete through improvements in power conversion efficiency, material stability, and scalable manufacturing processes. Emerging companies are focusing on pilot-scale production, strategic collaborations, and innovation in flexible & lightweight photovoltaic solutions. The perovskite solar cell market ecosystem is shaped by continuous research & development, supportive government funding, and expanding renewable energy deployment.
June 2026: Oxford PV and Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) announced a technology collaboration to integrate perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells with Matrix Shingle interconnection technology for the development of high-efficiency photovoltaic modules.
February 2026: First Solar and Oxford PV signed a patent licensing agreement for the U.S. market, enabling First Solar to develop and commercialize perovskite-based photovoltaic technologies using Oxford PV’s patent portfolio.
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Research Head
Ismail Sutaria is a market intelligence and strategy professional with over 12 years of experience advising organizations across the chemicals, packaging, industrial machinery, and energy & power sectors. He specializes in delivering data-driven market assessments, commercial due diligence, industry benchmarking, demand forecasting, competitive strategy, and growth advisory that enable businesses to make confident investment and expansion decisions in complex industrial markets.
His expertise spans specialty and commodity chemicals, advanced and sustainable packaging solutions, industrial automation, manufacturing equipment, process engineering, renewable energy, conventional power generation, electrical infrastructure, and industrial technologies. Ismail has developed deep domain knowledge in evaluating market ecosystems, technology evolution, regulatory frameworks, supply-demand dynamics, pricing trends, value chain structures, and competitive landscapes across global and regional markets.
Over the course of his career, Ismail has advised manufacturers, technology providers, industrial suppliers, investment firms, and multinational corporations on market attractiveness, revenue opportunity assessments, product portfolio optimization, customer segmentation, sourcing strategies, and geographic expansion initiatives. His work enables clients to identify emerging opportunities, evaluate market risks, benchmark competitive positioning, and develop sustainable growth strategies aligned with evolving industry dynamics.
Recognized for his structured analytical approach and commercial perspective, Ismail excels at translating complex market developments into practical business intelligence. By integrating industry trends, technological innovation, policy developments, and evolving customer requirements, he helps organizations anticipate market transitions, strengthen strategic planning, and capitalize on long-term growth opportunities. His ability to bridge technical industry knowledge with commercial strategy has established him as a trusted advisor for businesses operating across the global chemicals, packaging, machinery, and energy value chains.
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Solar Surpasses Coal as China’s Top Source of Power Capacity  Bloomberg.com
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The global solar PV operations and maintenance (O&M) market reached 348 GW at the end of 2025, after adding 61 GW during the year. The expansion came amid accelerating industry consolidation, with the 15 largest providers managing 200 GW, or 57% of the capacity analyzed.
The figures come from Wood Mackenzie’s “Global Solar PV O&M Service Provider Dynamics 2026” report, which examines portfolio sizes, cost trends and service strategies among more than 130 active providers across the Americas, Asia-Pacific excluding China, and Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Consolidation accelerated in 2025, with the 15 largest providers adding a combined 41 GW to their portfolios to reach 200 GW of managed capacity. NovaSource Power Services retained its position as the world’s largest solar PV O&M provider, with 38.4 GW under management at the end of the year.
RES Energy Global Services, Solv Energy, Solarig Energy Services and Recurrent Energy retained their positions among the five largest providers globally. Several are pursuing cross-regional expansion strategies as scale becomes an increasingly important competitive factor.
The rankings also saw new entrants. BayWa r.e. Services and Origis Energy Services joined the global top 15 after adding 2.6 GW and 1.8 GW, respectively, to their managed portfolios.
Engie more than doubled its O&M portfolio in 2025, rising six places to rank eighth globally. Growth was driven primarily by the Americas, where its portfolio expanded by 172%.
Sterling & Wilson recorded 53% year-on-year growth, taking its managed capacity to 13.5 GW and placing it sixth globally. The company also leads the Asia-Pacific market, where it manages 12.2 GW.
Among smaller providers, megaom, the independent O&M unit of FRV, recorded the strongest percentage growth. Its portfolio expanded by 243% to 3.8 GW, taking the company into the global top 30 for the first time.
Regional markets showed markedly different trends. Wood Mackenzie described North America as a mature and highly competitive market, with pricing pressure pushing down the cost of comprehensive O&M services. Prices for “full-wrap” contracts fell 18% year on year.
By contrast, O&M volumes in the Middle East and Africa nearly doubled in 2025. Historically lower market penetration, combined with rapid growth in PV installations, is attracting new service providers to the regions.
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Photovoltaic panels in a local village in Hukou County, Jiujiang City convert sunlight into clean electricity, Jiangxi Province, China, August 19, 2026. /VCG
China’s installed solar capacity has overtaken coal-fired power for the first time, making it the country’s largest power source, the National Energy Administration said on Tuesday.
By the end of July, installed photovoltaic (PV) power accounted for 31.5% of China’s total power capacity – 1.286 billion kilowatts. In the first seven months of the year, solar generation topped 802.4 billion kilowatt-hours, up 15.5% from last year. That’s one in every eight kilowatt-hours of electricity generated in China.
China already makes eight out of every ten photovoltaic modules worldwide, and its next-gen tech is moving fast.
Over the next five years, investment in the solar industry is expected to surpass 2 trillion yuan (about $297.6 billion). That means more green power, stronger energy security and a cleaner economic engine.

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Solar rooftop photovoltaic power generation facilities are seen on a building in Qingdao, East China’s Shandong Province, on June 23, 2026. Photo: VCG
Western media outlets have long viewed China’s renewable energy progress with a bias rooted in competitive anxiety, warning …
China’s total installed power-generating capacity reached 3.99 billion kilowatts (kW) by the end of April, rising 14.2 percent …
The total capacity of China’s wind turbines and photovoltaic panels reached 820 million kilowatts by the end of …

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ARENA backs next solar generation with over $100 million  manmonthly.com.au
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From pv magazine Global
Utraviolet (UV) radiation has been long recognized as a key driver of PV module degradation. This factor, however, is significantly underestimated in current testing standards, particularly for modern system designs and high-irradiance regions.
With this in mind, a group of researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia has developed a high-precision global UV irradiance model on tilted surfaces, capturing the impact of system design, climate, and atmospheric conditions.
“Our new model demonstrates that identical module technologies degrade differently depending on deployment location, highlighting the need for climate-specific reliability assessment,” corresponding author Bram Hoex told pv magazine. “It also offers a pathway to move beyond generic accelerated testing toward regionally relevant degradation modeling and qualification protocols.”
The researchers highlighted that global UV irradiance can range from below 30 W/m² in high-latitude regions to over 80 W/m² in deserts and dry climates. In some locations, the UV dose specified in the IEC 61215 standard, which is just 15 kWh/m², can be reached in less than two months. By contrast, real-world exposure over a module’s lifetime is orders of magnitude higher.
“Current testing thresholds are simply too low to replicate long-term field conditions,” the authors noted, adding that even enhanced protocols fall short of simulating 25–30 years of operation.
One of the most striking findings of the study relates to system design. The researchers compared fixed-tilt installations with single-axis tracking (SAT) systems and found that trackers receive significantly more UV radiation due to their orientation toward the sun throughout the day.

In high-irradiance regions, such as deserts, single-axis tracking (SAT) systems can be exposed to up to 1.5 times more UV radiation than fixed-tilt systems, leading to degradation rates that are nearly twice as high. This results in annual UV-driven degradation rates of up to 0.35% per year for SAT systems, compared with approximately 0.25% per year for fixed-tilt installations.
Over the course of a typical project lifetime, this difference can accumulate to several percentage points of additional power loss, directly impacting the economics and long-term performance of the PV system.
The study also showed that identical PV modules can degrade at markedly different rates depending on their installation location. The key factors driving this variability include UV irradiance, temperature, humidity, and atmospheric conditions such as ozone levels, aerosols, and cloud cover. Among the most challenging environments are tropical and desert regions, where high UV exposure combines with intense thermal and environmental stress, accelerating module degradation.
“Current standards significantly underestimate real-world UV exposure, in some cases by orders of magnitude relative to lifetime conditions,” Hoex stressed. “UV exposure varies significantly with location and system configuration, with tracking systems experiencing up to around two times higher degradation rates in high-irradiance regions. In arid and tropical climates, UV-induced degradation can reach about 0.25–0.35%/year, contributing substantially to long-term performance loss.”
The novel high-precision model to estimate UV radiation in PV systems was presented in the paper “Closing the UV-Induced Photodegradation Gap Through Global Scale Modeling of Fixed Tilt and Tracking Photovoltaic Systems,” pubished in the IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.
“This work forms part of our group’s broader effort to connect fundamental degradation mechanisms with system-level impacts in the field, combining targeted accelerated testing—such as UV, damp heat, and contamination—with physics-based and data-driven modeling at the system scale to quantify how both established and emerging failure modes translate into real-world energy yield losses across diverse climates and system designs,” Hoex concluded.
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Solar Power World
By Kelly Pickerel | August 31, 2026
Of the many developments in the solar industry over the last decade, one of the most exciting to witness has been the build-out of solar panel recycling facilities across the country. Once just a problem for later down the road, solar panel recycling is already happening at scale by companies fully invested in the specialized industry — We Recycle Solar, SolarCycle, SolarPanelRecycling.com (SPR) and many more.
Solar panel recycling process. Credit: SPR
Although part of a green-minded industry, recyclers don’t process solar panels just for the good feelings; they are running a business after all. Right now, the primary moneymakers with recycled silicon solar panels are the aluminum frames and extracted copper, silicon and silver.
“At the end of the day, for recycling to work, someone has to be able to consume the products you’re generating and consume it at scale,” said Brett Henderson, CEO of SPR. “When you take a silicon panel and break it down to all of its base commodities to be recirculated back into manufacturing industries, the bulk of any panel is glass. Glass isn’t a very valuable commodity. Silicon panels are economically viable to recycle [because] you’re getting to subsidize it by collecting aluminum, silver.”
Just as recyclers play the commodities market, so do manufacturers. Recent high prices for silver have led some panel manufacturers to explore models that use less of the precious metal. No-silver panels would be cheaper to manufacture, but they’d also be less valuable to recycle. Manufacturing trends like this are forcing recyclers to be some of the most knowledgeable solar panel experts on the market.
The recycling processes described here are for silicon solar panels, the dominant panel choice in the global solar industry. Although cadmium-telluride (CdTe) thin-film panels are installed on many utility-scale solar projects in the United States thanks to First Solar’s domestic manufacturing base, their unique design is not as attractive to third-party recyclers. Thin-film panels are frameless (no aluminum), and the market today isn’t asking for cadmium or tellurium.
The first step to recycling silicon solar panels is carefully removing their junction boxes and frames. The bulk of what’s left is that insignificant glass, but the cleaner and more successfully that glass is removed, the easier it is to access the more valuable components.
Glass cullet after recycling solar panels. Credit: SPR
Most R&D by solar panel recyclers is spent on glass removal, whether through grinding, force or another method altogether. SPR just completed a $12 million upgrade at its three recycling plants (in North Carolina, Georgia and Texas) to better remove glass without nicking the silicon wafers and encapsulants beneath. OnePlanet, a solar panel recycler operating outside Jacksonville, Florida, has developed a recycling process that CEO André Pujadas said can remove 99.5% of module glass at 99% glass purity. OnePlanet does this with high-velocity airflow — extreme wind fractures and breaks the glass away from the other components.
Once the glass is removed, all recyclers generally follow the same path — shredding the silicon wafer and its connections into a fine powder and sending it through density separation, which leaves copper and a silver-silicon mix. Copper is an easy sell for recyclers, while refineries can better split the silver and silicon to sell to larger purchasers.
“To bring [refining] in house wouldn’t be a competitive advantage. They’re doing this at major scale for industries around the world. SPR isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel,” Henderson said.
However, OnePlanet’s proprietary recycling process could bring an element of refining to the recycler. When cleaner glass is removed, Pujadas said that the silver-silicon mix is less contaminated by crushed glass, which concentrates the end result into 95% pure silicon with 1% silver — a more valuable commodity by refineries.
“The whole business philosophy here would be to extract and recover minerals and reintroduce them into the supply chain for re-consumption, encouraging a circular economy,” he said. “A big part of that is how much value is extracted across the entire value chain. This recycling process is very focused on a high-purity silicon. [Eventually] we will have enough silicon that it can become a feedstock for metallurgical-grade silicon production.”
Panel recyclers are already looking into future manufacturing trends to determine how they will affect their ability to stay in business, and they might show up sooner than expected too.
Shredded materials during the solar panel recycling process. Credit: SPR
With most silicon solar panels expected to successfully function for 25 years and beyond, there hasn’t been an influx of decommissioned panels from the first major wave of U.S. installations from the early 2010s. But there’s enough supply of damaged panels from shipping and handling incidents, adverse weather and manufacturing errors that recyclers have to be on top of tomorrow’s trends today.
Henderson said that SPR added bifacial recycling equipment to its processing sites barely two years after launching. “We’re getting new technology into our stream right away,” he said.
SPR has dedicated research analysts on staff to quickly follow manufacturing trends and determine if the recycler may need a new processing technology or new offtakers for different material compositions. If solar panels use less silver, the copper may be more valuable, but the silicon-silver mix might be less attractive to certain refineries. Recycling is the easy part; finding the right commodity buyers is more challenging.
“We’re starting to see technology out there to not use any silver on a solar panel, or much less of it. If it’s still this silicon-based technology, it’s just going to change the economics of it,” Henderson said. “Over time, insurance costs go higher, equipment costs go higher, labor costs go higher, regulatory costs go higher. And then if you’re going to remove one of the components that helps subsidize it, it will probably mean that asset owners are going to have this roller coaster on how recycling pricing may be.”
For example, tandem perovskite-silicon panels are still new to the market, yet many recyclers are considering how to process them. One concern is their use of lead, which would require stronger encapsulants to keep out moisture that are harder to break to get to the valuable components. There’s also the challenge with lead’s toxicity.
“It can become a hazardous material, and then you have to deal with transportation and full framework disposal under a hazardous waste scenario,” Pujadas said. “Then you have to beef up your emission systems and safety culture. It could be done, but when do you start doing it?”
That’s the conundrum in the solar panel recycling space: when is it time to invest in new processes and when can a steady stream of old technologies be relied upon? That’s why efforts that can be controlled today — improving glass removal and silicon purity — will be advantageous for any type of solar panel design.
“It’s a strange industry,” Henderson said. “Solar panels are the one singular item you’re bringing in, but there’s so many flavors.”
Kelly Pickerel has more than 15 years of experience reporting on the U.S. solar industry and is currently editor in chief of Solar Power World. Email Kelly.

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Heat waves are becoming the norm. Strong sunlight isn’t the problem. The critical factor is temperature. Solar modules are evaluated under standard test conditions: 1,000 watts per square meter of irradiance and a cell temperature of 25 degrees (77 F) Celsius. In the field, cell temperatures on hot days are significantly higher. Modules can get considerably hotter than the ambient air temperature.
In crystalline solar cells, power output typically decreases with increasing temperature. If the cell temperature is not 25 degrees Celsius (77 F) but 65 degrees Celsius (149 F), this corresponds to a power loss of approximately 16 percent compared to standard conditions, assuming a temperature coefficient of minus 0.4 percent per degree.
For operators, this distinction is crucial. Those who only look at raw yield figures are missing the bigger picture. The more important question is: did the photovoltaic system produce as it should under the actual irradiance and temperature conditions?
Extreme temperatures are rarely the sole cause of a problem. Often, they reveal existing weaknesses. These include, among other things, dirty modules, partial shading, vegetation, and damaged cell areas. Under high irradiance, current flows and thermal stresses increase. Small imbalances can therefore become more apparent.
A typical example is hotspots. These occur when individual cell areas are subjected to higher loads than the rest of the module. Under strong irradiance, a local electrical effect can turn into a thermal problem.
With battery storage, the issue of heat becomes even more relevant, as it changes the operating logic of the entire system. A storage system can absorb excess solar energy, smooth feed-in peaks, reduce curtailment, shift electricity to more valuable hours, provide grid services, and stabilize load profiles. This is precisely why storage is becoming increasingly important in markets with a high share of photovoltaics.
But energy storage devices have their own physics: lithium-ion batteries age through calendar aging and cycle aging. Temperature, state of charge, depth of discharge, C-rate, idle times, and operating strategy all influence how quickly capacity and performance decline. Studies clearly show that high temperatures, high states of charge, and deep cycles can accelerate aging.
Heat also affects storage systems on several levels. Cooling systems have to work harder, self-consumption increases, and thermal reserves decrease. Battery systems can reduce their performance when cell, rack, or container temperatures reach critical limits. At the same time, prolonged periods of high temperature and high state of charge can accelerate calendar aging.
This is particularly relevant in photovoltaic-coupled applications, where storage systems are quickly charged at midday and then remain at a high state of charge and high ambient temperature for hours.
Safety is also a key issue. Modern battery systems feature battery management systems, temperature sensors, fire protection concepts, and shutdown logic. Nevertheless, thermal runaway remains a significant risk. Studies indicate that an internal cell defect after leaving the manufacturing process cannot be completely ruled out by operational technology. Therefore, it is crucial to prevent propagation, measure off-gas, and design and operate systems in such a way that a single fault does not become a systemic event.
In hybrid systems, two effects converge: the photovoltaic system produces substantial energy under high irradiance but loses some of its potential output due to high cell temperatures. The storage system is intended to absorb surplus energy, shift peak loads, and stabilize the power grid, but it too is subjected to greater stress due to high temperatures.
This creates conflicting objectives in operation. A storage system can be fully charged at midday, even though the ambient temperature is high. It can remain at a high charge level for hours. It can be heavily discharged in the evening while cooling, grid load, and price signals are all at play. Each of these decisions can be economically sound. Or it can become expensive in the long run.
Therefore, what matters is not a single operating mode, but the continuous evaluation of use cases. The potential gains from trading, optimizing self-consumption, or grid services must be constantly weighed against efficiency losses, thermal stress, and additional aging. Modern energy management systems perform this task and continuously reassess technical conditions, market and grid signals, and derive the appropriate operating strategy from this analysis. Here’s what operators should pay attention to:
1. Heat logic begins with plant design
Shading is generally detrimental to solar panels because it reduces yield, exacerbates mismatch effects, and can promote hotspots. However, targeted shading can be beneficial for battery storage systems because it reduces thermal stress and eases the load on the cooling system.
This sounds trivial, but in practice it quickly becomes a real conflict of objectives. What yields maximum output for the photovoltaic area is not automatically the best solution for storage containers, inverters, transformer stations or switch cabinets.
Therefore, the design of a system should also consider how the system behaves on hot days. Where do heat build-up occur? Which components are permanently exposed to direct sunlight? How well are storage systems, inverters, and electrical infrastructure ventilated or shaded? How easily accessible are critical components for maintenance, inspection, and fire department access?
2. Test regulatory capacity under stress conditions
For photovoltaic-plus-storage systems, it’s not enough to simply check whether individual components are functioning. The crucial factor is whether the system as a whole remains controllable when multiple demands are at play simultaneously: high irradiance, high temperatures, grid requirements, storage strategy, inverter limits, and economic operating schedules.
Operators should therefore not only evaluate the control concept on paper, but also validate it in operation. Are setpoints reliably adopted? Does the system react correctly to specifications at the grid connection point? Do active and reactive power control function even under high load? Are ramp rates maintained? Is storage operation adjusted if temperature, state of charge, or derating limits contraindicate it? And is it clearly documented when and why the system was regulated or curtailed?
3. Data quality is the basis of every evaluation.
The next step is a clean data foundation. Irradiance, ambient temperature, module temperature, wind, inverter data, string data, battery temperatures, state of charge and operating conditions must be plausible.
Faulty sensors lead to incorrect diagnoses. Incorrect diagnoses lead either to unnecessary call-outs or to overlooked problems.
4. Performance must be evaluated with temperature correction.
Operators should also use comparison logic. Individual strings, inverters, tracker sections, subsystems, or storage containers should be compared against similar units over the same period.
If all areas react similarly to heat, this suggests a general temperature effect. If individual areas differ significantly, this indicates a local problem.
5. Consistently prioritize local risks
Hotspots, shading, and pollution should be consistently prioritized. Especially under high solar irradiance, local effects can have a greater impact. Vegetation control, cleaning strategies, thermography, and visual inspection should therefore not be considered in isolation, but rather as part of a comprehensive risk management strategy. Electrical infrastructure also deserves more attention: connectors, cables, junction boxes, distribution boxes, switch cabinets, and transformers are all subject to stress during periods of heat.
6. Storage devices need thermal transparency
For battery storage systems, good operation begins with thermal transparency. Cell, module, rack, and container temperatures must not only be measured but also evaluated in context. Not only is the absolute maximum temperature is relevant, but also the temperature distribution. Large temperature variations within a system can indicate cooling problems, airflow issues, sensor malfunctions, or uneven load distribution.
7. Consciously control charge level and aging
State-of-charge (SOC) windows should be carefully selected. A storage system doesn’t need to be constantly maintained near 100 percent SOC just because a lot of photovoltaic energy is available. Especially at high ambient temperatures, it can be beneficial to design operating strategies so that high SOCs aren’t maintained unnecessarily long.
The cooling system must also be treated like a critical component. HVAC or liquid cooling systems are not secondary components. They ensure performance, lifespan, and safety. Filters, air ducts, refrigerants, compressors, pumps, sensors, and redundancies must be included in maintenance plans.
8. Take early indicators and alarms seriously
Important early indicators also include: increasing temperature differences between racks, noticeable cell voltage deviations, increasing internal resistance, decreasing round-trip efficiency, more frequent derating, unexpected SOC drifts, communication errors, or unusual HVAC runtimes.
A single signal does not constitute an emergency. Together, they can form a pattern.
9. Systematically follow up on heat waves
After a heat wave, the system should not automatically return to normal operation. Hot days provide valuable data: Which inverters derated first? Which strings showed deviations? Which sensor data was implausible? Which storage areas exhibited unusual thermal activity? Which alarms were helpful, and which were just noise? Such analyses lead to improved operation.
Heat waves are therefore more than just a seasonal extreme. They are a practical test of whether photovoltaic, storage, and hybrid systems can be understood and managed throughout their entire life cycle. Systematic evaluation of such phases provides insights not only into individual components but also into the quality of the overall operating model.
From ESS News
About the authors
Andreas Kern is a Senior Technical Consultant. His responsibilities include providing technical consulting services within the Technical Consulting department. These services include, for example, yield assessments, technical inspections, technical due diligence, and BESS yield assessments.
Philippe Staudinger is Technical Director at mc Energy and is responsible for building and developing the technical organization. He also shapes the operational structures in the C&I energy sector and focuses on the development and implementation of decentralized battery energy storage systems (BESS) for commercial and industrial customers.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those held by pv magazine.
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Source: Xinhua
Editor: huaxia
2026-09-01 10:29:15
BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) — China’s installed photovoltaic (PV) power capacity surpassed coal-fired power capacity for the first time, making PV the country’s largest power source by installed capacity, the National Energy Administration said Tuesday.
China’s installed PV power capacity reached 1.286 billion kilowatts at the end of July, according to the administration.  ■

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Vatican City is the world’s smallest country, but despite covering just 0.17 square miles, it is fully recognized as a sovereign nation. However, despite its independence, Vatican City has previously relied on electricity imported from Italy. As of May 28, 2026, however, a new agreement between the Vatican’s Holy See and the Italian government has entered into force (via Vatican News). A solar farm project in the Vatican’s territory of Santa Maria di Galeria will produce renewable energy for the tiny principality and, at last, make it energy-independent.
This solar farm will reportedly have a capacity of up to 90 megawatts, making it one of the largest agrivoltaic plants throughout Italy. That would power more than 15,500 homes in the United States. By comparison, the largest solar farm in America has almost two million panels and boasts a capacity of 1.3 gigawatts.
Considering that Vatican City has a population of fewer than 1,000, it’s easy to imagine how this project can sustain the city-state with ease. The solar panels will not interfere with agriculture on the Santa Maria di Galeria property, and any surplus electricity generated at the plant will be made available to Italy. It’s a true win-win for everyone involved.
As a small country, Vatican City requires relatively little electricity to power its grid. However, it also faces the unique challenge of having so little space to build a fully operational solar farm. The Vatican overcame this obstacle by collaborating with Italy, which should serve as inspiration for other nations on the road to achieving sustainability.
That’s not to say that other nations aren’t trying. Solar power has officially overtaken coal in the U.S. for the first time in 2026. And as of 2025, the European Union generates 30% of its electricity from wind and solar (via Ember). This is positive progress, though it’s not without its caveats. Europe’s solar farms face an unexpected threat from the Sahara when dust storms blow through. Countries and communities will have to devise ways to circumvent inclement weather as they continue to rely more and more on solar power.
While Vatican City might become the first solar-powered nation, it won’t be the first fully solar city. Several cities already have that honor, such as Babcock Ranch, Florida, which was dubbed the “world’s most sustainable city” as far back as 2016. Babcock Ranch’s solar-powered operations were actually able to continue unimpeded when Hurricane Ian passed right over the town in 2022. Some states now generate more electricity from solar than from coal or natural gas, so we’ll likely see more sustainable cities across the country and the world very soon.

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Home > News > ARENA invests $105.6 million in next wave of solar innovation
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced up to $105.6 million for 20 research and development projects aimed at tackling the next frontier in ultra low-cost solar, reducing the cost of designing, building, operating and maintaining large-scale solar farms.
The funding represents ARENA’s largest single investment in solar PV research and development and will support a portfolio of projects spanning improved efficiency, cost and stability across advanced cells and modules, to innovations that can help improve the performance of solar farms and reduce the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE).
The investment builds on ARENA’s ultra low-cost solar ambition to help reduce installed solar costs to 30 cents per watt by 2030 to drive down the costs of solar-generated electricity.
ARENA acting CEO Chris Faris said the projects would help ensure Australia remained at the forefront of solar innovation while addressing some of the biggest challenges facing the renewable energy industry.
“Australia has played a leading role in the development of solar technology, and these projects will help ensure we continue to strengthen that position,” Mr Faris said.
“The portfolio brings together a mix of near-term improvements and breakthrough technologies that have the potential to lower costs, improve performance and accelerate the deployment of solar energy both in Australia and around the world.”
“Achieving ultra low-cost solar requires innovation across the entire value chain. From the solar cells and modules themselves through to the way solar farms are built, operated and maintained, these projects will help unlock practical solutions that support a faster, more affordable energy transition.”
“ARENA initially allocated $60 million to the Ultra Low-Cost Solar PV Research and Development Funding Round. When we saw the quality of applications, we decided to increase funding to support a broader portfolio of high-quality projects that can help accelerate progress towards ultra low-cost solar.”
The projects are being supported across two streams and six focus areas:
Stream 1: Cells and modules
Stream 2: Balance of systems and operation and maintenance
Read more about ARENA’s Ultra Low-Cost Solar priorities.
The 20 projects selected for funding are listed below.
Stream 1: Cells and modules
Stream 2: BoS and O&M
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The Indonesian government has officially launched its 100 GW solar power plant program.
Speaking during a groundbreaking ceremony, President Prabowo Subianto said the government is serious about realising the program and is aiming to develop 100 GW within three years.
According to a statement published by the government, the program will be carried out in phases with the initial phase targeting 17 GW of new capacity.
Under this first phase, 14 solar plants with a combined capacity of 5.2 GW are already in various stages of development. Reports from Reuters add that two of these plants are already in operation, with six in the construction phase and another six to be offered to investors.
Indonesia’s flagship solar program will target the deployment of ground-mounted, rooftop and floating solar power plants, as well as decentralised, smaller-scale solar systems, in order to replace diesel generation, electrify rural areas and villages and strengthen the country’s energy security and independence.
The program will also deploy battery energy storage systems (BESS) in efforts to support a more reliable power system. The official launch of the program coincided with the start of construction of a 305 MW solar project alongside a 1 GWh BESS in the port town of Gilimanuk, west Bali. The project belongs to Indonesia’s power utility PLN.
The 100 GW target surpasses Indonesia’s current electricity generation capacity, which stands at around 88 GW. According to the country’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Bahlil Lahadalia, it will require approximately $73 billion in investment and has the potential to create over 5.5 million jobs.
In a statement sent to pv magazine, Indonesian think tank Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) said that achieving the 100 GW target in less than four years is highly ambitious and will require innovative approaches to implementation.
“For the program to succeed, Indonesia needs a strong and consistent national implementation architecture backed by regulatory certainty,” IESR said. “The government must immediately establish clear program leadership with the authority to coordinate across ministries, PLN, local governments, industry, financial institutions, and businesses.”
IESR’s Chief Executive Officer, Fabby Tumiwa, added that success of the program should not be measured by how many projects break ground, but by how many gigawatts of solar can be built, connected to the grid, and reliably generate electricity before 2029.
“The biggest challenge now is to translate the President’s political commitment into an implementation engine capable of delivering tens of gigawatts of solar PV every year,” Tumiwa added.
IESR is recommending six priority measures to ensure the program achieves its 100 GW target, beginning with immediately finalzing a presidential regulation as the legal framework for the program, and aligning the country’s national energy general plan and PLN’s electricity supply business plan to accommodate the additional capacity.
It also recommends developing a clear annual project pipeline through 2029, accelerating procurement through competitive, transparent, and bankable tenders, ensuring power system readiness, developing a national supply chain and adopting a multi-track implementation so the program is not solely dependent on PLN projects.
Earlier this year, IESR released a report exploring how Indonesia can mobilize its 100 GW solar target as it warned against trying to adopt a one-size-fits all approach to electrifying the 80,000 villages targeted by the program.
Indonesia surpassed 1 GW of solar capacity in 2025, with total capacity reaching 1.49 GW by the end of the year.
From pv magazine Global
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Solar Power World
By Kelly Pickerel | August 31, 2026
Over the weekend, the California State Senate passed AB 1813, the Community Renewable Energy Program Act, moving the bill toward the governor’s desk. Industry advocates say that this is a workable community solar and storage program that the state has yet failed to deliver for more than a decade. The bill has one procedural step in the Assembly before going to the Governor’s desk. 
“In the midst of rising energy bills and an affordability crisis, this is a popular and sensible policy solution to lower bills for every Californian while moving us closer to our climate goals,” said Derek Chernow, Executive Director of Californians for Local, Affordable Solar and Storage (CLASS). “California has fallen behind more than 20 other states on community solar, but Governor Newsom now has a tremendous opportunity to reverse that trend and help pave the way towards California becoming the national leader in community solar projects.”
This weekend’s vote caps a long road marked by fits and starts. California passed a strong community solar law, AB 2316, back in 2022, directing the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to build a program that would let renters, low-income households, and others who cannot install rooftop solar subscribe to local projects and save on their bills. Instead, the CPUC produced a program built to fail, and not a single community solar project has come online under it.
The Legislature responded to this inaction by passing legislation that directs regulators to value community solar and storage using the CPUC’s own Avoided Cost Calculator, an existing tool the state has declined to apply, and requires paired battery storage so projects deliver power when the grid needs it most.  Research from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) identified AB 1813 as a step toward community solar success, as it directs the state to use the CPUC’s own Avoided Cost Calculator to value community solar subscriptions and requires paired storage so projects deliver power when the grid needs it most.
With the legislation clearing the Senate, Gov. Newsom now has an opportunity to sign AB 1813, positioning California to build the nation’s largest community solar and storage program, delivering:
Clean power for more than 2.2 million Californians, from a conservative 5.4 GW of new community solar and storage built across the state. A study by Kevala finds opportunity for more than 17.5 GW of community solar and storage to serve California’s grid during summer peak demand.
Lower bills with no cost shift. Subscribers save roughly $190 a year on average, and closer to $250 a year for low-income households, while every ratepayer benefits and no cost is shifted to people who do not subscribe.
$6.5 billion in ratepayer savings statewide for subscribers and nonsubscribers alike, according to independent analysis from Aurora Energy Research, by cutting reliance on expensive gas generation and easing grid congestion.
More than 160,000 good-paying local jobs and over $20 billion in new investment across California, including $700 million to modernize the state’s aging grid.
Real equity by design. A majority of projects must serve low-income subscribers, reaching renters, small businesses, and Central Valley farmers who can host projects on unproductive land and keep farms in the family.
A stronger, cleaner grid. Paired storage discharges during peak evening demand, easing strain on the system while reducing reliance on natural gas and lowering emissions.
News item from CLASS

Kelly Pickerel has more than 15 years of experience reporting on the U.S. solar industry and is currently editor in chief of Solar Power World. Email Kelly.

mike says
August 31, 2026 at 10:47 am
Will AB1813 apply to municipal utilities like DWP and SMUD? Hope so. In many respects the “munis” have lagged far behind the IOUs (due to PUC action) in deploying solar. I should know as I worked for SMUD when it was a solar leader in the early days. Since than, SMUD has made it particularly difficult for solar in it’s service territory acting more like an IOU than a publicly owned utility.
John Targasian says
August 31, 2026 at 11:04 am
SMUD lags on solar because their rates are half of what PG&E charges. Much lower incentive for people to do a mass capital purchase like rooftop solar.
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Leading vertically integrated PV manufacturer LONGi and Mingyang Thin Film Technology, a subsidiary of Mingyang Smart Energy, have signed a strategic cooperation and framework agreement covering building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) and zero-carbon parks. The cooperation will cover joint project development, solution collaboration, and sharing business opportunities.
Mingyang Thin Film Technology holds engineering qualifications including general contracting for power engineering construction, along with capabilities spanning project investment and development. LONGi will contribute its PV product R&D and system-solution expertise through its BIPV systems business unit. The companies plan to jointly develop projects including zero-carbon parks.
In February, Mingyang announced plans to invest more than RMB 3.5 billion in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, to develop six clean energy-related projects, including a GW-scale BIPV perovskite production line (see China Solar PV News Snippets).
Perovskite PV manufacturer GCL Perovskite has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Wuhan Lingyun Building Decoration Engineering Co., Ltd., covering perovskite BIPV curtain walls and PV windows. The partnership will span joint R&D, product supply, EPC contracting, and market development.
GCL Perovskite will provide its GW-scale production capabilities and BIPV product portfolio, while Wuhan Lingyun will contribute its design, manufacturing, and construction capabilities in architectural curtain walls. The companies plan to develop perovskite PV curtain wall and window products for green-building applications, including low-carbon public buildings and ultra-low-energy buildings.
CL Perovskite is leading the drafting of a group standard for single-junction perovskite solar modules for space applications (see China Solar PV News Snippets).
PV wafer-cutting equipment manufacturer and silicon wafer processing service provider Gaoce reported revenue of RMB 1.58 billion in the first half of 2026, up 9.06% year-on-year. However, its net loss widened to RMB 489.89 million from RMB 88.55 million a year earlier, while net loss excluding non-recurring gains and losses increased to RMB 526.38 million from RMB 121.83 million.
Gaoce attributed the wider loss to low utilization rates across the PV supply chain and continued low product prices. In its interim report, the company said mainstream n-type wafers for TOPCon cells are currently about 130 µm thick, while heterojunction (HJT) wafers are typically around 110 µm. It is also conducting R&D and testing on 50 µm ultra-thin wafers for flexible HJT cells.
For FY2025, Gaoce Technology reported revenue of RMB 3.65 billion, down 18.43% year on year (see China Solar PV News Snippets).
The Shandong Provincial Development and Reform Commission, Shandong Energy Administration, and other authorities have issued a notice supporting co-located energy storage at renewable energy plants. For operating and planned PV projects adding storage, the total power rating of co-located storage will be temporarily capped at 50% of the PV plant’s installed capacity, while the limit for wind projects will be 30%.
Lithium-ion battery storage projects must be completed and grid-connected within one year of being included on the project list, while projects using sodium-ion, flow, solid-state, or semi-solid-state batteries will have up to 18 months. Projects adding storage duration without increasing power can be submitted at any time under simplified procedures. The same applies to storage mainly used for auxiliary power and improving output-curve accuracy, provided its power rating does not exceed 5% of the renewable plant’s installed capacity.
Shandong will also support renewable energy plants and co-located storage in jointly participating in the spot electricity market. Where storage is charged using electricity from the associated wind or PV plant, the corresponding discharged electricity will be treated as wind or solar generation for settlement. Existing renewable energy plants that fail to meet their committed storage obligations will face priority output reductions during renewable energy curtailment periods.
TaiyangNews 2024

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The National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with NIRL NCRTC Renewables Ltd. (NNRL) for a 110 MW captive solar power plant. The project will supply electricity to the Delhi-Meerut Namo Bharat corridor. The plant is expected to meet nearly 60% of the corridor’s power requirement. NNRL will develop it, and it is expected to give NCRTC greater predictability in electricity costs. According to reports, the solar power plant is estimated to cost around INR 450 crore and is expected to be commissioned within 24 months. NCRTC will procure the electricity at a fixed tariff for 25 years. Electricity accounts for around 30% to 35% of the corridor’s operating cost. NCRTC expects the captive solar project to reduce its annual electricity expenditure by about 25%. Previously, NCRTC launched a Solar on Track pilot at the Namo Bharat Depot in Duhai (see India Solar PV News Snippets).   
Sembcorp Green Infra has filed draft papers with SEBI for an IPO to raise INR 3,750 crore through a fresh issue of shares, with no offer-for-sale component. The entire issue proceeds will go to the company, which plans to use about INR 3,000 crore of the net proceeds to repay or prepay borrowings, with the balance intended for general corporate purposes. It may also raise up to INR 750 crore through a pre-initial public offering (IPO) placement, which would reduce the size of the fresh issue if completed, its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) says. Sembcorp Green Infra is wholly owned by Singapore Exchange listed-Sembcorp Industries through Sembcorp Utilities Pte Ltd. Sembcorp Green Infra had 3.6 GW of operational renewable energy capacity as of March 2026, with another 2.61 GW of renewable capacity and 1.43 GWh of battery storage capacity under construction. 
Avaada Electro, the solar PV manufacturing arm of Avaada Group, plans to raise up to INR 7,600 crore through an IPO, according to its draft abridged prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The proposed offer comprises a fresh issue of up to INR 1,600 crore and an offer for sale of up to INR 6,000 crore by promoter Avaada Ventures. The company plans to use INR 1,200 crore of the fresh issue proceeds to repay, prepay, or meet obligations related to borrowings, with the remaining proceeds earmarked for general corporate purposes. It may also undertake a pre-IPO placement of up to INR 320 crore, which would reduce the size of the fresh issue if completed. Avaada Electro currently has 8.5 GW of solar module manufacturing capacity and 3 GW of operational TOPCon cell capacity. It expects to add another 5.1 GW of module and 6 GW of cell capacity at Greater Noida, taking its annual module production capacity to 13.6 GW and cell capacity to 9 GW. In April 2026, Avaada Electro had secured SEBI approval to launch an IPO totaling INR 9,000 crore to INR 10,000 crore (see India Solar PV News Snippets).  
India’s largest electricity utility, state-owned NTPC Limited, plans to accelerate renewable energy and storage as it expands its generation portfolio. In his Chairman’s Statement for FY2025-26, Chairman and Managing Director Gurdeep Singh said the company is targeting 149 GW of total power generation capacity by 2032, including 60 GW of renewable energy, including wind and solar (see NTPC Targeting 60 GW Renewables Capacity By 2032). It now aims to reach 244 GW by 2037, excluding storage. Singh stated, “This represents a significant increase over our earlier capacity plans and reflects our confidence in India’s long-term electricity demand and the role NTPC can play in meeting it.”  
As of August 4, 2026, the company had more than 90 GW of operational capacity, with another 35 GW and more under construction. NTPC said its renewable generation more than doubled to 14.6 billion units in FY2026. It is developing both battery energy storage systems (BESS) and pumped storage projects and is also exploring long-duration storage technologies, including CO₂ storage and redox-flow batteries. Its strategy also includes around 30 GW of nuclear capacity, to contribute to the national target of 100 GW by 2047. The company plans to invest about INR 16.86 lakh crore through FY2037 across renewables, battery storage, pumped storage, hydro, thermal, mining, and nuclear power. It said storage would become an important part of its business as renewable penetration increases, and the power system requires greater flexibility. 
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has updated the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) List-II for solar cells under the ninth revision. With this revision, India’s total ALMM List-II enlisted solar cell capacity has increased by 3.7 GW to now exceed 35 GW. The latest revision includes revised capacities of Waaree Energies (4.021 GW), EMMVEE Energy Private Limited (2.153 GW), and Avaada Electro (3.621 GW). Waaree’s revised capacity includes G12R monocrystalline n-type TOPCon bifacial solar cells with an average efficiency of 25.39%. It also updates the technology specifications of cells listed by TP Solar, RenewSys, Premier Energies, and Reliance Industries.  
NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd (NTPC REL), a wholly owned subsidiary of NTPC Green Energy Ltd., has won 500 MW of contracted capacity in Solar Energy Corporation of India’s (SECI) 6,000 MWh assured peak power tender (FDRE-IX). The capacity was awarded at a discovered tariff of INR 6.00/kWh. The tender covers 1,500 MW of ISTS-connected renewable energy capacity with four-hour assured peak supply. The e-reverse auction was concluded on August 21, 2026.  
Waaree Renewable Technologies Ltd. (WRTL) has received a Letter of Award (LOA) for EPC works for a 291 MW ground-mounted solar PV project paired with a 280 MWh BESS. The order, from an unnamed Indian thermal power generation company, is a domestic commercial contract, it stated. The project is scheduled for completion during FY2027-28.  
TaiyangNews 2024

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Ivan Saha has been appointed as Managing Director of JAKSON Engineers, a part of JAKSON Group 
He will lead the company as it expands its solar manufacturing and deepens backward integration 
Saha joins the company with more than three decades of experience across solar, semiconductors, and sustainable energy 
JAKSON Engineers Limited has appointed solar industry veteran Ivan Saha as the company’s Managing Director, placing him in charge of its solar manufacturing expansion. The appointment was announced by JAKSON Solar. 
Saha joins JAKSON Group with more than 31 years of experience spanning the semiconductor, solar, and sustainable energy sectors. According to the company’s announcement, his experience covers technical, operational, and business functions.   
In his new role, Saha will focus on expanding JAKSON Engineers’ manufacturing footprint. He will also support the company’s large-scale backward integration plans across the solar value chain. 
Before joining JAKSON Engineers, Saha held leadership positions at Reliance Infrastructure, Vikram Solar, and ReNew. In his last assignment, he was CEO, Renewables Manufacturing, at Reliance Infrastructure. 
He is currently also the Co-Chair of the International Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaic (ITRPV) Board and a member of the World Solar Congress Advisory Board. 
His appointment comes as JAKSON Group works to strengthen its manufacturing capabilities and advance its backward integration plans. 
The solar manufacturing arm of JAKSON operates 1.2 GW module manufacturing capacity and plans to add 4 GW module, 3 GW cell, and 6 GW ingot and wafer production capacity (see Jakson Engineers’ INR 80B Plan For 6 GW Solar PV Manufacturing). 
In December 2025, it announced plans to establish India’s first hi-tech solar module recycling facility with its technical partner Ecoprogetti of Italy (see Jakson Ropes In Ecoprogetti For 300 MW Solar Module Recycling Plant). 
“As solar manufacturing becomes more integrated and digitalised, process control, quality and cost efficiency will increasingly shape competitiveness. Ivan’s relevant experience in these domains will be valuable as JAKSON advances its manufacturing plans,” said JAKSON Group Vice Chairman Sundeep Gupta. 
TaiyangNews 2024

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Tata Power Renewable Energy Ltd (TPREL), a subsidiary of The Tata Power Co. Ltd (Tata Power), has successfully commissioned its 100 MW group captive solar project at Vellalankottai and Nalandhula villages in Kayathar, Tamil Nadu.
The project will supply clean power to TP Solar (40.625 MW), Tata Power’s solar cell and module manufacturing arm; Tata Electronics(53.125 MW), an electronics manufacturing company focused on semiconductors, precision engineering and advanced electronics; and Tata Realty Infrastructure Ltd (6.25 MW), Tata Group’s real estate and infrastructure development arm, supporting the decarbonization of their operations.
With this commissioning, TPREL’s utility-scale renewable energy portfolio has grown to 12.3 GW, including 7 GW of operational capacity comprising 5.7 GW of solar and 1.3 GW of wind. The remaining 5.3 GW is under various stages of development, comprising 2.2 GW of solar and 3.1 GW of wind capacity, with projects scheduled for phased commissioning over the next 6 to 24 months.
The project is expected to generate 240.63 million units (MUs) of clean electricity annually and help offset around 1.5 lakh tonnes of CO₂ emissions per annum. 
TPREL said the project uses flexible terrain compatible (FTC) single-axis tracker technology and 261,660 monocrystalline PERC bifacial solar modules to maximize energy generation and improve operational efficiency across varying terrain conditions.
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Australian building-integrated PV (BIPV) specialist ClearVue Technologies has announced a manufacturing breakthrough that allows its energy-generating Gen 3 glass units to accept high-performance soft low-emissivity (Low-E) coatings using the same established systems as conventional commercial glazing.
Perth-headquartered ClearVue’s Gen3 solar vision glass product features PV cells integrated into a laminated glass unit designed to generate electricity while maintaining glass transparency. The company said its units can generate more than 50 W of energy per square metre while maintaining up to 80% visible light transmittance.
In a boost to the commercial opportunities for the technology, ClearVue said its glass units can now be coated via a “magnetron sputter-coating process” after the PV cells have been laminated and processed, allowing a Low-E coating to be applied to the finished solar glass units. These coatings help control the amount of solar heat entering a building and are commonly specified across commercial façade projects worldwide.
“This removes a practical barrier for the industry,” ClearVue Chief Executive Officer Doug Hunt said. “It means energy-generating glass can be considered alongside conventional façade products, rather than requiring an entirely separate design or manufacturing process.”
“This is an important step in moving energy-generating façades from a specialist product towards standard commercial practice.”
According to ClearVue, the manufacturing capability allows the coating to be applied on surface 4, the room-facing side of the double-glazed unit, where it provides the greatest reduction in solar heat gain.
ClearVue believes it is currently the only BIPV supplier able to offer this capability while also generating renewable energy from the same glazing unit. The company said other BIPV products typically apply the coating on surface 5 of a triple-glazed unit, where thermal performance is reduced.
Hunt said the manufacturing breakthrough makes it easier for the façade industry to adopt energy-generating glazing without changing the way projects are already designed and delivered.
“For energy-generating glass to become widely used, it needs to fit within the systems the industry already understands and trusts,” he said.
“Architects and engineers can continue specifying the performance they need, while glass processors can use their existing production infrastructure. The difference is that the glass can now also generate clean energy for the building.”
ClearVue said it validated the new capability at glass manufacturer AGC Interpane’s facility in Germany, where the Gen 3 Vision Glass units were cleaned, coated and tested using the same production line and settings as conventional float glass, with no changes required to the coating process.
The manufacturing development is part of a series of recent commercial and technical milestones for ClearVue, including securing major international certifications for its Gen 3 Solar Vision Glass and its thermal management junction box.
The company’s ClearVue-Helios rooftop solar panel has also recently been added to the Clean Energy Council’s approved products list, ensuring it can connect to the grid and is eligible for all government grant and subsidy programs.
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© 2025 THE COOL DOWN COMPANY. All Rights Reserved. Do not sell or share my personal information. Reach us at hello@thecooldown.com.
The extra power can be sent to the Tenaga Nasional Berhad grid.
Photo Credit: iStock
Homeowners and installers in Malaysia now have a clearer rulebook for putting up rooftop solar under the country’s two net metering programs.
As pv magazine reported, Suruhanjaya Tenaga released installation guidance for residential rooftop systems under the NEM Rakyat and NEM GoMEn schemes.
To qualify, applicants generally need to be customers of national utility Tenaga Nasional Berhad, and the solar photovoltaic system must be installed on the roof of the ratepayer.
Under NEM Rakyat, capacity limits depend on the type of household connection. Single-phase homes can install up to 5 kilowatts AC, while three-phase homes can go up to 12.5 kilowatts AC, pv magazine reported.
NEM GoMEn, meanwhile, permits systems as large as 1,000 kilowatts, though the size remains subject to technical and network constraints.
Electricity produced by a rooftop array must be consumed on-site first. When generation exceeds the property’s needs, the extra power can be sent to the TNB grid and credited against usage on a one-to-one basis. Those returns may be carried forward for up to 12 months.
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That net metering treatment will remain in place for 10 years. After the term ends, the solar system can continue operating but only for self-consumption rather than under NEM bill offsets, as pv magazine noted.
Malaysia has been reworking its solar incentive framework for years.
The country moved from a feed-in tariff to net metering in 2016, then adjusted the policy in 2017 after homeowner uptake came in below expectations.
That was followed by NEM 2.0, which ran from January 2019 until December 2020, and then NEM 3.0, which began in December 2020 with a quota of 2.5 gigawatts.
A rooftop system can reduce how much electricity a household needs to buy from the grid, and the ability to offset usage with exported power can improve the economics of going solar.
Anyone with an installation larger than 72 kilowatts must complete a NEM Assessment Study, and all projects need to meet applicable electrical, safety, technical, and TNB connection requirements.
In practice, households need to verify that they are eligible, ensure the system is tied to the premises, confirm whether the property has a single-phase or three-phase connection, and size the installation within the relevant limits.
Even once the 10-year NEM period has passed, the panels can still lower household electricity use by supplying power on-site.
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⚡ Quick Read
The African renewable energy landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, with Africa solar capacity additions projected to reach 17 GW in 2026. This represents a robust 45% year-over-year (YoY) growth, signaling a rapid acceleration in the continent’s transition toward clean energy. According to a recent report by Ember, this expansion is largely fueled by a massive influx of Chinese solar panel imports, which accounted for 23 GW of exports to the continent in the 12 months leading to June 2026.
The data reveals a stark reality regarding local manufacturing: only 6% of solar panels installed in Africa are produced domestically. While countries like South Africa, Nigeria, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Kenya maintain small-scale manufacturing plants, the vast majority of the 17 GW expected in 2026 will rely on imported technology. Interestingly, while manufacturing output in Egypt and Tanzania is set to quadruple to 3,500 MW in 2026, these panels are primarily earmarked for export to the U.S. market, where they command higher premiums compared to Chinese-origin modules.
Distributed solar remains the primary engine of this growth, accounting for three-quarters of the total capacity additions. Furthermore, 36 out of 54 African nations are expected to see record-breaking solar installations in 2026. Key players include South Africa (3.3 GW), Egypt (2 GW), the Democratic Republic of Congo (1.7 GW), Algeria (1.4 GW), and Morocco (1 GW).
For EPC contractors and solar developers, the reliance on Chinese imports presents both a procurement opportunity and a supply chain risk. The high volume of imports—averaging 47 MW of capacity per day—suggests a highly liquid market for module procurement. However, the volatility in diesel prices, exacerbated by geopolitical tensions and subsidy removals in major markets like Nigeria and Egypt, is driving an urgent demand for distributed solar solutions. Developers who can secure reliable supply chains amidst this massive import volume will be best positioned to capture the C&I (Commercial & Industrial) market share.
The coming year will be critical as 10 African countries are expected to add at least 1 GW of capacity each between 2023 and 2026. As the India renewable energy sector continues to expand its own domestic manufacturing capacity under the PLI scheme, the African market serves as a vital case study in the global competition for solar hardware. Stakeholders should monitor whether the manufacturing hubs in Egypt and Tanzania pivot toward local demand if U.S. trade policies or regional pricing dynamics shift, potentially altering the competitive landscape for international EPC firms operating in the region.
Aditya Pathre is the Founder of MVApulse and covers India’s renewable energy sector, including solar, wind, battery energy storage systems (BESS), green hydrogen, transmission infrastructure, renewable energy policy and competitive bidding. His reporting focuses on project developments, market trends, government policies and energy transition across India.
India’s Power Sector Intelligence Portal
MVApulse is an independent publication covering India’s renewable energy sector including solar, wind, BESS, transmission, green hydrogen, EPC and power markets.
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Global investment in renewable energy reached $457 billion (USD 327.5 billion) in the first half of 2026, virtually unchanged from the previous six months but 21% below the record set in the second half of 2024.
Data from BloombergNEF (BNEF) show that renewable energy deployment remains on track despite regulatory changes in key markets, including the United States and China. Investment, however, is increasingly shifting toward assets that offer greater flexibility in managing revenues.
Financing for standalone utility-scale solar fell more sharply than investment in onshore wind. Investment in standalone solar PV declined 20% year on year to $105.2 billion (USD 75.4 billion), its lowest level since the solar investment boom began in 2021.
Growing revenue uncertainty, driven by solar price cannibalisation, curtailment and grid congestion, is pushing investors and developers toward more flexible project configurations.
Against this backdrop, co-located solar-plus-storage projects attracted a record $34.88 billion (USD 25 billion) in investment in the first half of 2026. The figure was nearly double the total recorded in the second half of 2025 and three times the amount invested in the first half of that year. The United States and Australia led investment in the segment.
The United States was the second-largest market for renewable energy investment, behind China but ahead of the European Union, recording 54% year-on-year growth. Developers accelerated project financing to meet tax credit deadlines and respond to surging electricity demand, driven in part by data centers.
Solar investment rose 41% to a record $63.9 billion (USD 45.8 billion), while wind investment reached $19.26 billion (USD 13.8 billion), more than double the previous year’s figure. Projects that remain eligible for tax credits could sustain construction activity in the short term, with the final installations scheduled through 2030.
Global wind investment totaled $128.8 billion (USD 92.3 billion), down 27% year on year. Offshore wind was particularly hard hit, with investment plunging 72% amid poor auction results, higher capital and financing costs and a shrinking pipeline of projects likely to reach financial close.
Onshore wind investment declined by a more moderate 4% to $112.6 billion (USD 80.7 billion). Europe, however, bucked the trend, with Germany, Romania and Serbia all recording record investment levels following recent auctions.
China accounted for just one-quarter of global investment, down from more than half in 2022, following reforms to its electricity market. By contrast, Vietnam quadrupled its investment, while investment across Southeast Asia surpassed $16.7 billion (USD 12 billion). Nigeria increased investment in distributed solar and storage, Central Asia maintained investment above $5.58 billion (USD 4 billion), and Brazil helped push global biofuel investment to $10.7 billion (USD 7.7 billion).
BloombergNEF expects new renewable energy installations in 2026 to fall below 2025 levels, marking the first year-on-year decline in more than a decade. It expects growth to resume in 2027.
From pv magazine Global
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Catalonia unveils 300-MW solar farm cluster  Renewables Now
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The 6th-Gen Goal Zero Yeti 1500 Is Adventurous, Reliable, and Long-Lasting  gearjunkie.com
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⚡ Quick Read
The Indian solar manufacturing landscape is currently navigating a complex transition as it attempts to scale domestic production. While government-led initiatives like the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) and Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) mandates have successfully incentivized the establishment of new module assembly lines, the ecosystem remains structurally imbalanced. The rapid expansion of module manufacturing capacity has far outstripped the current annual demand, leading to a significant market glut that is testing the financial resilience of domestic players.
The primary bottleneck identified by industry analysts is the widening chasm between module assembly capacity and upstream cell manufacturing. Manufacturers are finding it increasingly difficult to source DCR-compliant cells at competitive price points. This shortage is exacerbated by the fact that many domestic module makers remain heavily reliant on imported cells, which do not meet the DCR criteria required for government-tendered projects. Consequently, manufacturers are caught in a cycle of rising domestic cell prices and increased financing constraints, as banks become more cautious about lending to projects that lack a stable, cost-effective supply chain.
For EPC contractors and solar developers, this supply chain volatility presents a direct operational risk. Projects tied to DCR mandates are particularly vulnerable to price spikes and delivery delays. Developers must now account for higher procurement costs and potential timeline slippage in their financial modeling. The reliance on a limited pool of DCR-compliant cell suppliers reduces bargaining power and complicates project commissioning schedules. EPC firms are advised to diversify their procurement strategies and maintain closer oversight of their supply chain partners to mitigate the impact of these market imbalances.
The industry is looking toward further government intervention to bridge the cell-manufacturing gap. Without a robust domestic cell production base, the reliance on imports will continue to clash with localization mandates. As the India renewable energy sector continues its aggressive expansion toward 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030, stabilizing the manufacturing value chain is essential. Stakeholders should monitor upcoming policy announcements that may offer production-linked incentives specifically targeting cell manufacturing to alleviate the current pressure on the downstream module market.
Aditya Pathre is the Founder of MVApulse and covers India’s renewable energy sector, including solar, wind, battery energy storage systems (BESS), green hydrogen, transmission infrastructure, renewable energy policy and competitive bidding. His reporting focuses on project developments, market trends, government policies and energy transition across India.
India’s Power Sector Intelligence Portal
MVApulse is an independent publication covering India’s renewable energy sector including solar, wind, BESS, transmission, green hydrogen, EPC and power markets.
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Fujiyama Power Systems has announced a strategic expansion of its manufacturing footprint in India, focusing on the growing demand for energy storage solutions. The company’s board of directors has officially approved the addition of 1 GWh of lithium battery manufacturing capacity at its Ratlam facility in Madhya Pradesh. This development follows a previously announced 2 GWh expansion at the same site, signaling a robust commitment to scaling up domestic production of critical energy storage components.
The latest expansion involves an investment of ₹5 crore. Currently, Fujiyama Power operates a 0.5 GWh lithium battery manufacturing plant in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, which is currently running at approximately 70% capacity utilization. The new 1 GWh capacity at the Ratlam facility is expected to be commissioned and operational by the second quarter of the 2026-27 fiscal year.
The Ratlam complex serves as a centralized hub for the company, integrating solar panels, power electronics, and battery manufacturing under one roof. Recent milestones at the Ratlam site include the commissioning of a 2 GW solar panel manufacturing facility in Q1 FY27 and a 2 GW power electronics manufacturing facility in August 2026. Following these additions, the company’s total solar panel manufacturing capacity has reached 3,568 MW, while its power electronics manufacturing capacity now stands at 4,180 MW.
For EPC contractors and solar developers, the expansion of indigenous lithium battery manufacturing capacity is a significant development. As grid-scale energy storage projects become increasingly common to address intermittency in renewable energy, having a domestic supplier with integrated capabilities in solar and power electronics provides a streamlined procurement option. The ability to source batteries, solar modules, and power electronics from a single complex in Ratlam could potentially reduce logistics costs and simplify supply chain management for large-scale projects.
The company is now focused on the execution phase of the 1 GWh expansion to meet its Q2 FY27 operational deadline. As the Indian renewable energy sector continues to pivot toward hybrid projects and round-the-clock (RTC) power supply, the demand for reliable, domestically manufactured battery storage will likely intensify. Fujiyama Power’s move aligns with the broader national objective of achieving self-reliance in the energy value chain, ensuring that developers have the necessary hardware to support India’s ambitious renewable energy transition goals.
Aditya Pathre is the Founder of MVApulse and covers India’s renewable energy sector, including solar, wind, battery energy storage systems (BESS), green hydrogen, transmission infrastructure, renewable energy policy and competitive bidding. His reporting focuses on project developments, market trends, government policies and energy transition across India.
India’s Power Sector Intelligence Portal
MVApulse is an independent publication covering India’s renewable energy sector including solar, wind, BESS, transmission, green hydrogen, EPC and power markets.
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120-megawatt project expected to be completed in late 2027

MOSES LAKE — A ceremonial groundbreaking earlier this month marked the construction start of a solar energy project by a private firm, Invenergy, in collaboration with the Grant County PUD, that is expected to produce 120 megawatts of clean, renewable power by the end of 2027.
When the company “flips the switch,” the Quincy Solar Energy Center will generate enough electricity to serve the equivalent of 25,000 homes, said Mateo Gomez, Invenergy’s senior manager for development.
Headquartered in Chicago, Invenergy initiated development in 2018 and reached a 20-year power purchase agreement with Grant PUD in 2025.
Despite its name, the Quincy Solar site is located on a 670-acre tract in the 5000 block of Road 10-NE, about two miles northwest of the Grant County International Airport and Port of Moses Lake. Another separate solar farm, called Quincy Valley Solar, is under construction in the Beezley Hills area north of Winchester.
The distinction led to some good-natured banter between state Sen. Judy Warnick of Moses Lake and state Rep. Alex Ybarra and Grant PUD commission president Larry Schaapman, both of Quincy, during Invenergy’s Aug. 18 groundbreaking ceremony.
“It’s Moses Lake, actually,” said Warnick. Responded Ybarra, “I’m from Quincy; I love the name.”
Warnick said she appreciated that the largely barren property was “in the middle of nowhere” and not taking farm ground out of production.
Also in attendance for the event were Schaapman’s fellow PUD commissioners Nelson Cox, Tom Flint, Terry Pyle, and Judy Wilson, PUD general manager/CEO John Mertlich, and other utility district staff; Grant County commissioner Kevin Burgess and county Development Services director Jim Cook-Anderson and members of his planning staff.
Mertlich and Schaapman said the Invenergy project helps Grant PUD move toward Washington state’s target of having 100% clean, renewable energy by 2045.
Other attendees included representatives from Cupertino Electric, a privately owned electrical engineering and construction company headquartered in San Jose, California that is serving as general contractor and partner in the project. Also on hand were union personnel from Electrical Workers Local 191, Operating Engineers Local 302, and Laborers Local 348.
“We’re excited to see construction underway and our members contributing to this important milestone,” said IBEW Local 191 board president Jeremy Chase.
Gomez said upward of 200 jobs will be supported during peak construction, providing a boost to local businesses, and more than $27 million will be paid out “in economic benefits” over the life of the project through local taxes, land lease payments, and other expenditures.
While he declined to disclose the project’s total construction cost at this time, Gomez said the facility will include solar panels, electrical collection systems, inverters, a project substation, access roads, operations building, and related infrastructure. When completed, it’s expected to be manned by two skilled full-time operations-and-maintenance personnel, he said. 
Invenergy, a privately held independent power producer, is leasing the property from landowners John and Alycia Gebbers of Brewster and financing the project through private investors. Grant PUD, which has an existing transmission line nearby, will be the sole customer and will deliver power through the regional grid.
“We are happy to be takers of it,” said Schaapman.
In recognition of that relationship, Invenergy donated $20,000 toward the PUD’s “Share the Light” program, which helps local individuals and families pay their electric bills during times of financial hardship.

Along with electrical generation, the facility will incorporate battery storage as part of a “secure, reliable grid,” which Gomez called “incredibly important.”
“As Washington experiences growing electricity demand and increasing pressure on the grid from extreme weather conditions, projects like Quincy Solar help strengthen security and support a more resilient energy future,” he said in a press statement.
In the long term, Grant PUD says it potentially needs to add approximately 800 megawatts of solar generation in the next two decades to meet state goals.
Last October, the utility district similarly entered into a 20-year power purchase agreement with San Francisco-based Clearway Energy Group, which is developing the Royal Slope Energy Center for a 260-megawatt solar and 260-megawatt battery energy storage facility near Vantage. That project is also expected to be operational in late 2027.
There are other proposed or developing solar projects in Grant County where the PUD is not the power purchaser, but the district may provide transmission services to connect to the regional grid, said Chuck Allen, the PUD’s senior manager of external affairs and communications.
To supplement generation from its two hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River, Grant PUD is also among regional utilities researching other potential alternative energy sources including geothermal-turbine power, modular nuclear reactor technology, and in the short term, the use of natural gas generators during energy shortfalls such as prolonged cold or hot spells.
Ybarra, a state legislator serving on the House Environment and Energy Committee, has repeatedly said there is a need for “firm energy” to ensure “a reliable grid” in the future. Referencing Washington’s target to have 100% clean energy by 2045, Ybarra said, “We’re not going to get there with just solar and wind.”
 

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ML System stock is supported by growing smart glass and photovoltaic demand, with recent financial figures highlighting revenue growth and profitability from its latest reported period.
ML System (ISIN PLMOL0000012) is a Poland-based photovoltaic and smart glass specialist whose stock is underpinned by demand for integrated solar technologies in building and infrastructure projects as of August 31, 2026.
The company focuses on building-integrated photovoltaics and advanced glass solutions that can turn facades, roofs, and other surfaces into energy-generating assets, giving it exposure to both construction and renewable energy cycles.
In its most recent reported financial period, ML System disclosed revenue figures for the latest fiscal year or interim reporting window, highlighting year-over-year growth in sales from photovoltaic modules and smart glass products and showing a positive trend in profitability measures such as operating income and net profit for that period.
Those latest figures indicated that revenue in the current reporting year increased versus the prior year, with a quantified percentage gain that reflected expanding demand for the company’s solutions and a corresponding rise in operating profit that signaled improved scale and cost efficiency.
For investors, the combination of revenue growth and earnings expansion in the latest report suggests that ML System has been able to convert its product pipeline and project backlog into higher-margin sales, which can support the stock’s valuation in a competitive renewable energy landscape.
Per the most recently available financial overview for ML System covering its latest fiscal year or interim period, the company reported a clear increase in sales compared with the previous comparable period, with revenue up by a double-digit percentage and a corresponding improvement in operating profit.
In that report, ML System’s revenue for the current reporting period was higher than in the prior year, and the company also showed an increase in net profit, demonstrating that growth was not solely driven by top-line expansion but also by better profitability.
The company’s operating margin in the latest period improved compared with the previous year, reflecting both scale effects as volumes increased and ongoing efficiency measures across production and project execution.
ML System also reported healthy cash flow generation from operations in the latest reported year or interim period, giving it more flexibility to invest in new manufacturing capacity, research and development, and international expansion.
Compared with historical figures from earlier fiscal years, the latest results show a clear upward trajectory in key metrics such as revenue, operating profit, and net earnings, reinforcing the narrative that the company has been growing into its niche in smart glass and building-integrated photovoltaics.
Recent coverage of ML System emphasizes that the company’s technological positioning in smart glass and solar integration has led to a growing pipeline of projects, which in turn feeds into revenue visibility for upcoming quarters.
Consensus expectations for ML System’s latest reported period were for continued revenue growth and stable or improving margins, and the company’s published figures broadly aligned with those expectations, supporting a steady view on the stock.
From a balance sheet perspective, ML System has maintained a manageable level of debt relative to its equity and cash flow, which can be important for investors considering the capital-intensive nature of manufacturing and large-scale photovoltaic installations.
Market observers also note that ML System’s exposure to both residential and commercial building projects provides diversification across different customer segments, reducing reliance on any single market.
In addition, the company has been investing in research and development to maintain a technological edge in smart glass coatings, photovoltaic integration, and energy management systems, which can support future product differentiation and pricing power.
ML System’s core business revolves around advanced glass products that integrate photovoltaic cells and other functional coatings, allowing windows, facades, and skylights to generate electricity while maintaining aesthetic and functional properties.
These solutions are used in a variety of applications, from office buildings and public infrastructure to industrial facilities and transport projects, aligning with broader trends toward sustainable construction and energy efficiency.
The company’s smart glass technologies can incorporate features such as adjustable light transmission, thermal insulation improvements, and integration with building management systems, providing both energy and comfort benefits.
ML System also supplies more traditional photovoltaic modules and systems, complementing its smart glass portfolio and enabling it to offer comprehensive energy solutions to architects, developers, and end customers.
As regulations and incentives continue to favor greener buildings and lower carbon footprints, ML System’s product range positions it to benefit from mandates and voluntary initiatives that encourage on-site renewable generation.
As of August 31, 2026, ML System stock reflects investor expectations that the company can continue to grow its revenue and profit base off the latest reported period’s results while executing on new projects in smart glass and building-integrated photovoltaics.
For shareholders, key variables to monitor over the coming quarters include the pace of new project awards, the evolution of operating margins as volumes scale further, and the company’s ability to maintain a solid balance sheet while investing in capacity and innovation.
ML System remains a specialized player in the intersection of construction and renewable energy, and its recent financial performance provides a quantitative backdrop for evaluating how its stock may respond to future developments in regulation, technology, and demand.
Investors who want to explore ML System’s latest detailed figures, project portfolio, and corporate presentations can review its investor materials. These documents typically include breakdowns of revenue by segment, margin trends, and strategic priorities for the next reporting periods.
Further official information on ML System’s financial results, corporate governance, and strategy is available through its investor communications, which provide audited reports and updates on upcoming events such as earnings releases and shareholder meetings.
One representative product category for ML System is its smart glass solutions that integrate photovoltaic cells directly into glazing, enabling energy generation without compromising the appearance or function of building envelopes.
These products are designed to meet architects’ aesthetic requirements while delivering measurable energy output and contributing to building certification standards such as green building labels and energy efficiency ratings.
By combining solar generation with advanced coatings and control systems, ML System’s smart glass offerings can reduce the need for separate solar panels and streamline the integration of renewable energy into building design.
ML System stock, traded on its home market, reflects the company’s positioning in the growing field of smart glass and photovoltaics as of August 31, 2026, giving investors exposure to both renewable energy demand and construction trends.
With its latest reported revenue and profit figures showing growth versus prior periods, the stock’s performance can be viewed against the broader backdrop of decarbonization efforts and increased interest in building-integrated energy solutions.
Company: ML System
ISIN: PLMOL0000012
Ticker: ML System
Exchange: Home market listing
Sector / Industry: Renewable energy and smart glass
Index membership: Local market index

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ARENA backs next solar generation with over $100 million  Manufacturers’ Monthly
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Posted By: Jan Larson McLaughlin August 31, 2026
By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
After lumbering along past their normal lifespan, the towering wind turbines west of Bowling Green are coming down. 
The iconic wind turbines put Bowling Green on the map for renewable energy in 2003, when the site became Ohio’s first commercial wind farm. Since then, the turbines have been a recognizable part of the Bowling Green landscape, piercing the flatness with their lofty limbs.
But on Monday, crews gathered at the base of the turbine closest to U.S. 6 at the Wood County Landfill, beginning the preliminary work to remove the giants.
The process won’t be easy and it won’t be cheap.
The good news is the City of Bowling Green has been saving for this moment, and has budgeted revenue from rates over the last two decades to pay for its share of the $1.77 million demolition costs.
“We knew it was going to be a large amount,” said Brian O’Connell, the city’s director of infrastructure and public utilities. 
Bowling Green will pay about half of the removal expenses, since the city has 51% of the project ownership. The other half will be split between the other nine communities that signed onto the wind project.
The wind farm was developed by American Municipal Power Inc. as a joint venture of the City of Bowling Green and other Ohio municipalities on property owned by Wood County and leased for the project. 
So far, the crews have worked on removal of underground electrical infrastructure. Next will come the dismantling of the four turbines, one at a time. Large cranes will be used to lower the blades, nacelles (the white boxes on top that house the engines), and tower sections to the ground for disassembly and removal.
Following removal of the above-ground portions of each turbine, crews will excavate and remove the underground foundations. The foundations extend approximately 33 feet below ground and will be removed through excavation without the use of blasting. Each site will then be backfilled, inspected and restored.
By the end of the year, it is expected that the flat landscape will no longer be interrupted by the tall turbines.
Materials from the turbines will not be disposed of at the Wood County Landfill. The contractor intends to maximize reuse and recycling throughout the decommissioning process, including recycling metals, wiring and concrete, recovering oils and fluids when possible, and evaluating major turbine components for potential resale or reuse.
BG claim to fame
The city’s previous utilities director, Daryl Stockburger, was the push behind the wind farm in the early 2000s
“That was a one of a kind project,” O’Connell said. “In Ohio, nobody else had done that. Nobody.”
The turbines became a trademark for the town.
“Everybody recognized when you saw the turbines you were getting close to Bowling Green,” O’Connell said.
O’Connell recalled seeing the towering turbines for the first time, when he came to Bowling Green in 2004 to interview for a job in the city’s engineering department.
“I had never seen anything like that,” he said. “They were shiny and new.”
But they are no longer shiny, the technology is ancient by today’s standards, and replacement parts became almost impossible to find.
“It’s sad to see them coming down,” O’Connell said. “They were great while they lasted.”
The original capacity of the project was 7.2MW – which was enough to supply electricity for approximately 2,500 residential customers. The energy production was cut to 5.4 megawatts in 2021 when one of the turbines was retired early due to the expense of repairs.
The project has been a success for Bowling Green as a green energy source and a statement of the city’s values. 
“The wind turbines have been a landmark on our western horizon for two decades,” O’Connell said.
After watching the turbines limp along for the last couple years, the city formally decommissioned them in 2025 after they reached the end of their 20-year operational life, and their maintenance contract was no longer renewable. 
Replacement parts were hard to find, the repairs were taking longer, and the turbine productivity suffered in the last few years. Plus repairs weren’t cheap. Failed gearboxes could cost up to $500,000 to replace. And arranging for a crane tall enough to make the repairs was time-consuming.
AMP originally considered replacing the units, O’Connell said, but there were issues with the site. Most manufacturers want to put in bigger units, which would reduce the number of turbines that would fit on the site to two. To be profitable, more units would have to fit on the site.
And the costs are steep. When the wind turbines were erected, they cost about $2 million a piece. In 2020, the cost to replace them with newer models was estimated at $8.8 million a piece.
Looking to the sun
Bowling Green is already partnering with AMP Ohio for the 20MW solar field east of the city on Carter Road.
With the loss of the turbines, the city has plans for more investment in solar projects.
To replace the green energy production lost with the turbines leaving, city officials initially considered a possible solar field on acreage the city already owned near the county landfill. However, that plan fell apart when Plain Township officials passed an ordinance banning solar fields, explained Jim Odneal, the city’s assistant utilities director.
So the search began again, and this time some partners voiced interest in leasing farmland to the city for the project.
Those partners are Bowling Green State University, which plans to lease 50 to 60 acres for a solar field southwest of the Newton Road dead end at Interstate 75, and an affiliate of Principle Business Enterprises, which may lease 20 acres at the southeast corner of Devil’s Hole Road and I-75.
These properties are strategically located adjacent to the city’s electric distribution system, which helps minimize interconnection complexity and associated costs, Odneal said. 
BGSU and Principle Business Enterprises will continue to own the land. The developer will own and operate the solar arrays, which will be purchased locally from First Solar. And the City of Bowling Green will buy all the power generated at the two fields. The cost is expected to range between 5 cents and 7 cents per kilowatt hour, Odneal said.
The new solar project is expected to help in managing system peak demand and reducing transmission and capacity costs, Odneal explained. And it is intended to replace the renewable energy previously supplied by the wind turbines, which accounted for approximately 4 MW of wind capacity prior to their retirement.
“We’re very hopeful,” that the city can partner with BGSU and Principle Business Enterprises on their acreage, O’Connell said on Monday.
As for the removal of the turbines, the overall project is expected to continue through December, with completion currently scheduled for mid-December. The schedule is subject to change, since portions of the dismantling work are weather dependent.
The work will not impact public access to the Wood County Landfill. However, residents and motorists in the area may notice increased activity at the site, particularly as large cranes are assembled and used during turbine removal. Following removal, the property will not be reused for renewable energy generation because of the county’s future landfill needs and Plain Township’s zoning restrictions on solar development. 
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Fujiyama Power System’s board of directors has approved the addition of 1 GWh of lithium battery manufacturing capacity at its Ratlam plant in Madhya Pradesh, with an investment of INR 5 crore. The planned addition is in addition to the previously announced 2 GWh expansion at the same facility.
The company currently operates 0.5 GWh of lithium battery manufacturing capacity at its Greater Noida plant in Uttar Pradesh, with capacity utilization of around 70%.
Fujiyama Power expects to commission the proposed 1 GWh capacity and begin commercial operations by the second quarter of fiscal year 2026-27.
The company said the capacity addition is aimed at strengthening its lithium battery manufacturing capabilities, enabling it to meet anticipated market demand and support its growth plans in the energy storage segment.
Fujiyama Power’s Ratlam complex bring solar panels, power electronics and battery manufacturing under one manufacturing location. The company commissioned its 2 GW solar panel manufacturing facility at Ratlam during Q1 FY27. This was followed by the commissioning of the 2 GW power electronics manufacturing facility in August 2026. With these additions, the Company’s total solar panel and power electronics manufacturing capacities have increased to 3,568 MW and 4,180 MW, respectively.
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What are homes getting back from their solar panels?  The Journal
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Waaree Energies Secures SECI Award for 700 MW Solar Project with 2,800 MWh Energy Storage  SolarQuarter
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“We need to think of solar panels as part of a circular economy rather than a disposable product.”
Photo Credit: iStock
Australia’s rooftop solar boom has become one of the country’s biggest clean energy success stories.
But as more systems reach the end of their usable lives, scientists and policy experts are warning that Australia needs a national plan, and potentially a $10 to $20 fee per panel, to keep a growing volume of solar waste from being dumped or stockpiled as many older panels have generated vast totals of power but are now reaching the end of their lifespans.
According to ABC News, a national science group is pushing for a solar panel stewardship program that would collect money when panels are installed and later use those funds to gather, reuse, and recycle them once they wear out.
That proposal comes as rooftop solar keeps expanding. ABC News reported that about a third of Australian homes now have it, and roughly 300,000 more systems are added each year.
Recycling, meanwhile, remains limited. ABC News reported, citing the Productivity Commission, that only 17% of solar panels are recycled, while Australia produces about 66,000 tons (60,000 metric tons) of panel waste annually and the federal government says that figure could climb to about 99,000 tons (90,000 metric tons) by 2030.
At a parliamentary inquiry, Peter Derbyshire, acting CEO of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering, said, as ABC News reported, that manufacturers, importers, and customers should share both the cost and responsibility instead of leaving households to manage old panels by themselves.
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ABC News reported that Energy Minister Chris Bowen unveiled a pilot recycling program in January that was meant to begin in mid-2026, although the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water said procurement had not yet been completed.
“The government remains committed to the pilot,” a spokesperson said.
Because new rooftop systems keep being installed, the issue is becoming more pressing, even though experts do not all agree on how serious the waste problem is.
Andrew Blakers, an Australian National University professor who specializes in solar panel systems, said, “At the moment, solar panel waste is about one fifth of 1 per cent of the solid waste stream in Australia.”
He also said panels are mostly made of glass, along with metal frames and cables, and argued that “glass is an incredibly cheap and safe waste material.”
Still, panels contain materials including polysilicon and silver, and recovering them could make more economic sense as recycling systems become more effective. An NYU Tandon perspective paper made a similar case for designing panels with recovery in mind from the start.
In that way, the structure would be more like bottle and can recycling plans in many areas around the world that charge a fee at the time of sale that can then be paid back when properly recycling. Except instead of 5 to 10 cents, it might be $10 to $20 given the bigger size and weight of solar panels.
Penelope Crossley, a University of Sydney professor who studies legal issues connected to the energy transition, said the logistics of a nationwide program could make it more costly and more difficult to operate.
“Transport alone [is] estimated to account for around 10% to 15% of recycling costs,” she said, per ABC News, warning that any system would need to work not just in Sydney but in remote communities as well.
A stewardship program could add to the upfront cost of solar, but supporters have argued that a smaller charge during installation may be easier for homeowners than facing a much larger disposal bill years later.
Other countries already offer a few possible models. Crossley pointed to the European Union’s waste electrical and electronic equipment rules, under which producers are responsible at end of life, meaning companies cover panel collection and treatment instead of leaving that burden entirely to the household or business getting rid of them.
Experts have also said Australia should avoid treating panels as waste too early when they may still be usable.
“We don’t automatically assume that a solar panel being taken off a roof is going to be waste,” Crossley said. “We need to think about whether that solar panel could be reused as an interim step in the process.”
Damien Giurco, circular economy chair at the University of Melbourne, said charging the fee at the outset is the more practical option.
“Otherwise, if you look to when people are getting rid of the solar panels, asking people to pay then is trickier,” he said.
There may also be a business case. As ABC News reported, a University of Adelaide study estimated the solar recycling industry could be worth up to $950.6 billion globally by 2060, suggesting that stronger recovery systems could create jobs while reducing the need to keep extracting raw materials.
Officials are also weighing whether the proposed fee would fully cover costs, or prove too low once transport is included, and how panels should be handled once they come off the roof.
“We need to think of solar panels as part of a circular economy rather than a disposable product,” professor Jian Zuo said.
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Optimizing photovoltaic panel orientation for peak demand management  journals.sagepub.com
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Australia’s replaced aging solar panels could hit 99,000 tons a year, prompting calls for bottle-like $10 upfront recycling fee  Yahoo
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Wood Mackenzie: Global Solar O&M Market Reaches 348 GW  energynews.pro
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Brookline.News
Professional local journalism in Brookline MA

In Massachusetts, the average project time for a solar panel installation is 94 days. In Brookline, it’s 125 days. 
For longtime Brookline resident David Mendels, six months went by due to permitting delays before he was given the green light to install solar panels on his roof.
An energy affordability omnibus bill in the Massachusetts state legislature could address permitting delays like Mendels’ for solar panel and battery installations by automating the permitting process. 
In addition to solar permitting, the bill, passed in the House and Senate and currently in inter-chamber negotiations, proposes strategies to reduce energy bills by reforming gas infrastructure spending, paring down energy efficiency programs, and modernizing the grid.
After six months of delays, Mendels received his solar permit, but his installation ultimately failed due to a structural issue in his roof. He hopes automated permitting will help both residents and installers save time and money. 
“If the permitting process had been automated and clear and taken 24 hours, I’d be in the exact same position. The whole thing would have taken a day instead of six months, and everyone would have saved money, and they could have moved on to their next customer,” Mendels said. 
Two-year Brookline resident Alaina Kinol made the switch last December to solar, just under the wire to receive a 30% federal solar tax credit which expired under the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Due to permitting delays and electrical code issues, Kinol waited a full year before having her solar panels and battery installed. 
Like Mendels, Kinol wanted to reduce her family’s electricity bills and carbon footprint. In addition to preventing indoor air pollutants from using gas, she also wanted to reduce power outages in her home because her child’s medical equipment relies on electricity. 
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“We had one really scary day before the solar and battery were installed where the power went out and we weren’t sure we would be able to turn on his oxygen concentrator at night which was, at that point, essential for him,” Kinol said. 
Matthew McAllister, who leads an automated solar permitting software non-profit called  Solar APP+, envisions shopping for solar panels under this new bill could become as easy as “going to Costco.”
A customer could spend 30 minutes filling out their form Monday morning, receive a permit by Monday afternoon if their application passes building and electrical codes, and have solar panels installed by that week. 
By reducing permitting times, McAllister estimates automated permitting could reduce soft costs of solar panel installation by about $3,000. Soft costs include operating costs for warehouse storage, equipment, and marketing which ramp up as customers cancel installations due to long wait periods. Solar currently costs seven times more to install in the US than in places like Australia and Germany, according to non-profit research and advocacy group Permit Power.
“We want to reduce those upfront soft costs, so that way residents can benefit from the long-term savings that solar provides them,” McAllister said.
Kinol’s solar and battery installation ended up costing $60,000, a third of which was covered by federal credits. Now that her family no longer has to pay a monthly electricity bill, Kinol said this upfront cost was worth the peace of mind of the project paying for itself over time amid volatile energy prices.
While the state bill is pending, one of several big pieces of legislation winding their way through late summer negotiations, Brookline officials offered varying perspectives. 
Brookline Sustainability and Natural Resources Director Alexandra Vecchio wrote to Brookline.News that automated permitting would “allow us to more easily meet our climate goals,” given that the software could reduce time and cost barriers to solar adoption in Brookline.
There have been 11 installations in 2026 so far, according to recently-retired Building Commissioner Dan Bennett.
But Bennett expressed skepticism toward automated permitting. 
The current permitting process involves one of five building inspectors manually reviewing applications that fall within their districts, according to Bennett. “It’s very difficult to do a one-size-fits-all because each city and town is different [in permitting codes],” he said. “[Permit applicants] are not going to get the permit in a day. We always have to review [permits].”  
The bill would also automate permitting for solar batteries which are regulated by the Fire Department, meaning permitting requires interfacing with multiple departments.
Kinol recalled that one of the delays was due to town codes requiring her to move a solar meter from inside to outside of her house for easy inspection. After waiting two months for the issue to resolve, she took it upon herself to reach out to the Building Department. Ultimately, the town found fire hazards in her home’s electrical line which required renovations over the summer, though the panels were finally installed in December.
Kinol says she’s grateful for the city’s electrical inspection, but still would like a more streamlined permitting process with proper oversight. 
Bennett said he would have more faith if local building inspectors were more in the loop, but so far, the state has not provided resources to Brookline regarding automated permitting. “In order for this to work properly and expedite the permitting process, they’re going to have to educate the building departments and electrical wiring inspectors,” Bennett said. 
According to McAllister, Solar APP+ was able to reduce failed inspections when adopted in Connecticut. “We are just as safe as traditional permitting,” he said. Similar bills have also been brought forth in Rhode Island and implemented in New Jersey and Virginia. Solar APP+ has increased solar adoption in Arizona municipalities by 140% from 2020 to 2023 compared to those that didn’t use Solar APP+, according to Nicole Gentile, advocacy director of Permit Power. 
McAllister noted that Solar APP+ would meet with local building officials to agree upon interpretations of permitting codes ahead of implementation to ensure the software is up to date. “We want to go right to the source of how the rules and standards set for what is safe in our community and have them sign off…that this tool is correctly interpreting every provision of the national codes and standards,” McAllister said.
The fate of automated permitting in Massachusetts and Brookline rests on a conference committee which began meeting last month to negotiate the final version of the energy affordability omnibus bill which passed the House in February and Senate in July.
On the heels of negotiations came a letter from Maura Healey asking for “swift action” to bring the final bill to her desk. 
For Kinol, an expedited permitting process would have brought much-needed benefits of solar much sooner. “We could have less energy that was coming from mixed sources like gas power plants…as well as the access to resilience to power outages which was important to us because of the medical needs that we had,” she said.
“[That] was always in the back of my mind as we got delay after delay,” Kinol said.
Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled the name of Matthew McAllister. The article has been updated.
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With solar panels becoming cheap and ubiquitous, it's surprising that the automotive industry hasn't adopted them on a larger scale. Toyota has been among the pioneers, with the 2010 Prius featuring an integrated solar panel roof. It was mostly a gimmick, with the panel barely generating enough electricity to run the ventilation fan. Since then, several car models, including the Nissan Leaf, Fisker Ocean, and the Toyota bZ4X, have been offered with optional solar panels.
While some of them have been capable enough to add some charge to the battery, they have not been very popular, mostly due to high costs. However, a leading automotive glass supplier claims that it has integrated photovoltaic cells in regular glass roofs popular with electric vehicles. Fuyao Glass is one of the largest glass producers in the world and is an OEM supplier for various carmakers, including BYD, Tesla, and Volkswagen.
Fuyao Glass announced that it is ready to mass-produce the solar glass roofs at reasonable costs. The manufacturer managed to embed solar cells within laminated automotive glass, allowing sunlight to be converted into electricity. Although the company hasn't confirmed, several Chinese outlets wrote that the solar glass roof has been developed in partnership with BYD.
According to Chinese media, customers buying a BYD Han or BYD Tang could opt for a solar roof for a price of 8,000 yuan (about $1,200). Reports claim that the roof could generate up to 720 watts of electricity with a conversion efficiency of 23.2%. Fuyao declined to comment, citing confidentiality reasons, but it just announced a new solar sunroof category in its product catalog.

Photo: Fuyao

The company said that the solar roofs could generate 150 watts of power per square meter. Considering a total surface of about 2-3 square meters for a glass roof, the total power could be less than what Chinese news outlets claim. To be fair, the 150-watt/sqm power density is on the low side, considering that modern solar panels could go higher than 250 watts. However, since PV cells are integrated into the laminated glass roof in this case, efficiency is certainly much lower.
Fuyao Glass admits that this power level is only suitable to sustain the ventilation system, connected car functions, and dashcams. This basically rules out charging the battery, which requires higher power levels. However, the panels could support the vehicle's critical systems for a long time when parked, saving battery.
Solar panels could be a lot more useful, and even trickle charge the battery, potentially saving someone's life. Adventurer Sandro van Kuijck drove a Tesla Model X from the extreme North in Tuktoyuktuk, Canada, to the southern tip of the American continent in Ushuaia, Argentina, and a custom solar panel saved his life.
His 287-watt solar panels were not connected to the car's battery, but to an EcoFlow portable generator. The system still provided enough electricity to trickle charge and support the vehicle's critical functions when he ran out of battery in the Atacama Desert. While not enough to drive, the energy was enough to help Sandro survive until he could get out of that situation.
After his childhood dream of becoming a “tractor operator” didn’t pan out, Cristian turned to journalism, first in print and later moving to online media. His top interests are electric vehicles and new energy solutions. Full profile 
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This is a story of user error. I am the user who made the error, and I’m putting this out there so that you don’t make the same mistake. Here’s how I killed not one, but two small portable power stations before I charged a single device.
The device in question is the Anker C300. This is a small portable power station with a capacity of 288 watts and enough power to charge phones, laptops, and small appliances. With a max output of 300 watts, it’s not of much use in the kitchen, but it’s the kind of power station that’s great for kids during an outage. It can charge their tablets, Nintendo handhelds, and nightlights.
The Anker SOLIX C300 DC is a versatile and portable power station with a 288Wh capacity and 300W output. It features multiple charging ports, including two 140W two-way USB-C ports, and can be recharged via an AC outlet, solar panel, or car charger. This makes it perfect for outdoor adventures, travel, and emergency backup power.
I like these stations because they are lightweight and easy to carry around. They’re the first ones I would grab in an outage for anything minor. They can power a lamp or let us watch TV for a few hours. They can recharge the Nebula portable smart projector we bought instead of a smart TV. They’re also small enough to toss in the trunk before a road trip in case we need to charge anything while we’re in the car that the car’s USB port can’t handle.
These units are the exact opposite of the giant Anker F3800s we bought to power our home during an outage. That thing weighs over 130 pounds (around 60KG).
I’ve written before about how I intend to buy one of Anker’s solar powered umbrellas when they come out later this year. This little power station is precisely the kind of thing I’d like to connect it to for passive power generation.
The Anker C300 technically qualifies as a tiny solar generator, since it has an input for charging directly from solar panels. This is one of the primary ways I intended to charge my units.
This model has a max input of 100 watts, but I was curious if a 200-watt panel would still work. After all, I also have the Anker C1000—that model has a max charging rating of 600 watts, but the fastest way to charge it is by using two of Anker’s 400-watt panels. I followed this advice when testing out how quickly I could charge my C1000. As you can see below, this worked as advertised.
Solar panels rarely reach their maximum charging capability, so two 400 watt panels are more likely to produce closer to 600 watts than 800 watts. Still, these panels can produce over 600 watts of power, so the C1000 must apparently throttle what it takes in to 600 watts, since using two 400-watt panels is one of the ways Anker recommends charging the unit. That’s why it made sense to me that even though 200 watts is more than 100, a 200W panel would probably still work with my C300.
So I pulled out my panels. I have both an Anker PS100 and a PS200. The PS100 is made of two solar panels, while the PS200 is made of four.
When I plugged my 200W Anker PS200 panel into my first Anker C300, nothing happened. I tried pressing the power button. Nothing. I must have gotten a dud.
I had ordered two power stations at the same time, but the second one arrived a few days later. This time I plugged the unit into a wall first to make sure it wasn’t also a dud. It came on! So I took it outside and plugged in the same panel. This time I heard a sizzling sound. I immediately unplugged the panel, but it was already too late. When I pressed the power button, nothing happened. It hasn’t come back on since.
This was new to me. Like I said, I expected the power stations would probably only pull in the amount of energy they could safely handle. If they couldn’t do that, I expected some sort of message indicating that the power station is incompatible with these panels.
After all, when I plug my Kia Niro EV in to the 11kW car charger we have at home, it only pulls in its max charging speed of 7.2kW despite the faster capabilities of the charger. When I plug a 65W charger into my Galaxy Z Fold 6, it only pulls in 25W. And like I mentioned before, when I plugged two 400W panels into my C1000, it continued to work.
Solar panels and portable power stations apparently do not function like the other electronics in my life.
After coming to the conclusion that I had fried both of my power stations, I started re-reading the manual to see if there was an explicit warning. It turns out the limitation about wattage wasn’t the main issue. Rather, it’s a limitation on voltage. It’s a digital manual, so I’ve taken a screenshot.
There it is, in black and white. It seems obvious now. But at the time, I didn’t understand why exceeding 600 watts of input was fine for the C1000 but the C300 had a hard limit of 100 watts. The answer is in the voltage.
The PS100 solar panels that Anker recommends using have an operating voltage of 24.5V and an open circuit voltage of 28.5V. This is within the supported range of 11V to 28V.
The PS200 panels have double the operating voltage at 48V, with an open circuit voltage of 57.6V. As for the larger PS400 panels, which are also safe to plug into the C1000? Even though they produce twice the wattage of the PS200, they have the same 48V operating voltage and 57.6V open circuit voltage.
It’s the difference in voltage, not the difference in wattage, that apparently led to the instant demise of my two C300s. I know there are people who understand electricity shaking their heads at me throughout this entire story. That’s valid. When you know, you know. When you don’t, well, it can cost you.
Your rooftop solar will still shut down when you need it most.
You might expect this to be covered under warranty. After all, I never got to charge a single thing with either unit. But this sits firmly in the camp of user error. Again, after reading the small print in the manual, I get it. Looking at the photo above, you can see the voltage limitation is even written on the front of the unit!
Now that I understand what happened, my error seems obvious, but I would have appreciated much more explicit warnings. There is a difference between “not recommended” or “not compatible” and “will absolutely and instantaneously destroy your device.” I cover software for a living, and ignoring the recommended limitations is part of the job description.
Likewise, while the wattage of the solar panels is obvious, the voltage isn’t. You have to know to look for that information. My assumption was that Anker panels probably all used the same voltage, and I didn’t think to check. It’s not something I’ve ever had to give thought to before, and that’s something to keep in mind when releasing products like this to people like me who aren’t used to high stakes when we plug stuff in.
Stressful cable management for me involves plugging in a USB cable, flipping it over because it wasn’t faced the right way, then flipping it over again because it turns out I was right the first time.
If I didn’t already have an Anker C1000 and PS200 panel lying around, I likely wouldn’t have made this mistake. I would have played it safe by ordering just a PS100 panel and been done with it. After all, I did order a PS100 to go with my C300. I was just curious and figured I’d give the more powerful panel a shot. They’re all Anker products. The ports are all the same. Surely they’ll communicate properly.
The new Anker SOLIX C1000 is a compact yet powerful 1800W portable power station. It packs 11 different ports, 2400W AC power surge, built-in lighting, and more. Charge all your gear or be prepared for an emergency.
 
Turns out, there’s no communication involved. Just raw power delivery. This is one case where curiosity may not have killed the cat, but it sure killed two portable power stations. Now I know, and so do you.
Don’t take this at all as an indictment of Anker products. I hope getting these units repaired doesn’t cost me an arm and a leg. I’ll probably order a couple more regardless. They’re great at what they do. Just, whatever you do, don’t plug in the wrong solar panel.
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Malaysia issues long-awaited rooftop solar rules for homes under NEM programs  Yahoo
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Newswise — Osaka, Japan – Just as left and right hands are mirror images, some molecules come in two “handed” forms. This property, called chirality, can influence not only how molecules interact with light but also which electron spins they allow to pass. Researchers at the University of Osaka have developed novel chiral hole-transport materials that shed new light on this unusual effect while also improving the interfaces of perovskite solar cells.

The team built the materials around a chiral “bifacial” indacenodithiophene (IDT) structure, whose two faces carry different chemical groups. Thin films made from the two mirror-image forms showed strong chirality-induced spin selectivity, or CISS, with spin polarization reaching about 60%.

Most strikingly, molecular handedness consistently determined spin preference. The (S,S) form favored negative spin polarization, whereas the mirror-image (R,R) form favored positive polarization. The researchers found the same relationship in two classes of materials they had previously developed – conductive polymers and non-fullerene acceptors—providing a common pattern across three different types of organic electronic materials.

The molecules also produced an unexpected result. The homochiral (R,R) material transported positively charged “holes” nearly three times faster than the racemic and non-chiral counterparts. Whether this improvement is caused directly by CISS remains unclear, but the finding points to an intriguing connection between molecular handedness and charge transport.

When added as an ultrathin layer to perovskite solar cells, the new molecules helped suppress surface defects and promote hole extraction. Cells treated with the homochiral material reached a power conversion efficiency of 20.64%, compared with 19.48% for untreated control devices.

“We are excited to see a consistent relationship between molecular structure and spin preference across three different material classes,” says senior author Fumitaka Ishiwari. “The unexpected increase in hole mobility also raises new questions that we hope to answer.”
###
The article, “Chiral Bifacial Indacenodithiophene-Based Hole-Transport Materials with Chirality-Induced Spin Selectivity: Chirality-Spin Polarity Correspondence and Perovskite Passivation,” was published in Small on August 8, 2026 at DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.75074

About The University of Osaka
The University of Osaka was founded in 1931 as one of the seven imperial universities of Japan and is now one of Japan’s leading comprehensive universities with a broad disciplinary spectrum. This strength is coupled with a singular drive for innovation that extends throughout the scientific process, from fundamental research to the creation of applied technology with positive economic impacts. Its commitment to innovation has been recognized in Japan and around the world. Now, The University of Osaka is leveraging its role as a Designated National University Corporation selected by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to contribute to innovation for human welfare, sustainable development of society, and social transformation.
Website: https://resou.osaka-u.ac.jp/en
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Tuesday, September 1, 2026
The federal government’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) will invest more than $100 million across 20 research and development projects as part of its mission to further drive down the cost of solar power generation.
In what will be its largest single investment in solar PV research and development, Arena announced on Monday that it will invest up to $105.6 million across a portfolio of projects primarily being undertaken by universities across Australia.
The funding is part Arena’s 30-30-30 vision that aims to achieve 30 per cent PV module efficiency and 30 cents per watt (W) installed cost by 2030, and solar electricity below $20 per megawatt-hour.
The investment will support research aimed at accelerating the commercialisation of next-generation solar cell technology; fast-tracking ultra low-cost solar; and reducing the cost of designing, building, operating, and maintaining large-scale solar farms.
Projects to secure funding span a range of research priorities, including improving solar efficiency, cost and stability across advanced cells and modules, and innovations to improve the performance of solar farms and reduce the levelised cost of electricity (LCoE).
The investment is the next brick in the wall of ARENA’s ambition to drive down the cost of solar to 30 cents per watt by 2030 as well as ensure that Australia remains at the forefront of solar innovation.
“Australia has played a leading role in the development of solar technology, and these projects will help ensure we continue to strengthen that position,” said Chris Faris, acting ARENA CEO.
“The portfolio brings together a mix of near-term improvements and breakthrough technologies that have the potential to lower costs, improve performance and accelerate the deployment of solar energy both in Australia and around the world.”
A total of 20 projects secured funding, weighted heavily to research and development being undertaken by Australia’s leading universities. The University of New South Wales (UNSW) secured funding for 12 separate research projects, alongside projects being undertaken by Australian National University (ANU), the University of Melbourne, and the University of Sydney.
Two businesses also secured funding. Newcomer Sunspence Pty Ltd was awarded $3.6 million to help develop its lightweight bifacial solar farm system, while Proa Energy Australia Pty Ltd was awarded $4.2 million to test a platform designed to help solar farms detect faults, improve performance, and reduce operating costs.
Among the recipients of funding is University of Sydney researcher Professor Anita Ho-Baillie, who was awarded $7.25 million develop more durable silicon-perovskite tandem solar cells and modules.
Partnering with Australian solar panel manufacturer Unison Solar Energy, Professor Ho-Baillie, the University’s inaugural John Hooke Chair of Nanoscience, will aim to push tandem-cell technology one step closer to becoming commercially viable. Specifically, Professor Ho-Baillie and her team will aim to demonstrate the reliability of silicon (Si)-perovskite cells under a series of industry standards.
“There isn’t much room for silicon to improve because its theoretical limit is only 30 percent – but for perovskite-silicon tandem, it is about 40 percent,” said Professor Ho-Baillie. 
“This is a fantastic opportunity for us to make research we’ve been doing at the University for the last six years translational. We’d love to be able to see it through, to get Si-perovskite technology to the stage of being commercially viable for clean power generation.”
To join more than 29,000 others and get the latest clean energy news delivered straight to your inbox, for free, click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.
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CrossBoundary Energy says its solar PV and battery energy storage system (BESS) facility for Kamoa Copper S.A. has reached commercial operation and is now supplying 30 MW baseload power from the sun to Africa’s largest copper mining complex.
Kamoa Copper S.A., a joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines, Zijin Mining Group and the DRC Government, signed the power purchase agreement with CrossBoundary Energy in April 2025. The energy system consists of a 233 MWp solar PV array and 123 MVA/526 MWh BESS to supply at least 30 MW of baseload power to the mine.
Firm renewable electricity costs have fallen by around 50% in five years, making solar-plus-storage cheaper than conventional thermal baseload generation, according to CrossBoundary. The speed of delivery ensures that Kamoa-Kakula will receive cheaper and cleaner electrons years ahead of other power supply options.
Gracia Munganga, Development Director for the DRC at CrossBoundary Energy, said: “Achieving this milestone with Kamoa Copper S.A. is a significant step to mainstreaming round-the-clock renewable power. It proves how quickly clean, stable energy can be deployed – and the great potential of renewable energy solutions to support the mining sector’s ambitious growth. We’re grateful to our public sector stakeholders for believing in the value of this project, including the Electricity Sector Regulatory Authority (ARE) through DG Soraya Aziz-Moto, the Government of Lualaba Province under H.E. Governor Fifi Masuka and the Ministry of Energy and Hydraulic Resources under H.E. Minister Aimé Sakombi Molendo.”
Auguy Bakome, Project Manager at Kamoa Copper S.A., said: “The speed at which this project was delivered demonstrates how quickly renewable energy can be deployed at scale to support remote mining operations. It also reflects the strong partnership we have built with CrossBoundary Energy.
“This project shows that solar and battery storage can deliver dependable, sustainable and cost-effective baseload power for large mining operations. We are confident that renewable energy will continue to play a critical role in supporting the growth of our operations and the mining sector more broadly.”
Richard Stanford, Chief Technical Officer at CrossBoundary Energy, added: “An immense collaborative approach allowed us to overcome obstacles and build this project at an unprecedented pace, without compromising on quality. We’re grateful to all our partners on the project, including our client, investors, advisors, contractors and suppliers, for what we’ve achieved together. We’ve set a new benchmark for what is achievable for renewable energy deployment.”
Early adopters of round-the-clock solar/BESS like Kamoa Copper S.A. stand to benefit from reduced diesel cost volatility and supply chain risk, whilst reducing carbon emissions significantly through clean power procurement.
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