Solar Now

Researchers at the University of Glasgow have developed a laser-based method that could reduce electricity use in solar panel recycling by approximately 84% while recovering valuable silver and silicon. The university is partnering with Glasgow-based Watt Laser Ltd. to prepare the technology for commercial use.
Global solar capacity stands at around 3 terawatts. Solar panel waste could exceed 1 million metric tons by 2030 and 200 million metric tons by 2050.
Valuable metals account for just 0.05% of a panel's weight but represent roughly two-thirds of its scrap value. Recovery is difficult because ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), a durable polymer, binds the panel layers together. Conventional recycling methods use temperatures of 842–1,112°F (450–600°C) or toxic chemicals to remove it, requiring considerable energy.
Researchers tested a 1064 nm fiber laser on retired commercial solar panel cells supplied by Germany's Fraunhofer Center for Silicon Photovoltaic. The laser passes through transparent EVA and heats the underlying silicon, separating the polymer as an intact film. After removing the metal bus bars, researchers obtain a powder containing silicon, aluminum and silver. Dilute sodium hydroxide removes aluminum, while iron chloride and choline chloride brine dissolves silver. Tests on one panel type achieved more than 99% selectivity in silver recovery, without hazardous nitric acid.
Bashayer Alsulami, a recent Ph.D. graduate from the James Watt School of Engineering, developed the method through research into recovering metals from retired solar panels.
"The plastic that seals solar cells is designed to survive decades outdoors. It is very good at this, but this is exactly why old panels are so hard to recycle. By using a laser, we can quickly release the encapsulant in one piece rather than burning or dissolving it. That gives us much cleaner material to work with at recycling centers. The silver can be pulled out selectively with mild, simple chemistry, and the silicon is left behind ready for recovery," said Dr. Joseph Cameron, who led much of the research.
Declan Brannagan of Watt Laser Ltd. said the technology uses standard industrial fiber lasers already used for marking and cutting. Commercial production will require multi-head systems to process complete panels.
"Solar recycling is about to become a very large market, and the industry needs processes that are clean, selective and economic. What stands out about this work is that it uses standard industrial fiber lasers, the same kind of systems already used on production lines for marking and cutting.
"Scaling up from a single laser head to multi-head systems that can handle full panels at commercial rates is an engineering challenge we understand well. We see real potential for this technology to form the basis of new laser processing equipment for the recycling sector, and we're excited to be working with the university to explore how to bring it to market. We expect that scale-up of this technology will take less than a year, but it needs an industrial end player to firm up throughput at this stage."
The research was conducted through the EU APOLLO project in collaboration with the University of Glasgow-led REACT project.
Jeff Kettle, REACT's principal investigator and corresponding author, said: "This project shows what REACT is for. We've taken a global problem and developed a process that a Glasgow laser company can help take toward commercial equipment.
"We're pleased to be working with Watt Laser to help refine the technique and make it more suitable for use in industry. Our hope is that we will soon see this technology ready for commercial use, making it part of the low-emissions, circular economy that REACT is aiming to help build."
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Solar-Battery System Design for Rural Indian Hostel
Researchers from multiple Indian institutions have presented a simulation-based design and techno-economic analysis of a stand-alone solar photovoltaic (SAPV) system with battery storage for a government hostel building in Fatehpur, India. Published in Discover Mechanical Engineering, the study evaluates the technical performance, economic feasibility, and environmental benefits of the proposed system under local composite climatic conditions. The work addresses the persistent challenge of unreliable electricity supply in rural and semi-urban areas by proposing a decentralized, sustainable power solution that operates independently of the main grid.
The proposed system is designed to meet the daily electrical demand of the boys’ hostel at Government Degree College, Fatehpur. The team estimated the hostel’s daily energy consumption at approximately 21.90 kWh, accounting for lighting, fans, refrigerators, televisions, and mobile charging units. To ensure energy autonomy, the system configuration includes eleven crystalline photovoltaic modules, each rated at 550 Wp, an off-grid inverter, and a lead-acid battery storage bank. The PV modules are installed on the hostel roof at a tilt angle of 23 degrees with a south-facing orientation, calculated to optimize year-round energy collection based on the site’s latitude.
The study utilized PVsyst simulation software to model the system’s performance using site-specific meteorological data, including solar irradiance and ambient temperature. The simulation incorporated local conditions such as hot summers, humid monsoon seasons, and cold winters, with an average solar irradiation of 5.5 kWh/m²/day. The software generated detailed monthly outputs, allowing the researchers to analyze energy balance, battery state of charge, and system losses throughout the year. This approach enabled a comprehensive assessment of how seasonal variations in solar resource availability impact the reliability of the power supply to the hostel.
Simulation results indicate that the system achieves an annual performance ratio of 73.1% and a solar fraction of 91.2%. The performance ratio reflects the efficiency of the system in converting available solar energy into usable electricity, while the solar fraction indicates the proportion of the hostel’s energy demand met by the PV system. The annual electricity generation was calculated at 7286.1 kWh. Monthly analysis revealed that the system performs best during the summer months of March and May, with generation reaching 678.9 kWh, while output decreases during the monsoon and winter months due to cloud cover and shorter daylight hours.
Despite seasonal fluctuations, the system maintains a high degree of energy autonomy. The battery storage plays a critical role in bridging the gap between solar generation and load demand, particularly during periods of low irradiance. The average battery state of charge remains at 0.59, with voltage levels stabilizing around 49.59 volts annually. During peak summer months, the battery state of charge reaches approximately 0.77, whereas it drops to a minimum of 0.44 in the winter months of November and December. This buffering capacity ensures that the hostel receives a consistent power supply, even when immediate solar generation is insufficient to meet the full load.
The economic assessment of the SAPV system was conducted using a life-cycle cost framework over a 25-year operational lifetime. The total initial capital investment for the system was estimated at USD 5,023.97, with the battery bank representing the largest cost component at approximately 43.4% of the total. The levelized cost of energy (LCOE) was calculated to be USD 0.094 per kWh. This value represents the average cost of producing one unit of electricity over the system’s lifetime, accounting for initial costs, maintenance, and component replacements. The LCOE is competitive with grid electricity tariffs and suggests that the system is economically viable for off-grid applications in rural institutional settings.
The payback period analysis, based on the net present value method, reveals significant differences depending on the electricity source being displaced. When compared against grid electricity tariffs of USD 0.080 per kWh, the discounted payback period is estimated at 11.14 years. However, under diesel displacement conditions, where the system replaces diesel-generated electricity, the payback period is significantly shorter at 2.16 years. This rapid recovery of the initial investment is attributed to the higher unit cost of diesel-generated electricity, which results in larger annual monetary savings for the hostel. The study highlights the economic advantage of solar PV systems in scenarios where diesel generators are the primary alternative for power supply.
Environmental benefits were also quantified as part of the techno-economic analysis. The system achieves an annual CO2 emission mitigation of approximately 11.13 tonnes of CO2 equivalent when displacing grid electricity. Over the 25-year lifetime, the net CO2 mitigation is calculated at 262.08 tonnes, after accounting for emissions associated with the manufacturing of the PV modules. Under the diesel displacement scenario, the annual mitigation is lower at 5.94 tonnes, with a lifetime net mitigation of 139.93 tonnes. These reductions contribute to climate change mitigation by avoiding the emissions that would otherwise be released by thermal power plants or diesel generators to produce an equivalent amount of electricity.
In addition to environmental benefits, the study estimates potential economic gains from carbon credit generation. Using a benchmark carbon price of USD 74.07 per tonne of CO2 equivalent, the total carbon credit revenue over the system’s lifetime is estimated at approximately USD 19,412.30 for the grid displacement scenario. For the diesel displacement scenario, the estimated revenue is about USD 10,364.90. The researchers note that these figures are indicative estimates, as carbon credit prices can fluctuate over time. Nevertheless, the potential for carbon credits adds an additional layer of economic value to the environmental benefits of the SAPV system.
The study acknowledges several limitations and areas for future research. The analysis is based on simulation data rather than long-term field measurements, which may not fully capture real-world operational challenges such as maintenance issues or unexpected component failures. The researchers suggest that future work should focus on integrating advanced battery technologies, such as lithium-ion or hybrid storage, to improve round-trip efficiency. Additionally, demand-side management strategies could be explored to minimize unused energy losses, which were identified as a significant factor in the system’s performance. Long-term field validation studies are recommended to complement the simulation-based analysis and provide empirical evidence of the system’s reliability and economic viability in practical rural institutional settings.
The study situates its findings within a broader context of rural electrification challenges in India, where large sections of rural and semi-urban areas continue to face unreliable or insufficient electricity supply. The authors note that this energy gap hinders national development and perpetuates dependence on conventional fossil fuel-based solutions, which are described as costly and environmentally unsustainable. In this context, stand-alone photovoltaic systems with battery storage are presented as a decentralized energy source capable of addressing power needs while contributing to national renewable energy targets. The research specifically addresses a gap in the literature, as most previous studies have focused on grid-connected configurations or general system optimization, with limited attention given to simulation-based evaluations of stand-alone systems for government educational institutions under composite climatic conditions.
To address these gaps, the researchers developed an integrated, site-specific assessment that combines technical performance, battery behavior, energy balance, techno-economic feasibility, and environmental benefits. This approach distinguishes the current work from previous PVsyst-based studies that primarily focused on system sizing, energy yield, or isolated techno-economic assessments. The study simultaneously assesses monthly energy balance, system losses, and discounted payback under both grid-electricity and diesel-displacement scenarios. By evaluating these factors together, the analysis provides a comprehensive view of the system’s viability for rural institutional applications where reliable electricity access is essential for academic and residential activities.
The selection of PVsyst simulation software was justified by its ability to provide comprehensive modeling of photovoltaic modules, battery storage, charge controllers, inverters, and load profiles while incorporating site-specific meteorological data. The software offers advanced battery management algorithms and detailed loss assessment, enabling accurate prediction of annual energy production and battery state of charge. The authors compared this tool with HOMER Pro and MATLAB/Simulink, noting that while the latter are suited for hybrid-system optimization and dynamic modeling, PVsyst directly supports the photovoltaic-specific performance and loss analysis required for this stand-alone system. This methodological choice ensures that the simulation reflects the specific operational constraints and efficiency factors inherent to off-grid solar installations.
The economic analysis incorporates specific assumptions regarding component lifespans and replacement schedules, which significantly influence the life-cycle cost. The study assumes a 25-year operational lifetime for the photovoltaic modules, consistent with the expected service life of crystalline silicon technology. However, the off-grid inverter and battery bank are assumed to require more frequent replacement during the project’s duration. Batteries are scheduled for replacement at regular intervals, while the inverter is replaced once during the system lifetime. These replacement costs, along with maintenance and repair expenses estimated at 1% of the initial capital cost per year, are incorporated into the life-cycle cost assessment using a discounted cash flow approach with a 5% discount rate. This detailed accounting of recurring expenditures provides a realistic estimate of the long-term economic burden associated with maintaining an off-grid solar system.
The environmental assessment quantifies carbon credit potential using a benchmark compliance carbon price of USD 74.07 per tonne of CO2 equivalent, based on the EU ETS average for 2024. The study calculates earned carbon credits by multiplying the net lifetime CO2 mitigation by this market price. The authors emphasize that these revenue estimates are indicative and subject to uncertainty, as carbon credit prices can fluctuate over time. Variations in future carbon credit prices may influence the overall economic benefits of the proposed system. By linking environmental mitigation to potential market-based revenue, the study highlights an additional layer of economic value that could support the financial sustainability of solar installations in rural areas, although this benefit remains contingent on market conditions and verification processes.
Subject of Research: Simulation based design and technoeconomic analysis of a stand alone solar PV system with battery storage in government hostel building
Article Title: Simulation based design and technoeconomic analysis of a stand alone solar PV system with battery storage in government hostel building
Article References: Mahor, H. S., Yadav, S. K., Rajput, P., Kushwaha, P. K., Singh, K. Y., Paramasivam, P., Yusuf, M., & Hasnain, S. M. M. (2026). Simulation based design and technoeconomic analysis of a stand alone solar PV system with battery storage in government hostel building. Discover Mechanical Engineering, 5(1), Article 186. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44245-026-00375-9
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1007/s44245-026-00375-9
Keywords: Simulation, based, design, technoeconomic, analysis, stand, alone, solar, system, battery, storage, government
News Source: Faith Mcneil. (November 12, 2026). Solar-Battery System Design for Rural Indian Hostel. Scienmag.
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An aerial view of a 22-acre community solar farm owned by Nexamp on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2026, near Utica. Located behind the Senica Manor subdivision, south of U.S. Route 6, the solar farm is within La Salle’s district and is expected to generate enough electricity to power about 1,000 homes once completed. (Scott Anderson)
A field that sat unused south of Route 6 is on its way to becoming a community solar farm, and if the timeline holds, it will start sending power to the grid late next summer.
Utica Solar is a 6.7-megawatt project being built, owned and operated by Nexamp, a company founded in 2007 by two U.S. Army Veterans. The company is headquartered in Boston, runs a second headquarters in Chicago and has about 60 active projects in Illinois. The site, just west of Route 178, is about 28 acres of fenced farmland that will hold just over 10,000 American-made solar panels mounted on tracking systems that follow the sun through the day.
“This is for us a little bit on the larger side,” said Keith Hevenor, communication manager at Nexamp. “Most of our projects probably are more in the three to five megawatt range.”
Construction began at the start of June, and Nexamp is targeting permission to operate from Ameren by Sept. 1, 2027. The project was years in the making before that. The company leases rather than buys its sites, typically under 25 to 30-year agreements with landowners, and looks for land near electrical infrastructure where panels can connect to the grid.
Like other community solar farms, Utica Solar will not send power directly to subscribers’ homes. It feeds the grid, and Ameren pays Nexamp for that power in the form of bill credits, which Nexamp then shares with subscribers at a discount. In Illinois, that discount is 15%.
Hevenor used a household that uses $100 of electricity a month as an example: the subscriber would receive about $100 in credits to offset their Ameren bill, then be billed $85 by Nexamp, reflecting the $15 discount. Credits are annualized, since panels generate more power in long summer days than short winter ones.
“There’s no other fee. There’s no enrollment fee. There’s no setup fee. There’s nothing,” Hevenor said. “The only thing you’re paying for is the credits that you earn that go toward offsetting your utility bill.”
Subscriptions are month-to-month, with no cancellation fee and no credit check, and subscribers don’t have to live near Utica. Anyone in Ameren’s service territory can subscribe. A project of this size could support about 1,000 residential subscribers, though a portion of Utica Solar’s capacity is committed to anchor customers.
The build itself is being done by local contractors, providing typically 40 to 50 jobs over a 12 to 18-month construction window. Once the farm goes live, no one will work on site regularly. Nexamp contracts with local electricians as needed and local landscaping companies for mowing and snow plowing.
The project also will generate tax revenue for the village of Utica. Because the solar farm changes the land’s tax classification from agricultural to commercial, Nexamp pays commercial property taxes on the site.
Nexamp establishes a decommissioning bond at the start of every project, with money set aside to cover removing and recycling equipment when the farm reaches the end of its life. Steel poles are driven into the ground, along with one or two 10-by-10 concrete pads for transformers and inverters, and a fence.
Hevenor said the land could essentially be returned to farmland once the project ends, and the lease can be renewed by both sides or the land returned to its owner.
As for the timeline, Hevenor said there is little that could delay the project at this stage. The schedule could slip potentially 30 to 60 days depending on Ameren’s interconnection queue, with testing expected over the summer.
“I can’t say the schedule wouldn’t change at all, but I can say that it’s rare that it changes significantly at this stage,” he said.
Emily Beebe is a reporter for Shaw Local News Network

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Space Machines Company and SunDrive Solar have started a research and development collaboration to design, build and test solar panels for spacecraft.
The partnership combines SunDrive’s copper-metallised solar cell technology with SMC’s expertise in spacecraft structures, thermal engineering and integration. The commercially driven partnership aims to establish an Australian-made source of solar arrays for spacecraft.
The first phase runs to April 2027. It will produce a body-mounted solar panel for SMC’s next-generation Optimus Viper spacecraft, plus prototype flight-sized panels.
The body-mounted panel will go through environmental testing, including thermal-vacuum and vibration testing. That testing will produce the engineering and performance data needed to move towards a flight-ready product.
Solar arrays are among the most critical and costly parts of any spacecraft. Australian satellite programs currently depend on imported space-grade arrays, which limits both cost and supply. Both companies see a market for lower-cost, locally developed solar arrays priced for spacecraft built and deployed at scale. Such arrays could power future Australian spacecraft, reduce reliance on overseas suppliers and strengthen Australia’s sovereign space manufacturing base.
“This collaboration began because two Australian companies saw a commercial reason to work together. Other nations are moving quickly to secure their space supply chains, and partnerships like this are how Australia builds capability that lasts,” Space Machines Company chief executive officer and co-founder Rajat Kulshrestha said.
SunDrive was founded to take Australian solar innovation to the world. The Sydney-based company’s proprietary direct-copper plating technology replaces silver with abundant copper, enabling high-efficiency, scalable solar cells with lower reliance on critical materials.
Its copper heterojunction cells, which have delivered record-breaking results on Earth, are ultra-thin and lightweight. Those qualities matter in orbit, where every gram of array mass is a trade against payload. Optimus Viper gives the technology its first spacecraft application, designed for the conditions of low-Earth orbit.
“SunDrive’s copper HJT technology brings together the ultra-thin, lightweight and high-efficiency performance needed for next-generation spacecraft solar arrays,” SunDrive Solar co-founder and chief technology officer Vince Allen said.
“And applying that to SMC’s Optimus Viper program is a great opportunity to demonstrate what Australian innovation can achieve in the demanding environment of low-Earth orbit.”
Space is one of the toughest environments for photovoltaic technology; the panels must survive launch. Testing to spacecraft standards is a key step towards flight heritage, which satellite manufacturers use as a benchmark when choosing components.
SunDrive will lead cell selection, module design, lamination and electrical characterisation. SMC will lead substrate design, structural and thermal analysis of the panel, assembly and testing, and mounting the panel on a structural model of Optimus Viper.
The two companies will jointly develop the process for bonding solar modules to the panel substrate. This work will provide the critical design and test data to develop the path towards a flight-ready, Australian-made solar array for commercial spacecraft.
“A solar panel has to survive launch vibration, vacuum and extreme thermal cycling while staying as light as possible. Those are exactly the problems our structures, thermal and test teams work on every day,” said Space Machines Company vice President of engineering Ian Partis.
For SunDrive, the collaboration marks an important milestone in bringing its proven technology to the space sector, one of the most demanding energy applications there is. As the global space economy accelerates, demand is growing for power systems that are high-performance, resilient, lightweight and scalable.
Both companies want more of that value chain to stay in Australia. They aim to combine the country’s research base and engineering talent with industrial capability to design, validate and ultimately manufacture space-energy technology locally, building a domestic ecosystem and skilled jobs along the way.
“As the global space economy rapidly accelerates, Australia is well-placed to seize the opportunity, not just to participate, but to build and own the critical technologies that will underpin it,” SunDrive Solar chief executive officer Natalie Malligan said.
Both companies intend to use the Phase 1 results to decide on further phases. Those phases would aim at a flight-ready deployable solar array for SMC’s future spacecraft and for the wider satellite market.
Engineering teams from both companies met at SunDrive’s Kurnell facility on 1 October 2026 to formally start the project.

Robert Dougherty
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Nigeria Launches $300 Million Renewable Energy Fund To Expand Mini-Grids And Solar Access  SolarQuarter
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Croatia has launched a €30 million funding programme to help agricultural businesses invest in solar energy and electricity storage systems, as the country looks to increase renewable energy production and reduce energy costs across the farming sector.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Green Transition announced the call for applications on 11 November through the Modernisation Fund.
The programme is open to micro, small, medium-sized and large businesses involved in primary agricultural production or the processing of agricultural products.
Recognised producer organisations are also eligible to apply, subject to the programme’s requirements.
Funding will support the construction and expansion of photovoltaic power plants, including solar panel installations, as well as battery systems designed to store electricity.
Eligible projects can also include related supervision and project management costs.
The maximum amount available to an individual applicant is €5 million, making the programme relevant to both smaller agricultural operators and larger food-processing businesses planning substantial investments.
Applications will remain open until 31 January 2027 at midday, although the ministry has warned that the call may close earlier if the available funding is exhausted.
Applications must be submitted by registered post to the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund in Zagreb, following the conditions outlined in the official documentation.
The initiative comes at a time when energy costs remain an important consideration for agricultural producers, particularly businesses operating facilities that require electricity for refrigeration, processing, irrigation and storage.
Solar installations could allow farms and food producers to generate a greater proportion of their own electricity, while battery storage would provide greater flexibility in how that energy is used.
For Croatia, which has considerable solar potential, expanding renewable energy capacity in agriculture also offers an opportunity to reduce the sector’s dependence on conventional energy sources.
The €30 million programme represents one of the latest funding opportunities available to Croatian agricultural businesses looking to modernise their operations and invest in renewable energy.

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Tongwei reported a wider loss for the first nine months of 2026, highlighting the continuing pressure on China’s solar industry. In a report published on November 6, pv magazine said Tongwei’s third-quarter financial results were released on October 30.
Revenue for the nine-month period fell 9.69 percent year on year to CNY 58.337 billion. Net loss attributable to shareholders widened to CNY 6.759 billion from about CNY 5.27 billion a year earlier. The loss excluding nonrecurring items reached CNY 6.868 billion, pointing to continued pressure in the underlying business.
There was a more constructive quarterly signal. Third-quarter revenue reached CNY 23.98 billion, down 0.46 percent year on year, while the quarterly net loss narrowed to CNY 1.639 billion from CNY 2.675 billion in the second quarter. Operating cash flow totaled CNY 2.024 billion for the first nine months.
Tongwei’s results reflect the difficult conditions across Chinese photovoltaic manufacturing. Weak polysilicon prices and excess production capacity continue to pressure margins, while the industry is trying to reduce supply and rebuild profitability. For investors, the quarterly improvement matters, but it has not yet offset the larger nine-month deficit.
Tongwei, headquartered in Chengdu, China, operates across green agriculture and green energy. Its main activities include aquaculture feed, high-purity polysilicon, solar cells, modules and photovoltaic power projects, giving it a vertically integrated position in the solar value chain. In photovoltaic manufacturing, it competes with LONGi, JA Solar and Jinko Solar and is among the major Chinese producers covered in the industry results. Its combination of upstream polysilicon and downstream solar manufacturing leaves earnings sensitive to both material prices and module demand.
For the broader Chinese equity backdrop, follow the Shanghai Composite.
More news and analyses on Tongwei stock.

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India’s Solar Capacity Crosses 174.5 GW As October Additions Reach 3.5 GW In 2026  SolarQuarter
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Mumbai: India’s rapid expansion in renewable energy has helped the country save more than $100 billion (approximately ₹9.4 lakh crore) in coal and natural gas import costs between 2011 and 2025, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The IEA’s India Renewable Energy Market Report 2026 highlights how growing solar, wind and bioenergy generation has strengthened India’s energy security while reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels.
The report projects cumulative fuel import savings could reach nearly $240 billion (₹22.6 lakh crore) by 2030, assuming international fuel prices remain near their 2024-25 averages. Annual savings could touch $35 billion (₹3.3 lakh crore) by 2030, exceeding India’s entire non-coking coal and natural gas import expenditure in FY25. Renewable energy expansion also helped India avoid importing approximately 110 million tonnes of additional coal in 2025.
India’s renewable energy capacity has nearly quadrupled over the past decade, surpassing 300 gigawatts (GW) in 2026. Between March 2014 and September 2026, the country added 168 GW of solar capacity and 38 GW of wind capacity. Bioenergy capacity reached nearly 12 GW by September 2026. The IEA identified India as the world’s second-fastest-growing renewable energy market and second-largest solar panel manufacturer.
India achieved 50% of installed electricity capacity from non-fossil sources in 2025, meeting its 2030 target five years early. According to the IEA, tariffs for solar projects commissioned in 2025 were approximately 40% lower than average coal-based electricity costs.
Government initiatives, including PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana and PM-KUSUM, have encouraged rooftop solar installations and solar-powered agricultural pumps. Production Linked Incentive schemes have also supported domestic solar equipment manufacturing. The report underlines renewable energy’s growing contribution to India’s energy independence, import savings and long-term economic resilience.
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Space Machines Company (SMC) and SunDrive Solar have started a research and development collaboration to design, build and test solar panels for spacecraft.
It combines SunDrive’s copper-metallised solar cell technology with SMC’s experience in spacecraft structures, thermal engineering and integration. The commercially driven partnership aims to establish an Australian-made source of solar arrays for spacecraft.
“This collaboration began because two Australian companies saw a commercial reason to work together. Other nations are moving quickly to secure their space supply chains, and partnerships like this are how Australia builds capability that lasts,” SMC, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Rajat Kulshrestha, said.
The first phase runs to April 2027. It will produce a body-mounted solar panel for SMC’s next-generation Optimus Viper spacecraft, plus prototype flight-sized panels.
The body-mounted panel will go through environmental testing, including thermal-vacuum and vibration testing. That testing will produce the engineering and performance data needed to move towards a flight-ready product.
Solar arrays are among the most critical and costly parts of any spacecraft. Australian satellite programs currently depend on imported space-grade arrays, which limits both cost and supply.
Both companies see a market for lower-cost, locally developed solar arrays priced for spacecraft built and deployed at scale. Such arrays could power future Australian spacecraft, reduce reliance on overseas suppliers and strengthen Australia’s sovereign space manufacturing base.
According to the company, SunDrive was founded to take Australian solar innovation to the world. The Sydney-based company claims its proprietary direct-copper plating technology replaces silver with abundant copper, enabling high-efficiency, scalable solar cells with lower reliance on critical materials.
Its copper heterojunction (HJT) cells, which have delivered results on Earth, are ultra-thin and lightweight. Those qualities matter in orbit, where every gram of array mass is a trade against payload. Optimus Viper gives the technology its first spacecraft application, designed for the conditions of Low Earth Orbit.
“SunDrive’s copper HJT technology brings together the ultra-thin, lightweight and high-efficiency performance needed for next-generation spacecraft solar arrays. And applying that to SMC’s Optimus Viper program is a great opportunity to demonstrate what Australian innovation can achieve in the demanding environment of Low Earth Orbit,” SunDrive Solar, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Vince Allen, said.
Space is one of the toughest environments for photovoltaic technology; the panels must survive launch. Testing to spacecraft standards is a key step towards flight heritage, which satellite manufacturers use as a benchmark when choosing components. SunDrive will lead cell selection, module design, lamination and electrical characterisation.
SMC will lead substrate design, structural and thermal analysis of the panel, assembly and testing, and mounting the panel on a structural model of Optimus Viper. The two companies will jointly develop the process for bonding solar modules to the panel substrate. This work will provide the critical design and test data to develop the path towards a flight-ready, Australian-made solar array for commercial spacecraft.
“A solar panel has to survive launch vibration, vacuum and extreme thermal cycling while staying as light as possible. Those are exactly the problems our structures, thermal and test teams work on every day,” SMC, Vice President of Engineering, Ian Partis, said.
For SunDrive, the collaboration marks a milestone in bringing its proven technology to the space sector, one of the most demanding energy applications there is.
As the global space economy accelerates, demand is growing for power systems that are high-performance, resilient, lightweight and scalable. Both companies want more of that value chain to stay in Australia.
They aim to combine the country’s research base and engineering talent with industrial capability to design, validate and ultimately manufacture space-energy technology locally, building a domestic ecosystem and skilled jobs along the way.
“As the global space economy rapidly accelerates, Australia is well-placed to seize the opportunity, not just to participate, but to build and own the critical technologies that will underpin it,” SunDrive Solar, Chief Executive Officer, Natalie Malligan, said.
Both companies intend to use the Phase 1 results to decide on further phases. Those phases would aim at a flight-ready deployable solar array for SMC’s future spacecraft and for the wider satellite market.
Engineering teams from both companies met at SunDrive’s Kurnell facility on 1 October 2026 to formally start the project.
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India Braces For Impact Again
China’s Ministry of Commerce has proposed adding 12 photovoltaic manufacturing technologies to its export-control list, with public consultation closing on 15 November. The draft is part of a wider revision of the technology catalogue that also covers artificial intelligence and biotechnology. Beijing cites national security, arguing that solar technologies are increasingly used in sensitive areas such as aerospace and defence.
What would be banned, and what restricted
The outright ban would cover processes used to make thin silicon wafers, perovskite and tandem solar cells, and large-scale fluidised-bed polysilicon production. Reporting on the draft’s thresholds says the tandem ban applies to cells on wafers of at least 182 mm with efficiency of 30% or more, and to large-area modules of at least one square metre. Fluidised-bed polysilicon is cheaper and more energy-efficient than the dominant Siemens process.
TOPCon, HJT and XBC cell manufacturing technologies would be restricted rather than prohibited, meaning licensing rather than a flat ban. The draft does not stop finished panels, cells or wafers from being exported. Exporters must already register certain overseas technology transfers, a requirement that took effect on 16 October and applies until the catalogue is formally revised.
China already curbed exports of solar-manufacturing technology to India, besides battery cells.
India’s exposure
The draft extends controls to technology transfers worldwide. India’s installed solar capacity reached 171.05 GW at the end of September, including 20.79 GW added in the first half of FY27. Module manufacturing capacity has passed 200 GW. Upstream, the picture is thinner. Union Minister Pralhad Joshi put cell capacity at about 45 GW at the Bharat Renewable Energy Summit, while industry voices there said effective capacity is below 40 GW, with ingot and wafer capacity under 1% of the total and commercial-scale polysilicon production yet to begin.
That is exactly the layer the draft targets. The Indian Solar Manufacturers Association (ISMA) is now prioritising ingots, wafers and polysilicon, per coverage of the summit. Thin-wafer processes and fluidised-bed polysilicon are two of the banned items, so Indian plans in those segments would have to rely on non-Chinese technology.
The European route
India’s response is already visible. At the same summit, IB Solar signed an MoU with German technology partners to set up what is described as India’s first Centre of Excellence for solar technology in Uttar Pradesh, backed by the National Solar Energy Federation of India. Separately, the company signed an MoU with three German firms to develop a 2 GW TOPCon cell line at its Indian facility, as reported by us last week.
TOPCon underpins several of India’s recent cell plants. In September that Premier Energies commissioned a 7 GW TOPCon cell plant, taking its cell capacity to 10.6 GW, and that Alpex Solar inaugurated a 2.2 GW TOPCon facility in Mathura. Those plants are built. Others like Saatvik Green energy are testing production at a 4 GW cell plant in Odisha. Vikram Solar is also hoping to start a massive 10 GW facility by December. The open question is whether future expansions, upgrades and equipment support would face licensing delays if the restrictions are finalised as drafted. 
What to watch
The consultation closes on 15 November, after which China’s regulators will decide whether to keep the thresholds. Three points matter for Indian manufacturers: whether TOPCon stays on the restricted rather than banned list, how the registration regime is applied in practice, and whether Indian developers can substitute European or domestic equipment fast enough to protect expansion schedules.
For India, the case for building a technology base, rather than only assembly lines, has become a supply-security argument as much as an industrial one.
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Israel-based inverter and battery manufacturer SolarEdge has advised that it is closing its local sales and operations in Australia and New Zealand. The company also announced it will terminate product certification renewals, active marketing promotions and incentive programs in the region.
In a notice to installers, SolarEdge says final purchase orders must be submitted by 20 November 2026, with final delivery no later than 18 December 2026.
The company, which now manufacturers inverters, optimisers, solar panels, batteries and EV chargers in the United States, said warranty and technical support will continue via its international call centre and online self-service portal.
The announcement comes after SolarEdge Chief Executive Officer Shuki Nir last week told investors the company was taking actions to “reduce costs, simplify operations, and support profitability.”
“We are making deliberate decisions to exit select underperforming geographic markets and redirect resources towards our core markets and higher growth opportunities,” he said during the company’s third-quarter results call.
“These are difficult but necessary decisions to build a more focused and competitive SolarEdge.” 
Nir said the company will redirect resources toward “core regions” and higher-growth opportunities like its Nexis platform and solid state transformers for data centres.
SolarEdge is the second big inverter manufacturer to rethink its position in the Australian market this year after SMA exited the residential and commercial sectors earlier in 2026. 
The German-headquartered inverter and battery announced it would withdraw from the Australian residential and commercial markets, focusing instead on large-scale infrastructure, grid-forming technology and hybrid integration.
SMA Chief Executive Officer Jürgen Reinert said at the time that the decision reflected “a considered view of where the energy transition is heading and where SMA can make the most meaningful contribution.”

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Octopus Energy launches fund targeting $600m for Asia’s electrification  energynews.pro
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India installed 27.3 gigawatts (GW) of large-scale solar capacity in the first nine months (9M) of the calendar year (CY) 2026, up 21% compared to 22.5 GW in 9M 2025, according to Mercom India Research.
Total solar additions reached a record 38.5 GW in 9M 2026, up 40.3% YoY. Solar accounted for 77% of the 50 GW of new power capacity added during 9M 2026.
Installation growth was concentrated in the first half of 2026, as developers accelerated commissioning ahead of the June 1 implementation of the approved list of models and manufacturers (ALMM) List-II requirements for solar cells and the phased reduction in interstate transmission system (ISTS) charge waivers beginning in July. These deadlines pulled some commissioning forward into the first half.

India added nearly 11 GW of solar capacity in Q3 2026, the fourth-highest quarterly total on record. Installations declined 9.5% QoQ but increased 19% YoY. India added 6.3 GW of large-scale solar capacity in the third quarter (Q3) of 2026, with installations down 24% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) and 11% year-over-year (YoY). Large-scale projects accounted for 58% of total quarterly solar additions.
Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra led large-scale solar additions in Q3 2026, accounting for 28%, 25%, and 14% of quarterly capacity additions, respectively.
Rooftop solar installations climbed 22% QoQ to 4.7 GW, compared to 3.8 GW in Q2 2026, and rose 122% YoY compared to 2.1 GW in Q3 2025. Rooftop solar made up a record 42% of quarterly solar additions, signaling a significant shift in the installation mix.
As of September 2026, India’s cumulative installed solar capacity reached 176.6 GW. Large-scale solar projects accounted for 82% of installed capacity, while rooftop solar made up the remaining 18%.
Solar photovoltaic (PV) comprised 31% of India’s total installed power capacity and 58% of installed renewable energy capacity.
Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Karnataka continued to lead the country in cumulative large-scale solar capacity, accounting for 30%, 22%, and 11% of total installations, respectively.
The top 10 states accounted for 98% of large-scale solar capacity commissioned during Q3 2026.
In Q3 2026, agencies issued 9 GW of large-scale solar tenders, up 61% QoQ and down 51% YoY. Auctions totaled 4 GW, down 10% QoQ and up 64% YoY.
In 9M 2026, 22.6 GW of large-scale solar tenders were announced, down 47% compared to 42.6 GW in 9M 2025. Large-scale solar auctions totaled 13 GW, a 23% decline compared to 16.6 GW in 9M 2025.
The report also provides installation trends by state, project pipeline analysis, tender and auction activity, and market forecasts to help developers, manufacturers, investors, and other industry participants assess emerging opportunities and execution risks.
Key Highlights from Mercom India Research’s Q3 & 9M 2026 India Solar Market Update:
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Can India grow food and solar power on same farm? Israel envoy shares a hack  India Today
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Government blocks Botley West solar farm over ‘substantial harm’ to landscape  BusinessGreen
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Scientists at Nanchang Hangkong University in China have devised a dual silicon oxide diffusion barrier approach to boost the performance of tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar cells. The method pairs post-plasma oxidation with tunnel oxide optimization to govern the depth profile of electrically active phosphorus and the microstructure of polysilicon (poly-Si).
Wenhao Chen, the corresponding author, told pv magazine that standard industrial TOPCon optimization has mostly concentrated on tuning the total phosphorus dose or tunnel oxide quality, without separately governing where the electrically active phosphorus peak resides within the polysilicon. He noted that phosphorus piling up at the surface boosts parasitic optical absorption without further lowering contact resistance, generating a trade-off between contact and optical losses in mass-produced cells.
Chen said the work shows an industry-compatible dual-SiOx diffusion barrier method built on post-plasma oxidation. Instead of physically redistributing phosphorus atoms, oxygen diffusing inward causes depth-selective dopant deactivation by forming electrically inactive P-O complexes. Lengthening post-plasma oxidation to 100 seconds moves the activated phosphorus peak from the poly-Si surface to a depth of roughly 50 nm, which closely matches the silver paste burn-off depth during screen-printing and co-firing.
Chen added that combining this with a densified bottom tunnel oxide barrier lets the dual-oxide confinement preserve high dopant activation and strong passivation quality. Industrial batch trials covering nearly 1,000 TOPCon cells sized 210 x 182.3 mm2 delivered an absolute efficiency gain of 0.07 percentage points. The gain stems mainly from lower contact resistivity and suppressed parasitic absorption, with only slight open-circuit voltage degradation. This straightforward process adjustment can be adopted on existing PECVD production lines to further raise the efficiency of commercial TOPCon solar cells, according to Chen.
The team produced TOPCon solar cells on n-type monocrystalline silicon wafers with resistivities from 1 to 3 ohm-centimeters. The cells received conventional alkaline texturing, boron diffusion, rear-side TOPCon fabrication, passivation, screen printing, high-temperature co-firing and laser-enhanced contact optimization. A bilayer phosphorus-doped polysilicon structure with silicon oxide diffusion barriers was deposited via plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) at about 435 C.
Five post-plasma oxidation durations were examined: 0, 66, 85, 100 and 120 seconds, where 66 seconds corresponds to the conventional industrial process and 100 seconds to the optimized condition. All samples were subsequently annealed at 910 C to crystallize the silicon layers and form the passivating contacts. The finished polysilicon layer measured approximately 100 nm in total thickness.
Photoconductance measurements were used to evaluate passivation quality, and the transmission line method determined rear contact resistivity. Secondary ion mass spectrometry and electrochemical capacitance-voltage profiling probed elemental distributions and electrically active phosphorus concentrations. X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy supplied further detail on crystallinity, surface morphology and chemical bonding. Completed cells were electrically tested to assess how the various oxidation treatments performed.
Analysis revealed that extending oxidation from the conventional 66 seconds to 100 seconds moved the electrically active phosphorus peak from about 20 nm to 50 nm beneath the polysilicon surface. Pushing oxidation to 120 seconds produced excessive phosphorus deactivation and worsened passivation quality. By optimizing the bottom tunnel oxide barrier, the team held the phosphorus peak near 50 nm while enhancing dopant activation and attaining an implied open-circuit voltage of 742.4 mV.
Material characterization pointed to inward-diffusing oxygen deactivating phosphorus by forming electrically inactive phosphorus-oxygen complexes rather than physically redistributing phosphorus atoms. The longer oxidation also enhanced near-surface crystallinity and modestly raised surface roughness, while overall polysilicon crystallinity stayed largely the same. Contact resistivity dropped from 1.54 to 1.00 milliohm-square-centimeters, though the researchers could not credit the gain solely to the phosphorus peak shift.
Industrial testing on 966 TOPCon cells showed average conversion efficiency climbing from 27.15% to 27.22%, a 0.07 percentage point improvement. A higher fill factor and greater short-circuit current drove most of the gain, while open-circuit voltage dipped slightly. Quantum efficiency measurements indicated lower parasitic absorption in the rear polysilicon contact, aiding the long-wavelength response.
The researchers concluded that the optimized oxidation process is a promising path to better industrial TOPCon cell performance, although separating the individual contributions of dopant deactivation, structural changes and optical effects remains difficult. The research team included scientists from Chinese PV manufacturer ZQi Solar Technology.
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Hanwha Qcells modules earned Top Performer recognition in all eight categories of Kiwa PVEL’s 2026 PV Module Reliability Scorecard, in tests released Tuesday (local time). The evaluation included modules made at the company’s Cartersville, Georgia, facility, which was completed in July. The results come as U.S. manufacturers face pressure to demonstrate product quality and domestic production credentials. Hanwha Qcells also received the Overall Highest Achiever designation in RETC’s PV Module Index Report.
An aerial view shows Hanwha Qcells’ manufacturing plant in Cartersville, Georgia, where the company produces solar modules as part of its U.S. Solar Hub / Courtesy of Hanwha Solutions
Hanwha Qcells has earned top ratings across two major international solar module evaluations, strengthening its position in the U.S. market as manufacturers face growing pressure to demonstrate product quality and domestic production credentials.
The solar division of Hanwha Solutions said Wednesday that its modules received Top Performer recognition in all eight categories of the 2026 PV Module Reliability Scorecard published by U.S.-based Kiwa PVEL, one of the industry’s leading independent testing organizations
The evaluation, released Tuesday (local time), subjected solar modules to eight rigorous tests designed to simulate harsh operating conditions, including high temperatures, humidity, sudden temperature changes, mechanical stress and hail impacts.
The assessment also included modules manufactured at Hanwha Qcells’ Cartersville, Georgia, facility, which was completed in July.
The results are particularly significant for the U.S. market, where locally manufactured products can qualify for additional tax incentives under the domestic content bonus credit provisions of the investment tax credit.
Hanwha Qcells has completed its Solar Hub, an integrated U.S. manufacturing network spanning ingots, wafers, solar cells and finished modules, centered on its Georgia operations.
The Cartersville plant is preparing to bring all production lines to full capacity by year-end, the company said.
Hanwha Qcells has already secured sales contracts for most of its planned 2027 module output and is pursuing additional supply agreements for 2028 and beyond.
The company also received the Overall Highest Achiever designation in the Renewable Energy Test Center’s (RETC) PV Module Index Report, released in May, earning top assessments in reliability, performance and quality.
“The fact that the world’s most prestigious third-party evaluation agencies, PVEL and RETC, have rated the reliability of Hanwha Qcells modules among the highest in the industry means that Solar Hub possesses world-class manufacturing capabilities and quality competitiveness,” Hanwha Qcells Manufacturing Division Head Hong Jeong-gwon said.
“We will continue to provide differentiated value to customers through even more rigorous quality management and continuous product innovation,” he added.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.

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Ashoka Buildcon Secures USD 58.9 Million Contract For 120 MWp Solar Project In Bhutan  SolarQuarter
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Government officials have approved plans for another solar farm in the Norfolk countryside.
The Planning Inspectorate reviewed Broadland District Council’s decision to reject OPDE UK’s plans for a 100-acre solar farm in Alderford, near Lenwade.
The council’s planning committee had blocked the scheme, known as Plough Meadow, at a meeting in March.
Councillors said the scheme would take some of the county’s best farmland out of production.
But Paul Thompson, the planning inspector, overturned the decision, saying the solar farm would help the government reach net zero by 2050.
The site in Alderford where a huge new solar farm could be built (Image: Google Maps)
He said while the solar farm would industrialise the landscape, there were several benefits to the scheme which mean it should be allowed to go ahead.
The solar farm will generate enough energy to power 8,000 homes, which the inspector said would be a substantial benefit.
The inspector added the proposals would contribute to reducing the effects of climate change.
The plans drew criticism from political leaders and local people, with 33 members of the public objecting.
Greg Peck, who was county councillor for Reepham until May’s elections, said he strongly objected “to vast swathes of plastic and glass” covering the Norfolk countryside.
There has been a rise in the number of solar farm applications across the county in recent months.
Among those are three nationally significant projects—the 4,000 acres High Grove solar farm between Dereham and Castle Acre, the 2,800-acre Droves solar farm and the 2,700 acre East Pye development.
The surge in renewable energy projects prompted Mid Norfolk MP George Freeman to warn that Norfolk faces a “wall” of solar farms.
Speaking in September, he said: “I was adding up the acreage and there’s about seven and a half thousand in west Norfolk and five or six thousand in south Norfolk, so that’s about 12,000 acres.
“That’s 250 Wembley stadiums and the size of the Norwich City Council area.
“This is going to be a wall of solar infrastructure across the A47. This is big.”
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LANSING, MI (WTVB) –  Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has issued a new consumer alert urging residents to conduct thorough due diligence before signing solar panel installation contracts.
While acknowledging that solar panels can effectively lower electricity costs and reduce a homeowner’s environmental footprint, Nessel emphasized that companies must be completely transparent about total system costs and realistic performance metrics.
She says “A promise of lower energy bills does not tell the whole story, and claims about tax breaks and energy savings deserve a closer look,” adding that Michigan residents should be able to explore renewable energy options without falling victim to misleading sales tactics or unexpected financial burdens.
To prevent financial strain, the Attorney General’s office advises consumers to verify company records and state licensing, consult directly with their utility providers regarding ongoing baseline bills, and carefully review physical copies of contracts rather than rushing through digital forms on a salesperson’s tablet.
Furthermore, homeowners are cautioned not to rely blindly on promised tax credits, which vary by individual circumstance, and to investigate equipment longevity, as long-term solar loan payments can occasionally outlast the lifespan of the panels themselves.
Consumers who believe they have been misled are encouraged to file a formal complaint with the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Team.
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Germany has plug-in solar and few safety issues, but "Australians aren't Germans" and may not follow the rules. (Getty: Stefan Sauer/dpa)
Advocates are calling on the federal government to legalise plug-in solar and batteries by mid-2027.
Industry groups say the devices could cause house fires and a "rushed process" could repeat the mistakes of the 2009 "pink batts" scheme.
Australia's energy ministers have agreed to explore pathways for "safe deployment" of plug-in solar across the country and will report back in December. 
Solar panels and batteries that can be plugged into regular power outlets could cause house fires due to rushed implementation and lack of safety oversight, according to electrical trade groups. 
Advocates want the devices to be legalised in Australia by mid-2027, saying it would allow renters, apartment dwellers and low-income households to benefit from lower energy bills.
The federal government is working with states and territories to develop a safety framework, with Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen telling a webinar last week he had asked Standards Australia to fast-track the project, which would be completed "very quickly". 
Australia readies to lift a ban on plug-in solar, unlocking access to the technology for millions of apartment dwellers and renters for the first time.
Western Australia has struck out on its own, releasing a draft technical standard that would bypass this national process and aiming to be the first state or territory to legalise the technology.
But industry groups and unions are warning of safety risks, saying a rushed process could result in deaths.
The organisations include the peak body for electricians, Master Electricians Australia (MEA); the peak body for electrical contractors, National Electrical and Communications Association (NECA); and the Electrical Trades Union (ETU).  
MEA CEO Kate Raymond said the current proposed safety measures, including those in WA's draft standard, could cause house fires, the release of toxic battery gases, and other dangerous outcomes. 
"We understand the cost of living; we understand people want and need to reduce their energy bills," Ms Raymond told the ABC.
"But what's the cost of a house fire? What's the cost of someone losing their life?"
Power pushed into a circuit by a plug-in solar panel or battery bypasses circuit breakers that protect wiring in walls and switchboards from overheating.
Germany, which has added more than 1 million plug-in solar systems in two years without disaster, limits the output of such devices so extra current cannot overload wiring.
Plug-in solar, or "balcony solar", has also been legalised in the UK and some US states. (Supplied: Holger's Pictures)
The same approach is being proposed by plug-in advocates and the WA government, which permits one plug-in system per household in its draft standards.
But "Australians aren't Germans", MEA national technical manager Matthew Duncan said.
"Households either won't read the safety instructions or they'll ignore them.
Multiple solar panels or batteries can overload a circuit, and the risk is higher in houses with faulty wiring. 
Plug-in batteries may also be riskier than panels because they can push power into a circuit for longer.
NECA director of safety Neil Roberts said misuse was inevitable.
"You're trusting the competency of the general public to install these," he said.
This is a small plug-in battery, but stacked systems can exceed 15 kilowatt-hours, which is about the size of an average home battery. (Supplied: Fuse)
Carl Copeland, the CEO of the Electrotechnology Training Institute (ETI), which represents hundreds of electrical contractors and trains thousands of apprentices in WA, warned of a repeat of mistakes from the 2009 home insulation program.
The pink batts scheme's rushed rollout and a lack of safety oversight contributed to the deaths of four installers, according to a later royal commission.
"We're going to end up with a situation like we did with the pink batts insulation where we'll have home owners plug in three or four of these things into the system, overloading their system, and causing house fires," Mr Copeland said.
Ultimately, resolving safety concerns may require more checks and balances, but these will cost money, undermining the purpose of reducing household expenses.
Rooftop solar and home batteries must be installed by qualified electricians with specific, current accreditation, following rigorous standards relating to placement, cabling, mountings and more.
Under the WA draft standard, households installing plug-in devices would be required to read and follow a long list of complicated rules, including how to angle panels to achieve adequate ventilation and prevent overheating, where to place batteries to ensure toxic gas does not vent into bedrooms, and what stickers to add to switchboards to warn electricians and emergency services of the plug-in devices on premises.
There is no process for verifying whether households do any of this.
The approach throws out the "rule book", the MEA's Mr Duncan said.
NECA and MEA want rules to mandate that panels and batteries can only be plugged into a dedicated circuit using a plug that cannot connect to regular power outlets. 
But such a mandate would require households to pay an electrician to install the circuit, which could still easily be bypassed with adaptor plugs.
The ETU said plug-in solar and batteries were "not just another appliance".
"[Plug-in solar] creates electricity and this creates a greater risk requiring different, clear safety standards to protect residents and electrical workers from harm or death," ETU national secretary Michael Wright said in a statement.
Each state and territory sets its own electrical safety laws but usually adopts national standards set by Standards Australia's independent committees, typically comprised of volunteers with technical knowledge of the subject.
WA is bypassing this process by drafting its own standard.
At the webinar hosted by advocacy group Solar Citizens last week, Mr Bowen said plug-in solar and batteries would be legalised but the safety process "cannot be rushed".
"We would be letting down the people relying on us if we cut corners and allowed safety risks," he said.
WA is set to be the first Australian state to unlock access to the technology, commonly known as "balcony solar", which is already used by millions of people in Europe and the UK.
At the same webinar, a WA government official said the state was "on track" to complete its own process in 2027.
WA Energy Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson told the ABC safety was "absolutely our primary concern".
"But we want the conversation to move past whether it can be done safely, to how it can be done safely here in WA," she said in a statement.
The MEA's Mr Duncan said legalising plug-in solar and batteries nationally would require amending six different standards overseen by Standards Australia committees.
"Our concern is very much that the process is going to be rushed," Mr Duncan, a member of the committee for wiring rules, said.
He said the committee would have to amend standards relating to plug-in solar and batteries but had not yet received such a proposal.  
"We see a lot of push from advocates to have this completed early next year, and that's just not possible from a Standards Australia perspective."
Solar Citizens told the ABC its mid-2027 deadline was "eminently doable".
Glenn Morris, a Solar Citizens consultant and a member of the Standards Australia committees overseeing plug-in safety rules, said Germany and the UK had "already done all the technical work".  
"Eight months is a normal time frame for an amendment [to a technical standard] when there is government direction," Mr Morris, who is also the director of Smart Energy Lab, said.
In September Australia's energy ministers agreed to explore pathways for "safe deployment" of plug-in solar across the country and report back in December.
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The Australian government is considering ‘next steps’ for procuring a National Solar Panel Recycling Pilot’ administrator, after cancelling its search the day an ongoing six month suspension was also lifted.
Undisclosed “changes to the industry” since the release of the government’s tender in April 2026, are cited as the catalyst for the decision on 10 November to cancel the procurement without the award of a contract.
Initially suspended in May 2026 due to a procurement complaint and consequent investigation, the original tender proposed that a contract for an NSPRP administrator would have begun by May 2026 and run until June 2027, with the possibility of extension.
The complaint centred on the settings and rules of the procurement process for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), but details are not public.
The AUD 24.7 million ($16.9 million) pilot procurement sought to engage a supplier to arrange, manage, deliver and report to the government on an NSPRP.
It would be tasked with arranging the collection of up to 250,000 decommissioned panels from around 100 sites across Australia and ensure panels are safely aggregated, transported and recycled.
The government estimates 3 million panels reached end-of-life in 2025, and could grow to 50 million panels by 2035.
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Tuesday, November 24, 2026
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm CET, Berlin, Paris, Madrid
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Day 1 | Europe’s Solar and Storage Markets 2027: What works where?
Day 2 | Solar + Storage Co-location: Three markets, three business cases
Day 3 | Solar Quality: Which technical risks still need better answers?
Day 4 | Cybersecurity and Procurement: What can European solar projects source in 2027 and beyond?
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Australia plug-in solar push faces fire safety warnings  Traders Union
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Ministers determined that threats to the Green Belt, aviation safety, and Blenheim Palace outweigh clean energy benefits.
The UK government has refused planning permission for Photovolt Development Partners’ (PVDP) proposed Botley West solar farm, a project with a planned capacity of 840MW in Oxfordshire.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero confirmed that the Development Consent Order application was rejected following a recommendation from the Planning Inspectorate.
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This refusal was announced on 10 November by Baroness Margaret Curran, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, on behalf of Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh.
The proposed scheme would have spanned more than 2,000 acres, covering land in West Oxfordshire, Cherwell, and Vale of White Horse Districts, across approximately 1,400ha.
The government cited multiple reasons for the decision.
As per the official decision notice, the “adverse impact of the proposed development would outweigh its benefits.”
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero highlighted “substantial harm to the Green Belt and harm to a number of designated heritage assets,” including the Blenheim Palace World Heritage Site, which is described as “of the highest significance.”
Further reasons included “significant adverse effects in relation to landscape and visual amenity” and “residual adverse impacts on aviation safety which present an unacceptable risk to public safety.”
Concerns were also raised regarding PVDP’s “approach to assessing and restoring best and most versatile land”.
The project had an estimated value of £800m ($1bn).
The government’s rejection followed several years of consultations, with the decision postponed twice to allow more time for review, reported BBC.
Trade association Solar Energy UK described the move as “surprising” and “disappointing.”
PVDP had previously argued the solar farm could supply enough electricity to power the equivalent of 330,000 homes and contribute to the UK’s climate and energy security goals.
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The U.S. solar industry remains closely tied to the military community as clean energy emerges as a natural landing pad for transitioning service members and post-9/11 veterans. Technical precision, adherence to safety protocols, high-pressure team coordination, and systems-level troubleshooting make military backgrounds an ideal fit for solar development, construction, and operations. 
Department of Defense programs, independent non-profits, and specialized industry certifications structure the active initiatives and employment pathways available today. 
DoD skillbridge and transition pathways 
Transitioning service members within their final 180 days of active duty can leverage the DoD SkillBridge program to bridge into civilian solar careers while maintaining full military pay and benefits. 
Airstreams Renewables operates as a prominent, active SkillBridge partner across national military installations, offering an intensive renewable energy training program that includes fundamental electrical training, OSHA 10 certification, and blueprint reading directly transferable to solar technician and operations and maintenance roles. VTEC, the Veteran Training and Education Center, actively operates training pipelines for transitioning soldiers with advanced clean energy tracks featuring specialized training for solar and energy storage automation integration. 
Hiring Our Heroes continues to host active corporate fellowships. Transitioning service members can use these 12-week work-based learning fellowships to step into corporate, operational, management, or project development roles at major clean energy firms. 
Certifications and GI Bill funded training 
For veterans who have already separated from active duty, several organizations provide pathways funded by the VA or through specialized scholarships. 
Solar Energy International continues to provide its Active Duty Military and Veterans Career Transition Program. Veterans can use VA education benefits to enroll in the Solar Professionals Certificate Program, while eligible military spouses can utilize up to $4,000 via the MyCAA Scholarship Program for residential, commercial, or battery-based technical certificates. 
NABCEP provides dedicated veterans pathways to fast-track individuals with relevant military experience, such as electrical, construction, or engineering ratings, toward professional solar credentials. Crucially, the VA approves GI Bill reimbursement for NABCEP exam fees, including PVA, PVIP, and PVTS certifications. 
Non-profit initiatives and hiring commitments 
Community-based organizations and major clean energy developers maintain active pipelines to recruit military talent. 
GRID Alternatives operates active clean energy workforce training programs designed to help veterans transition into the renewable economy through hands-on installation experience. Leading national solar contractors like SOLV Energy actively partner with veteran training institutions to maintain direct-hire pipelines, specifically targeting military talent for their scaling utility-scale projects. 
Military discounts 
If your interest lies on the consumer side with installing solar on your own home, several residential solar providers offer distinct incentives for active duty and veteran personnel. 
Watts for Warriors provides a $1,000 discount alongside near at-cost installation rates for military members, while Pro-Stat Solar Group offers a flat $1,000 discount on solar panel installations for all veterans and first responders. Many major regional installers also extend military discounts, typically ranging from a 5% reduction on total installation costs up to $500 off equipment packages.
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Tuesday, November 24, 2026
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm CET, Berlin, Paris, Madrid
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On November 10, 2026, SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES, a German maker of solar cell manufacturing equipment, announced that it had signed a contract with SpaceX to supply one turnkey production line for heterojunction (HJT) solar cells. The company also refers to plans to deliver multiple additional lines and to a large-scale production concept of “more than 100GW.” At this point, however, the only contract that can be confirmed is the first line, scheduled for delivery in the first half of 2027. SpaceX also provided funding to SINGULUS in March and October 2026, so the deal has the unusual feature of SpaceX buying manufacturing equipment from a company it is supporting financially. To assess the announcement, it is necessary to separate confirmed orders from future plans and to understand the financial relationship between the two companies.
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According to SINGULUS, the contract is part of a strategic partnership between the two companies, under which it will supply one HJT solar cell production line on a turnkey basis. A turnkey contract is one in which a full set of manufacturing equipment is installed and handed over to the customer ready to operate. The first line is scheduled for delivery in the first half of 2027. Mike Nicolls, SpaceX’s Senior Vice President for Starlink, explained that it will be high-performance equipment for manufacturing solar cells for Starmind satellites at the company’s production site in Texas. He also indicated that the long-term partnership could accommodate future expansion of production scale.
HJT is a solar cell technology that forms thin films on both sides of a crystalline silicon wafer, reducing charge recombination losses and raising power generation efficiency. Lars Lieberwirth, a member of the SINGULUS management board, cited as a company strength the ability to integrate wet-chemical processing, vacuum deposition, and thermal processing on a single manufacturing platform. The company hopes the partnership will strengthen its position as a leading supplier of next-generation solar cell technology in Western countries. According to the announcement, the two companies will also work on developing high-performance solar cells and the equipment to make them, building on existing mass-production technology. In other words, the collaboration extends beyond equipment supply to the design and development of the solar cells themselves.
The press release describing the strategic partnership does not state a contract value. However, in a separate release published the same day, November 10, SINGULUS disclosed that the order value for the first production line exceeds €60 million. That is more than about ¥10.6 billion in yen terms (converted at ¥176.5 per euro). None of the documents gives specific figures for how many GW of capacity each line represents, how many additional lines will be introduced, or when they will be delivered. The additional equipment is described only as “planned delivery of multiple lines,” and those orders have not been finalized.
On March 27, 2026, SINGULUS also announced that it had won a first order worth tens of millions of euros from an unnamed technology partner. The strategic partnership with SpaceX began in the same month, but public information does not confirm whether that anonymous customer was SpaceX. The “more than 100GW” figure in the latest announcement should also be treated with caution. SINGULUS refers to scaling up to support production equipment of more than 100GW as SpaceX accelerates satellite manufacturing in Bastrop, Texas. But it is unclear whether the 100GW refers to annual production capacity, cumulative production scale, or how many production lines it would correspond to. It therefore cannot be interpreted to mean that SpaceX has already ordered 100GW worth of equipment.
What characterizes this contract is the financial relationship between SpaceX and SINGULUS. The two companies entered into a strategic partnership in March 2026, and SpaceX provided SINGULUS with “significant funding.” The announcement does not disclose the specific amount. SINGULUS then announced on October 21 that it had raised a subordinated, secured loan of about €22.75 million. A subordinated loan is financing in which the repayment priority is set lower than that of other ordinary debt, so the lender bears correspondingly higher credit risk. The announcement reveals that SpaceX also provided additional funds in October as part of this loan.
The loan of about €22.75 million is equivalent to about ¥4 billion, using the exchange rate published by the Bank of Japan as of 5 p.m. on November 6, 2026 (about ¥176.5 per euro). SINGULUS’s 2026 revenue outlook, presented on May 12, was about €83 million, so the loan equals about 27% of that. The first production line, meanwhile, is worth more than €60 million, so the loan is less than 40% of the order value. The order for a single line alone is more than 70% of the company’s expected annual revenue. However, it has not been disclosed when revenue from this order will be recognized, so it cannot be compared directly with the 2026 revenue outlook.
The October loan was used to repay in full the debt related to China’s Triumph Science and Technology Group. That debt arose from past loans and customer advance payments for individual projects. The new loan replaced the debt owed to Triumph, and the roughly 16.75% stake in SINGULUS that Triumph held also moves to German investors. In other words, SINGULUS was already reviewing its funding sources and shareholder structure before the supply contract with SpaceX was announced.
Arranged in chronological order, the relationship runs as follows: in March 2026, SpaceX provided funding to SINGULUS and began the strategic partnership; in October, it contributed additional funds; and on November 10, the supply contract for one HJT solar cell production line was announced. For an equipment maker, winning a large order is of little use if it cannot secure the funds needed to build and deliver the equipment. When a customer lends money to the manufacturer, it can support the supplier’s cash flow while advancing the procurement of the equipment it needs. SINGULUS had previously relied on loans and customer advance payments to carry out projects, so this deal can also be seen as combining financial support with equipment procurement.
However, confirmed facts need to be distinguished from speculation regarding the relationship between funding and the order. The announcements confirm that SpaceX is supporting SINGULUS financially and that it is purchasing manufacturing equipment from the company. It is not clear, however, whether the contract price was determined through competitive bidding, or whether the financing and the equipment purchase were agreed as an integrated condition. There is also no evidence to conclude that SpaceX intends to effectively lock in SINGULUS, for example by restricting supply to other companies.
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The contract can be seen as reflecting real demand behind SpaceX’s expansion of solar cell production capacity. HJT is a technology with a track record in mass production, and SINGULUS has long made related manufacturing equipment. Meanwhile, the company’s 2025 revenue was €48.3 million and its order backlog at the end of March 2026 was €69.5 million, so a large contract with SpaceX is significant relative to the size of its business. It is also reasonable from the standpoint of securing a stable equipment supply for an important customer to support its supplier’s cash flow through loans. The plan to introduce multiple lines, and the long-term partnership that Mike Nicolls mentioned, also support the view that SpaceX is seeking to expand solar cell production capacity.
Still, the existence of real demand is a separate matter from whether every future plan has been fixed in contracts. What the announcement confirms is the first production line to be delivered in the first half of 2027 and the fact that SpaceX has provided funding to SINGULUS. For the multiple additional lines, delivery plans are indicated, but the number of contracts and the amounts have not been disclosed. To evaluate the future scale of the business, it will therefore be necessary to see whether additional contracts are actually signed.
SpaceX’s planned solar cell factory in Bastrop has been reported to have a planned annual capacity of 10GW, based on a permit application filed with the county. This is a planned figure based on press reports, however, and it is unclear whether its scope and timeframe match the “more than 100GW” in the SINGULUS announcement. The two cannot be compared to calculate what share of future plans the current contract represents. To evaluate such capacity figures, the capacity per line and the stage of equipment introduction would need to be clarified.
The key point to watch is whether SINGULUS announces orders for additional lines before the end of June 2027, the delivery deadline for the first production line. If the number and value of additional contracts become clear, it would confirm that the expansion of production capacity, now only at the planning stage, has moved on to concrete orders. On the other hand, even if the first line is delivered on schedule, that would mean only that the existing contract has been fulfilled; it would not support the existence of orders for additional lines. If the capacity per line is disclosed, it would also provide a basis for estimating the scale of equipment needed for the “more than 100GW” concept.
The partnership between SpaceX and SINGULUS is drawing attention not only as an expansion of production capacity for satellite solar cells, but also as a move to put a manufacturing equipment supply system in place through customer financial support. At this point, however, what is confirmed is the first line worth more than €60 million, and whether large additional investments materialize depends on future contracts. Delivery status in the first half of 2027 and disclosure of orders for additional lines will be important indicators for judging progress on SpaceX’s solar cell manufacturing plans.
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UK Rejects Huge Solar Farm on Historic Blenheim Estate  Bloomberg.com
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Raana Semiconductors Private Limited has signed a pre-order agreement with SWELECT HHV Solar Photovoltaics Pvt. Ltd. (SHPV) for the supply of CZ12 ingot growers. These will be deployed at SHPV’s proposed 1 GW ingot and wafer manufacturing facility. Raana Semiconductors is an Indian technology company focused on developing indigenous crystal-growth equipment for semiconductor and solar manufacturing applications. 
SHPV is a wholly owned subsidiary of SWELECT Energy Systems Ltd. Under the agreement, Raana will also provide process optimisation, recipe development and technical training to support the facility’s commissioning and production ramp-up.
The agreement comes as Indian solar manufacturers look to expand beyond module assembly into upstream manufacturing, particularly silicon ingots and wafers. These stages are critical to the domestic solar supply chain, which continues to have a significant dependence on imported upstream materials.
SWELECT’s planned entry into ingot and wafer manufacturing is part of a broader expansion strategy. In October 2026, the company outlined an investment plan of approximately ₹4,500 crore over three years, including around ₹1,500 crore for its proposed ingot and wafer manufacturing venture.
The company also plans to expand its independent power producer (IPP) portfolio from 180 MW to around 1 GW over the next two to three years.
The proposed 1 GW ingot and wafer facility represents a separate upstream manufacturing initiative from SHPV’s existing solar module operations in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. SWELECT’s website currently describes SHPV as operating a 2 GW-plus module manufacturing facility.
Under the agreement, Raana will supply CZ12 ingot growers and provide support beyond equipment installation. This includes process optimisation and recipe development, along with training for SHPV’s technical team at Raana’s pilot facility.
The arrangement is intended to help SHPV establish operating procedures, improve production yields and reduce equipment downtime during the initial manufacturing phase.
Raana develops crystal-growth systems based on the Czochralski (CZ) process, which involves drawing a single crystal from molten silicon to produce ingots. These ingots are subsequently sliced into wafers, which are processed into solar cells.
The company has been developing indigenous CZ equipment for solar and semiconductor applications. In September 2026, it outlined plans to introduce a 12-inch CZ ingot growth machine for the Indian solar market, targeting equipment capable of supporting around 10 GW of solar cell production capacity over three years.
The Raana-SWELECT agreement highlights an emerging segment of India’s solar manufacturing ecosystem: indigenous equipment suppliers.
While domestic manufacturers have expanded module and cell production, scaling ingot and wafer manufacturing will also require access to specialised crystal-growth equipment, process expertise and trained technical personnel.
The agreement could provide an example of how domestic equipment manufacturers and solar producers can collaborate to develop these capabilities. However, the actual impact will depend on equipment delivery, plant commissioning, production yields and the facility’s ability to achieve commercial-scale output.
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New Delhi

SpaceX has signed a major supply contract with Germany-based SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES for advanced solar cell manufacturing equipment to support the production of its Starmind satellites in Bastrop, Texas, with the planned manufacturing capacity set to scale to more than 100 GW.

Singulus Technologies announced on Tuesday that it had signed a contract with SpaceX for a turnkey production line to manufacture heterojunction (HJT) solar cells.
The agreement is part of a strategic partnership between the two companies under which Singulus is planning to deliver multiple additional production lines.
The first production line is scheduled to be delivered in the first half of 2027. Production will subsequently scale to support more than 100 GW of production equipment as SpaceX accelerates satellite manufacturing at its facility in Bastrop, Texas.
The partnership will involve the development of high-performance solar cells and production equipment based on technologies that have already been deployed at scale.
Mike Nicolls, Senior Vice President of Starlink at SpaceX, said, "Partnering with Singulus gives us a high-performance manufacturing path for solar cells for our Starmind satellites at our production facility in Texas. The combination of their process expertise and our long-term commitment creates a durable option for scaling solar production."
Lars Lieberwirth, Member of the Executive Board of SINGULUS, said, "Our unique platform approach, which combines wet chemistry, vacuum coating and thermal processing, is a strong differentiator in the market. The strategic partnership with SpaceX allows us to further industrialize these capabilities at a meaningful scale and solidify our position as a leading Western provider of next-generation solar cell technology."
SpaceX said the agreement provides a durable option for advanced solar cell manufacturing as it accelerates the production of its Starmind satellites in Texas.
The partnership between the two companies dates back to March 2026. Singulus said SpaceX provided significant funding to the German company in March 2026 and additional funding in October 2026 as part of a recently announced subordinated secured loan.
Singulus Technologies develops and assembles machines and systems used for thin-film coating and surface treatment.
Its equipment is used across several industries, including photovoltaics, semiconductors, medical technology, packaging, glass and automotive, as well as battery and hydrogen markets.
READ MORE: Engineer Mohammed Kashif turns scrap into art, saves environment
The company's core technologies include physical vapour deposition (PVD) sputtering, plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD), evaporation, surface treatment, wet-chemical processes and thermal production processes.
The latest agreement marks an expansion of the companies' existing partnership, with Singulus expected to supply the initial production line in 2027 and plan multiple additional lines to support SpaceX's solar cell manufacturing requirements.
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Swelect places order for Indian-made ingot equipment for 1GW wafer line  PV Tech
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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.
A homeowner hoped to cut upfront costs by replacing a battery with additional panels.
Photo Credit: iStock
Reddit users warned a prospective solar customer that a lower installation bill could come at the expense of long-term savings under California’s electricity rates. The homeowner hoped to cut upfront costs by replacing a battery with additional panels.
Before moving forward, the homeowner turned to Reddit’s r/TeslaSolar community with a question: “Is this better or more panels?” Their post included an updated installation quote reflecting equipment changes they had requested from a service advisor.
One reply focused on utility billing rules and the value of battery storage. The commenter, who identified themselves as a California High Desert resident, specifically mentioned SCE, SDG&E, and PG&E.
For homeowners comparing backup power options, EnergySage offers a resource to explore battery products and compare competitive installation estimates. EnergySage has also partnered with electrification company Qmerit to help homeowners secure the best available battery-storage pricing.
Time-of-use billing ties electricity prices to when power is used. According to the High Desert commenter, households installing solar in that part of California would almost certainly have to switch to such a plan if they were customers of SCE, SDG&E, or PG&E.
Additional panels can generate more electricity, while a battery allows homeowners to store solar power for use during more expensive hours or for nighttime.
Beyond the potential financial benefits, a suitably configured battery can provide backup power during outages and help households become more energy independent. When paired with an appropriately designed power system, storage can also support off-grid use.
Painting the project’s conduit was another installation cost the homeowner had checked with the city.
With energy prices through the roof, there’s never been a better time to go solar — and EasyHome can help you find the best prices from the best installers in your area.
EasyHome takes the guesswork and headaches out of energy upgrades by showing you estimated savings from a network of vetted local partners. To get started, just enter your ZIP and share a few details about your home — seeing your estimate is really that easy.
The service adviser was also asked to remove conduit painting from the quote. The homeowner said that request followed confirmation from city staff that painting was not required to pass a code inspection.
For households primarily seeking a smaller backup option, Pila offers a plug-and-play battery alternative at a substantially lower price point than whole-home backup systems.
One user wrote, “Part of the reason I got my solar is for the backups. Can’t imagine doing an install without batteries.”
“A battery can make or break the system paying for itself,” another commenter concluded.
Other California homeowners have faced similar questions about battery storage under the state’s electricity rates and solar billing rules.
• A solar homeowner began shopping for a battery after peak-hour rates erased bill credits.
• A solar shopper questioned a five-year battery PPA before learning about no-storage penalties.
• California’s solar export credit cuts have steered new buyers toward batteries costing more than $14,000.
• A renter wanted to add batteries to solar without triggering a switch to NEM 3.0.
• A homeowner considered a battery lease at $116 monthly without eventual ownership.
Get TCD’s free newsletters for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here.
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WORK
Solid Group Inc., the listed conglomerate led by Elena Lim and best known for the MyPhone brand, is putting real money into solar manufacturing. Its board approved on Nov. 10 an additional $8-million infusion into its wholly owned offshore unit so that unit can take half of a solar cell and module plant built for export buyers.

What the stock exchange filing says

The company told the Philippine Stock Exchange that Brilliant Reach Ltd., its wholly owned foreign subsidiary, will form a joint venture in Singapore with MSRenewable Investment Holding Ltd., a firm with Singaporean investors. Brilliant Reach will put in $20 million for a 50 percent stake.
Of that $20 million, $8 million comes from the parent and $12 million from Brilliant Reach’s existing cash. Solid Group said the capital contributions are still subject to regulatory approvals.
Bilyonaryo put the venture at $40 million and said each side is contributing $20 million for half. The filing itself did not break out the partner’s own contribution.

What the plant will make, and what Solid did not say

The joint venture will develop, own and operate a manufacturing facility in the Philippines producing solar photovoltaic cells, modules and related products. Output is intended for overseas markets.
The disclosure did not give the plant’s location, its production capacity, or a construction timetable. It also did not name a site or say when the facility would start running.

The money, line by line

Why a property and electronics group wants a solar factory

Solid Group said the venture would diversify its investment portfolio and open new revenue streams as demand for renewable energy products grows. It also warned that returns will depend on how the facility is developed and how it performs once running.
Building panels is a different business from building solar farms, and the filing puts Solid Group on the factory side of that line. The country’s project pipeline has been on the generation side, including AboitizPower’s 60 percent stake in a 191-MW Bukidnon solar project and a Taiwanese firm’s plan to build floating solar floats in Pampanga.

What is still open

For now the disclosure leaves the basics unanswered: where the plant will rise, how much it will produce, and when it will be finished. What is settled is the money, the split, and the export target.
The photo above shows a solar module assembly line operated by Bluebird Solar, with workers at stringing and layup stations. It shows an existing production line and does not depict the facility Solid Group plans to build. (Photo: Bluebird Solar Manufacturing Unit, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

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China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.’s (CASC) 11th Research Institute completed the maiden flight of its Light Cavalry solar-powered UAV on Nov. 11 at an undisclosed airfield in northwestern China. The flight marks a milestone in the institute’s efforts to develop a commercially deployable solar-powered aircraft.
The UAV has an 8-meter wingspan, a maximum takeoff weight of 45 kg and a payload capacity of more than 5 kg. According to the institute, the aircraft is designed to operate continuously for up to 30 hours at altitudes of up to 7,000 meters. It can be launched from a vehicle without a runway and requires approximately 20 minutes of ground preparation.
The specifications represent design targets rather than independently verified performance figures. The maiden flight demonstrated basic flight capability and system integration, but the institute did not report endurance testing.
The aircraft is powered entirely by solar cells integrated into its wings. During daylight hours, the photovoltaic modules supply electricity to the propulsion system while charging onboard batteries. The batteries provide power after sunset, enabling the UAV to continue operating overnight without consuming fuel.
The 11th Research Institute, which also develops the Rainbow series of military and civilian UAVs, said it developed the aircraft’s key subsystems in-house, including flight controls, avionics and energy management systems.
The institute is targeting commercial applications such as inspections of power transmission lines, pipelines and railway corridors. Its proposed 30-hour endurance could enable extended inspection missions covering several hundred kilometers, depending on operating conditions.
Other potential applications include environmental monitoring, emergency response and communications relay services. The aircraft’s vehicle-based launch capability is intended to support operations in remote locations without dedicated aviation infrastructure.
The development comes as China promotes its low-altitude economy, encouraging the use of civilian UAVs in sectors including logistics, agriculture and infrastructure inspection.
Solar-powered, long-endurance UAVs could occupy a niche between battery-powered multirotor aircraft, which typically have shorter flight times, and conventional fuel-powered UAVs. Solar propulsion offers the potential to reduce fuel consumption and operating emissions, although commercial viability will depend on acquisition costs, payload capabilities, operating conditions and demonstrated endurance.
CASC has not disclosed a timeline for commercial certification, production plans or pricing.
The maiden flight represents an initial development milestone. Further flight testing, regulatory approvals and customer qualification will be needed before the aircraft can enter routine commercial service.
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Tuesday, November 24, 2026
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm CET, Berlin, Paris, Madrid
The new issue of pv magazine Global is out now!
Available in print and digital – get your copy today!
Day 1 | Europe’s Solar and Storage Markets 2027: What works where?
Day 2 | Solar + Storage Co-location: Three markets, three business cases
Day 3 | Solar Quality: Which technical risks still need better answers?
Day 4 | Cybersecurity and Procurement: What can European solar projects source in 2027 and beyond?
Friday, November 13, 2026
10:00 am – 11:00 am CET, Berlin, Paris, Madrid
As a media partner of Genera 2026, pv magazine will organize and moderate a session in Spanish in Madrid, during International Electrification and Decarbonization Week.
Monday, November 23, 2026
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Hanwha Qcells’ US-Made Solar Modules Earn Top Reliability Ratings  THE ELEC, Korea Electronics Industry Media
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Saudi Power Procurement Co. (SPPC) has launched the eighth round of the Saudi government’s National Renewable Energy Program (NREP). It has issued a request for qualification (RFQ) for 1.9 GW of solar capacity across two projects.
The 1 GW EAM independent power producer (IPP) project will be located approximately 120 km southeast of Tathleeth, in Saudi Arabia’s Asir province.
The 900 MW TMR IPP project will be located approximately 26 km north of Tumair, 62 km east of Al Majmaah and 170 km north of Riyadh, in Riyadh province.
The selected developers must develop and build the facilities on a build-own-operate (BOO) basis. They have until Nov. 22 to pre-qualify for the tender.
SPPC launched the seventh round in September 2025, seeking developers for 3.1 GW of solar capacity across four projects. These include the 1.4 GW Tabarjal 2 project in Al Jouf province, the 600 MW Mawqaq project in Hail province, the 600 MW Tathleeth project in Asir province and the 500 MW South Al Ula project in Madinah province. SPPC announced the qualified developers in January 2026, with bids submitted in September 2026.
The sixth round, launched in September 2024, resulted in the award of 3 GW of solar capacity across four projects in October 2025. Masdar secured the 1.4 GW Najran project at a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of $0.0110/kWh and the 600 MW Ad Darb project at $0.0136/kWh. The 600 MW Samtah project was awarded at $0.0149/kWh, while a consortium of TotalEnergies and Al Jomaih Energy & Water Company secured the 400 MW Sufun project at $0.0151/kWh.
The fifth round, launched in November 2023, covered 3.7 GW of solar capacity across four projects. These included the 2 GW Al Sadawi plant in eastern Saudi Arabia, the 1 GW Al Masa’a project in Hail province, the 400 MW Al Henakiyah 2 project in Madinah province and the 300 MW Rabigh 2 project in Makkah province. In October 2024, SPPC announced shortlisted bids, including a $0.0129/kWh offer for Al Sadawi from a consortium of Masdar and Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO).
The fourth round, launched in September 2022, included 1.5 GW of solar capacity across two projects, alongside 1.8 GW of wind capacity. The solar component comprised the 1.1 GW Al Henakiyah project in Madinah province and a 400 MW solar plant in Tabarjal, northern Saudi Arabia.
The third round, launched in January 2020, sought to allocate 1.2 GW of solar capacity across four projects with capacities of 700 MW, 300 MW, 120 MW and 80 MW. The procurement process, overseen by the Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO), required selected projects to contain at least 17% local content and attracted 49 prequalified developers.
The second round, launched in January 2019, initially targeted 1.515 GW of solar capacity across seven projects ranging from 20 MW to 600 MW. It attracted expressions of interest from more than 250 companies. The procurement exercise subsequently produced a record-low solar tariff of $0.0104/kWh for the 600 MW Al Shuaiba project in April 2021.
The first round resulted in the award of the 300 MW Sakaka solar project to ACWA Power at a tariff of SAR 0.08872/kWh ($0.0236/kWh). The project, which was connected to the grid in November 2019, was Saudi Arabia’s first utility-scale solar plant procured under the NREP.
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A solar or wind farm in ERCOT can watch wholesale prices fall below zero, which makes a project hard to finance. Ever.green sells companies 5- to 10-year contracts for a project’s renewable energy certificates (RECs, credits for megawatt-hours of clean power), giving developers revenue they can take to the bank.
A pending greenhouse gas protocol change would phase in hourly matching, counting clean power only in the hour and on the grid where a company uses it. Backers say that cuts double counting. Ever.green Chief Executive Cris Eugster says it would steer buyers away from long-term contracts on dirtier grids. We recorded an interview with him in October.
On this week’s Energy Capital Podcast, Joshua Rhodes talks with Eugster, Ever.green’s co-founder and a former chief operating officer of CPS Energy, about how long-term contracts get clean projects built.
The rest of the conversation:
Solar for schools: REC contracts at $25 to $35 each, against $2 to $3 on the spot market, lower the power bill for 15 Wayne County, W.V., schools enough to free up money for teachers.
How the deals work: Ever.green signs as the developer’s one counterparty and splits a project’s RECs among several companies, so no developer negotiates with five sets of corporate lawyers. “Contracted revenue is like gold,” Eugster says.
Keeping an old wind farm running: how REC revenue supports the repowered Ocotillo wind farm in Big Spring, Texas, while the owners sells power at merchant prices.
Proving the money mattered: Eugster says no one can prove a project wouldn’t have been built anyway, so Ever.green asks developers to attest its contract is material.
Gamers as buyers: how the platform SuperPower pooled player subscriptions behind the 110 MW Three W solar farm in Hill County, and Eugster’s hint that other industries will follow next year.
Who carries price risk: why Eugster says a fixed REC price lets corporate buyers back new projects without taking on the price swings of power purchase agreement.
Plus: the data center race and its emissions, CPS Energy’s 771 MW Save for Tomorrow Energy Plan efficiency program, ERCOT’s batch zero study, Eugster’s path from MIT and McKinsey to Houston City Hall, and nuclear.
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00:00 – Introduction and guest background
01:44 – From MIT and McKinsey to Houston City Hall
05:13 – CPS Energy’s STEP efficiency program
07:22 – From NAES to founding Ever.green
09:21 – Why clean energy needs to move faster
11:06 – Why Texas builds energy faster
12:31 – Turning RECs into project financing
15:28 – Solar for schools and how the deals work
20:32 – Gamers back a Texas solar farm
24:29 – Keeping an old wind farm running
26:26 – The 10 percent test for additionality
29:16 – Hourly matching vs. backing dirtier grids
32:44 – Data centers and the race for power
37:16 – Nuclear and a growing market
People & Organizations
Joshua Rhodes (LinkedIn)
Webber Energy Group (Website – LinkedIn)
Energy Capital (Podcast – LinkedIn – YouTube)
Texas Energy & Power (Website)
Cris Eugster (LinkedIn)
Ever.green (Website – LinkedIn)
Michael Leggett (LinkedIn)
SuperPower (Website)
Company & Industry News
Three W Solar project comes online in Texas
Video gamers give 110-MW Texas solar project a financing boost
REC sales on WV school district’s solar project free up money for two teacher salaries
Clearway Partially Repowers 55 MW Wind Farm in West Texas
Books, Articles & Filings Discussed
Ever.green – Additionality Methodology for High-Impact RECs
Ever.green – Hidden Risks of Hourly Matching
GHG Protocol – Public Consultations on Scope 2 and Electricity Sector Consequential Accounting
ERCOT – PUCT Approves ERCOT’s Batch Zero Process for Connecting Large Electricity Users
CPS Energy – STEP (Sustainable Tomorrow Energy Plan)
Related Podcasts by Energy Capital
Why some large loads insist on paying their way
What batch zero settles and what it leaves open
Wind is keeping West Texas ranches solvent
Beyond the Tax Credit Cliff with Freedom Solar CEO Bret Biggart
Joshua Rhodes: Hey everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Energy Capital Podcast. I’m really excited to have Cris Eugster here, co-founder and CEO of Ever.green, to kinda talk about, you know, what they do in terms of renewable energy credits and setting up some really interesting deals when it comes to getting projects financed. Cris has a double E, is a double E all the way through from his undergrad at Texas A&M University, master’s and PhD at MIT, so be careful what you’re gonna ask him, or that same to myself. Then he spent roughly nine years at McKinsey & Company before most folks in Texas will know him as ending up as the COO of CPS Energy down in San Antonio. After that, he was the president and CEO of NAES Corp before becoming founder and CEO of Ever.green. And Ever.green is a market maker in high impact RECs, renewable energy credits, that enable capital flow to new clean energy projects. Cris Eugster, welcome to the Energy Capital Podcast.
Cris Eugster: Hey, Josh. Great to be here. Thank you.
Joshua Rhodes: Yeah, absolutely. So Cris, so we go way back actually. Like, I remember you from when I was a grad student at UT Austin, and you were at CPS kind of at that time. I actually wanted to start off saying, hey, thanks for taking the time to talk to grad students. ‘Cause like I know your job was busy when you were in San Antonio, but I really appreciate you putting in the time for that. And God, you never know, ‘cause now I’m the one on, interviewing you on a podcast, right? So you just never know how it’s gonna go.
Cris Eugster: Yeah. You guys have put an amazing program in place up there at UT with the Webber Group and, you know, all the analytics that y’all have done in the ERCOT market, which is pretty dynamic. You know, it’s always been impressive and what little I can do, I really enjoyed it.
Joshua Rhodes: Well, I appreciate it. It’s always helpful to have, like, kinda real world folks and conversations and things like that. So let’s start maybe a little bit, kind of before CPS, and then we’ll talk a little bit about your time at CPS, give a kinda little Texas, like, kinda bounding for this, and then we’ll move on. So your path into energy is pretty interesting. You studied… You’re a double E. You’re electrical engineering at A&M and MIT, just like I said, studying quantum transport in nanostructures, which we won’t talk about on this podcast, but sounds fun.
Cris Eugster: Josh, I was curious kinda where Moore’s Law takes you. How small can you get? You know, it’s always a divide by two. It’s like, how small can you get? And so that was kind of part of the MIT work. When you get to some of those quantum dimensions you know, how do devices act, and how do you engineer that world? It’s, it was pretty exciting, but that’s behind me now.
Joshua Rhodes: I mean, we’re getting there with, like, you know, silicon being printed on, like, extremely thin wafers for all kinds of technology and now compute and other types of stuff. So, I mean, it’s relevant, that’s for sure. But after that, you spent nine years at McKinsey. How did you find your way into the utility business? Like, what attracted you to challenges in the electricity sector?
Cris Eugster: Yeah. You know, I’ve always been sort of big picture type of person. You know, I like strategy. I like kinda solving things that can make a difference in this world. I’m very mission-driven in kind of how I think about my career. And McKinsey was a really exciting place. I mean, you know, they were kind of tapping out of kind of MBA students, and they wanted to go after PhDs and retool them to be, you know, business consultants. You know, I went from a PhD program, which was a set course to become a professor someplace or work at one of the big kind of labs. But it was a pretty big pivot for me in my career to go into kind of business and management consulting, and McKinsey afforded that opportunity. They were kinda starting to attract PhDs and try to kinda retrain, retool them to make a difference in the business world. So that got me into business. I think kind of a combo of technology and energy. Being in the Houston office connected me to energy. My biggest client at the time was Compaq Computer. I don’t know if you remember those days. At the time, they even had a sort of IBM—
Joshua Rhodes: We had one.
Cris Eugster: Did you? Yeah. So, you know, we did a lot of work with Compaq, helping them to grow, and at some point, the Texas office was the largest technology practice for the firm. This is before Silicon Valley kinda really took off. But being in Houston, I was energy connected, and so, you know, we did energy work. Trading risk management was starting to come on. Enron was kind of in the middle of you know, in the ‘90s in that space. And so I’ve always kind of had that passion for the energy side. And where it really came together for me was, again, a second pivot. You know, I’ve had a lot of pivots in my life was to kinda go work for Bill White, Mayor Bill White in Houston on energy policy. And so there I was kind of the first chief sustainability officer for the city of Houston. And Bill had a, you know, sort of a business-minded approach to solving problems. He had a, you know, big heart for social issues, for the environment, for climate, but he wanted to kinda solve them from a kind of an engineering, a business standpoint, and that really resonated with me. And so, you know, I spent two years there with him, and we did, you know, stood up energy efficiency programs, weatherization. We did one, a deal that where we did a sleeved kind of PPA-type structure to bring all city facilities under kind of a clean energy tariff. And so those were exciting things for me to be kind of in the middle of. And then when his term ended, the CPS Energy kinda job opened up, and that brought me to San Antonio.
Joshua Rhodes: If I’m correct, Bill White’s also now a senior advisor to Ever.green. So I guess we got two full circles coming around there.
Cris Eugster: Yeah. He’s a wonderful guy. He’s an amazing guy. We’re very lucky to have him on the team here.
Joshua Rhodes: That’s awesome. When you arrived at CPS was starting to take, San Antonio was starting to take a different approach to things like energy efficiency and renewable energy. You helped to get programs started like the STEP program, which ultimately exceeded its goal, I think of like reducing peak by 770 some odd megawatts. Looking back, how was that formative in kind of where you’re at today, if that makes sense?
Cris Eugster: Yeah. I mean, I think CPS Energy is pretty amazing utility. It’s, you know, city-owned, but it has an independent board. It has kind of a business mindset in terms of how it runs and operates, but it has a big heart for the community, and it gives back, I think Ed Kelly or one of our board members said it, a million dollars a day back to the city. Wow. I think it’s now, you know, close to $500 million over the course of the year in terms of, you know, back to the city, and so they don’t have to raise property taxes and do things like that. But it is a very well-run utility, and it has scale. It’s third largest power producer in Texas, has roughly 2 million customers, vertically integrated, diverse mix of nuclear, fossil, renewables, wires, transmission, distribution lines. So it really is a big time utility that has a strong connection with the community. You know, it’s not like a quarterly earnings kinda driven model. You could do things for the long run and long term. And so standing up programs like the STEP program where instead of building a power plant for 771 MW, we basically, you know, created an energy efficiency demand response program. So, you know, by the way, what we, you know, we call them sort of negative watts or there was some term for that during the day.
Joshua Rhodes: Negawatts, I think.
Cris Eugster: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So, you know, successful. Put dollars in customer pocket for doing the right thing, for making their homes and businesses more efficient, and then us as a utility not having to build a power plant. We’re very aggressive in terms of, you know, standing up clean energy PPAs, and we coupled that with economic development, so bringing OCI Solar into the community and standing up solar manufacturing in addition to kind of providing energy to San Antonio, I think was pretty key. So we did some really big, exciting things, and I think only a construct like a CPS Energy that had scale, revenue, and a connection to the community could we have pulled that off.
Joshua Rhodes: Yeah. That makes sense. You went from CPS to becoming the CEO of NAES, which had, at the time, operated about almost 50 GW of, you know, generating capacity across North America. It’s a pretty big difference going from like, you know, a single utility to, like, managing a fleet. What did that experience teach you in terms of, like, the practical realities of, you know, operating such a fleet of power plants? And—
Cris Eugster: Yeah. You know, they were a big operator, and so as they were kinda thinking about adding a dimension to their business in terms of kind of renewables and clean energy, they’d acquired a company to kind of help move in that direction I think was pretty exciting there. I think my ultimate passion, though, was to be more entrepreneurial, to move faster. And so Seattle, you know, it is almost Silicon Valley 2.0. It’s not as big as— but there’s a lot of tech here. You know, Microsoft is here, Amazon. There’s a lot of Fortune 500s, Costco, REI, Lululemon. There’s a epicenter of kind of innovation and technology and, again, scale here in Seattle. And I connected with Greg Gottesman, who was the founder of Pioneer Square Labs, and he and I talked about kind of an energy play, and Ever.green was kind of the start of that. And very quickly in that mix came Michael Leggett, who was my co-founder. He was a lead designer for Google, for Google Inbox, Gmail. Super brilliant guy, was a Rice guy out of Texas, so we had the Texas connection there as well. He also understood climate, you know, from a standards perspective. I came at it from more from an energy perspective. And so as corporates are trying to kind of do the right thing and how do you account for that? How do you get credit? How do you take real claims and not greenwash things or dubious claims? I think we kind of brought it all together into what is now Ever.green, sort of a high integrity platform that allows corporates to do the right thing, flow capital to n-new projects, and make a difference and feel good about that claim. I’ve been at that now for the last four-plus years.
Joshua Rhodes: Was that the specific problem you were looking to solve is, like, trying to kinda negate some of these greenwashing type schemes or whatever, for lack of a better term there? Is that the particular problem you’re looking to solve when starting Ever.green?
Cris Eugster: I think I was passionate about was how do we move the energy transition faster? This is even before AI and data centers kinda came online. So like—
Joshua Rhodes: Oh, don’t worry, we’ll get there at the end.
Cris Eugster: Get there, yeah. So my big thing is, look, I understand that we have to have an all energy philosophy, all forms of energy have to have a place at the table. But when you build a traditional power plant, a fossil plant we shouldn’t take that lightly. That is a multi-billion dollar commitment. That plant will be around for 40, 60-plus years, and if there is an alternative or there’s a different way of doing it, shouldn’t we think about that? And so I’m a big believer that, you know, clean energy, solar, wind, geothermal, even nuclear, has its place today. The technology’s there. Why can’t we deploy it faster? Let’s make that our front horse in terms of kind of the energy transition. That’s where my passion is. How do we accelerate the energy transition? How do we go from, you know, maybe 25, 30 percent of our energy mix, again, it depends on region, but r— to 60, 70 percent of our energy mix coming from clean energy? Because we have this industrial kind of revolution coming on now with data centers, AI, and I know we’re gonna get more into that. Like, we don’t wanna go back and have smokestacks all over the place because we just wanna build power plants to support this new energy load. So that’s the problem I’m trying to solve. How do we get to a emission-free clean energy grid faster? How do we get there in five years, 10 years versus, you know, 2040, 2050? Got it. Josh, I don’t know what your perspective is. Should we have that urgency or do we have time here? On the energy transition.
Joshua Rhodes: Yeah. No, that’s a great question. I mean, you know, it’s interesting sitting in Texas, right? It’s like, because in Texas, it’s more around kinda the market pull of those things versus, like, a policy push or other types, and it’s kind of one of those, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it type you know, mentalities here. You know, the benefits here is, like, it’s generally easier to build things, generally easier to build transmission, that now at the federal level, they’re having discussions around this permitting bill, right? And in Texas, like, we’re already, like, you know, build things twice as fast as other regions. A lot of the discussions, all the podcasts and the talking heads and everyone that, you know, is talking about this permitting bill right now is just saying, “This works. Look at Texas. Look at what they’re doing,” right? If you make the clean thing cheaper just then let the market pull it, like, it’s just always gonna be more resilient than, say, a policy that, you know, can change whenever various different policymakers come into being or come into power.
Cris Eugster: I agree 100 percent. I say I’m very bullish on Texas. I love Texas. I think the fact that it’s easy to do th— You look at what’s going on with PJM or some of these other markets, like ERCOT. Again, every market has its issues, but it is very efficient. It reduces the friction to bring kinda new capacity online, and I… Let’s let the market decide, but let’s not burden clean energy with additional requirements from a policy perspective. Let’s let it compete out there.
Joshua Rhodes: Yeah. Let it compete on the merits and let it go.
Cris Eugster: Exactly.
Joshua Rhodes: So let’s talk about one of the mechanisms upon which, like, clean energy moves around. Let’s talk about RECs, renewable energy certificates, credits, whatever you wanna say. You know, they’ve been around for decades, but they’ve also received a fair amount of criticism by companies, you know, claiming they’re powered by renewables without necessarily causing more renewable energy to get built. Can you explain how the traditional REC market works, where you think it falls short, and, like, how are Ever.green’s high impact RECs different?
Cris Eugster: I think our innovation is in terms of this kind of broader problem of kind of accelerating the energy transition. So RECs have been around for a long time. They’re a well-understood currency. A REC gets created for every time a megawatt hour of solar or clean energy gets produced, so it’s easy to track. There’s just a lot of goodness around them. I think the problem is RECs have always been an afterthought. So a project gets built, and then you’ve got some RECs on the back end, and you sell them for kinda a couple bucks. And the standard bodies say that’s okay. If you wanna claim that you’re 100 percent renewable, all you have to do is buy some RECs and retire them. You can’t sell them, you can’t double claim them, but if you buy them and retire them, you’re good to go. And our belief is that’s a pretty dubious claim there. So what we have done is we’ve taken that concept of a REC and instead of having it as an afterthought, let’s put it at the front of the whole system. So for our RECs, let’s have RECs help enable the build-out of new capacity. So for our RECs, there are three criteria. One, it has to be a new project, okay? So it can’t be an existing project. Two is it has to be a long-term commitment to that project. This can’t be a one-year spot, you know, purchase. That corporate has to be in that deal for five years, 10 years. And the price that that REC is meaningful to that project, to the economics of that project. So if a developer has a contract from our customer, they can go to the bank, they can get financing, they can increase their debt service ratio, they can improve their, you know, return. But contracted revenue is like gold for developers that are looking to finance projects, and that is what our high impact RECs are. So instead of an afterthought of the whole thing, let’s bring it upfront, let’s make it part of the procurement for a corporate to stand up new capacity. And so, you know, we’ve gotten a lot of traction with this. We’re very differentiated in that. There are a lot of REC brokers out there. It’s a multi-billion dollar market, but you know, we have 50-plus logos, Wells Fargo, Netflix, REI, you know, Starbucks. We have a lot of interest in what we’re doing because they’re real projects. This is not just a contract. You know, we’ll take a group out. We went our Three W project near the Dallas area, we did a ribbon cutting. So we’ll fly out the corporate team to do a ribbon cutting at these projects and see the impact that they are doing with their contract to stand up this capacity.
Joshua Rhodes: And so it sounds like you’re trying to get the REC to drive the project instead of, you know, being passed out in the back seat.
Cris Eugster: Yeah, exactly.
Joshua Rhodes: To summarize that right?
Cris Eugster: That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. Yeah.
Joshua Rhodes: Great. So let’s get into a couple of these deals ‘cause I actually find them pretty interesting. Let’s get into the economics of an actual deal. So earlier this year, Ever.green announced a project to help bring 15 solar to 15 schools in West Virginia with the projected energy savings of 150 to 200,000, I think, for the district. Can you walk us through the contracts and money flow from the corporate REC buyers to the developer and ultimately to the schools? Like walk through that process and then like what was the gap that you were able to kind of like close there that got this project across the finish line?
Cris Eugster: Yeah. Like a school project for us will be different from a larger utility scale project. So before I jump into that, you know, we’ve got a variety of different types of projects. You know, the schools are very special because, you know, they have immediate impact to that community. We’ve also done a number of solar projects in the Carolina where they have a QF rate that they’re getting from the utility, but they’re not getting any kind of credit for the REC, so that’s an opportunity for the REC to kind of step in there. Merchant deals in Texas, where the RECs are kind of available. So a lot of different projects, but at the very end of the day, we are kind of in the middle of these deals, so we are a kinda one-stop shop for both sides. So the developer can— deals with us, so we are basically the counterparty to the developer, and we commit to those RECs for, you know, a 10-year term or whatever the term might be. And then what we do is we then find corporates that can step into that. Sometimes it’s one corporate and we’re back-to-back and it’s pretty simple, but other times there may be three or four different corporates that step into, so we’re fractionalizing participation in that project. And why that’s important is because that developer, it’s hard to work with five different corporate lawyers at Fortune 500 companies. Everyone’s gonna have, you know, their own unique language that they want in their contract, so we try to kind of standardize that process, that contracting piece, and make it easy for both sides to put a deal together. Okay. At the very basic, yeah, that is what we’re trying to simplify, kind of participation in these deals. So a corporate says, “I only need 2,000 MWh, 2,000 RECs,” but the project has 10,000. We’ll take that and we’ll find another corporate that can fill in, you know, the rest of the gap. So we don’t wanna have any kind of friction there for either side to kinda get stuck or get caught up. So contracting we make really easy, and one of our superpowers, so to speak, is we’ve got a Ben Dickson, who’s our chief legal officer. And he used to be at Wilson Sonsini. He’s really good lawyer, and he’s helped us kinda standardize these contracts so we can bring multiple folks into a project, and we make it easy for both sides because we’re kind of a one-stop shop for both sides of it. That’s the piece of it. The second, getting back to your economics, you know, so we are flowing, let’s say, a 10-year term to those schools, so they’re getting X dollars a REC for 10 years. And for schools, it’ll be high. You know, spot market RECs are $2, $3. For our utility RECs, they may be in the 15, you know, dollar-ish. Schools will be 25 to $35, depending on kinda what they need. So, you know, we are flowing a lot of dollars to these schools to basically lower the PPA price that the school pay, pays for that REC. So we lower the utility cost for the school because our RECs are coming in and lowering that cost to the school. So that means that they can hire more teachers or they can, you know, green light a project. So ultimately, our contracted cash flow creates a lower utility rate for those schools and enables them to kinda sign onto these projects.
Joshua Rhodes: Yeah, I think that long-term part is important, I think, ‘cause a lot of times, like for, you know, capital improvements and things like that for schools, like they really need that long-term, you know, type of structure ‘cause, you know, property taxes can go down, you know, the economy can slump. We’ve seen this with like utility scale renewables in Texas, things like that, like, you know, taxes and, you know, other types of projects. I’ve heard, you know, superintendents and things say, you know, it’s like, “Hey, I can take that to the bank now and get like a loan or could do a, issue a bond based on, you know, this guaranteed, you know, income stream,” and it makes it a lot easier to do so. So that’s really interesting.
Cris Eugster: PPAs have been sort of transformative for the clean energy space, like, you know, before the whole concept, and I think Jigar Shah was kind of at the lead of that when he was at SunEdison, you know, putting that concept in place. The problem is PPAs are not easy for lots of companies. If you’re a Microsoft or a Meta, you know, you can understand it, but y— if you’re just a general corporate, taking on that energy price risk is tough. You know, you lock in a PPA at $50 and then all of a sudden ERCOT prices are at minus 20 or minus 100. That REC is now cost 70 bucks or, you know, 100-plus dollars. And even for Microsoft, I think it’s hard to, you know, manage that energy risk. So our belief is corporates are really not the right owner of that energy risk. I don’t think developers are either, and I think there’s kind of an open debate, I think you know, the utility is probably the best to own that risk. But what our product does is it takes that energy risk out of the equation. So yeah, there is a premium for our RECs but it’s a set number, it’s something they can budget against, and they don’t have to deal, they don’t have to have a energy forecasting team in there trying to figure out where ERCOT prices are going.
Joshua Rhodes: Okay. That makes a lot of sense. I wanna get to another project in Texas. One of your most unusual recent transactions was involved SuperPower, which is an aggregated support from a bunch of video gamers for a 110 MW solar project in Hill County, Texas using a VPPA structure. Virtual power purchase agreement structure. So that’s not generally a group that, you know, we associate kind of like in these deals, but I assume this is more than just, you know, building fake wind and solar farms in Minecraft. So in this, you’re talking about like it’s hard to get a bunch of corporate lawyers together to agree in a room. It sounds like now you’ve got like a bunch of folks, ‘cause this is being supported by a bunch of folks, video gamers, right? Can you tell me about this project? It’s really interesting.
Cris Eugster: Yeah. Like you said, Josh, some of these projects go, you know, pretty crazy in terms of kinda how they get what they’re trying to accomplish. So the thing I got excited about this is, you know, the gaming industry is… You don’t even think about that in terms of energy use. Like, some kid, you know, playing Xbox in the basement or in the living room, like it’s just, you know, who’s thinking about those emissions? And I’m sure Microsoft has, you know, folks kind of thinking through those, some of the other big tech firms. But that’s a whole segment that I think is not being, you know, looked at carefully. And so I think SuperPower, they came to us about like, “How do we put a deal together where we can cover the emissions of our gamers?” And, they’ve come up with some pretty sophisticated things. So like if they play, you know how when you play certain things, you get, you know, jewels and credits as you play along? I think they’ve integrated some of the clean energy into that kinda gaming environment. And so they’ve done a lot of that. That’s not part of what we have done, but what we’ve done is once they kind of aggregated, you know, what they’re trying to do from an emissions perspective, we wanted to tie them to a new, you know, yet built project, and that’s what we did with the Three W project. A lot of times we do a REC-only strip because, again, people don’t want price risk, but some of our customers do want a VPPA. We’ve done everything from a kind of full VPPA to things which are much more collared so that you’re not taking price risk, almost like a fixed price VPPA. It’s a concept, but you know, you’re not susceptible to the price swing. So we have played in the VPPA market. So what we did with Superpower was took that whole gaming experience that they were trying to address and brought them into a project that, again, this wasn’t, you know, RECs, you know, buying RECs as an afterthought. This was basically kind of helping finance a new solar farm, 100 MW solar farm near Dallas called Three W. OCI was the developer on it, great company. It was a great story. And Josh, I think part of this is also telling the stories around these things that, yeah, you can do this. Superpower can step up and address the gaming emissions and like, how do we get everyone to do that, you know? It was a very cool… It was pretty complex, but again, we got the deal done.
Joshua Rhodes: It kind of reminds me of like microloans or other types of things like that, like kind of distributed finance or, I don’t know, maybe I’m using the wrong, the wrong terms here, but like, do you think that that model can scale? Do you think this is a one-off project, or do you think like that there’s a potential for this pick up other aggregations of folks?
Cris Eugster: I think it definitely has a potential to scale. I think cohorts coming together to make something happen is interesting. This was kind of the gaming industry. You know, we’ve got some announcements that we’re gonna be making here next year where other groups have come together around an industry to make something happen. And kinda micro fan— you know, the distributed financing aspect of it is, comes up because when cohorts come together, they’re usually smaller in terms of their appetite to be part of the deal. And so you’ve got to deal with smaller volume and aggregate it to have kind of scale and impact. So two things. One is, I think we’re gonna see more cohorts of kinda like-minded kind of companies or companies that wanna partner together to make a difference from a mission standpoint. And then you’ve gotta be able to fractionalize that, and that kinda gets you into the micro distributed financing world, which I think we play in.
Joshua Rhodes: Yeah, absolutely. I also wanna talk about, ‘cause it’s also pretty interesting, I think it’s the Ocotillo Wind Farm is a refer— or a repower, a refurbishment. Where you brought together, I think, about 14 corporate buyers to support refurbishing an existing project near Big Spring. So what’s different in doing a repower versus a new build there? How does that play in either the financing flow or kind of like, you know, the carbon flow or whatever? Like, how is that different?
Cris Eugster: I think that’s another one that was pretty exciting for us because, you know, there has been a lot of wind especially that was kind of built in the early 2000s, and, you know, wind yeah, has a sort of a 15-year life. These are turbines. These are rotating kind of, you know, pieces of equipment. And so at some point they are end of life, and we’re gonna see the same thing with solar. And so what do you do? Do you just kind of tear them down and put them in a landfill? Like, that doesn’t feel right. And so with Clearway, we had conversations about how do we extend the life of some of these wind farms? And I think the repower is a nice fit for us because what happens is there’s uncertainty when you repower a wind farm, ‘cause there’s not a lot going on there. It’s getting more so. But it’s hard to put a PPA on that because, you know, a PPA is dependent on performance, right? And so a repowered wind farm, will it last seven years? Will it last 10 years? Will it go— What will the efficiency and the capacity factors be? How will the performance of that wind farm happen? And so what we did is we brought in our REC strip to basically help bring contracted cash flow to that project, and they were going merchant with the power that was generated. So as you can imagine, merchant, it’s hard to kinda operate a resource in a merchant environment ‘cause, you know, prices are all over the place. How do you support O&M and, you know, basic things like that? So our REC contract, which again is coming in at meaningful prices, is making a difference to provide a buffer to continue to operate that wind farm over a long period of time. You know, hopefully 10 years or longer, if we can.
Joshua Rhodes: Yeah. Totally. And like, maybe getting on a little bit of a different similar part of that, a key part of your business model appears to be, you know, demonstrating additionality, right? That the REC revenue generally helps a project financially value, and I think you look for at least a 10 percent improvement in certain project financial metrics. But counterfactuals are hard, so, like, what are y’all doing to prove that that project wouldn’t have gotten built anyways? Like, how do you think about additionality in a world where it’s hard to like, you know, build a counterfactual like that?
Cris Eugster: Yeah. I think it’s kind of a very interesting word, and I think there’s a lot of subjectivity around that. I think when we first started, when Michael and I first started about, and our thinking was, “Let’s aggregate corporate demand,” you know, “Let’s go out to a field and lock up that field, put up solar panels, and that will be the solar system for that, you know, set of corporates.” I think we quickly found, like, the developer world is not easy. There’s a lot of stuff besides kind of an offtake that’s gonna make a project happen. Will that landowner really kind of sign up with you? You know, what kind of mineral rights? Do you have surface rights? You know, it gets very complicated, and projects are not easy to do and not easy to happen. So I think what we learned is there’s not any one single thing that will cause a project to happen. Like, you know, we could have a great PPA or a great REC contract, but if interest rates kinda get too high and that project’s no longer economical, or the landowner has an issue, or there’s some permitting issues, or interconnection agreements kinda get stuck, like, there’s many things that can derail a project. So I think what we look for is that we are a meaningful part of a project, that we’re a material part, and that’s kinda where we got to the 10 percent factor. You know, the SEC 10 percent is an interesting part where you start to disclose kind of ownership, and so we anchored on that 10 percent as a way to say, “Hey, we feel good that we are a meaningful part of this cash flow.” But Josh, Michael and I went we had a lot of back and forth counterfactual. Would this have happened, not happened? Like it’s theoretical and it’s intellectual in some ways, but the real world is much more complicated, and it takes almost a group, you know, mentality to get a clean energy project online. It’s not an individual sport. It’s a team sport, right? You can’t just be a running back and, you know, now you’re winning all the time. You need the whole team in place.
Joshua Rhodes: You build a project, and then we figure out hydraulic fracturing. It… The world changes, like, there’s big, massive changes. You do the best you can with what you got kind of at that time.
Cris Eugster: But it is important that our customers feel like, you know, they are making a difference here. So our developers will go through a scorecard. They’re attesting that this contract is material to them. So we don’t take this thing lightly because it’s not an easy thing to do, so we put a lot of work in it. You know, we put white papers out there. We’ve been very transparent on our methodology. So it is complicated, it is a team sport, but we wanna be a meaningful part of that team with our offtake.
Joshua Rhodes: Yeah, no, and I think that’s a great transition and the, my next question was about, you know, measuring clean energy progress is like Ever.green tries to, you know, measure the actual environmental and community impacts of its projects rather than just counting megawatt hours. Like, how do you think about, you know, putting a megawatt hour of solar onto, say, a relatively coal-heavy region versus, you know, one that, you know, might al-already have a bunch of renewables? Should corporate clean energy county focus more on those regions that avoid more emissions? Is that what some of your clients are also pulling for?
Cris Eugster: We could do a whole podcast on that and probably wouldn’t bring Michael Leggett in here. I mean, it’s really important, Josh, because the standard bodies are trying to raise the bar on RECs, or just procurement in general, and so that is a good thing. I think there’s a huge debate on are we going 24/7 local, or are we going more around sort of additiona— emission, you know, having more of a consequential impact? I think we’re more in that latter bucket because while we think 24/7 and local is ultimately kind of where we wanna be, where you’re matching your energy production to your load, it could be a constraining factor here in the near term here. Because what it does, in our view, is it will emphasize spot market RECs. You know, now you just need to tag a REC with a time stamp and a location. You know, if you procure that to your load, you’re good to go. Well, what about the long-term contract? What about grids that are very dirty? So is this gonna incent a company in California where the grid is pretty clean to basically have to procure local 24/7 spot RECs to match their load versus standing up a project in Wyoming or Georgia where the grid is much less clean. So I think our belief is we wanna tag things, you know, time stamp, location stamp for transparency, but don’t make that a requirement. Because if that’s a requirement, it’s gonna hinder companies to get into long-term contracts in region that are outside of their footprint. And I think you and I know climate change is a global problem. Like, we wanna stand up clean energy in dirty grids, not clean grids.
Joshua Rhodes: Yeah, you get more bang for your buck doing that, as it were, in the clima— the climate doesn’t care, like, you know, where the CO2 is emitted or it doesn’t care about intensity, it cares about tons.
Cris Eugster: Yes.
Joshua Rhodes: Crafting this question was actually kind of interesting ‘cause it reminded me of the ancient days before AI when the things that the big technology companies were fighting over was this 24/7 versus this additionality fight. Like, and I think it was like Google was on one side and Meta was on the other side. There were other folks that were in there. I haven’t heard much of this lately. You know, now it’s just a race to build data centers as fast as possible. I guess it sounds like you’re trying to in— To keep that debate going and kind of inject some discipline into that argument, and is that what I’m reading?
Cris Eugster: We would like to have the debate cl— ‘cause uncertainty is always bad for the market. So if there’s uncertainty, customers are gonna sort of be slow to act. There are standard bodies that are actively trying to kind of set the new standard. Standards haven’t been looked at for the last, you know, dozen plus years. And so the Greenhouse Gas Protocol standard, the SBTi, Science Based Technology Initiative, SBTi standards, so these are voluntary standards, so, you know, but corporates do weigh them in heavily. And so both those standard bodies are kind of having this debate of is this more 24/7 or is it consequential? And so they’ve gotten feedback, but this is being driven by those two standard bodies on where they’re gonna set that standard. And, you know, we thought we’d have clarity here in ‘26. I think it’s getting pushed out to ‘27, but that’s what’s driving it, how these groups are gonna land in terms of what is the next standard for voluntary clean energy procurement.
Joshua Rhodes: I promised we’d talk about data centers ‘cause you can’t have a conversation for more than five minutes about energy without talking about data centers. Energy is AI is energy apparently. So we’re seeing extraordinary growth in electricity demands, you know, particularly from data centers, AI. Many of the companies that are building these have also have ambitious clean energy commitments, but you know, now they’re contributing to like a massive increase in electricity demand. And see, if you were designing a clean energy procurement strategy for a company that’s trying to build a gigawatt of data center in West Texas, what would you actually ask of that company to do to make the grid cleaner?
Cris Eugster: Yeah, I mean, such a great question. I mean, it really is. You know, the big tech, they’ve been the leader in terms of kind of, you know, thinking about sort of the clean energy transition and, you know, these massive PPAs and, you know, what they’ve done. I worry a little bit that now there’s just such a race and the velocity that is needed in the AI data center that it doesn’t matter so much about emissions as much. It’s just they need physical power, and whatever it takes to get physical power, that’s what they’re gonna be looking at. The other thing, Josh, is like, you know, I’ve been a utility guy, and like utilities, the growth has been flat. You know, maybe 2 percent, you got energy efficiency dampening it, and you guys have done great work in this world. Now you’re seeing 2x load, you know, potential load, you know, 5x lo— you know, things that utilities can’t even wrap their minds around. And so where is this power gonna come from? How are rates not gonna go up? How are resources not gonna be used, whether it’s water or environment? I think are super big questions, and you’re trying to solve these questions in a environment where there’s just a race to build more and faster. If you’re slow, you’re gonna lose a seat at the table. And so I would hope that there would be an interest, whether it’s a requirement or just self-interest, to basically build these data centers in a way that minimizes impacts to our environment and our communities. And Michael Webber and I have talked about this. There’s so much money that they should be able to do this the right way. You know? And I’d love to get your take on it. The challenge is the velocity and the competitiveness and the race, that makes it really hard to kind of be thoughtful in how do you do this thing the right way.
Joshua Rhodes: Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, I think that bleeds into like, you know, even community pushback and things on data centers. A lot of it is just this velocity, right? Like I model the electricity grid all the time, and I often make the joke, I’ll model it out as far into the future as you believe the price of natural gas will be. And historically, it’s like 2 percent load growth, and supply chains were built around, you know, supporting 2 percent load growth, at least at ERCOT. Other places a little bit flatter. But yeah, I mean, this is like, you know, 5x the grid in five years. It took us 100 years to get to 91 GW, and you wanna get to 500 GW in five years. Like just ain’t gonna happen, right? You just can’t get that much steel in the ground. Even if we, you know, cloned you a few times, we’re still not gonna get that much steel in the ground. I think it is some of that velocity, right? This whole Batch Zero process is trying to inject some discipline into that. Some of the pauses and the audits and things like that are trying to like, you know, inject sanity into that space, and so hopefully we can know what’s real so that we can actually build the infrastructure around, and the policy around, you know, what is real versus, like, these numbers that nobody believes. But we don’t know what the right number is. And you said earlier, it’s like, you know, business would rather have bad policy than uncertain policy, right? It’s just like at least know where your goalposts are. Even if they’re 200 yards that way, you’ll figure out how to kick the ball through it. But like, you know, if they’re just moving all the time, that’s a tougher one.
Cris Eugster: Yeah. I feel like if we could solve the velocity problem, I think we could figure out the power issue. I think if we don’t solve the velocity issue… And like you said, you know, there are some pretty good movements, and again, led by Texas on some of the Batch Zero and, you know, the slowing things down a bit to get things right. I think if we had more time, the technology’s there to do this thing the right way. And even some of the simple stuff like, “Let’s just do a combined cycle behind the meter.” Like, these data center, they’re gonna value the chips, not the combined cycles. If those chips are saying, “I gotta back off power,” like, you know, in a microsecond, that turbine’s gonna have it— Like, there are fundamental issues on even straightforward designs that I don’t think people have fully thought through, again, because of velocity. They’re just trying to get stuff done.
Joshua Rhodes: I think a lot of like conceptual behind the meter projects have run into the physical limitations of steel and the ability to move, right? It’s just like software’s one thing, steel’s another, right? In terms of being able to move, and it’s like, you know, getting those… If you want five nines of reliability, a single power plant’s not gonna give you that. I don’t care how new it is or how good it is, like, you’re not getting that. That’s why we have a grid, right? It’s like to share that risk around, give you that space. You know, it’s probably a lot easier to do this in a growth environment than like a declining environment, right? Like trying out new structures and projects, it sounds like y’all are doing, like it’s probably easier to try that out in a sector that’s growing versus one that’s stagnating, wouldn’t you say?
Cris Eugster: Yeah, 100 percent. You know, you see some of the, you know, these PPAs from the nuclear side. Like nuclear’s always been a very interesting kind of zero emission resource, but how do you put capital that perceives it as risky? How do you get the regulations to be more efficient? I think because this is a growth environment, I think nuclear’s back in play, which I think is exciting.
Joshua Rhodes: Yeah. No, I mean, I feel like, I think almost anything’s in play right now that is able to make a megawatt hour of electricity, is a really interesting space.
Cris Eugster: I think being in a growth environment is really good, and I think we can be thoughtful and we can do a lot of good things, try a lot of good things. I think the challenge is if we’re running too fast and lose our kind of foresight and strategy and perspective, I think that’s where we get into trouble.
Joshua Rhodes: Yeah. Absolutely. Well, Cris Eugster, thank you for coming on the Energy Capital Podcast.
Cris Eugster: Thanks, Josh, for having me. Enjoyed it as always. Awesome. Thanks.

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Good Energy says winter can account for roughly one-quarter to just over one-third of a UK home solar system’s yearly generation.
Photo Credit: iStock
A household in the United Kingdom saw its 12 rooftop solar panels generate just 2.4 kilowatt-hours of electricity on an overcast day on Nov. 5, leaving the home to import another 20.6 kWh from the grid, its owner told Euronews.
Higher heating demand in Northern Europe coincides with the usual October-to-February window for weak winds and limited sunlight. 
Europe calls these periods “dunkelflauten,” or dark lulls, which Euronews described as “an extended period when wind and solar power generation are low or non-existent because there is not enough wind or sunlight.”
Solar’s share of European Union electricity generation dropped from 25.4% in June to 13.2% in October. Greater dependence on expensive, polluting natural gas generation is a risk when dark lulls persist.
Cold weather alone does not prevent solar panels from producing electricity. 
The panels need daylight, not heat, and green energy supplier Good Energy says winter can account for roughly one-quarter to just over one-third of a UK home solar system’s yearly generation. 
The value of the panels, then, must be viewed as a cumulative process, and that’s especially true where a grid supplier allows for full net metering or the home has a battery installed, as each allows a home to “bank” surplus electricity from panels on sunny days and take advantage at night or on cloudier days. 
Despite seasonal dips like this homeowner’s, residential solar can lower electricity costs, and $0-upfront solar leases can save households hundreds of dollars per month. EasyHome offers a free explorer tool to estimate your potential savings and find vetted local installers.
With energy prices through the roof, there’s never been a better time to go solar — and EasyHome can help you find the best prices from the best installers in your area.
EasyHome takes the guesswork and headaches out of energy upgrades by showing you estimated savings from a network of vetted local partners. To get started, just enter your ZIP and share a few details about your home — seeing your estimate is really that easy.
The homeowner, who asked Euronews to remain anonymous, said their 6.36-kilowatt rooftop system generated 10.90 kWh on Nov. 4. 
Their household imported another 27.40 kWh from the grid that day.
According to Bloomberg forecasts cited by Euronews, day-ahead electricity prices in Germany for Oct. 29 topped €300 ($337) per megawatt-hour, around double the month’s average. 
Evening hourly prices surpassed €500 ($560).
Energy think tank Ember found that heatwaves pushed electricity demand up as much as 28% in Italy and 23% in Hungary, per Euronews. Fortunately, the hottest days are typically also the sunniest days, allowing homes with solar to keep up much better.
France and Hungary averaged 17% more daily solar generation during those heatwaves than during the remaining days of June and July.
The household already uses an 11.52-kWh battery, charging it overnight on an off-peak tariff and drawing on stored power during higher-use daytime hours.
For homeowners weighing a similar setup, EasyHome also offers battery storage exploration options. Pairing solar with a backup battery can lower electricity costs and supply backup power during outages, with performance depending on available energy and system capabilities.
European Union hydropower generation began rising in October 2025.
A separate Ember analysis found that, during the hot spell, a typical United Kingdom rooftop system produced enough power for five hours of daily air-conditioning use.
“It’s extremely disheartening to see we’re importing so much energy when we have spent thousands on a solar system. However, we know that the panels will start to perform better when the clouds clear,” the panel owner told Euronews.
Other UK solar owners have also seen their panels produce less electricity during cloudy weather and winter. These stories explore rainy day output, battery use, and how winter sunlight affects panels.
• A UK solar owner saw how dark skies affect panel output during rainy weather.
• A UK homeowner disappointed by winter solar output received advice to embrace battery storage.
• UK households using 5-kWh batteries in winter still need grid electricity on most nights.
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The need for national planning guidelines for solar energy development was highlighted at a meeting of Meath County Council last week.
Cllr Helen Meyer proposed the council call on the Minister to urgently publish and adopt the national planning statement for solar energy development and to introduce appropriate interim planning safeguards.
She said she was calling for the urgent publication and adoption of national planning guidelines and, importantly, the introduction of appropriate interim planning safeguards.
“Large-scale solar farms are being proposed and developed across County Meath, yet we are still awaiting the national planning framework promised in the Programme for Government,” she said.
“While I fully support the transition to renewable energy, it is essential that these developments are properly planned and managed, with due consideration given to agricultural land, biodiversity, landscape impacts, neighbouring communities and the cumulative effects of multiple developments in the same area.
“My concern is that planning applications continue to be assessed without the benefit of clear, specific national guidance on these issues.
“I would therefore ask that the Council’s correspondence to the Minister specifically request: clear timeline for the publication and adoption of the national planning guidelines for solar energy and battery storage developments, the introduction of appropriate interim planning safeguards while those guidelines are being finalised and clarification of what guidance local authorities should apply when assessing large-scale solar developments in the meantime.
“We need renewable energy, but we also need a clear and consistent planning framework that protects our communities, agricultural resources and natural environment,” she said,
Cllr Alan Tobin disagreed saying the use of the word safeguard makes out there is something wrong.
“Nobody asked for safeguards when they put a diesel generator up in Duleek. Most of what is grown in this country food-wise is to feed cattle for steaks and export. To think that we are basically starving the Irish people because we are putting in solar farms is a joke. We are resting land, not creating carbon dioxide and we are creating biodiversity havens. There is no discharge going into rivers. “There is huge benefit to the air where there are solar farms. We have obligations through EU law to develop renewable energy,” he said.
Cllr Paddy Meade said “We hear the same drivel out of Alan from the Green Party every time he talks.” (Cllr Tobin is a Fine Gael councillor).
“There were multiple objections to the diesel burner in Duleek. There are concerns about solar farms. We see them in our communities in Rathkenny and Lobinstown. Legislation should be speeded up,” he said.
Cllr Michael Gallagher said councillors had been looking for guidelines for the last 20 years. “The best of farmland in Europe is being covered in solar farms. It leaves planners in an awkward position, because they have no guidelines to work with.”
– Supported by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
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India and Pakistan Capture Two-Thirds of Rise in Emerging APAC Renewable Investment  energynews.pro
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ROSEBUD COUNTY — From proposed data centers to solar farms, new development is reshaping communities across Montana. Now, a solar farm could be coming to Forsyth, and Rosebud County is asking residents to weigh in on a proposed tax abatement.
A proposed solar and battery farm is putting a major tax decision in front of the community, and residents are making sure their voices are heard.
Watch the full story below:
“NextEra Energy is looking at building a solar farm battery storage project about two miles east of Forsyth,” Rosebud County Commissioner Robert Lee said Tuesday.
The project is planned for private property, meaning Rosebud County can’t decide whether it gets built. What county leaders can decide is how it gets taxed.
“You got private property, private company, and we have no say so in whether or not they build it. The only say so we have is whether or not we give it abatement or not,” Lee said.
Lee says a tax abatement was already passed for the Clearwater Wind Farm that stretches across part of Rosebud and two other counties, so he calls the abatement a no-brainer.
“We are going to collect more tax, we’re going to collect more money to provide more services with the abatement than without the abatement,” Lee said.
Here’s how it works.
“What they’re asking for is a 50% tax abatement and the tax abatement would be it would reduce their taxes for the first five years by half. In year six, they would get a they pay 60% of the tax, year seven, 70% year 10, 100% of the tax. And from there on out, they would pay 100% of the tax,” Lee said.
And if they don’t do a tax abatement:
“If we do not do a tax abatement we’ll get 50% of the newly taxable value for the life of project 2025 years,” Lee said.
But for some people who live near the proposed site, the debate isn’t just about taxes. It’s about what they’ll see outside their windows.
“We didn’t buy this, we bought this property, because this is what our dream was. We didn’t think that we’d be looking at our window with a solar farm, because if we knew that, we would have never bought it, and no one’s gonna wanna buy our house,” one resident said.
The questions go beyond the solar farm itself. Some residents want to know whether this project could open the door to other large-scale development.
“My question is, is this about bringing data centers? Or is this just about renewable energy?” one resident said.
While the county can’t change whether the project is coming, leaders can decide whether to give a tax abatement.
“We have 120 days to either approve it or deny,” Lee said.

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In this week’s Mexican energy news, CFE opened bidding for its landmark Oasis hybrid solar project alongside HDF Energy in Baja California Sur, while the National Energy Commission (CNE) authorized US$750 million in strategic solar permits to add 649MW of grid capacity. Meanwhile, upstream operations gained operational momentum amid PEMEX’s capital realignment, and industry leaders emphasized shifting from mere measurement to proactive energy management.
Power up! This is your Week in Energy!
Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) launched a competitive tender for the Oasis project in Mulegé, Baja California Sur, developed in partnership with HDF Energy. The bidding timeline requires formal technical and economic proposal submissions between Nov. 18 and Nov. 30, with formal openings on Dec. 1 and contract awards scheduled for Dec. 18. The initiative represents a critical milestone in mixed-participation clean baseload schemes and grid reliability across isolated regional networks.
The National Energy Commission (CNE) greenlit six strategic photovoltaic permits representing US$750 million in private investment, designed to inject 649MW of net generation capacity into the national electrical grid. As industrial demand surges, grid integration and transmission expansion remain the binding constraints for corporate off-takers and industrial parks seeking clean power reliability.
Mexico’s upstream sector closed out the week accelerating operational milestones, underpinned by PEMEX’s capital realignment, debt restructuring efforts, and progressing ultra-deepwater initiatives. Stakeholders across key industrial hubs continue to press for enhanced governance, transparent public-private synergies, and resilient supply chain integration to secure medium-term energy sovereignty.
Industrial consumers are evolving beyond basic regulatory compliance and standard metering toward proactive, data-driven energy management frameworks. Shifting from passive measurement to comprehensive operational monitoring enables industrial operators to curb volatility, protect margins against tariff shifts, and align internal power strategies with broader ESG and efficiency targets.

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Solar Power World
By Billy Ludt | November 11, 2026
Roll-A-Rack, a developer of patented, on-site-manufactured solar racking systems, will introduce SunChord, its new multi-purpose ground-mounted system, at RE+ 2026 in Las Vegas.
SunChord solar racking from Roll-A-Rack.
SunChord is a low-profile solar racking designed to use less land than conventional fixed-tilt racking or trackers. It is composed of two components: gutter channels and clamp brackets that attach to solar panels. SunChord assembles using what Roll-A-Rack has dubbed its “snap-slide-secure” system.
“The next generation of solar technology needs to do more than produce clean electricity. It needs to make better use of land, minimize environmental impacts and create value beyond the energy generated,” said Don Scipione, founder of Roll-A-Rack. “SunChord reflects our vision of harmonizing sun and earth, combining solar energy production with rainwater harvesting and soil conservation in a system that can unlock new opportunities for solar development on land where conventional approaches fall short.”
Roll-A-Rack claims an array using SunChord can capture 95% of rain that falls it using its racking channels to redirect the water. The company sees potential for the racking in agrivoltaic applications, sites with land constraints, on brownfields and where ground disturbance should be limited.
SunChord is assembled on-site using a roll-forming device similar to producing roof-edge gutters. SunChord was developed with support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Integrated Energy Systems Office and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The company has two issued U.S. patents, a patent application pending, wind-tunnel ratings and UL 2703 certification.
Roll-A-Rack is planning to supply SunChord for up to five pilot projects. Interested EPCs and developers can contact the company at [email protected].
News item from Roll-A-Rack
Billy Ludt is managing editor of Solar Power World and currently covers topics on mounting, inverters, installation and operations.

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Perovskite is a relatively inexpensive material that has attracted thousands of researchers since 2009, when a team of scientists in Japan first demonstrated its use in solar cells. They achieved a solar energy conversion efficiency of little more than 3%, but since science loves a challenge, that was just the beginning of the story. In the latest chapter, the US firms Heliene and Caeulux have just introduced a new perovskite-enabled solar module that hits the jackpot at up to 27% efficiency, and it is already in commercial production, no less.
So far in the renewable energy transition, silicon has shouldered much of the heavy lifting due to its excellent solar conversion properties. Still, silicon is relatively expensive material that demands a complex manufacturing process. Perovskite is the reverse. Based on a naturally occurring mineral, synthetic perovskites can be lab-grown and applied to solar cell fabrication in a high volume, high throughput process similar to roll-to-roll manufacturing and other solution-based methods (see lots more perovskite background here).
There being no such thing as a free lunch, “raw” perovskite is challenged by natural conditions, namely, humidity. Tweaking the formula with other, more durable materials can resolve that problem. Researchers have also developed a tandem solution, in which a perovskite layer rests upon a silicon layer, providing an efficiency boost while minimizing the additional cost.
In the US solar market, the sticky wicket is the current state of federal energy, trade, and tax polices. Still, the red-hot demand for solar energy in the US has motivated solar stakeholders to steamroll over those obstacles, attracting overseas investors (here’s one example) as well as new domestic ventures.
On the domestic side, the Corning-backed manufacturer Heliene has been focusing on silicon while the startup Caelux has tackled the perovskite solar cell challenge with a glass substrate that can be layered onto other materials in a solar module. Now the two manufacturers have combined forces, with Caelux’s perovskite-doped glass boosting the conversion efficiency of Heliene’s N-type solar cells by up to 20%.
The Caelux-Heliene mashup comes at a time when Congress has finally put the wheels in motion to streamline the permitting process for energy projects. The two firms already have a running head start. On November 10, the two firms announced that commercial-scale production has already begun on their Hybrid-Tandem™ solar module
“Manufactured by Heliene in Minnesota, the perovskite plus silicon technology combines Caelux’s Energy Producing Glass with Heliene’s established silicon module platform to construct a solar module with two separate power generation layers that deliver higher power density,” Heliene explains.
“One of the advantages of Caelux’s technology is that we can integrate its Energy Producing Glass into our existing manufacturing lines without having to build an entirely new production setup,” added Martin Pochtaruk, Heliene CEO and Founder, in a press statement.
“With both companies manufacturing in the U.S., we’re bringing together two fully domestic supply chains to advance what’s possible with American-made solar,” Pochtaruk emphasized.
Stay tuned for the next development. The new modules are now in production at Heliene’s manufacturing facility Minnesota, with deliveries set for 2027. That’s just for starters. Caelux and Heliene have already targeted 29% efficiency and up for their next-generation modules.
The conversion efficiency improvement is the gift that keeps on giving. In the rooftop solar sector, for example, high-efficiency solar cells enable developers to squeeze more electricity out of a given space, making a rooftop array more economical for smaller properties that are otherwise shut out of the market. The cost of a smaller, more effcient array can also ripple downwards in the form of savings on labor, hardware, and transportation expenses.
For rooftop solar in general, the boost in efficiency provides an opportunity to take full advantage of power sharing programs with local utilities, which enable solar owners to earn revenue and qualify for time-of-use discounts. The benefits can ripple into home energy storage systems and home EV charging as well.
On a larger scale, the space-saving angle can help alleviate land use conflicts that otherwise stymie solar development, particularly in the area of farm-to-solar conversion.
Although real estate development is by far the primary factor driving the loss of farmland in the US, solar opponents (looking at you, Brooke Rollins) have played the farm card to gin up resistance to solar development in rural communities. With efficiency improvements, the economic case improves for solar arrays on marginal lands and smaller parcels. That can be partcularly helpful in the community solar field, where solar arrays are typically smaller.
Additionally, the improved efficiency can help accelerate the uptake of agrivoltaic practices that balance energy-producing solar panels with grazing and croplands. These dual-use arrays can enable farmers to continue working their land while guaranteeing a revenue stream from the solar developer.
Furthermore, high-efficiency solar opens up new opportunities in the field of floating solar, where developers can make use of reservoirs and other human-engineered bodies of water instead of taking up space on land. By taking up less room on water for the same power generation capacity, floating solar can also squeeze into reservoirs where recreation and habitat conservation also compete for space.
Perovskite solar cells represent just one key breakthrough area in the US solar industry. Easing the federal energy permitting bottleneck is another. That can be a two-edged sword, enabling more fossil energy resources to flow through the pipeline. However, permitting reform could also prevent the fossil energy industry from running amok through federal energy policy.
Members of Congress are currently negotiating over the particulars of Senate Bill 5653, aka the “Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act. If enacted as envisioned by the solar industry, the reforms will put a crimp in Trump’s “American Energy Dominance” policy, which has placed new and burdensome restrictions on both wind and solar activity in the US while aggressively supporting fossil fuels and nuclear, alongside other renewables including biomass, geothermal, hydropower. Even energy storage has come in for a share of love from the Trump administration, further underscoring the remarkable exclusion of wind and solar from federal energy policy.
The trade organization Solar Energy Industries Association, for one, is urging members on both sides of the aisle to ensure that permitting reform focuses on fairness, predictability, and certainty. In a letter to the House and Senate, SEIA emphasizes that solar and storage developers “cannot finance multi-year, capital-intensive projects without the predictability and certainty needed to build projects and connect them to the grid.”
“According to researchers at Wood Mackenzie, solar and storage represent 70% of the new capacity added to the grid thus far in 2026. Yet $120 billion in clean energy investment is caught up in current permitting delays, let alone the impact of permitting challenges to future deployment,” SEIA adds.
Of course, even if such a bill passes both Houses of Congress, US President Donald Trump could exercise his veto power, and he has already threatened to make copious use of it during his last two years in office. Nevertheless, US Presidents come and go, and this one is scheduled to go in January of 2029 — peacefully this time, one hopes.
Image: The US perovskite solar cell specialist Caelux is combining with the startup Heliene to manufacture high efficiency perovskite-silicon modules in the US (cropped courtesy of Caelux).
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Tina has been covering advanced energy technology, military sustainability, emerging materials, biofuels, ESG and related policy and political matters for CleanTechnica since 2009. Follow her @tinamcasey on LinkedIn, Mastodon or Bluesky.
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5 years of fighting climate change haven’t done much and stronger targets are needed, report says  WIVT – News 34
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