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Thinking of becoming a rooftop solar dealer in India? Explore 8 reasons to start in 2026, including demand, margins, and how the right partner drives growth 
May 27, 2026
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Did you know a rooftop solar dealer in India benefits from faster approvals, smoother subsidy flows, and built-in support through MNRE-aligned partnerships? In 2026, this model is emerging as a high-growth opportunity, shaped by rising demand and steadily improving solar economics. With low entry barriers, structured lead generation, and recurring income that compounds over time, it offers a scalable, future-ready business pathway.
 
According to the National Solar Energy Federation of India, “India is poised to become the world’s second-largest solar market in 2026 in terms of annual installation.” India has already crossed 150 GW of installed solar capacity, adding nearly 50 GW in just 14 months. Yet rooftop penetration across the country remains far from its potential, and this gap is where dealers build lasting businesses. If you are still exploring the solar boom as a rooftop solar dealer in India, here are a few reasons that make the opportunity clearer.
Curiosity has its rewards
A rooftop solar dealership in India is a smart business opportunity because it combines strong market growth, policy-driven demand, and high profit potential with a low-entry, scalable business model. From government-backed adoption and rising consumer demand to multiple income streams, flexible investment, and untapped markets beyond metros, it enables entrepreneurs to build a stable, future-ready business in the market.
Within solar, the rooftop solar additions grew 81.6% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2025:
Solar in India has robust government backing that directly converts hesitant customers into motivated buyers.
The massive adoption of green energy is creating new opportunities for rooftop solar dealers India-wide
A solar dealership is not a single-revenue business. The income structure is layered, and each layer compounds as the dealer's installed base grows.
Installation margins
Adjacent revenue opportunities
This allows most dealers to recover their initial investment within 18 to 30 months.  
A solar franchise model bypasses years of brand-building, supply chain development, and regulatory learning by offering:
A solar dealership does not demand a large or fixed upfront commitment:
A dealer who establishes themselves in a tier 2 town today has a first-mover advantage that is genuinely hard to displace once it is built. India's metro solar markets are increasingly competitive.
As businesses embrace green energy, the demand for trusted rooftop solar dealers in India continues to grow
Demand for rooftop solar is being pushed simultaneously from multiple directions, each reinforcing the others.
Falling costs mean more customers say yes. Smarter technology means fewer complaints. Together, they create a more efficient business.
Rooftop setups have a 25-year lifespan and need periodic servicing. For a dealer, this creates a compounding income stream:

The opportunity is clear, but the real question is who you choose to build it with. Because in solar, the brand you carry, the certifications you are backed by, and the support you receive on the ground will determine how fast you grow and how far you go. That brings us to the most important decision of all: choosing the right partner.
Choosing to become a rooftop solar dealer in India is only the first step, the real impact comes from choosing the right partner. This where the experts step in. Tata Power Solar offers a distinct advantage by combining scale, brand trust, and end-to-end support across sales, financing, and execution. Backed by a strong national presence and a well-integrated ecosystem, it enables dealers to establish credibility quickly and grow with confidence, and provides a refined, reliable pathway to scale in an increasingly competitive market.
Build a future-ready solar business backed by Tata Power’s legacy
India solar shift is accelerating due to policy support, rising customer demand, and affordable technology. Beyond this, the franchise model has made entry accessible to virtually anyone. With margins of 20–35%, recurring AMC income, and payback periods of 18–30 months, a rooftop solar dealership offers both stability and long-term growth.
In a business built on long-term customer relationships, the brand you represent shapes trust, execution, and how quickly you scale. Starting with a partner that brings proven experience and support can make all the difference.
The frequently asked questions section is a reliable source for unlocking answers to some of the most crucial inquiries. Please refer to this section for any queries you may have.
 
Yes, a solar dealership in India can be highly profitable due to strong demand, 20–35% installation margins, and recurring income through maintenance contracts (AMCs). As the customer base grows, recurring revenue compounds, making it a scalable and sustainable business model.
 
To become a rooftop solar dealer in India, partner with an established solar brand that offers dealership or franchise opportunities. Most models provide training, product access, and operational support, allowing you to start without building the business from scratch.
 
The investment required for a solar dealership in India typically ranges from ₹2 lakh to ₹10 lakh, depending on the business model and scale. Most dealership models are asset-light and do not require heavy infrastructure or inventory.
 
The risks in a solar dealership India model are relatively low but can include delays in subsidy processing, dependency on policy changes, and execution challenges. Partnering with an experienced brand helps reduce these risks significantly.
 
No, you do not need deep technical knowledge to start a solar business. Most rooftop solar dealer India models offer training and handle technical aspects like system design and installation, allowing you to focus on sales and business growth.
1. Top 10 solar franchise in India 2025, APN Solar
2. How to start a solar distributorship in India, APN Solar
3. Solar panel dealership franchises in India: why invest in 2026, FranchiseBazar
4. Is a solar franchise profitable in India, APN Solar
5. How to start a solar panel business in India 2026 guide, Solex Energy
6. How to start a solar panel business franchise: a comprehensive guide, Waaree
7. India surpasses 132 GW of installed solar capacity, PV Magazine India
8. India adds record 34.4 GW of solar and wind capacity in first nine months of 2025, JMK Research
9. India adds record 44.5 GW renewable capacity in 2025, Outlook Business
10. How to start a Tata solar power dealership in India 2026, FranchiseBazar
11. India rooftop solar market size and share report 2030, Mordor Intelligence
12. Renewable energy industry overview, IBEF
13. India set to emerge as world's 2nd largest solar market in 2026, NSEFI, Business Standard
14. Physical achievements, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
15. PM Surya Ghar rooftop solar programme, MNRE
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Solar tracker and fixed-tilt racking manufacturer GameChange Solar and automation firm SUNPURE have announced installation compatibility for solar assets, coming to the U.S. in early 2027.
The companies say the collaboration between GameChange’s Genius Tracker platform and SUNPURE’s Saturn-brand module installation system will greatly increase automation in the utility-scale solar space. With automation capabilities across a wide variety of site conditions — including uneven and undulating terrain — the Saturn is capable of installing between 600 and 1,000 solar panels per day.
The collaboration is set to help reduce labor intensity in an increasingly strained industry, and of course, is expected to improve installation efficiency. GameChange Solar CEO Phil Vyhanek says that as labor shortages continue to play a role in both solar and construction at large, automation has “an important role in how the industry shifts.”
“Compatibility between tracker systems and automated installation technologies is an important step toward improving execution speed and reducing labor intensity on large-scale projects,” he says. “SUNPURE has developed a strong solution with the Saturn system, and its compatibility with the Genius Tracker platform reinforces the flexibility of our tracker design across varying project conditions.”
As of May 2026, SUNPURE’s systems have helped companies install more than 2.36 GW worth of solar panels worldwide, and the system is still only available in a few markets. Once released globally, the company has high a high bar for what the Saturn can offer solar construction firms. GameChange Solar’s partnership is part of the reason those expectations are so high, officials say.
“GameChange Solar is one of the leading global tracker suppliers and we are pleased to announce compatibility between their Genius Tracker™ platform and SUNPURE’s Saturn module installation system,” says Zoe Hu, CEO of SUNPURE. “As adoption of automated construction technologies continues to grow, compatibility between installation systems and tracker technologies will play an important role in efficient project execution.”
GameChange and SUNPURE’s collaboration is set to be an industry-changer for EPC firms, the two partners say. Companies will be able to integrate automated module installation into tracker-based projects like never before thanks to the solar robot’s smart technology.
SUNPURE’s Saturn installation system is currently available in “select international markets,” the company says. The company currently covers China, Europe, Latin America, and other regions, and is set to make its U.S. debut in Q1 2027, when the Saturn will become available in North America.


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The Pine Point School district serving Minnesota’s White Earth Reservation community has taken a huge step towards energy independence this month, with the commissioning of a new solar + BESS microgrid project that will help insulate the district from energy rate hikes caused by new data center construction.
The Pine Point Schools’ latest microgrid project from Ziegler Energy Solutions is the latest in a long line fo stories highlighting the resilience of the White Earth Reservation community, but this one also serves as a reminder that the words “solar panel project” are increasingly coming to mean “solar panel + battery energy storage system project.”
The Pine Point kids who were part of last weekend’s ribbon-cutting won’t need a reminder, though. They actually got to “flip the switch” that turned the grid on – making the commissioning of the 2.7 MWh project something they’re not likely to forget.
“(It’s) a meaningful milestone,” reads the official copy from Ziegler ES, the regional CAT Energy dealer that helped manage the Pine Point Schools project. “(It’s) a great example of what’s possible when strong partnerships and community leadership come together.”
The school is a genuine community center for the White Earth Reservation, acting as both a place of celebration in good times and, in its role as a designated storm shelter, a place of retreat in bad times. As such, its ability to “keep the lights on” is too important to be trusted to outside entities alone. To that end, the school’s new microgrid system combines a 500 kW solar array with a 400 kW, 2.7 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), turning what would otherwise be a standard solar panel system into a significantly more resilient energy asset capable of supporting critical community infrastructure during future outages.
While solar and battery installations were previously considered distinct offerings, pairing BESS solutions with solar panel systems is rapidly becoming the norm, with the EIA reporting that 79% of planned new US utility-scale energy generating capacity in 2026 will feature solar + battery assets. On the residential side, ~40% of new home solar systems installed in 2025 included battery storage – and that number is climbing, too.
And, as solar + storage installation costs continue drop while energy bills continue to climb, the conversation is quickly turning from keeping the lights on when the grid goes down to a much bigger question: does your community need the traditional grid at all, anymore?
You guys are smart. Head on down to the comments section and give us your answer to that question, below.
SOURCES | IMAGES: Ziegler ES, via LinkedIn; EIA.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them. 
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Photo: Zsuzsa Bóka from Pixabay
Published
May 27, 2026
Country
Serbia
Author
Vladimir Spasić
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Published:
May 27, 2026
Country:
Serbia
Author
Vladimir Spasić
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Car tire maker Linglong and HBIS, the owner of the Smederevo steel mill, have submitted the first applications in Serbia to connect their solar power plants to the transmission system as active consumers, or active buyers, as they are referred to in Serbian law.
Applications were made possible by the Serbian government’s decision to amend the decree on conditions for the delivery and supply of electricity. The active buyer status allows end consumers to produce, but also consume, store, and sell the electricity they generate.
The status was introduced by amendments to the Energy Law in November 2024. However, it could not take effect until the decree had been amended as well.
Linglong International Europe and HBIS GROUP Serbia Iron & Steel have submitted their requests to Elektromreža Srbije (EMS), the country’s transmission system operator.
The two solar plants will have a combined capacity of over 103 MW
Linglong is seeking a grid connection for its 39.9 MW Ling Long solar plant in Zrenjanin, where its manufacturing facilities are located. According to EMS’ website, the power plant is scheduled to be online in 2027.
The HBIS Group Iron&Steel-Smederevo photovoltaic plant is scheduled to start generating electricity a year later. Its grid connection approval is for 63 MW.
Currently, the largest operational solar park in Serbia has a peak capacity of 26 MW. It consists of two PV plants, with a connection approval for 9.999 MW. They are connected to the distribution network.
The applications from both Chinese firms are complete, EMS said. The two plants are to be connected to the internal installations of their facilities in Zrenjanin and Smederevo.
The two applications are among 30 complete applications for grid connection, out of a total of 80 applications submitted.
The amendments to the decree on conditions for the delivery and supply of electricity introduce rules for active buyers. Entities within this category can participate in the electricity market directly or through aggregation, sell the electricity they generate via power purchase agreements (PPAs), use their own output exclusively for their own needs, and participate in flexibility services and energy efficiency schemes.
A power plant’s capacity must not be less than 150 kW or exceed the approved grid connection capacity. The same applies to a battery system in generation mode.
The study development periods for active buyers are from March 1 to June 30 and from September 1 to December 31.
Upon delivery, it is obligatory to provide a bank guarantee for the power plant or energy storage facility project, in the amount of EUR 12,500 per MW of connection capacity to the alternating current grid.
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Serbia
27 May 2026 – Linglong and HBIS have submitted the first applications to connect solar power plants to the transmission system as active consumers
Croatia, North Macedonia
27 May 2026 – North Macedonia and Croatia signed an agreement on strategic cooperation and a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in energy
Serbia
27 May 2026 – For large wind farm and solar park projects in Serbia, applications submitted until now will not be processed until 2029
Bulgaria
26 May 2026 – The combined share of battery energy storage systems in Bulgaria is higher by far than in any other country in the world
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I wrote an article last week about how it’s much cheaper to charge my electric car than people think, or electric cars in general.
I knew this would be the logical followup article. We don’t have solar, since we live in a townhouse where we don’t have control over our roof. (There are ways to force it through, but that comes with some big risks we are financially equipped to storm.) However, if you have the opportunity, then sunshine can definitely provide the cheapest fuel on the planet! (Or off the planet for that matter….)
The fact of the matter is, if you have solar panels on your roof, the long-term average cost of electricity is probably lower than what you can get from the grid, especially if you really take into account the lifetime of the solar panels. Also, if you’ve got those solar panels on your roof, every extra kWh you generate from them costs $0.00. If you’re in a case where any extra electricity you generate doesn’t get compensated or gets compensated at a super low rate, then using that electricity instead to charge your car means extremely low or no incremental cost.
Under that article mentioned at the top, one of our longtime readers and regular commenters, “appliance5000,” provided a great comment on the matter as well:
“Yes. My home charging costs me about $8 for 250 miles in spring and summer. Humble bragging: This is my first year with community solar — my costs are $0. I know I know — solar costs money. But think of it this way: The only ICE equivalent would be to set up a drill rig, a refinery, and a pump on your land. And even then, you’re not powering you house etc….
“It’s kind of a beautiful thing — sort of like magic: In a field not far away, a lovely array sits — surrounded by distinctive brown cows with a broad white center stripe — and makes electricity. If I can’t use it all, I get a credit. If I wanted, I could run the house off a home battery at night — and recharge it in the morning.”
Indeed! Brilliant! Even better that this is a non-rooftop example to show what else is possible. If only we all had the ability to buy into a community solar garden.
Another commenter, incidentally, also had an example of low-cost community solar to share. “Madcalf” wrote: “Here in Denver, summertime off-peak is 7 cents per kWh, and off-peak is 9pm – 5pm, 20 hours per day. Plus, it’s all 24 hours per day on weekends. I save an additional 10% through the Neighborhood Sun community solar program I’m on, not that 10% of 7 cents is much, but just goes to show how insanely cheap it is to charge our EVs here. We can charge our model Y for right around the cost of one gallon of gas.” Wowza. Nice!
There are a lot of comments under that article, including more referencing solar. The short and sweet of it all: sunshine is actually the cheapest fuel for your car.
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Zach is tryin’ to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its editor-in-chief and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about electric vehicles and renewable energy at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao.
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Mostly cloudy. High near 85F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph..
Mostly cloudy. Low near 75F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.
Updated: May 27, 2026 @ 12:55 pm
The proposed Sandy Run Solar project would cover 1,500 acres of woodlands and farmland, with another 6,000 acres being part of the planned development area.
On May 26, Berkeley County Council voted 3-2 to lift the large-scale development moratorium for a controversial solar project in Cross despite major opposition from residents in the rural community.
Berkeley and Dorchester Metro Reporter

Komlavi Adissem is a metro reporter covering Berkeley and Dorchester counties. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri, where he covered city, county, and state government for the Columbia Missourian. Find him on Twitter (X) and Bluesky @KAdissem!
On May 26, Berkeley County Council voted 3-2 to lift the large-scale development moratorium for a controversial solar project in Cross despite major opposition from residents in the rural community.
MONCKS CORNER — The Berkeley County Council voted to lift the large-scale development moratorium for a controversial solar project in Cross that has pitted major environmental groups against locals looking to maintain the farmland and woodlands they call home.
At their May 26 meeting, County Council approved the request from RWE Solar Development, a subsidiary of the German energy giant RWE, to lift the moratorium in order to pursue a 1,500-acre solar farm as part of a 7,500-acre planned development west of Lake Moultrie.
The vote came after residents in Cross mounted a fierce opposition to the proposal, which would see swaths of pine forests turned into solar fields. A petition organized by council candidate Michael Parker garnered nearly 800 signatures by the time the meeting started.
Many residents showed up to voice their opposition in a last-ditch effort to sway Council against the request, and dozens of residents donned “VOTE NO” stickers on their shirts.
The public comment period became something of a battle between environmentalists and Cross residents, with Taylor Allred of the Coastal Conservation League and Paul Black of the Sierra Club speaking in support of the project. Both men, neither of whom live in Berkeley County, hailed the project as way to bolster the area’s energy capacity through green means.
“This is a way to produce power here in South Carolina, here in Berkeley County that can be used by the county and does not have these drastic negative environmental consequences,” Black said.
The solar facility is projected to produce 198 megawatts of electricity if built, which could power 37,500 homes and would account for 9 percent of Santee Cooper’s desired 2,200-megawatt increase in solar capacity.
Tory Kaso, a representative from RWE, addressed some of the concerns of residents, saying the panels would be made of glass and aluminum rather than ones made from cadmium, a toxic metal that can lead to negative long-term health issues like kidney and lung disease if exposed to for long periods. She added that the panels would not produce dust or emissions and won’t create noise “beyond the project line.”
“The solar panels for Sandy Run will be located more than a mile from public right of ways. The access road to where the facility will be constructed is heavily wooded, and it will remain that way,” she said. “Solar is a low-impact use of this land. It will complement and respect the rural character of Cross.”
Residents of the small rural community are unconvinced. Robert Barrett said he worries about what will happen to property values in the community as a result of the panels being installed. Brianna Carroll pointed out that major investment firms BlackRock and The Vanguard Group, along with the foreign investment fund of the Qatari government, own significant shares of RWE.
“RWE is a business entity. They are not a company that cares about Cross,” she said. “They don’t care about our life. They just see our area on a map, and they want to fill it.”
Carroll added that she sees the solar project development as a “Trojan horse” for major tech companies to set up a data center in the area, a concern shared by many residents.
The three candidates for District 7 also spoke in opposition to the request to lift the moratorium. Matt Hoover reiterated that community input and research led him to oppose it. His Republican primary opponent, Michael Parker, cited the county’s comprehensive plan, saying the land the solar farm would be built on is zoned in a way meant to protect the forests, farmland and rural character of the community.
“District 7 contains some of the last remaining green space in this area. Once that land is gone, it’s gone forever,” he said. “We also have serious concerns about long-term impact. Green energy should not come at the expense of the very land and the natural resources we’re supposed to protect.”
Ralph Prioleau Jr., the Democrat in the race, recalled President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, saying government should be “of the people, by the people and for the people.”
“What type of representatives are you going to be tonight? If you’re going to be a good representative of the people, for the people and by the people, then I know you will vote no tonight,” he said, receiving a standing ovation from the audience.
The overwhelming opposition was not enough to sway Council, however. The vote came down 3-2 in favor of lifting the moratorium.
The proposed Sandy Run Solar project would cover 1,500 acres of woodlands and farmland, with another 6,000 acres being part of the planned development area.
Councilman Caldwell Pinckney Jr., who represents District 7 currently, reaffirmed his opposition to the project and told the RWE representatives to “go back to Texas.” Councilman Marshall West also voted against RWE’s request, saying the solar farm would be a “short-term answer to a long-term problem.”
Council members Amy Stern, Dan Owens and Jarrod Brooks voted to lift the moratorium.
Councilmen Phillip Obie II and Tommy Newell recused themselves, and Councilman Steve Davis abstained at the last minute after being ridiculed by the crowd for speaking in support of the request despite being a Cross native.
Supervisor Johnny Cribb did not vote, as he can only break ties. But he noted that he would have voted against the request.
The council chambers emptied out after the vote, with residents gathering in the lobby and outside to discuss the outcome. Some were disappointed, while others seemed to think it was a forgone conclusion.
Hazel Lee Davis, who runs the Cross General Store, said Berkeley County is turning into a “monopoly” and said she thinks the government is “bought off.”
“They were voted in by the people, so they should be for the people,” she said. “But that is not what’s happening at all. And we saw that tonight … that they are not for us, they are against us.”
Barrett said after the meeting that “this isn’t government, this is stupid.”
Still, there’s a long path ahead to the solar farm becoming a reality. Cribb noted during the meeting that the moratorium being lifted is essentially the developer reaching the “start line.”
Before the panels can be installed, RWE will have to go through the planning process, which includes a hearing before the Planning Commission and six more readings and votes from Council before all is said and done.
Berkeley and Dorchester Metro Reporter

Komlavi Adissem is a metro reporter covering Berkeley and Dorchester counties. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri, where he covered city, county, and state government for the Columbia Missourian. Find him on Twitter (X) and Bluesky @KAdissem!
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Aluminium price spike from Mideast war fans costs for US solar industry  Reuters
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Solar power expected to soon be cheaper than natural gas power in Anchorage  Alaska Beacon
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From pv magazine Australia
The Australian government has announced the successful outcome of Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) Tender 7 – NEM Generation with support for 19 projects expected to provide a combined 7.8 GW of renewable generation energy across New South Wales (NSW), Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania.
The tender, that was seeking an indicative target of 5 GW of renewable energy generation across the National Electricity Market (NEM), will also deliver more than 2.0 GW / 7.9 GWh of energy storage capacity to the grid with eight of the successful projects hybrid – that is including a battery along with the solar or wind generation.
Almost 2.5 GW of the total generation capacity will be delivered by solar projects, including the 200 MW Weasel Solar Farm being developed in Tasmania by Malaysia’s Gamuda Renewables in collaboration with Melbourne-based developer Alternate Path and the 97 MW Bullyard and 85 MW Kayuga solar farms being progressed in Queensland and Tasmania respectively by Danish renewable energy developer European Energy. The Kayuga project also includes a battery but that is outside the CIS parameters.
Six solar hybrid projects also secured CIS support, including the Birriwa 600 MW solar farm and 2,400 MWh battery being developed by the Australian arm of Philippines-based energy company Acen and British-owned Lightsource bp’s Gundary 320 MW solar and 1,391 MWh battery project, both in NSW.
Other successful hybrid projects in NSW include the Dinawan 300 MW solar and 1,200 MWh battery and the Wattle Creek 180 MW solar and 720 MWh battery projects being developed by Malaysia-owned Spark Renewables.
The Moranbah 171 solar and 100 MWh battery and the 290 MW Gunning solar and 542 MWh battery projects being developed in Queensland by Spanish infrastructure giant Grupo Cobra subsidiary Zero-E are also among the successful hybrid projects.
All projects, including more than 5.5 GW of wind generation, are expected to be operational by 2030. Collectively, the selected projects will provide enough power to supply more than 4 million households in the NEM.
Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the projects are also expected to unlock an estimated AUD 17 billion ($12.16 billion) in private investment, noting that nearly AUD 1.2 billion in social licence commitments had been made by the winning projects. The projects are also expected to create an estimated 19,000 construction jobs and use AUD 257 million worth of Australian steel.
“The Capacity Investment Scheme is delivering what Australia needs: more cheap, clean energy, more jobs and more investment in our regions,” Bowen said. “This is not just about megawatts. It is about jobs on the ground, investment in local communities, and making sure communities share in the benefits of the renewable energy transition.”
CIS Tender 7 is the latest round in the federal renewable energy support mechanism administered by AusEnergy Services Limited (ASL).
The CIS provides long-term revenue guarantees for renewable energy generation and storage projects through competitive auctions, offering a revenue floor and ceiling mechanism designed to reduce investment risk.
The announcement of the successful projects comes as ASL prepares to open up the next tender for registrations.
CIS Tender 9, targeting 5 GW of NEM generation capacity is expected to open this week with bids close on 20 July 2026.
“Tender 9 will target 5 GW of renewable generation and will be open to all NEM jurisdictions except NSW, where proponents can participate in the re-started NSW Roadmap generation tenders,” the government said.

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Pennar Industries to invest in solar module JV  pv magazine India
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Hanwha Solutions, the South Korean energy and chemicals parent of solar manufacturer Qcells, trimmed its contested capital raise for the third time on Monday, cutting the total to 1.71 trillion won ($1.14 billion) from 1.8 trillion won after its board approved the latest reduction on May 26. To cover the 100-billion-won gap created by the cut, the company said it will sell stakes in U.S. venture investment funds it had previously classified as untouchable long-term strategic assets — a concession that signals how hard shareholders have pushed back since Hanwha Solutions first announced the offering in March.
The revision is the latest in a months-long standoff between Hanwha Solutions’ management and its investors. The company originally unveiled a 2.4 trillion won ($1.6 billion) rights offering on March 26 — two days after its annual shareholders’ meeting, without any mention of the plan to investors in attendance — and watched its shares immediately plunge more than 20%. South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service rejected the original filing, then rejected a scaled-down revision in late April, and the company temporarily suspended the offering entirely on May 12 before reconfirming a new schedule two days later.
The Korean Corporate Governance Forum, a named shareholder watchdog, argued in a public statement that the original board decision likely constituted a breach of independent directors’ fiduciary duties under the revised Commercial Act, citing the two-day gap between the annual general meeting and the board vote as insufficient time for newly appointed directors to review a proposal of that scale. Representative Ahn Cheol-soo added political weight to the criticism, stating publicly that allocating most of the proceeds to debt repayment effectively transfers the cost of management failures onto shareholders.
Read more: Biden Administration Plans to Lift Tariff Exemptions on Chinese Solar Panel Technology
Under the revised plan, the number of newly issued shares falls to 53 million, down from 56 million in the previous version and 72 million in the original filing. The offering price drops slightly to 32,250 won per share from 32,400 won. Each existing shareholder will receive approximately 0.2465 new shares per share held, down from 0.2605 under the prior plan — reducing dilution from roughly 32% to roughly 30% of the existing share count, compared to the original 42% dilution that first triggered the investor revolt.
The allocation for debt repayment falls to 801.5 billion won, down from 906.7 billion won in the first revision and 1.5 trillion won in the original filing — a 47% reduction from the March announcement. The 907.7 billion won allocated for perovskite tandem solar cell investment and capacity expansion remains unchanged, as does the breakdown within that envelope: 100 billion won for a pilot production line for next-generation perovskite-silicon tandem cells, and 800 billion won for building gigawatt-scale tandem mass production capacity and expanding existing TOPCon manufacturing at the company’s Jincheon, South Korea facility and its Cartersville, Georgia plant.
The schedule has also shifted. The shareholder record date moves from June 5 to June 16, existing shareholder subscriptions push to July 22–23, and new shares are expected to list on August 11 — roughly five weeks later than originally planned.
Hanwha Solutions posted an operating loss of approximately 365 billion won in 2025, hit simultaneously by a downturn in its petrochemicals business and an overcrowded global solar market where Chinese manufacturers — including LONGi, JinkoSolar, and JA Solar — have driven panel prices to levels that make it difficult for non-Chinese producers to compete on cost alone. The company carries net debt of approximately 13 trillion won.
The growth investments the offering is meant to fund are central to Qcells’ strategy for escaping that cost trap. Silicon solar cells are approaching their theoretical efficiency ceiling of roughly 29–30%, which means competing on conventional technology alone offers diminishing returns against Chinese scale. Perovskite-silicon tandem cells, which stack a perovskite absorber layer on top of a standard silicon cell to capture a broader slice of the solar spectrum, push total conversion efficiency toward a theoretical maximum of 44%. In December 2024, Qcells set a world record for commercially scalable perovskite-silicon tandem cells, reaching 28.6% efficiency on a full-area M10-sized cell — independently certified by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Germany. Industry analysts tracking tandem development believe Qcells leads Chinese rivals including LONGi by one to two years in the race to commercialize the technology.
The 800 billion won earmarked for TOPCon expansion meanwhile supports Qcells’ near-term manufacturing ramp at its Cartersville, Georgia facility, where the company is on track to become the only manufacturer in North America with a fully integrated solar supply chain — from ingots and wafers through finished modules — a distinction that supports eligibility for domestic content incentives under U.S. manufacturing policy.
Co-chief executives Nam Jeong-woon and Park Seung-deok acknowledged the friction in a statement accompanying the latest revision: “We take it very seriously that we have not fully met the expectations and standards of our shareholders throughout this process. Strengthening our financial structure and investing in growth are tasks that can no longer be delayed if we are to secure a sustainable foundation and reinforce our future competitiveness. We will do everything we can to close the market undervaluation gap and enhance shareholder value.”
The apology echoes one issued in April when the first revision was announced, when executives acknowledged failing to communicate the offering’s rationale before announcing it two days after the annual general meeting. The company drew additional criticism in early May after claiming to retail investors that it had held prior discussions with South Korea’s financial regulator — a claim it subsequently retracted, acknowledging the statement was inaccurate.
The sale of the U.S. venture fund — which Hanwha Solutions has used since 2022 to invest in North American energy and circular economy startups through subsidiaries — represents the most concrete concession yet to shareholder demands. The company previously described these fund stakes as long-term strategic holdings unsuitable for near-term liquidation. The board’s May 26 decision reversed that position, with management concluding the fund could be sold quickly without materially damaging Qcells’ core operations.
Tandem solar cells pair two light-absorbing materials — a perovskite layer on top and a silicon layer on the bottom — to convert sunlight more efficiently than either material can alone. Conventional silicon panels plateau at roughly 25–28% real-world efficiency, approaching the physics-based ceiling for single-junction silicon devices. Tandem designs sidestep that ceiling by splitting the solar spectrum: the perovskite layer captures higher-energy photons while the silicon layer captures lower-energy ones, pushing total conversion efficiency toward a theoretical maximum of 44%.
For Qcells, the commercial case is not only about efficiency. A module that generates more electricity per square meter costs less to install relative to output, which partially offsets the manufacturing cost advantage held by Chinese producers who have spent years industrializing silicon cell production at a scale Western competitors cannot match. Mass production of perovskite tandem cells — with Qcells targeting initial mass production in the first half of 2027 — would give the company a technology differentiation unavailable to rivals still optimizing conventional silicon.
Why has Hanwha Solutions revised its rights offering three times?
South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service rejected Hanwha Solutions’ original 2.4 trillion won filing in April, citing insufficient disclosure of material information that could harm investor decision-making. A first revision to 1.8 trillion won was also rejected in late April. The third and current revision — cutting the total to 1.71 trillion won — follows sustained pressure from minority shareholders, governance watchdogs, and regulators over the use of dilutive equity to fund debt repayment rather than growth.
What is Hanwha Solutions using the capital raise for?
The company is splitting the proceeds between debt repayment and solar technology investment. Approximately 801.5 billion won goes toward corporate bond redemptions and completing construction of the Cartersville, Georgia manufacturing plant. The remaining 907.7 billion won funds a perovskite tandem solar cell pilot line (100 billion won) and large-scale tandem mass production and TOPCon capacity expansion (800 billion won).
What is the dilution impact on existing Hanwha Solutions shareholders?
Under the current revised plan, each existing shareholder receives approximately 0.2465 new shares per share already held — equivalent to a share count increase of roughly 30%. That is down from the 42% dilution the original March proposal would have imposed, representing a meaningful improvement for shareholders who held through the controversy.
What are perovskite tandem solar cells and how do they differ from standard panels?
Perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells stack a perovskite light-absorbing layer on top of a conventional silicon cell to capture more of the solar spectrum, pushing efficiency beyond the practical ceiling for silicon alone. Standard silicon panels plateau at around 25–28% real-world efficiency; tandem designs have a theoretical maximum of 44%. Qcells set a world record for commercially scalable tandem cells in December 2024 at 28.6% efficiency, independently verified by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute.
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Industry titans from various sectors are crossing into the new energy field, positioning themselves upstream as the “shovel sellers”.
According to the latest information from Yujian Energy, in May 2026, Zhong Shanshan, through his company Yangshengtang Co., Ltd., made a strategic investment of approximately 500 million yuan in Zhejiang Zhibang Lithium Battery, a solid-state battery material enterprise, holding about 10% of the shares, targeting the electrolyte materials at the very upstream of the industrial chain.
This is Zhong Shanshan’s first foray into the new energy field. This businessman, who has topped the Forbes China Rich List for five consecutive years and currently has a net worth of $68.1 billion, has never been involved in the power battery sector before. From selling water to making vaccines and then investing in solid-state electrolytes, Zhong Shanshan’s logic of crossing boundaries remains consistent – he looks for niche entry points with high technical barriers, light assets, and no oligarchs for the time being. When solid-state batteries are regarded as the “ultimate route” for power batteries, the track is already overcrowded. CATL and BYD have heavily invested in cell manufacturing, with a GWh-level production line investment often reaching hundreds of millions of yuan. Zhong Shanshan, the founder of Nongfu Spring, deliberately bypassed this red ocean.
Yujian Energy’s research found that Jack Ma is investing in energy storage, Wuliangye is expanding in photovoltaic, and New Hope is also intensively deploying. Those in the water-selling, wine-making, and pig-raising industries are all finding their positions in the new energy field.
Zhong Shanshan’s investment of 500 million yuan was quite precisely targeted.
Zhibang Lithium Battery was established in March 2024, with its R & D center and base in Quzhou, Zhejiang. Many members of its core team come from Ganfeng Lithium Battery. Ding Li, the company’s chairman, and Xu Xiaoxiong, the actual controller, have both worked at Ganfeng Lithium Battery, a leading domestic solid-state battery enterprise. Xu Xiaoxiong indirectly holds about 28.57% of Zhibang Lithium Battery’s shares and steers the technical direction; another key figure, Zhang Yongxiang, with a background in the investment circle, directly and indirectly holds about 11.47% of the shares and is responsible for capital operations.
Zhibang Lithium Battery focuses on solid-state electrolyte materials, covering three technical routes: oxides, polymers, and sulfides. Such restraint is not common in the industry. In the solid-state battery industry, Qingtao Energy, Weilan New Energy, and CATL are all extending downstream, and battery cells are the main battlefield they are vying for. Zhibang Lithium Battery, however, focuses on solid-state electrolyte materials – a link that no one wants to do but no one can bypass.
Yujian Energy believes that Zhong Shanshan obviously values not the current scale of this company but the technical team and process reserves inherited from Ganfeng Lithium Battery. Notably, the second-largest investor in Zhibang Lithium Battery is the state-owned assets of Quzhou. The fact that a company established less than two years ago can receive funds from both the former richest man and state-owned assets indirectly confirms the strategic value of solid-state electrolyte materials – it is not just a business but also a part of local governments’ bets on the new energy industrial chain.
The solid-state electrolyte market selected by Zhong Shanshan is at a critical juncture where “price determines survival”.
On May 17th, at the Guoxuan High-Tech Science and Technology Conference, Pan Ruijun, a senior director of the company, presented a set of data: 70% to 80% of the cost of a sulfide solid-state battery is concentrated in the electrolyte, and 70% to 80% of the electrolyte cost is lithium sulfide. In other words, the cost of lithium sulfide almost determines the price ceiling of solid-state batteries. Pan Ruijun gave a quantitative critical point: When the price of lithium sulfide drops to 500,000 yuan per ton and the price of solid-state electrolytes drops to 300,000 yuan per ton, solid-state batteries can reach the commercial threshold of 1 yuan per watt-hour.
On Zhibang Lithium Battery’s official WeChat account, only two articles have been posted so far, and the most recent one dates back to the end of last year. The article also states that solid-state electrolytes still have a long way to go. They carry people’s expectations for high-safety and high-energy-density batteries and also face the pain of transforming from “laboratory results” to “industrial products”.
There is still a distance for solid-state electrolytes to achieve large-scale commercialization, but the technical routes are converging, and industry standards are starting to be formulated. Yujian Energy analyzed that this is precisely the logic behind Zhong Shanshan’s decision to enter the market at this moment. In April, Zhibang Lithium Battery publicly announced a patent for high-performance solid-state electrolytes and participated in the formulation of the industry standard “Test Method for Air Stability of Sulfide Solid Electrolytes”. By investing during the window period when the technology is not yet finalized and the giants have not yet monopolized the market, when the real opportunity arrives, one will already occupy an irreplaceable position in the industrial chain.
Zhong Shanshan is not an isolated case. A group of top enterprises and entrepreneurs from non-energy fields are entering the new energy field in their own ways and rushing into different tracks in the new energy sector.
At the beginning of 2026, Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, officially entered the carbon neutrality industry, covering energy storage, wind power, and photovoltaic. He did not engage in battery manufacturing but participated in the investment of “Weiheng Intelligence”, an energy storage enterprise, through Yunfeng Fund. This company, founded by Professor Sun Yaojie from Fudan University, has submitted an application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and is valued at 2.7 billion yuan. Those from the Internet industry use capital to leverage technology-based companies and pre-position themselves in the energy storage field, which is closer to applications and has lighter assets.
Wuliangye, a liquor giant with revenues exceeding 40 billion yuan in 2025, has been actively involved in the new energy field since 2023. In April 2023, it established Sichuan Wuliangye New Energy Investment Co., Ltd. with a registered capital of 1 billion yuan; in August of the same year, it joined hands with PetroChina to establish a joint venture, with its business scope covering photovoltaic power generation, energy storage, and hydrogenation facilities. In February 2025, Wuliangye also jointly established a joint venture with LONGi Green Energy and Yingfa Deyao, focusing on the HPBC high-efficiency battery project. In October of the same year, Wuliangye built a 10MW/20MWh energy storage power station in its industrial park. For a liquor company to invest in photovoltaic and energy storage is a huge leap, but it has capital that others can hardly match. Wuliangye has industrial parks, factories, and stable electricity demand, and energy storage and photovoltaic are natural extensions around its own scenarios.
The New Hope Group in the agricultural field has also quietly entered the market. Zhejiang Xinzhi New Energy Co., Ltd., controlled by its subsidiary Xingyuan Environment, mainly engages in the leasing of photovoltaic power generation equipment and the manufacturing of components. As an agricultural leader with feed and pig-raising as its core businesses, it also has the confidence to cross into the photovoltaic field. In its cooperation plan with SPIC, it is mentioned that “photovoltaic projects with complementary livestock and light will be deployed around large-scale farms and slaughterhouses in various places”.
It is not difficult to see that cross-boundary players entering the new energy field have a common action logic. Especially for large consumer companies, their years of accumulated high-end manufacturing capabilities, raw material control capabilities, and supply chain management experience provide a potential foundation for them to enter high-growth sectors such as new energy, and they have the pre – conditions of abundant cash on the books and smooth financing channels.
Yujian Energy observed that a clear pattern can be found in the path choices of these cross – boundary players – almost all of them are seizing territories upstream. The liquor company does not compete with CATL for battery cell production lines, the feed company does not manufacture power batteries, and the Internet company does not build GWh – level factories. Wuliangye focuses on energy storage and photovoltaic around its own industrial park, New Hope uses its agricultural and livestock resources for photovoltaic power generation, Jack Ma uses the fund to invest in energy storage technology companies, and Zhong Shanshan uses the R & D genes of Yangshengtang to bet on solid – state electrolyte materials. They are all looking for the entry point that best matches their original capabilities. Although the paths are different, the logic is the same: only focus on the upstream, do supporting work, and provide services. Zhong Shanshan’s choice of upstream materials is to seize the unfixed niche track during the technological vacuum period.
And the former richest man himself once said: “For a small enterprise to grow and expand, the types of business it operates must be unique and highly profitable, because there is no economies of scale for it to accumulate slowly.” Solid – state electrolytes naturally have this property in the early stage of commercialization – they are difficult to replace in the short term, the downstream demand is highly certain, and the technical threshold keeps most players out.
500 million yuan is not a large amount for Zhong Shanshan, who has Nongfu Spring’s annual revenue of 52.5 billion yuan and a net profit attributable to the parent company of about 15.8 billion yuan. But this investment is made on the eve of the commercialization of solid – state batteries and at the material end of the most upstream of the industrial chain. When the entire industry starts to operate, all those who manufacture solid – state batteries will need electrolytes. The principle is as simple as selling water – those who pan for gold may not make money, but those who sell shovels are unlikely to lose. From Jack Ma to Wuliangye, from New Hope to Zhong Shanshan, these cross – boundary players have all chosen to be the “shovel sellers” in the new energy era. This is not a coincidence but the most practical judgment of the value of the industrial chain.
This article is from the WeChat official account “Yujian Energy”, author: Zhao Jianan. Republished by 36Kr with permission.
该文观点仅代表作者本人，36氪平台仅提供信息存储空间服务。
36kr Europe (eu.36kr.com) delivers global business and markets news, data, analysis, and video to the world, dedicated to building value and providing business service for companies’ global expansion.
© 2024 36kr.com. All rights reserved.

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May 20, 2026
Does solar work in winter? Learn how solar panels perform during cold, cloudy weather in Australia and how to maximise solar efficiency in winter.
With around one in three Australian households now using rooftop solar to power their homes, many Australians may be wondering if their solar panels still work during winter and on cloudy days. Contrary to a common misconception, solar panels are indeed capable of producing energy during colder weather as they rely on light, and not heat, to operate all year round. 
Find out how solar energy works during winter to help make an informed decision about renewable energy in your home.
Yes, solar panels still work in winter. They generate electricity from daylight, not heat, so they still produce power on cold days.
Solar panels can even perform slightly better in cooler weather, since excessive heat can reduce efficiency. But winter output is usually lower because:
So solar still works in winter, but usually generates less than in summer.
RACV Solar spokesperson Landon Moss says winter solar output depends on panel angle, daylight hours, and weather conditions.
"Panels are still efficient in winter and can still generate energy during the winter months, although their efficiency may be reduced due to shorter days and lower sunlight angles," Moss says.
Even with lower winter output, modern solar panels can still generate useful power and help cut electricity costs during daylight hours.
"The amount of power generated by solar panels in winter can vary depending on several factors, including the specific location, weather conditions, orientation of panels, and any shading or obstructions," Moss says. "Overall, while the effectiveness of solar panels may decrease in winter, they can still contribute to energy generation for your household."
Solar panels can generate energy on cloudy days and during shorter daylight hours. Image: Matt Harvey
Solar panels still work on cloudy days, but they produce less power than in direct sunlight. Cloud cover blocks some sunlight, but diffused light still lets the system generate power at a lower rate.
Modern panels are more efficient in low light, so they perform better in winter than older systems.
Rain itself does not stop solar panels from working. In many cases, rain can actually help by washing away dust, dirt and debris that may reduce panel efficiency.
During heavy storms or very dark weather, solar production will drop temporarily because less sunlight reaches the panels. Once conditions clear, the system resumes normal operation.
Solar panels installed in Australia are designed to withstand outdoor conditions including rain, wind and hail when properly installed to Australian standards.

More: How to safely clean solar panels
Solar panels are built to deal with a range of temperatures, so shouldn't abruptly stop working.  
"Cold weather generally doesn't impact solar panels," says Moss. "Extreme cold temperatures can affect the panel efficiency, but they typically do not stop working altogether."
Most solar panels operate effectively in a temperature range between -30°C and 80°C, Moss says, meaning the mild winter temperatures experienced in Australia are unlikely to impact peformance.
A solar battery may be effective in helping to reduce your energy costs in winter. When your solar panels generate more energy than you can use, the unused energy is stored in the home battery for later use.
"Having a solar battery means excess unused energy is stored, and can be used for household consumption when the sun is not shining, such as nighttime," Moss explains. "This benefits the household by not having the need to buy power from the grid at a higher rate."
Moss recommends batteries from a certified solar provider so you can generate, store and manage your own energy. Batteries with a back-up function also allow the power to run during a blackout.
More: Solar panel & battery rebates Victoria 2026
The electrolytes in EV batteries perform better in warmer temperatures. This means that during winter, EVs can take longer to charge.
While your EV can still be charged using solar power during winter, running multiple appliances concurrently during winter may mean you also need to draw additional power from the grid.
Measures like preheating EV batteries before charging, charging your EV during peak daylight hours (generally 10am to 2pm in winter) and installing a solar battery may help mitigate the need to import energy from the grid.
Solar hot water systems also continue working during winter, although they may rely more heavily on booster systems during colder or cloudy periods.
Most solar hot water systems include either electric boosters or gas boosters. These help ensure households still have reliable hot water when solar heating alone is insufficient.
Well-maintained systems with properly insulated tanks generally perform effectively throughout winter. Heat pump hot water systems are another good option for this reason.
EVs can take longer to charge in winter. Image: Matt Harvey
Yes – although winter solar generation is lower, solar panels can still reduce electricity bills. Many households use more electricity during winter because of:
If your solar system generates electricity during the day while these appliances are running, you may reduce the amount of power you need to buy from the grid.
Adding a battery storage system may also help households use more of their solar energy during winter evenings when electricity demand is typically highest.
While you cannot control daylight hours or weather, there are several ways to maximise solar efficiency during winter.
Winter can actually be a good time to install solar panels.
Installing solar before peak summer sunlight allows households to start generating renewable energy sooner and potentially reduce energy bills year-round. Solar installers may also have shorter wait times outside peak demand periods.
More: Why you should get solar ready for summer
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Fort Edward Solar Project gains final state approval  NEWS10 ABC
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7 Devices You Can Power With Portable Solar Panels (And 6 You Can’t)  AOL.com
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According to analysis from Solar Media Market Research, battery storage continues to serve as a major source of income for clean energy technology suppliers, even as photovoltaic margins remain tight and electric vehicle demand slows. The growing importance of energy storage systems, supported by government programs in emerging markets and rising global installations, has kept this segment robust.
The report highlights that suppliers with a larger portion of revenue coming from energy storage generally experienced stronger overall growth in 2025. Among top companies, HyperStrong recorded the highest year-over-year revenue increase at 45%, followed by CATL at 21% and Sungrow at 18%. HyperStrong, which derives the greatest share of its total revenue from energy storage, saw its overseas revenue climb 42% as it entered new markets in Greece and Sweden. Despite a decline in average selling prices, the company’s 2025 energy storage sales volume more than doubled from the prior year, leading to a 40% rise in revenue and a 52% jump in net profits attributable to shareholders.
For most suppliers in the top two tiers of the bankability pyramid, energy storage is not their primary revenue source, though its share of total revenue has generally been increasing. CATL was an exception, with its energy storage share dipping slightly to 15% in 2025, even as total energy storage revenue grew 9%. Sungrow posted the largest increase in energy storage revenue among the five leading suppliers, up roughly 49%, accounting for nearly 42% of total revenue, while its photovoltaic inverter sales rose only 6.9%. The company’s overseas revenue share rose from 46% in 2024 to about 60% in 2025, as revenue from mainland China fell 15%. Sungrow supplied some of the world’s largest battery storage projects outside China, including three facilities totaling 7.8 GWh in Saudi Arabia that entered commercial operation late in 2025.
Despite strong full-year results, Sungrow’s fourth-quarter earnings showed year-over-year declines of 18% in revenue and 54% in net profit. Possible reasons include continued declines in battery energy storage system prices due to heightened competition, rising lithium and cell prices, and potentially lower margins on projects signed in the Middle East and elsewhere. BYD increased total revenue in 2025 but saw net profit fall 19%, mainly attributed to its electric vehicle business and intense domestic competition. Tesla’s overall revenue declined 3% as EV sales fell 10%, though its storage deployments reached a record high, up 29%, and its energy generation and other reporting segment posted the strongest revenue growth at 25%.
The steady decline in lithium carbonate prices over the past few years has likely supported higher energy storage deployments and influenced supplier finances. Prices rebounded toward the end of 2025, driven by demand from both EV and ESS batteries, and have remained elevated in 2026. While manufacturers can pass costs to downstream customers, intense competition may force some to keep prices low to gain market share. Margin compression has already appeared: Sungrow’s first-quarter net profit fell 40%, gross margins dipped 1.8 basis points, and revenue dropped 18% year over year. HyperStrong, however, saw both revenue and net profit margins rise as it secured and delivered more overseas projects.
Many suppliers experienced lower operating margins in the first quarter compared to full-year 2025, including CALB, Sungrow, CATL, and Gotion, which recorded an operating loss and a 79% drop in net profits. The first quarter typically sees lower operating profits due to fewer shipments. As profit margins in photovoltaics remain tight, especially in China, companies previously focused on solar—such as LONGi and Saatvik Green Energy—are increasingly entering the ESS business. While oversupply is a potential risk, most newly established energy storage businesses outside China do not produce cells, meaning system integrators are more likely to face margin pressure than manufacturers.
The rise of data centers in the United States could boost demand for suppliers and help offset any delayed order signings from last year due to policy uncertainties. Wärtsilä was especially affected in 2025, with energy storage order intake falling 52% in megawatt-hours and net sales down 13%; in the first quarter of 2026, the company booked no new equipment orders for energy storage. Fluence, by contrast, reported a record-high contracted order backlog at the end of March, with its data center pipeline up 30% from the end of 2025. Hyperscale data centers represent a strong growth opportunity, and suppliers such as Hithium, Sungrow, and Sunwoda are developing solutions geared toward AI data centers.
Looking ahead, energy storage is expected to remain a strong revenue growth driver for Chinese cell manufacturers, especially following new policies in China that reduce EV incentives and move from full purchase tax exemption to 5% in 2026. In the first quarter, EVE Energy shipped over 6 GWh more energy storage batteries than power batteries and saw overall revenue rise 61.6%. Despite the thriving ESS industry and the fact that companies with higher energy storage revenue shares saw stronger total revenue growth in 2025, the market remains highly sensitive to government policies. Suppliers are increasingly setting up production facilities overseas, likely in an attempt to bypass country-specific tariffs and comply with local content requirements.
Interactive table based on the Store Companies dataset for this report.
This report provides a comprehensive view of the global lithium-ion accumulator industry, tracking demand, supply, and trade flows across the worldwide value chain. It explains how demand across key channels and end-use segments shapes consumption patterns, while also mapping the role of input availability, production efficiency, and regulatory standards on supply.
Beyond headline metrics, the study benchmarks prices, margins, and trade routes so you can see where value is created and how it moves between exporters and importers worldwide. The analysis is designed to support strategic planning, market entry, portfolio prioritization, and risk management in the global lithium-ion accumulator landscape.
The report combines market sizing with trade intelligence and price analytics. It covers both historical performance and the forward outlook to 2035, allowing you to compare cycles, structural shifts, and policy impacts across countries and regions.
For the global report, country profiles provide a consistent view of market size, trade balance, prices, and per-capita indicators. The profiles highlight the largest consuming and producing markets and allow direct benchmarking across peers.
The analysis is built on a multi-source framework that combines official statistics, trade records, company disclosures, and expert validation. Data are standardized, reconciled, and cross-checked to ensure consistency across time series.
All data are normalized to a common product definition and mapped to a consistent set of codes. This ensures that comparisons across time are aligned and actionable.
The forecast horizon extends to 2035 and is based on a structured model that links lithium-ion accumulator demand and supply to macroeconomic indicators, trade patterns, and sector-specific drivers. The model captures both cyclical and structural factors and reflects known policy and technology shifts.
Each country projection is built from its own historical pattern and the regional context, allowing the report to show where growth is concentrated and where risks are elevated.
Prices are analyzed in detail, including export and import unit values, regional spreads, and changes in trade costs. The report highlights how seasonality, freight rates, exchange rates, and supply disruptions influence pricing and margins.
Key producers, exporters, and distributors are profiled with a focus on their operational scale, geographic footprint, product mix, and market positioning. This helps identify competitive pressure points, partnership opportunities, and routes to differentiation.
This report is designed for manufacturers, distributors, importers, wholesalers, investors, and advisors who need a clear, data-driven picture of global lithium-ion accumulator dynamics.
The market size aggregates consumption and trade data at country and regional levels, presented in both value and volume terms.
The projections combine historical trends with macroeconomic indicators, trade dynamics, and sector-specific drivers.
Yes, it includes export and import unit values, regional spreads, and a pricing outlook to 2035.
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Your shower head furs up. Your kettle goes white around the element. Your teapot acquires that stubborn calcium ring no amount of soaking quite shifts. These are the small, domestic irritants of hard water, and most of us have made a sort of peace with them. Now consider what happens to a solar desalination panel attempting to process real seawater, with its hundreds of times greater mineral load than your tap water, in the open sun, hour after hour, day after day. The fouling is not merely inconvenient. It is catastrophic. Within a couple of hours the panel’s surface clogs, water can no longer pass through, and the whole system stops producing fresh water entirely.
This is roughly why solar desalination, despite decades of research and obvious appeal, hasn’t scaled anywhere near its potential. Most demonstrations quietly sidestep the problem by using simulated seawater made of just water and sodium chloride. Real oceans are considerably more complicated.
Chunlei Guo’s team at the University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics have been working on something that could change this. Their approach starts with a curious physical phenomenon that has plagued clumsy coffee drinkers for centuries. “If you drop coffee on a surface, eventually the water evaporates and there’s a ring left at the outer edge that is the concentrated coffee particles,” says Guo, who is also a senior scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. “We use that same principle to advance the salts to the passive region.” This is not, it turns out, a frivolous analogy. It’s the actual mechanism making the system work, and getting it right required some genuinely precise engineering.
The panel itself is a sheet of aluminum foil, roughly 200 micrometers thick, etched by femtosecond laser pulses into a surface covered in microscale grooves and ridges superimposed with nanostructures. The result is black, in that it absorbs nearly all incoming solar radiation (about 98% at peak wavelength, 92% across the full solar spectrum) and is superwicking, meaning water climbs uphill across it against gravity at speeds of up to 8 centimeters per second. When a thin film of seawater spreads across the active surface, it evaporates; the salts, instead of accumulating and clogging the active region, creep outward toward the panel’s passive borders through a combination of the coffee ring effect and a related phenomenon called salt creeping, where crystallised salt draws solution through its porous structure and recrystallises at the outer edge in a self-amplifying chain.
The trick is getting the groove geometry right. Panels with grooves shallower than around 110 micrometers or narrower than 50 micrometers simply don’t push enough water volume to dissolve and flush the salt boundary; those systems still clog when faced with real ocean water rather than the sodium chloride-only simulants most prior work used. Deeper, wider grooves maintain a strong enough capillary flow to break up the magnesium sulfate and calcium carbonate crusts that form between sodium chloride crystals and block other systems. It took the team four different groove specifications to find this boundary. The optimal panel, the one they settled on for their extended tests, kept its surface clean throughout a 7-day continuous run treating Atlantic Ocean water collected near Fire Island, New York, achieving an average evaporation rate of 1.76 kilograms per square meter per hour and collecting nearly 100% of the salt in solid form rather than discharging it as brine.
That zero-brine-discharge aspect is, in some respects, the larger story. Conventional reverse osmosis desalination recovers only about 42% of the water it processes and discharges the rest as concentrated brine into nearby water sources, raising salinity and lowering oxygen levels. The Rochester panels produce solid salt. Whether that counts as waste depends entirely on what you do with it next.
What the team found when they analysed the collected salt is perhaps the more surprising result. Sodium makes up roughly 40% by weight, as expected, followed by magnesium, potassium, and calcium. But there’s also cesium, bromine, uranium, and gold. Not in commercially significant quantities from a single small panel, clearly, but the composition is a reasonably faithful snapshot of the ocean’s mineral inventory. The ocean contains enormous quantities of dissolved minerals, the researchers note, often hundreds of times more concentrated than equivalent land-based ore deposits for certain elements, though diffuse enough that traditional extraction isn’t economic. The panels collect almost everything that was dissolved in the water they evaporate.
The obvious commercial target is lithium. Demand has grown by something like 150% in the past three years, driven overwhelmingly by battery production for electric vehicles and grid storage, and traditional mining operations face increasingly acute problems: depleted high-grade ores, high water use, environmental damage, and geopolitical concentration of supply. “Mining lithium from the earth has proven to be very taxing from an energy and environmental standpoint,” Guo says, “so pulling lithium directly from saltwater could be a very important future route.” The team’s companion paper describes embedding hydrogen titanate nanoparticles into the panel’s microcapillaries; these selectively capture lithium ions via ion exchange while the other salts migrate to the passive region as usual. From water taken from the Great Salt Lake, which is richer in lithium than typical seawater, they extracted about 50% of the available lithium, raising its proportion in the recovered eluate from 0.09% of the cation mass in the source water to 70.12%. That’s a concentrated feedstock rather than a refined product, but it’s a significant step in the process.
The panels tracked the sun in outdoor tests on the roof of a university building, tilting to face the solar disk throughout the day, because the superwicking effect allows them to be mounted at any angle without losing function. Over nine hours on a spring day in upstate New York, a panel with just nine square centimeters of active surface produced 9.3 grams of fresh water meeting World Health Organization safety standards for salinity. That’s around 10 litres per square meter per day at that scale, which is probably enough to suggest the physics works outdoors as well as in the lab, though the step from a nine-centimeter test panel to something capable of serving a community is not trivial.
The panels worked on water from the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans with essentially identical performance, which matters because prior demonstrations often used only a single source. Salt composition varies considerably between oceans and even between locations within them. The consistency is at least evidence that the self-cleaning mechanism is robust to that variability rather than tuned to a specific water chemistry.
Guo sees the technology as inherently scalable, which is the sort of thing researchers say at this stage and which carries about as much promise as uncertainty. The femtosecond laser etching is a single-step process on standard aluminum foil, encouraging from a manufacturing standpoint. Whether the system can compete economically with reverse osmosis at municipal scale remains genuinely open. What’s rather less open is the direction of pressure: 2.2 billion people lack safely managed drinking water, and the infrastructure to reach them through conventional means isn’t arriving fast enough. A solar panel that can sit at the sea’s edge, produce fresh water, harvest its own minerals, and clean itself without chemical additives is not a niche curiosity. It might eventually be the thing that makes the arithmetic work.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-026-02315-4
Why don’t existing solar desalination panels work with real ocean water?
Most solar desalination systems are tested using simulated seawater made only of water and table salt, which crystallises in a porous, open structure that water can pass through. Real ocean water contains magnesium and calcium compounds that crystallise into hard, non-porous crusts between the salt crystals, blocking the panel’s water channels within hours. The Rochester team’s design solves this by using the coffee ring effect and salt creeping to push all crystallised material outward to a non-functional edge region before it can cause a blockage.
What happens to all the salt instead of being dumped back in the ocean?
Rather than discharging concentrated brine back into the sea (which conventional desalination does, raising salinity and lowering oxygen in coastal waters), the panels collect nearly 100% of dissolved minerals as dry solid. That solid includes common table salt but also trace quantities of lithium, cesium, bromine, uranium, and gold, all of which are present in seawater in dissolved form. The researchers are particularly focused on lithium, given surging demand from battery manufacturers, and have shown that adding specialist nanoparticles to the panel can concentrate it to commercially useful levels.
How does extracting lithium from seawater compare to mining it from the ground?
Land-based lithium mining, whether from hard rock or salt-lake brines, is energy-intensive, water-hungry, and increasingly limited by ore quality and environmental constraints. Seawater contains lithium in much lower concentrations than a typical brine deposit, but the ocean is essentially unlimited as a source and the extraction could piggyback on desalination already happening for fresh water production. The Rochester system raised lithium’s share of recovered mineral mass from 0.09% in the original Great Salt Lake water to 70% in the extracted product, suggesting the concentration step is viable even if further refining would still be needed.
Could this actually replace large desalination plants in places like the Middle East?
Not in the near term, and probably not in the same form. The current demonstrations use panels with active areas of a few square centimeters, and the jump to municipal scale involves engineering challenges well beyond the underlying physics. What the technology might do more immediately is serve remote coastal communities where grid power is unavailable or expensive, and where the energy cost of reverse osmosis is prohibitive. The self-cleaning, additive-free operation and solar power dependence make it more suited to distributed deployment than to centralised mega-plants, at least initially.
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Egypt project combines solar energy and desert farming  Africa Business Communities
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The green pack was broadly in the green today, with some exceptions. Interestingly, the contrast between Emmvee Photovoltaic and Insolation Energy was notable, as these firms had widely different days in the markets. While Emmvee continued to gain on the back of the gains it has made since last week, Insolation energy slumped almost 10% despite a decent set of numbers for Q4.
We believe the slump is not just about any misses on the earnings front, but about the June 1 deadline for ALCM, which is seen as detrimental to the prospects of solar manufacturing firms that have not set up cell manufacturing yet. CleanMax is also one stock that has lost ground, or corrected, after rocketing away to 1300-plus levels last week. It is quite clear that investors are still framing their long-term views on some of these segments, as they weigh the impact of broader pressure on the economy versus the green energy segment’s strengths and resilience.
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Global shipments of clean-energy products reached $479 billion in 2025, marking a 1% annual increase across clean-tech, battery metals, and grid equipment. The rise reflects an overall rebound in trading volumes, which had declined 7% between 2023 and 2024. According to BloombergNEF’s Energy Transition Supply Chains 2026 report, cross-border clean-tech trade also surged in 2025 despite the US reinstating and revising numerous tariffs across energy transition sectors.
The BNEF report highlighted a shift in the global solar trade toward midstream solar cells rather than downstream photovoltaic modules. This trend reflects the rapid expansion and diversification of final module assembly outside China. Solar cells accounted for 44% of the global cell and module trade in 2025, up from 25% a year earlier. The report also noted that energy storage systems accounted for 29% of internationally traded lithium-ion battery shipments within the segment, registering 64% year-on-year growth. It found that this trend could benefit economies heavily exposed to high fossil-fuel prices, such as Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, which are implementing supportive policies in response to rising gasoline, diesel, and other fuel costs.
Historical BNEF data suggest that countries heavily dependent on fuel imports have generally recorded stronger growth in imports of solar equipment, batteries, and EVs. Pakistan stands out as a key example.
In 2022, the country’s solar module imports surged 189% to $1 billion, partly driven by the global fuel-price shock following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Small-scale solar installations in Pakistan reached a record 18.3 GW in 2025 after years of steady growth.
Historical BNEF data suggest that countries heavily dependent on fuel imports have generally recorded stronger growth in imports of solar equipment, batteries, and EVs. Pakistan stands out as a key example. In 2022, the country’s solar module imports surged 189% to $1 billion, partly driven by the global fuel-price shock following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Iran conflict has also sharply increased global fossil-fuel prices, impacting Asian and African countries. The research found that energy storage systems accounted for 29% of internationally traded lithium-ion battery shipments within the segment, registering 64% year-on-year growth. Additionally, manufacturing capacity expansion outside China is further intensifying the global supply glut. Markets such as Southeast Asia, India, and Turkey are emerging as major solar manufacturing hubs, while countries including Egypt and Ethiopia are also developing their industries.
Overcapacity remains a defining feature of global supply chains, largely driven by Chinese overinvestment, and continues to pressure margins across major clean-tech products. This trend spans multiple sectors, with global manufacturing capacity now exceeding 200% of the level required to meet demand across the value chain. Wind and battery markets are also significantly oversupplied.
The expansion of manufacturing capacity outside China is further intensifying the global supply glut. Markets such as Southeast Asia, India, and Turkey are emerging as major solar manufacturing hubs, while countries including Egypt and Ethiopia are also developing their industries.
“As conflict in the Middle East persists, many markets are doubling down on the deployment of clean technology to improve their energy security and resilience,” said Antoine Vagneur-Jones, head of trade and supply chains at BloombergNEF and lead author of the report. “This presents a huge opportunity for manufacturers to expand exports of the equipment and products required to power the energy transition.”
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Electricity prices increased across most major European power markets in the third week of May, driven primarily by a sharp decline in wind generation and higher electricity demand in several countries, according to AleaSoft Energy Forecasting.
Despite the price increases, European markets also recorded record levels of daily solar photovoltaic production for the month of May, highlighting contrasting dynamics in renewable output. At the same time, TTF gas futures briefly climbed to their highest level since 8 April before later retreating.
While solar generation increased in the main European markets, the rise was uneven. Germany posted the largest increase at 28%, followed by Italy (19%) and France (11%). Spain saw a marginal rise of 2.2%, while Portugal increased by 9.4%. France and Spain extended their upward trend in solar output for a third consecutive week.
Several markets reached record daily solar production for May during the week. Italy generated 160 GWh on 20 May, its highest daily solar output for the month, while Portugal reached 28 GWh the same day. Spain recorded 227 GWh, its second-highest daily solar output for May. France reached a historical May peak of 169 GWh on 22 May, and Germany hit 480 GWh on 25 May, its highest level for the month and the second-highest ever recorded for solar generation.
However, wind power declined sharply across all analysed markets. Germany experienced the steepest fall at 57%, followed by France (33%), Portugal (30%), Spain (28%), and Italy (13%). Portugal extended its downward trend for a second consecutive week.
Electricity demand increased in Germany (4.2%), Belgium (3.9%), Spain (1.7%), and Portugal (1.8%), while it declined in Italy, France, and Great Britain. The United Kingdom recorded the largest drop at 5.8%, while France fell by 1.3%.
Temperature increases across Europe influenced consumption patterns, with Germany registering the largest rise (7.0°C), followed by France (6.1°C). In addition, public holidays, including Ascension Day and Whit Monday, affected demand in several markets.
Most European power markets recorded higher weekly average prices compared to the previous week. Exceptions included Spain, Portugal, and the Nordic market, which saw declines of 2.7%, 2.9%, and 19%, respectively. France recorded the largest increase at 11%, while other markets rose between 3.3% (Great Britain) and 7.9% (Belgium). Italy posted a marginal increase of 0.1%.
Weekly averages exceeded €75/MWh in most markets. The lowest averages were recorded in Spain (€48.48/MWh), Portugal (€48.53/MWh), and France (€48.94/MWh). Italy and Great Britain posted the highest levels, at €116.31/MWh and €123.33/MWh respectively. The Nordic market averaged €75.79/MWh, while Germany reached €105.42/MWh.
Daily prices showed strong volatility. On 24 May, Spain, France, Portugal, and the Nordic market recorded values below €30/MWh, with the Nordic market hitting a weekly low of €8.40/MWh. Conversely, Germany, the UK, Italy, and the Netherlands frequently exceeded €100/MWh. The UK reached the weekly peak at €141.25/MWh on 18 May.
According to AleaSoft, upward pressure on prices was mainly driven by lower wind generation, higher gas prices, and increased demand in some markets.
Brent oil futures (Front-Month ICE) fell over the week, starting at a high of $112.10/bbl on 18 May and declining to $103.54/bbl by 22 May, down 5.2% from the previous Friday. The decrease was linked to easing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and expectations of improved supply conditions.
TTF gas futures rose early in the week, reaching a peak of €51.82/MWh on 19 May, their highest level since 8 April, before declining to €48.68/MWh by 22 May (-3.0% week-on-week). The fall was attributed to reduced supply concerns, high temperatures, and weaker demand.
EU carbon allowance futures (EEX December 2026 contract) fluctuated throughout the week, ending at €76.94/t, up 1.7% from the previous week.
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Arevon Energy has reached The smarter E AWARD 2026 finalist list in the Outstanding Projects category with its Eland Solar-plus-Storage project. The system combines 758 MW of solar capacity with 300 MW / 1.2 GWh of storage capacity, supplying around 7% of Los Angeles’s electricity demand. Spread across approximately 1,900 hectares, the installation includes 1.36 million tracking solar panels and 172 lithium iron phosphate storage units. The portfolio combines PV generation with BESS to provide dispatchable renewable energy and deliver rated output for about four hours.  The project uses temperature monitoring, air quality measurement, and real-time diagnostics for operational safety and reliability. The award winners will be honored on June 22 at the International Congress Center Messe München, while The smarter E Europe will run from June 23–25 at Messe München.

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Saatvik Green Energy bagged a ₹171.45 crore order for the supply of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules for a utility-scale solar power project in India. The order has been given by a domestic independent power producer and marks another significant milestone for the company in the rapidly growing renewable energy sector.
Advanced TOPCon Bifacial Solar Technology to Power Project
Saatvik Green Energy will supply advanced TOPCon Bifacial Glass-Glass Solar PV Modules, one of the latest-generation solar technologies designed to improve energy generation efficiency. Unlike conventional solar panels that generate electricity only from the front side, bifacial modules produce power from both the front and rear surfaces. This technology significantly enhances overall energy output and improves project efficiency, particularly in large-scale solar installations. The company stated that the order has been formally received and accepted, strengthening its presence in India’s utility-scale solar market.
Company Highlights Growing Industry Confidence
Prashant Mathur, CEO of Saatvik Green Energy, said the project reflects growing confidence in the company’s manufacturing capabilities and technology solutions. He noted that being selected to supply modules for a major domestic independent power producer at one of India’s important solar sites represents a strong endorsement of the company’s operational strength and product quality.
Expanding Manufacturing Capacity to Meet Rising Demand
Saatvik Green Energy is among India’s leading solar photovoltaic module manufacturers, with a growing presence across utility-scale, commercial and industrial (C&I), EPC and distributed solar segments. The company currently operates a 4.8 GW solar module manufacturing facility in Ambala, Haryana. In addition, it is developing a large greenfield integrated manufacturing facility in Odisha, which will include 4 GW of module manufacturing capacity along with 4.8 GW of solar cell production capacity.
Supporting India’s Renewable Energy Growth
The latest order further strengthens Saatvik Green Energy’s role in supporting India’s renewable energy transition and expanding domestic solar manufacturing capabilities. As reported by msn.com, as India accelerates utility-scale solar deployment and focuses on strengthening local manufacturing under clean energy initiatives, demand for high-efficiency solar modules and advanced PV technologies is expected to grow significantly in the coming years.

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27 May 2026 13:45
ATM accuses President Ramaphosa of 'Stalingrad' tactics to stall Phala Phala impeachment hearing
27 May 2026 13:30
DJ Warras murder: Alleged shooter kept at Modderbee Prison over threats to his life
27 May 2026 13:15
Modack trial: State produces bank records to prove payments to Ziyaad Poole
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Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, during the groundbreaking ceremony of Eskom’s new 75-megawatt solar photovoltaic (PV) project at the Lethabo Power Station in the Free State. Picture: Mongezi Koko/ EWN.
The Electricity Ministry has called for faster delivery times on Eskom’s new renewable energy projects, warning that South Africa cannot afford delays in adding power to the national grid.
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa made the remarks during the groundbreaking ceremony of Eskom’s new 75-megawatt solar photovoltaic (PV) project at the Lethabo Power Station in the Free State.
While welcoming the initiative as a major step in the country’s energy transition, the Minister made it clear that he is not satisfied with the current 18-month construction timeline.
The project is expected to be completed by November 2027 and forms part of Eskom’s broader plan to expand its renewable energy footprint.

Ramokgopa stated that those tasked with building the facility must move with greater urgency to help strengthen South Africa’s electricity supply. He praised Eskom and the ministry for the direction they are taking, but stressed that the country needs results sooner rather than later.
“And I think we painted ourselves in a corner, we’re about to free ourselves,” Ramokgopa said. “So we really came here to say, well done, congratulations. I could not have imagined of a better place. I guess it’s just a coincidence.”
Speaking on the sidelines of the ceremony, Ramokgopa also cautioned that South Africa cannot afford to fully privatise its power generation just yet, warning that the country still needs Eskom to anchor the grid.
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Eskom threatens Joburg with power cuts from 8 July over R5.2bn debt
The solar facility will be built on more than 160 hectares of Eskom-owned land near Vereeniging, with operations expected to begin in late 2027. Eskom has identified several coal-fired power stations for repurposing as part of its Just Energy Transition strategy.
Among those attending the groundbreaking ceremony were Eskom CEO Dan Marokane, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi, and Free State Premier Maqueen Letsoha-Mathae.
Ramokgopa emphasised that while South Africa is actively expanding its renewable energy footprint, the country is not yet in a position to completely hand over electricity generation to the private sector.
“It must be gradually introduced at the pace and scale that the country can afford,” Ramokgopa explained.
“I’m saying afford because the consequences of rushing can take us back to load shedding.”
The minister added that Eskom’s continued dominance in the country’s power generation allows the utility to show essential flexibility to municipalities struggling with debt.
Ramokgopa was responding to questions regarding the billions of rands owed to Eskom by the City of Johannesburg.
Despite the pressure over the escalating debt and concerns that non-payment could strain the power system, the Minister noted that he remains confident that the city and its utility, City Power, will honour their payment agreements.
He argued that Eskom’s position as the country’s primary generator means it can still work contextually with municipalities to find solutions, a safety net that would vanish under a fully privatised model.
“Premier Lesufi, if we were in that dispensation, Soweto would be dark, Alexandra would be dark,” Ramokgopa warned. “In a wholesale market, I give electricity to an end customer that can pay.“
27 May 2026 13:30
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May 27, 2026
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Clean energy company MarineSolar Energy Solutions has conducted a pilot trial of its NanoDeck photovoltaic (PV) energy system on RTM Cook, a Rio Tinto-owned vessel, as part of a non-commercial evaluation of the technology in real-world marine conditions.
The trial marks a significant step in testing MarineSolar’s energy-saving PV technologies under some of the most challenging real-world marine conditions. NanoDeck is designed to deliver retrofittable renewable power for ships both at sea and in port, reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
Over several months at sea, the system has demonstrated durability, withstanding powerful waves and high winds, while continuing to operate and transmit data. Early results confirm the technology’s potential to reduce fuel consumption, offering ship operators both carbon reduction and access to renewable power onboard.
MarineSolar’s NanoDeck system is designed to generate supplementary power for ships from solar energy. The company is exploring how the technology could be integrated with other emerging marine energy solutions, including alternative propulsion technologies and lower-emission fuels.
On May 21, Damen Shipyards Group signed a contract with Protunus for the delivery of a Multi Cat (MuC) 2712. The vessel will…
New safety guidelines for the use of ammonia as fuel on gas carriers have been approved at the International Maritime Organization’s…
A new report from the Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub (The Decarb Hub) finds that early investment in a small…
Strategic Marine and Mainprize Offshore have signed a Protocol of Delivery and Acceptance (PODA) for the MO15 and MO16 crew transfer vessels (CTVs)…
IntroductionAs the global maritime industry accelerates its decarbonization transition, battery technology is becoming a core pillar of next-generation vessel power systems.
As regulatory requirements grow more complex and the demand for accurate, accessible data increases, more operators are questioning whether paper-based recordkeeping can keep up.
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AYN WARDO, Turkey — The planned G25-Mardin Solar Power Plant project, launched by Turkey’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, has sparked strong opposition from local residents and Syriacs (Arameans–Assyrians–Chaldeans) in the diaspora. The project, which is currently under construction, is set to be built in the historic village of Ayn Wardo (Gülgöze) in the Medyad (Midyat) district of Merde (Mardin) province, raising concerns over its impact on agriculture, livestock breeding, and the region’s centuries-old cultural heritage.
Promoted by the ministry as part of its renewable energy strategy, the project is presented as a source of “local and renewable energy,” employment opportunities, and foreign currency savings. Planned within the framework of Renewable Energy Resource Areas (YEKA), the facility is expected to generate 40 megawatts of electricity. The contract for the project was awarded to Aydede Energy, and the plant is being constructed on parcel 176 of block 101 within the boundaries of Ayn Wardo.
In an official objection submitted to the ministry, the Ayn WardoAssociation warned that the project area is actively used for agriculture and livestock breeding and serves as vital grazing and farming land for the village. The association stated that the solar power plant would negatively affect animal grazing routes, water resources, and the agricultural production capacity of the region.
The petition also highlighted broader social concerns. According to the Association, recent improvements in the region’s security situation have encouraged renewed interest among former residents and diaspora Syriacs (Arameans–Assyrians–Chaldeans) in returning to the village and investing in local development. Residents fear that large-scale industrial projects could disrupt the village’s fragile social and economic recovery.
Read Also: Why always Syriac and Yezidi villages?
Beyond environmental and economic concerns, the Association stressed the potential damage to the village’s unique historical and cultural identity. It warned that the planned facility could harm the historical landscape, weaken the integrity of the cultural environment, damage the traditional stone architectural fabric, and negatively affect cultural and religious tourism in the region.
“If the public interest is truly intended to be achieved,” the Association stated, “it must be evaluated together with the environment, culture, agriculture, history, and social life.”
The Association has called on authorities to reconsider the project and urged the government to engage in sincere dialogue with local residents.
Ayn Wardo is regarded as one of the most important historical Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) settlements in the Tur Abdin region, home to a civilization that stretches back thousands of years. The village is known for its historic churches, including Mor Barsawmo Church and Mor Had Bshabo Church, as well as its traditional stone houses and distinctive cultural landscape. The Cultural Heritage Preservation Association (KMKD) previously listed the village among endangered Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) heritage sites in its report, Endangered Syriac Architectural Heritage in Tur Abdin.
The controversy surrounding the G25-Mardin project is not an isolated case. In the village of Midin (Öğündük) in Şırnak’s İdil district, land used for another solar energy project was previously expropriated under an “urgent expropriation” decree issued by the Presidency. Villagers reported receiving minimal compensation, despite the project initially being established through a lease agreement between residents and the energy company.
MARMARITA / VALLEY OF CHRISTIANS, Syria — The Levantine National Council (LNC) visited, on 23 May, the Monastery of Saint Peter of the Pauline Fathers. The …
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Hoymiles has announced that its flagship microinverters have officially received BEE certification from India’s Bureau of Energy Efficiency, representing the country’s highest energy efficiency grade.
BEE certification is a rigorous mandatory scheme designed to help consumers make informed choices by identifying the most energy-efficient products. Achieving the rating confirms that Hoymiles microinverters operate at peak efficiency levels (exceeding 95.6% overall efficiency and 99.8% static MPPT efficiency), significantly reducing energy loss and maximizing solar yield for Indian homeowners and businesses.
According to the official BEE authorization, the certified Hoymiles units demonstrated exceptional technical performance in Static MPPT Efficiency (:99.81%), Overall Efficiency (STC) (95.64%) and Build Quality.
As India pushes toward its ambitious renewable energy targets, energy efficiency has become a critical pillar of grid stability. The BEE certification provides several key advantages in terms of Maximum ROI, Superior Reliability and Regulatory Compliance. .
This milestone builds upon Hoymiles’ sustained momentum in India, following the success  of its recent StorageNext 2026 event in New Delhi.

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Waaree Solar Panels Named Among the World’s Most Reliable for 5th Year in a Row  SolarQuarter
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BrightNight, a US-based renewable power infrastructure company, has reached financial close for the 120 MW Frontier solar PV project in Kentucky. The project is located in Washington and Marion counties and is expected to begin commercial operations by fall 2027. Frontier will supply renewable electricity to Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company under a Build Transfer Agreement signed in August 2024. The Kentucky Public Service Commission approved the project in 2023 as part of LG&E and KU’s CPCN filing. Project financing was provided by ING Capital LLC, Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking and HSBC. BrightNight said the project was developed using its PowerAlpha® optimization platform.

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As San Diego County races to meet green energy targets, sprawling developments are transforming backcountry communities — and residents of those areas want a voice in the process before their homes are reshaped by solar, wind and battery storage projects.
Two projects in the Sonoran Desert not far from the U.S.-Mexico border illustrate the difficulties of trying to balance the demand for more clean energy while minimizing disruptions to those who live near them.
A solar farm and battery storage project approved by the county is under construction in Jacumba. A similar proposal in nearby Boulevard is being reviewed by the county. Both demand significant space, requiring hundreds of acres of flat, developable land, alongside existing energy transmission lines. Those conditions converge in the backcountry, particularly in the county’s rural eastern region.
While residents say they understand the need for more clean energy projects to combat climate change and power the region, they say concessions must be made. They want to set the framework for stronger consideration of potential impacts on safety and the landscape. They also have sought the establishment of community benefit funds where developers contribute a pool of money to offset local impacts and ensure the community shares economic gain from the project.
California’s clean energy mandate will require all of the state’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2045. The board of San Diego Community Power, a local public agency that provides electricity to nearly 1 million homes and businesses across the county, took that a step further by committing to using 100% renewable energy by 2035.
Reaching those goals will come at a cost, as the residents of Jacumba and Boulevard are realizing.

Boulevard’s rolling ranchland is scattered with homes that tuck into a hilly terrain. The horizon is scattered with tall wind turbines, crowned with blinking red lights visible from miles away in the nighttime sky.
The proposed Starlight Solar project would industrialize about 588 acres near Old Highway 80 with a solar farm capable of producing up to 100 megawatts and a 217-megawatt battery energy storage system. It was brought forward in 2023 by Haagan Company, the owners of the land.
Residents say the development could provide a snapshot of the backcountry’s future: a once-quiet landscape becoming painted with industrial projects.
“I want to be clear, we are not against renewable energy,” said Thomas Wall, a 10-year resident of Boulevard. “Our concerns are about an industrial-sized project in people’s backyards without any consideration for the community.”
Wall said he found out about the project in September 2025 when he received a letter from the county containing an environmental impact report.
What was most shocking to him was the “size of the project” and “obvious fire concerns” associated with it, particularly stemming from the battery storage system.
“They want to put the batteries at the very front of the project, which is close to the substation that is right along Jewel Valley Road, which is our only evacuation route,” Wall said. “There is only one road in and one road out for those houses back there.”
Jim Whalen, a land-use consultant for the project, said he “can understand people being concerned.”
Describing the proposal as “light on the land,” Whalen said the proposed solar farm will have 300- and 400-foot setbacks from roads and property lines, 500-foot setbacks from homes and 1,200-foot setbacks from homes to the batteries.
Starlight Solar is conducting the county’s first battery safety study to analyze potential hazards in the event of a battery fire, Whalen added.
But residents worry this project and others of a similar size are being proposed for their community without proper analysis of fire hazards and potential cumulative impacts of such widespread industrialization.
“They let battery fires burn; when they burn, these toxic gases go into the air and people have to be evacuated,” Wall said.
Two years ago, a fire at a San Diego Gas & Electric Co. battery storage facility in Escondido led to the evacuation of hundreds of individuals.
At the same time, another battery storage project, named Desert Jewel, is also being proposed for Boulevard. Brought forward by AES, the same company associated with the battery project in Escondido, the proposal is in the initial stages.
Starlight Solar is expected to be discussed by the county Planning Commission some time this summer.
Just seven miles down the transmission line in the neighboring town of Jacumba, construction of another large-scale solar farm and battery storage facility is underway.
Heading east on Old Highway 80, the desert landscape is dotted with dry shrubs and rolling hills covered in cacti and yucca trees.
At the edge of town, the industrial transformation is already visible. Bright orange safety fencing lines both sides of the highway. The first few rows of solar panels have gone up. Beyond the solar field is the U.S.-Mexico border.
Dubbed “JVR Energy Park,” the project was brought to the county by the Germany-based renewable energy company Baywa r.e. Americas, featuring a 90-megawatt solar energy farm and 90-megawatt battery storage facility that spans about 600 acres.
Officials say the project will supply electricity to about 57,000 homes in the county.
The proposal didn’t come without opposition from local residents, who were primarily concerned with the size of the project.
Jeff Osborne moved to Jacumba in 2020. He said he found out about the solar project while reviewing parcel records for the Jacumba Hot Springs Hotel, which he now co-owns.
Now chair of the community’s sponsor group, Osborne described the scale of the development as “just too much.”
“Our position wasn’t ever no project, it was that we wanted it to be farther from town,” Osborne said.
The project was approved by county leaders in 2021, but officials required it to include a $4 million community benefit fund.
Setbacks were another requirement of the project’s approval; county officials required construction to be at least 400 feet from homes.
But visual impacts of the project were “unavoidable,” according to the project’s final environmental impact report. Residents of the easternmost portion of Jacumba say the site is visible from their backyards.
Brandon Reinhardt, a senior director of land entitlements for BayWa r.e., said the benefits package and project setbacks were “developed in real-time with the community.”
“This project is one of the largest, if not the largest community benefits agreement that’s ever been done on a solar project in San Diego County,” he said.
A group of residents unsuccessfully sued the county over the project, alleging it violated state environmental laws and claimed the size of the development would turn Jacumba “into an ugly, foreboding, industrial eyesore.”
Construction on the solar farm started in late November 2025. The county requires the work to stop if winds exceed 25 mph at the site, but Osborne said that hasn’t been the case.
“In the meantime, our town is just getting covered in dust,” Osborne said. “They have the ability, it would just be more expensive for them to keep that dust under control. There are people that have actual medical issues from the dust.”
Cody Ledwig, Baywa r.e.’s site manager for the project, said monitors check the site throughout the day to measure wind speeds while water is dumped on the site to mitigate dust.
Osborne said he has measured “many” days where wind speeds surpassed county limits, yet construction continued. Construction has been paused due to high winds, Ledwig said, though he couldn’t say how many times.
Residents of backcountry communities and clean energy developers agree on two things: more utility-scale projects are coming, and that will require collaboration.
“Really large projects are designed to be done at a large scale and then imported on (to) transmission lines to the heavy load centers, like big cities,” Reinhardt said. “It’s just economics and where land costs less. Usually, we need a bunch of it and it needs to be flat and that is hard to find in California; it lands in rural areas.”
Looking at what transpired in Jacumba, Wall said he hopes there will be a stronger framework for stakeholder collaboration on clean energy developments in the future.
A seat at the table is a start, Wall said, adding that the county “needs good parameters in place so it’s not just taking; it’s a balance of giving and receiving.”
“The cumulative impacts are being ignored,” Wall said, urging developers and county officials to reflect on the broader impact that renewable energy developments could have on backcountry communities.
As the county considers the project in Boulevard, he said residents are not focused on opposing the project as a whole, but instead organizing the community to advocate for further setbacks, strong regulation on construction and an adequate benefits package.
“We have accepted that the county is most likely going to approve some form of this project,” Wall said. “If it’s gonna take character away from the rural character, we want to know what the community benefits are going to be like.”
Through negotiations with the county and project consultants, the town has secured up to $10 million in community benefit funding, Wall said, which will go toward a resource center and other improvements to the neighborhood.
From a land-use perspective, Whalen said good project stewardship isn’t hard when you have a lot of land to work with.
“Not all solar sites are equal, not all solar projects work with the community,” Whalen said “If you can do that, you’re gonna have a better outcome.”
That will also require developers and the county to look at the bigger picture as clean energy projects continue to pop up along transmission lines across the backcountry, Wall said.
 
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Tesla is building a massive Texas solar factory in its clearest push yet for 100 GW  Yahoo Finance
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I recently sat down with SOLARCYCLE CEO Suvi Sharma to discuss the fascinating history of the solar market as well as the next key task for the industry — recycling solar panels.
Suvi shared how SOLARCYCLE is leading the charge and working hard to recycle solar panels thoroughly and correctly, how it is working to make the process as green and effective as possible.
Suvi’s timing has been superb throughout the growth of the solar industry, and it looks like he’s nailing it again by developing superb solar panel recycling systems and factories before the market explodes in its demand for them. It’s just what we need.
Listen to the full episode via one of the embedded players below or on your favorite podcast network.

You can also listen to this and other CleanTech Talk podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, Overcast, Pocket, Podbean, Radio Public, or YouTube.
CleanTechnica’s Comment Policy
Zach is tryin’ to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its editor-in-chief and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about electric vehicles and renewable energy at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao.
Zachary Shahan has 9121 posts and counting. See all posts by Zachary Shahan

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Add Solar to Your Subscription Bill? These Companies Are Banking On It.  Barron’s
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The solar farm at Huntley High School on Friday, June 30, 2023. (Gregory Shaver/Gregory Shaver Shaw Media )
The McHenry County Board has narrowly approved a pair of solar farms after County Board Chair Mike Buehler cast the tie-breaking vote.
Buehler only votes in the case of a tie. But a recent County Board decision was not his first time having to cast the deciding vote on a solar farm when the board was evenly split. He did so for a solar farm near Union when it was up for a vote in August 2025.
One solar farm is off Crystal Lake Road, north of Mason Hill Road near McHenry. The operator is McHenry Solar Farm LLC. The other farm is off Green Road near Harvard and proposed by 3 A Energy LLC.
The farms were set to be voted on as part of a bundle with other zoning items at the county board meeting last week, but board member Mike Shorten pulled them for a separate vote.
Shorten said the county’s 2030 comprehensive plan prioritizes preserving agricultural land and rural character. Converting the farmland to a 30-year industrial use, Shorten said, is “in direct tension” with the planning framework.
But Shorten acknowledged the county is limited under state law in regulating solar farms, and a denial might get overturned under legal review. But the residents in the area deserve representation on local land uses, he said.
Shorten said he would cast a vote on the record, even if “Springfield will not let me cast it effectively.”
He was the only person who spoke about the solar farms ahead of the vote. He also asked for a briefing on the decommissioning process on such projects. He said he was not satisfied the current framework would protect taxpayers when solar facilities reach the end of their use or fail before then.
But at a March board meeting, County Board Vice Chair Joe Gottemoller said the county cannot consider such so-called La Salle factors when it comes to solar and wind projects. Gottemoller said that was the result of an appellate court ruling out of a case in Grundy County and it applies to McHenry County until they are told otherwise.
The limitations in state law have been a source of frustration for the County Board. The board has turned down some solar farms, but several of those companies have filed suit against the county.
Claire O'Brien is a reporter who focuses on Huntley, Lake in the Hills, Woodstock, Marengo and the McHenry County Board. Feel free to email her at cobrien@shawmedia.com.

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New solar PV installations in China have reached 50.9GW between January and April 2026, according to data from the Chinese National Energy Administration (NEA).
The figures indicate that new PV capacity additions tumbled markedly over the period, while wind power maintained steady growth. Installation figures for the first four months of 2026 represent a 51% drop compared to the 104.93GW registered in the same period of 2025.
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Ongoing adjustments continue to drive structural improvements across the country’s power installation mix.
Monthly breakdowns reveal an even steeper downward trajectory. New PV installations stood at merely 9.52GW in April 2026, plummeting 79% year-on-year versus 45.28GW a year earlier. The slowdown carries forward the weak growth momentum seen in the first quarter.
In contrast to the PV installation slump, wind power capacity posted steady growth. China added 21.26GW of new wind capacity from January to April 2026, rising 7% from 19.96GW in the same period last year.

As of the end of April 2026, China’s total installed power generation capacity reached 3,990GW, growing 14.2% year-on-year. The proportion of new energy capacity kept climbing. Solar installed capacity hit 1,250GW, a 26.2% year-on-year rise, and wind power capacity stood at 660GW, up 22.0% year-on-year.
Industry analysts attribute the sharp drop in new PV installations in the first four months to a periodic adjustment after the sector’s robust growth in 2025. The downturn is driven by falling PV module prices, prevalent wait-and-see sentiment and constrained power grid consumption. By contrast, wind power registers solid development thanks to mature technologies and stable power pricing policies.

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A new energy-efficient system produces fresh water without chemical additives and transforms leftover salts into useful materials
University of Rochester
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Vials of seawater, Great Salt Lake water, nickel sulfate, copper chloride wastewater, and desalinated water, along with recovered salts show how a new approach developed by URochester researchers turns natural and industrial waters into fresh water and reusable minerals.
Credit: University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster
The United Nations estimates that 2.2 billion people lack safely managed drinking water, and communities from California to the Middle East rely on desalination plants to convert ocean water to fresh water. Common desalination techniques such as reverse osmosis and thermal distillation are energy-intensive, require pre- and post-water treatment, and leave behind a concentrated saltwater byproduct called brine that wreaks havoc on sea life when it’s deposited back into the ocean by raising the salt level and lowering oxygen in the water.
But a novel approach developed at the University of Rochester offers a way to overcome these drawbacks. Researchers at URochester’s Institute of Optics developed a new solar-thermal desalination process to produce fresh water in an energy-efficient way that does not leave behind brine and requires no chemical additives to pre-treat the water. A team led by Chunlei Guo, a professor of optics and of physics and a senior scientist at URochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics, describes their method in a paper published in Light: Science & Applications.
The technology uses solar panels made of black metal etched with femtosecond lasers to make the surface super light absorbing  and superwicking—or extremely attractive to water. The panels have a laser-treated active region that pulls a thin layer of water across the surface, absorbs nearly all solar radiation, distills the water, and deposits the leftover salts and minerals into the panel’s untreated sides or “passive” region so that the salt does not clog the active region and disrupt continuous desalination.
Leveraging the ‘coffee ring’ effect
Guo says other researchers have developed solar-thermal desalination techniques that work well in lab experiments using simulated seawater made of only water and sodium chloride. As the water evaporates, the sodium chloride crystalizes in a grainy and porous fashion allowing water to pass through to dissolve the salt and the solar panels can be easily cleaned.
But real ocean has a much more complex composition, and these systems tend to encounter issues when tested in the field. Unlike sodium chloride, many other components in seawater such as magnesium- and calcium-based materials crystallize in a crusty and non-porous fashion on the solar panel’s surface, clog it, and eventually water can no longer seep through. This is the same phenomenon as your shower head clogging up over time or your tea pot lined with scales, except that seawater contains hundreds of times more salts than your tap water.
To keep their solar panel surface from gumming up in a similar way, Guo’s team precisely etched the black metal’s grooves so the various salts and minerals in ocean water would simply slough off. They also leveraged a physical phenomenon that has plagued clumsy javaphiles for centuries: the coffee ring effect. 
“If you drop coffee on a surface, eventually the water evaporates and there’s a ring left at the outer edge that is the concentrated coffee particles ,” says Guo. “We use that same principle to advance the salts to the passive region.”
Testing their solar-thermal desalination technique using samples of water from the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, Guo and his team were able to make the surface self-cleaning so that it extracted freshwater and directed the remaining salts to the passive region where they could be later collected without reducing the panel’s efficiency.
Turning waste into resources
One of the new method’s distinct advantages is that instead of leaving behind brine that must be disposed of or processed, it extracts nearly 100 percent of the salts in solid form. This could not only produce an abundant supply of table salt, but it could also be used to extract more precious minerals, including lithium, which is used in the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles and other electronics.
In a related paper in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Guo and his colleagues show how they can use the same superwicking solar panels to separate lithium from the rest of other salts in desalination. Embedding nanoparticles made of hydrogen titanate in the tiny grooves of the black metal surface isolates the lithium from other salts and minerals.
“Mining lithium from the earth has proven to be very taxing from an energy and environmental standpoint, so pulling lithium directly from saltwater could be a very important future route,” says Guo.
Using water samples from Great Salt Lake, the researchers were able to extract about 50 percent of the lithium from the salts left behind by the desalination process.
Guo says now that the superwicking desalination technology has been demonstrated in proofs of concept on small-scale devices, he sees the technology inherently scalable, capable of improving global access to drinking water and building more sustainable supply chains for precious minerals.
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Worldwide Universities Network. Guo’s colleagues from the Institute of Optics who contributed to the research include Senior Scientist Subash Singh, alumnus Ran Wei ’24 (PhD), PhD students Luheng Tang and Tainshu Xu, and Mingjiang Ma.
Light Science & Applications
10.1038/s41377-026-02315-4
Additive-free and brine-discharge-free solar-thermal desalination with simultaneous complete mineral mining from ocean water
27-May-2026
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
Media Contact
Luke Auburn
University of Rochester
luke.auburn@rochester.edu
Cell: 5854903198

University of Rochester


Copyright © 2026 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Copyright © 2026 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

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New apartments proposed for Lew Dewitt in Waynesboro
Above decades’ worth of buried trash at the capped Ivy Landfill, more than 7,200 solar panels are now feeding electricity into Dominion Energy’s grid, enough to power up to 750 residences at peak output.
Dominion Energy employees are seen through chainlink fence at the utility’s solar farm atop the former Ivy Landfill in Albemarle County, Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
Dominion Energy’s solar farm atop the former Ivy Landfill in Albemarle County is seen from above, Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
A Dominion Energy employee gestures toward panels at the utility’s solar farm atop the former Ivy Landfill in Albemarle County, Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
Solar panels are seen at Dominion Energy’s solar farm atop the former Ivy Landfill in Albemarle County, Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
Solar panels are seen at Dominion Energy’s solar farm atop the former Ivy Landfill in Albemarle County, Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
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New apartments proposed for Lew Dewitt in Waynesboro
Dominion Energy employees are seen through chainlink fence at the utility’s solar farm atop the former Ivy Landfill in Albemarle County, Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
Dominion Energy’s solar farm atop the former Ivy Landfill in Albemarle County is seen from above, Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
A Dominion Energy employee gestures toward panels at the utility’s solar farm atop the former Ivy Landfill in Albemarle County, Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
Solar panels are seen at Dominion Energy’s solar farm atop the former Ivy Landfill in Albemarle County, Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
Solar panels are seen at Dominion Energy’s solar farm atop the former Ivy Landfill in Albemarle County, Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
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Home ReSource recently installed a large solar panel array. Another section of panels is located to the west of the ones in this picture.
Home ReSource, a Missoula nonprofit that accepts donations of materials and resells them to the community, probably has the most anti-waste mission of any organization in town.
David Erickson is the business reporter for the Missoulian. 

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fully MCS accredited for both Solar PV and Battery Storage
With UK households once again facing rising energy bills following the latest Ofgem price cap increase, many homeowners are beginning to look at long-term ways to reduce their monthly outgoings and reliance on the National Grid.
Energy prices have continued to fluctuate over recent years, with wholesale market instability and increasing demand continuing to impact what families pay every month. For many households, the concern is no longer just about this winter’s bill — but what energy prices could look like over the next five to ten years.
As a result, renewable energy installations across the UK continue to rise, with solar PV and battery storage becoming an increasingly popular option for homeowners wanting greater control over their electricity usage.
Industry experts have noted a sharp increase in interest from homeowners wanting to generate and store their own electricity, particularly with the growing popularity of battery technology allowing excess solar energy generated during the day to be stored and used during peak evening periods.
Hertfordshire-based The Specialist Electrical Group Ltd (SEGplc) says it is currently supporting a growing number of households across Hertfordshire, London, and the South East with solar and battery storage installations aimed at helping reduce long-term electricity costs.
Operating from SEG House, its St Albans head office, SEG provides solar PV, battery storage, EV charging integration, and in-roof solar systems, with the company reporting increased demand from homeowners wanting to future-proof their properties against continued energy market uncertainty.
The company is fully MCS accredited for both Solar PV and Battery Storage installations and says many customers are now viewing renewable energy systems as a practical financial investment as well as an environmentally responsible choice.
A spokesperson from SEG plc commented:
“We are seeing more homeowners wanting to take control of their energy usage and reduce exposure to rising electricity prices. Solar and battery systems are becoming an increasingly smart long-term investment for households looking to lower their monthly overheads. At SEG, our ethos is ‘Delivering Excellence’, and that commitment carries through every renewable energy installation we complete.”
With further energy price volatility expected across the market, industry analysts believe investment in renewable energy systems is likely to remain a growing trend throughout 2026 and beyond.
About The Specialist Electrical Group Ltd (SEG)
SEG is a Hertfordshire-based renewable energy and electrical contractor headquartered at SEG House, St Albans. The company designs and installs solar PV, battery storage, EV charging, ground mounted and in-roof solar systems for homeowners across Hertfordshire, London, and the South East. SEG is MCS accredited for both Solar PV and Battery Storage installations.
Website: www.segplc.com
Press release distributed by Pressat on behalf of The Specialist Electrical Group Ltd, on Wednesday 27 May, 2026. For more information subscribe and follow https://pressat.co.uk/


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In a solar thermal power project designed to provide stable electricity for the northern Xizang autonomous region, the installation of nearly 16,000 heliostats — mirrors that concentrate solar energy — has been completed, marking a key step toward the opening of the world’s highest-altitude tower-type solar thermal plant in Nagchu’s Amdo county later this year.
The 100-megawatt project is being developed by the Xizang Development Investment Group as the region’s first tower-type solar thermal power station, part of Xizang’s renewable energy development plan under the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25). The company said all 15,927 heliostats — the plant’s solar concentrators — have now been installed, and the project is progressing toward grid-connected operation in October.
Unlike conventional photovoltaic systems, the plant uses molten-salt tower thermal technology, which concentrates sunlight to heat molten salt to temperatures of up to 560 C. The stored thermal energy is later converted into electricity through a heat exchange system, allowing the plant to continue supplying electricity after sunset — a key advantage for grid stability in northern Xizang, the company said.
The site receives more than 2,800 hours of sunshine annually. The heliostats are spread across about 800,000 square meters and reflect sunlight toward a central receiving tower.
The project, with a total investment of more than 2 billion yuan ($295 million), is expected to generate around 255 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, saving about 60,000 metric tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by roughly 165,000 tons, said Du Jun, an on-site manager for the company.
“The station will provide stable clean electricity and help address shortcomings in the stability of the northern Xizang power grid,” he said.
Developers said construction on the high-altitude Qinghai-Tibet Plateau posed major challenges, including extreme cold, strong winds and weak grid connectivity. To mitigate these conditions, the project team optimized construction methods and introduced intelligent control systems to support operations and maintenance in the harsh environment.
The project has also generated significant economic benefits for local communities. During construction, training programs for farmers and herders are expected to increase combined incomes by about 118 million yuan.
Xizang’s clean energy sector has expanded rapidly in recent years, with renewable sources now accounting for more than 96 percent of installed power capacity and almost all electricity generation, according to the region’s energy administration.
Karma Tsetan, chairman of the region, said the clean energy sector has rapidly emerged as a key pillar industry, according to a report by Guangming Daily.
Xizang’s installed and under-construction power capacity was expected to exceed 33 million kilowatts by the end of 2025, while operational installed capacity would surpass 13 million kilowatts. Electricity transmission from Xizang has expanded to more than 10 provincial-level regions, including Shanghai, Beijing, as well as Hunan and Jiangsu provinces.
The work report of the regional government delivered in late January said industrial upgrading and the strengthening of industry chains have been identified as key tasks for Xizang this year under a broader strategy to develop plateau-specific competitive industries, with clean energy a major focus.
The report said Xizang will accelerate the development of large integrated hydropower, wind and solar bases in the upper reaches of the Jinsha River, southeastern Xizang and the upper Lancang River area.
The region will also push forward power transmission corridors and grid infrastructure, aiming to reach 20 million kW of installed capacity. It also called for the development of equipment manufacturing and clean energy industries, while advancing pilot projects for green hydrogen and oxygen production and related industrial applications.
Contact the writers at zhengjinran@chinadaily.com.cn
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