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Highways chiefs have warned the number of major infrastructure projects planned for south Norfolk could put further pressure on the A47.
National Highways says developers have failed to explain how their schemes will affect the A47/A140 roundabout.
The key junction sits at the gateway to several nationally significant developments, including the East Pye solar farm and a controversial £1.2 billion data centre in Keswick.
Locals have dubbed the A140 corridor “solar valley” because of the scale of construction in the area.
An aerial view of where the data centre could be built (Image: Mike Page)
National Highways says it needs more information from East Pye about the combined impact of the schemes planned in the area.
Senior figures have told the Planning Inspectorate that the A47/A140 roundabout is likely to be “well used” during construction, should it be approved.
Officials say the solar farm developer has not explained how the scheme will affect the junction, calling it a “critical concern”.
The Bloy’s Grove solar farm, one of several being built in South Norfolk (Image: Mike Page)
National Highways has objected to the solar farm plans, which are under scrutiny from government officials.
Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary, will have the final say on the project, which is considered nationally significant due to its size.
Responding to the data centre proposals, highways bosses said it needed more information regarding how the A47/A140 junction will be used by the developer.
National Highways wants to know how many lorries will travel to and from the site during construction.
Norwich Apex Ltd, the data centre developer, argues its scheme would create less traffic than the approved business park plans for the site.
The firm says traffic would increase only during a short construction period.
More than 850 objections have been lodged with South Norfolk Council, while more than 21,000 people have signed a petition opposing the scheme.
Matt Bartram, chief executive of Norwich Apex Ltd, believes the data centre will make Norwich a “tech hub”.
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SECI seeks developers for a minimum 4 MW solar project on NH-709B to supply power to NHAI.
November 11, 2026. By EI News Network
The Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd. (SECI) has invited bids for selecting a solar power developer to set up a minimum 4 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project on an elevated section of National Highway 709B, Package-I, for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
The tender is part of Phase-I of NHAI's solar power development programme. SECI will conduct the bidding process on behalf of NHAI, with the selected project developer responsible for setting up the facility under the Build-Own-Operate (BOO) or Renewable Energy Service Company (RESCO) model.
Under the arrangement, the selected solar power developer will finance, design, engineer, procure, construct, test and commission the project. The developer will also be responsible for operating and maintaining the facility throughout the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) period.
The solar project is intended to supply electricity to meet the power requirements of NH-709B, Package-I, and the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway (DME), Package-I. NHAI and/or its authorised agencies will procure the electricity generated by the project at the tariff discovered through competitive bidding.
Any surplus electricity beyond NHAI's captive consumption requirements may be sold to the respective distribution companies (DISCOMs) through net metering or group metering, subject to applicable state or Union Territory regulations and policies.
The selected developer will be responsible for obtaining grid connectivity, including net-metering or group net-metering approvals, in accordance with the applicable guidelines of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, Central Electricity Authority or concerned DISCOM. NHAI may facilitate connectivity and related approvals, but the responsibility for securing them will rest with the developer.
The developer will also have to arrange the necessary permits, approvals, licences and insurance, besides undertaking civil works, equipment installation and commissioning. Its operation and maintenance responsibilities will include equipment protection, insurance, repairs, replacement of defective solar modules, and maintenance of inverters, power conditioning units and other components throughout the PPA term.
SECI has specified that the project must be developed along the elevated section of NH-709B, Package-I, as identified in the tender document. The allocated project area, covering 90 percent of the identified premises, will be handed over to the successful developer within 15 days of signing the PPA. Any delay in handing over the identified area will result in an equivalent extension of the project commissioning timeline.
The final cumulative project capacity will be determined through the competitive bidding process. The bid processing fee has been fixed at INR 25,000, plus 18 percent Goods and Services Tax (GST). Bidders must also submit an Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) in accordance with the provisions of the Request for Selection (RfS).
SECI has not envisaged separate Central Financial Assistance for implementing the project. The selected developers may avail themselves of applicable fiscal incentives, including accelerated depreciation and concessional customs and excise duties, subject to prevailing provisions.

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Merino sheep are already grazing at the new solar farm near Boggabri, where more than 12,000 panels follow the sun and the land is still working as a farm.
CleanPeak Energy officially opened the 4.99 MW Boggabri Solar Farm on earlier this month. The company developed, owns, and now operates the project.
The company’s CEO and the Narrabri Shire Council Mayor attended the ceremony, and local Annette Humble delivered the Acknowledgement of Country.
The solar farm is expected to generate 10 GWh of clean electricity each year and avoid around 7,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually. The ground-mounted panels track the sun’s daily movement.
The solar farm takes up 20.7 hectares of an existing farming property, and the rest of the property stays in agricultural use. A flock of Merino sheep is already grazing on site.
“Boggabri Solar Farm shows how renewable energy can be developed alongside existing agricultural activity, while contributing clean electricity to the region,” said CleanPeak Energy CEO Philip Graham.
“Solar farms like Boggabri turn Australia’s abundant sunshine into a lasting source of clean energy. We’re proud of the disciplined delivery and strong collaboration that have brought this project to life.”
The ribbon cutting follows the completion of commissioning in September. Construction began in March 2026, and the project was energised on 13 August, following development approval in January 2022.
CleanPeak Energy is an Australian renewable energy company that develops, builds, owns, and operates solar, battery, embedded-network, and thermal energy infrastructure. It has been operating since 2017.
“Our region’s strength comes from the diversity of its economy and the mix of industries that support it,” said Narrabri Shire Council Mayor Darrell Tiemens.
“Boggabri Solar Farm adds to that mix, showing how renewable energy can develop alongside established industries such as agriculture.”
“It is important to Council that all developments, whether they be renewables or others, take our community on the journey and gain the social licence to develop their projects.”
Don’t miss any of the important stories from around the region. Subscribe to our email list.
RK Crosby is a broadcaster, journalist and pollster, and publisher of the New England Times. More by RK Crosby
A KORE CSR news site based in New England, NSW, Australia.
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Your solar-PV array, even without the help of domestic storage, will take a significant bite out of your power bill using feed-in tariffs during spring and summer (automatically selling power to the grid). File pictures
The forecast for 2027 is that it could be the biggest year for solar-photovoltaic (solar-PV) domestic installations in Ireland yet. Budget 2027 has set the SEAI-managed grant towards a solar-PV system at a maximum figure of €1,800 for domestic users. 
The Government has also locked in the 0% VAT on supply and installation of solar systems, introduced new, improved eligibility criteria for free solar installation for those on certain welfare payments (with grants of up to €9,000), and brought back the SEAI-managed battery grant, this time at €600. 
What this means for most households is a maximum solar-PV grant award of €2,400 if you include the versatility of a battery. If you have a suitable roof, it’s time to investigate a grant-aided investment in renewable energy next year. The results could be life-altering.
So what’s the story with feed-in tariffs? 
First of all, I have to talk about the feed-in-tariff drama that exploded across Irish media over the past three months. The misunderstanding (largely created online) was prompted by changes for Dutch solar-PV users in the summer of 2026. 
One of the great attractions of solar-PV is that when the system sends excess solar gain back to the grid, it appears as credit on the household’s bi-monthly bill. 

Budget 2027 raised the tax disregard for the value of these units recorded by the supplier on customers’ invoices from €400 to €600 (before it has to be declared to Revenue and is taxed). Feed-in-tariffs (termed the export-rate) really matter for solar-PV savings.
Even if you’re out all day at work — the feed-in-tariff rate from your supplier allows you to build credit on your bill on brighter days. If nothing is running bar the fridge, any power from the roof or ground-mounted array not going to cycle the system, fill a domestic battery or heat the water with a water-diverter, automatically goes back to the grid. 

This is a win of 15c/kWh to 19.5c/kWh depending on your supply package. In the high season (June/July/August), this credit can make a good dent in your invoice even utilising a small solar-PV array once you have the necessary smart meter.
There’s currently no declaration by the Government to indicate that this situation will change. The Clean Export Guarantee (CEG), operated by the CRU, is untouched, and feed-in tariffs will not be scrapped. 
The CEG ensures excess kWh units returned to the grid from a domestic solar-PV array are rewarded by a market-led buyback rate in the form of credit on the user’s power bill. The only caveats here are that the price paid for the kWhs may drop (some suppliers have eked down their c/kWh rates). 
Tell us more about dynamic pricing
The imposition of new “dynamic pricing” on export rates may also take a toll on the c/kWh price offered by suppliers. I’m guessing we’ll see from next year. The Netherlands had a slightly different structure for paying domestic solar-PV users for their excess power. From January 2027, the Dutch government has changed the form in which these payments are handled, introducing “feed-in-fees” similar to ours. Otherwise, this issue is irrelevant to your going ahead with solar-PV installation or not.

Building credit on your bill during the summer can potentially reduce your first winter bi-monthly bill at the very least. It’s an energy piggybank for the darkest months of the year. 
The level to which you can build credit relies on the efficiency of your system (largely down to its aspect and position), the size of the array in kWp (the number of panels on the roof or on a ground-mounted array) and the strategic use of a well-sized domestic solar-PV battery.

What about batteries?
I get asked about batteries more than I do about the sizing or solar-PV arrays. Should you get one for a new system in 2027 or add one on? Well, it depends. What is your goal with your system? A solar system sized to the household that contributes to the kWh needs of the home from March to September will provide significant savings in both free power and bill credit. 
However, during the short days of winter, with a modest solar-PV system, covering the power demands of the home becomes a challenge. Many users with systems in the 2.7kWp to 4kWp range will discount their solar collection from late October to mid-February, when the solar gain finally ticks up.

Batteries make a difference to a system’s performance year-round. You cannot run the house off the roof 24/7 without a battery even in mid-July, but you can stack up feed-in-tariff credit that will offset the cost of that night-time usage. 
If you go for a battery, it not only stores whatever gain you can scrape from our miserable dark short winter days, but, as a standalone device, it can also download cheaper overnight kWhs directly from the grid. These are stored in the battery as DC and converted by your inverter to AC you can use in the home the following day. This is a practice known as load-shifting. 
Think about those EV-charging hours offering three-to-five hours at a price as low as 10c/kWh (including VAT). We download these kWhs, then use them to serve the house from the battery during the course of our active hours in the home, including the evening if that’s when your power demand surges and grid prices peak.
If the solar-PV system on the roof is larger (5kWp or more), set at a perfect angle and aspect, with no shadowing, and facing directly south, your power might be coming at least in part from the battery and the roof during the day, even in the depths of winter. 
Super-systems
Some homeowners install oversized systems featuring multiple domestic batteries with consistent year-round gain, EV car-charging and storage from the roof and the grid in mind.

With one of these super-systems, it’s entirely possible to be off-grid for the greater part of 24 hours in winter, discounting the spike for kettles and electric showers, where the inverter’s output limit cannot drop enough power to meet the kW demand (electric showers can be as hungry as 10kW). 
Some solar enthusiasts download cheap kWhs of power from the grid during the night all year, pushing it back to the grid for a higher price the following day (in credit to their bill). This practice is perfectly legal and offered by all power suppliers following the CEG structure for microgenerators. Watch out for tiered charges if you use more than 1000kWh from the EV-charging period over the period of two months between charging your car and your house batteries. It’s not capped, but suppliers, including Energia, do raise the price after what they deem fair use.
With a modest, highly affordable system or an E/W system, we are rarely gaining enough power from the array to sell power back to the grid in a meaningful way from October to early February. 
There might be some brighter days; some power will be returned to the house and a fraction to the grid, but it’s not the multiple kWh per day of credit you would have enjoyed in summer. 

Even when the day is fine, the hours of collection are slashed, and the arc of the sun is low and (hitting your panels at a different angle) less efficient in terms of solar collection. I’m happy on a brighter day to run a 2kW blow heater in my office with intermittent help from the roof array and a small percentage of power from the battery. 
We cycle cheaper kWhs from an overnight download back into our daytime usage from November to March. Why don’t I do this all year? Cycling the battery twice over in 24 hours shortens its life, and my battery is already seven years old. In summer, the daylight tops my battery right up to dusk.
Approach and installation
Solar gain might be passive, but your approach to the installation and the way you might use that gain or even downloading from the grid — well, that should be a lively conversation. It’s up to you and your supplier to tailor a system that suits your site, expectations and budget. Talk to the installer about all these variables — aspect, batteries, load-shifting, and feed-in tariffs. Explore what priority these features and practises could play in the design of your system for performance 365 days of the year.

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Nextpower operates as the spine of the U.S. solar sector—and increasingly worldwide—by literally lifting the solar panels toward the sun. But maybe cofounder and CEO Dan Shugar would think of his company as the stem of the industry instead.
Nextpower specializes in solar trackers, the arrays and devices that operate in slow motion to keep solar panels oriented toward the sun, maximizing the solar panels’ energy production each day.
“The trackers do what sunflowers have been doing for millions of years,” Shugar told Fortune. “They basically follow the sun during the day, and they can produce almost 30% more energy. It depends on the location and the project design.”
While Nextpower controls 55% of the U.S. solar tracker market—and about 30% globally—the company has gone on a buying spree of late to enter the battery business and expand its solar portfolio to cover essentially everything except the actual solar cells.
The company is 13 years old but just changed its name last year from Nextracker to reflect its increasingly diversified business model.
“We moved from a pure-play tracker company, and we developed a platform strategy to do everything in solar except make the solar cells,” Shugar said. “And we’re doing everything in batteries except make the battery cells.”
Nextpower’s stock is up 12% this year to a market cap of $15 billion. Nextpower also was ranked 24^th this year in Fortune’s Fastest-Growing Companies list.
This month, Jefferies energy analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith declared Nextpower as the firm’s “franchise pick” in the power and utilities sector because it represents a “bet on the highest quality in a totally disregarded sector.”
The clean-energy sector bottomed out during the first two years of the new Trump administration and should begin to rebound after the blue wave of Democrats taking over in January following the midterm elections. Nextpower is now an investment in the battery energy storage industry and not just solar power, so the diversification is a big bonus, Dumoulin-Smith added.
While the Trump administration has attacked renewable energy—especially offshore wind—solar power is still the fastest-growing source of power in the U.S. “It’s the dominant form of new power being installed,” Shugar said.
Even oil-rich Texas has become neck-and-neck with California for the most utility-scale solar power capacity in the country with over 15 gigawatts of solar in each state. One gigawatt is essentially enough to power 750,000 homes at full strength.
And there’s a reason about 80% of new solar projects in the U.S. are built with battery storage systems. Solar power can operate more closely to non-stop baseload power with batteries because the battery systems can deploy their stored electricity at night when the sun is no longer shining.
In July, Nextpower acquired the Prevalon Energy battery storage business for up to $365 million, as well as the Spain-based power inverter business, Zigor, including its U.S. subsidiary, Apex Power, for another $80.5 million.
The battery business especially makes Nextpower more attractive to the AI and robotics industries as hyperscalers build out power-hungry data centers, Shugar argued.
In October, Nextpower completed its $378 million purchase of Germany’s Zimmermann PV-Steel Group to further expand its solar business in Europe.
And, last year, the company bought Bentek for $78 million to expand its solar electrical components and hardware business offerings. Nextpower also picked up Origami Solar and its solar panel frame business for $53 million.
In addition, early in the pandemic, Nextpower focused on onshoring its equipment manufacturing within the U.S., opening or acquiring new factories. In five years, Shugar said the company has made 13 acquisitions. The rise in tariffs last year and the spike in diesel prices this year are relatively muted for Nextpower because so much of the manufacturing is domestic and spread throughout the country, he said.
The advances in the solar tracker industry also make solar power more efficient in areas with land constraints and harsh terrains, increasing the potential geography of the business. Improving the solar productivity can make solar economic in areas that aren’t just flat and barren.
Longer term, the biggest headwind could prove to be the Trump administration’s elimination of tax credits last year for solar and wind projects. The good news for Nextpower is that most of the solar projects in the works have until 2030 to be completed with their tax break intact.
“We’ve had our project backlog triple since we went public four years ago,” Shugar said. “Our backlog was $2 billion. Today, it’s over $6 billion.”
Currently, Congress also is considering infrastructure permitting reform legislation that would theoretically boost the permitting and construction of electric transmission and solar farm projects.
The question is what happens in the next decade. Even with solar having emerged as an increasingly lower-cost power source, the energy research firm Enverus said new solar contracts would need rise about 49% to offset the loss of the tax credits. Of course, the next presidential administration starting in 2029 potentially could work with Congress to restore renewable tax credits.
Shugar noted that nuclear power and fossil fuel power plants still receive federal subsidies in other forms. Either those should be eliminated, or renewable energy tax breaks should be restored, he said. The Biden and Obama administrations were accused of boosting clean energy while punishing fossil fuels, and the reverse has been the case under Trump.
“If more power is a national imperative, then everything should be incentivized to come online,” Shugar said. “But we don’t want to see the government picking winners and losers.”
Jordan Blum is the Energy editor at Fortune, overseeing coverage of a growing global energy sector for oil and gas, transition businesses, renewables, and critical minerals.
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© 2025 THE COOL DOWN COMPANY. All Rights Reserved. Do not sell or share my personal information. Reach us at hello@thecooldown.com.
“Start by learning the basic units of measurement and how they relate to each other.”
Photo Credit: iStock
A handy Texas homeowner wants to install their own DIY ground-mounted solar system. They described handling the wiring and plumbing during their home’s construction.
In a post on Reddit’s r/SolarDIY community, the homeowner asked for websites to help them understand the installation process before taking on the project.
The homeowner calculated that they use roughly 30,000 to 35,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. That research gave the homeowner a starting point for choosing a system that could meet the home’s power needs.
The homeowner said they have limited solar knowledge, but feel confident they can handle construction and wiring with instructions.
For a household exploring ways to lower electricity bills, residential solar may offer savings of hundreds of dollars per month, depending on the circumstances. EasyHome offers a free explorer tool to estimate potential savings and connect homeowners with vetted local installers.
The homeowner has several acres available and plans to use a ground-mounted system rather than put panels on the roof.
The poster also noted that the soil is entirely sandy, a condition to consider along with the construction and electrical work involved in a ground-mounted system.
The homeowner estimates about five peak sun hours per day at the property in South Texas.
With energy prices through the roof, there’s never been a better time to go solar — and EasyHome can help you find the best prices from the best installers in your area.
EasyHome takes the guesswork and headaches out of energy upgrades by showing you estimated savings from a network of vetted local partners. To get started, just enter your ZIP and share a few details about your home — seeing your estimate is really that easy.
One commenter suggested: “Start by learning the basic units of measurement and how they relate to each other.”
Another said, “I’d build a small system first to get a basic understanding of the components.”
The homeowner’s request focuses on learning resources, and many commenters suggested starting on YouTube to learn the basics.
Beyond the panels themselves, the homeowner also plans to include energy storage, noting that they “would do some battery backup as well.”
For readers interested in the storage side of things, EasyHome also offers options for exploring battery storage. Pairing batteries with solar can help households manage electricity costs and provide backup power during outages, with the configuration depending on their needs.
After reading the comments, the poster said: “Thanks for all the pointers, definitely checking our wills channel and others, been watching videos just thought there might be something I was missing.”
Homeowners who have already built DIY solar systems offer a look at the costs and practical hurdles involved.
• A Texas homeowner’s $35,000 DIY solar setup keeps the home off-grid 90% of the time.
• In Texas, a homeowner facing $350 bills and outages turned to DIY whole-home solar.
• In Texas, a DIY solar owner faced roof wind-load requirements while seeking permits.
• A Texas homeowner’s $20,000 solar investment delivered 17.6 kilowatts but still left $350 electricity bills.
• A DIYer spent $28,000 on a 40-kilowatt solar build and started selling power back.
Get TCD’s free newsletters for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here.
© 2025 THE COOL DOWN COMPANY. All Rights Reserved. Do not sell or share my personal information. Reach us at hello@thecooldown.com.

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Simulated Lead-Free Perovskite Solar Cells Reach 28.6% Efficiency
The study, published in Frontiers of Optoelectronics, focuses on a lead-free design that eliminates the need for traditional hole and electron transport layers, thereby simplifying the device structure. By utilizing the wxAMPS simulation software, the team investigated the photoelectric characteristics of an inverted p-p-n planar heterojunction structure comprising triple Cs3Bi2I9, single MASnI3, and double Cs2TiBr6 absorber layers. The primary objective was to determine whether a multi-absorber configuration could enhance carrier extraction and broaden the absorption spectrum compared to standard two-absorber architectures, ultimately leading to higher efficiency in a non-toxic photovoltaic system.
The motivation for this research stems from the environmental and stability concerns associated with lead-based perovskite solar cells. While lead-based PSCs have achieved high efficiencies exceeding 26%, the chemical instability and toxicity of lead pose significant barriers to commercialization. Substituting lead with tin, as in MASnI3, offers a non-toxic alternative with a narrow band gap that extends optical absorption to 1050 nm. However, tin-based materials suffer from the oxidation of Sn2+ to Sn4+, which creates defects and increases carrier recombination. The proposed design addresses this by using Cs3Bi2I9 and Cs2TiBr6 as stabilizing layers that may act similarly to antioxidant additives, reducing the oxidation of the central MASnI3 layer while maintaining high light absorption properties.
The simulation methodology employed the wxAMPS software under AM 1.5G solar spectrum illumination at a temperature of 300 K. The device architecture consists of a transparent conductive oxide (FTO) electrode, a gold photocathode, and the three perovskite absorber layers. The crystal structures of the materials were defined as hexagonal for Cs3Bi2I9, cubic for MASnI3, and cubic for Cs2TiBr6. The energy level diagram revealed negative conduction band offsets of -0.77 eV and -0.28 eV at the Cs3Bi2I9/MASnI3 and MASnI3/Cs2TiBr6 interfaces, respectively. These offsets facilitate the transmission of electrons from the Cs3Bi2I9 layer to the photocathode and holes from the Cs2TiBr6 layer to the FTO, enabling efficient charge separation without the need for additional transport layers.
Initial comparisons between two-absorber and three-absorber configurations showed that the triple Cs3Bi2I9/single MASnI3/double Cs2TiBr6 structure outperformed the alternatives. However, the three-absorber configuration achieved a significantly higher short-circuit current density (Jsc) of 19.9235 mA/cm2, compared to 14.6741 mA/cm2 for the MASnI3/Cs2TiBr6 device and 12.4054 mA/cm2 for the Cs3Bi2I9/Cs2TiBr6 device. This enhancement in Jsc is due to the wider photon absorption range provided by the MASnI3 layer and the improved hole extraction from the valence band.
The study further compared two heterojunction structures: p-type-Cs3Bi2I9/p-type-MASnI3/n-type-Cs2TiBr6 (p-p-n) and p-type-Cs3Bi2I9/n-type-MASnI3/n-type-Cs2TiBr6 (p-n-n). The p-p-n structure demonstrated superior performance in terms of Voc and fill factor (FF), despite having a lower Jsc than the p-n-n configuration. The p-n-n structure achieved a higher Jsc of 22.3157 mA/cm2 due to a more favorable electric field direction for hole transport. However, the p-p-n structure exhibited less carrier recombination and higher carrier lifetime within the absorber layers, resulting in a higher overall PCE.
To optimize the material composition, the researchers evaluated various double perovskite materials, including Cs2TiBr6, Cs2TiF6, Cs2TiCl6, and Cs2TiI6. The Cs2TiF6 material emerged as the optimal choice, yielding a PCE of 16.1736% in the baseline three-absorber configuration. This improvement over the Cs2TiBr6-based device is attributed to ideal band alignment at the p-type-MASnI3/n-type-Cs2TiF6 interface and lower carrier recombination losses.
Thickness optimization of the absorber layers revealed that the thickness of the MASnI3 layer significantly impacts device performance. The total thickness of the three absorber layers was maintained at 0.6 µm, with seven different combinations tested. Case C, featuring a MASnI3 thickness of 0.4 µm, achieved the highest PCE of 21.4530%. This enhancement is due to the narrow band gap of MASnI3, which allows for a wider range of photon absorption, and the comprehensive coverage of the Cs3Bi2I9 layer, which prevents direct contact between the Cs2TiF6 and Cs3Bi2I9 layers. This configuration reduces series resistance and avoids leakage currents, leading to improved efficiency. Thinner MASnI3 layers resulted in lower Voc and Jsc due to increased defects and carrier recombination in the wider band gap layers.
Doping concentration optimization further enhanced the device performance. Increasing the Cs3Bi2I9 acceptor doping concentration to E15 cm-3 improved the Jsc and Voc by narrowing the depletion layer width and facilitating carrier movement. The Cs2TiF6 donor doping concentration was set to 1.5E19 cm-3, which maximized the Voc, FF, and PCE by increasing the electron concentration and electric field strength at the MASnI3/Cs2TiF6 interface. These optimized doping densities resulted in the highest-performance device with a PCE of 28.6193%.
The simulation results highlight the potential of CTLs-free PSCs with multi-absorber layers for future photovoltaic applications. The elimination of charge transport layers simplifies the fabrication process and reduces costs, while the lead-free composition addresses environmental concerns. The study demonstrates that the spatial distribution of internal carriers and the charge transport mechanism can be effectively managed through the strategic selection of absorber materials, thicknesses, and doping concentrations. The p-p-n heterojunction structure, combined with the optimized Cs2TiF6 double perovskite material, provides a robust framework for achieving high efficiency in non-toxic perovskite solar cells.
Beyond simplifying device design, eliminating traditional charge transport layers avoids detrimental factors such as perovskite degradation and stability limits. Conventional electron transport layers such as titanium dioxide, tin oxide, and zinc oxide introduce notable manufacturing and operational challenges. Titanium dioxide requires high post-annealing temperatures that increase fabrication complexity, whereas immediate contact with zinc oxide or tin oxide spawns degradation of the perovskite absorber layer. Concurrently, standard hole transport materials, including Spiro-OMeTAD and PEDOT:PSS, require higher preparation costs and are subject to stability limits. Removing both transport layers avoids these detrimental factors, while the inverted configuration offers superior fixity and avoids evident current density–voltage hysteresis effects.
The underlying physical modeling in wxAMPS accounts for intra-band tunneling and trap-assisted tunneling by coupling Poisson’s equation with electron and hole continuity equations. Across all functional layers, the simulation specified equal electron and hole thermal velocities of 10^7 cm/s. Defect states were modeled using neutral Gaussian distributions positioned at the center of the band gap, each assigned carrier capture cross sections of 10^-14 cm^2. Beyond the conduction band steps, the heterojunction interfaces create favorable valence band offsets of -0.15 eV between Cs3Bi2I9 and MASnI3, and -0.42 eV between MASnI3 and Cs2TiBr6. These negative energy offsets establish an energetic pathway that assists the transport of photogenerated holes through the absorber stack toward the transparent conductive oxide electrode.
Analysis of spectral response and internal electrostatic potentials highlights how the multi-absorber architecture expands photon harvesting. In two-absorber cells pairing Cs3Bi2I9 with Cs2TiBr6, the external quantum efficiency response cuts off around 770 nm. Introducing the narrow band gap MASnI3 layer broadens absorbance into the near-infrared spectrum to approximately 870 nm, providing the highest external quantum efficiency across visible wavelengths. Furthermore, the calculated built-in potential, determined by the conduction band difference across the entire absorber stack, reached 1.48 V in the three-layer device, compared to 1.46 V for Cs3Bi2I9/Cs2TiBr6 and 1.34 V for MASnI3/Cs2TiBr6. While an excessive band offset at the Cs3Bi2I9 and Cs2TiBr6 interface hampers carrier transit in the two-absorber variant, the three-absorber stack maintains a strong internal field that drives charge separation.
Subject of Research: Design and simulation investigations on charge transport layers-free in lead-free three absorber layer all-perovskite solar cells
Article Title: Design and simulation investigations on charge transport layers-free in lead-free three absorber layer all-perovskite solar cells
Article References: Li, G., Xu, M., & Chen, Z. (2024). Design and simulation investigations on charge transport layers-free in lead-free three absorber layer all-perovskite solar cells. Frontiers of Optoelectronics, 17(1), Article 18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-024-00119-1
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1007/s12200-024-00119-1
Keywords: Design, simulation, investigations, charge, transport, layers-free, lead-free, three, absorber, layer, all-perovskite, solar, cells
News Source: Denise Maddox. (November 13, 2026). Simulated Lead-Free Perovskite Solar Cells Reach 28.6% Efficiency. Scienmag.
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India seeks to triple clean energy capacity to 900 gigawatts by 2035, but major hurdles remain  Tech Xplore
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An opinion circulating on the networks claims that the PLATER has been tailor-made for the energy oligopoly. But if we consult the data, we see that it is not true. Of the three electric companies of the so-called oligopoly —Endesa, Iberdrola, and EDP—, only Endesa has a small park in the processing stage out of the 499 applications currently being processed. The energy transition has diversified to the extreme the number of actors (small investors and freelancers who install photovoltaic systems in homes or businesses, for example) that intervene in a market that was previously in a few hands. Read it all
The PLATER is a territorial planning instrument: it determines where and under what conditions renewables can be implemented. It does not decide who will be the owner of each project, just as an urban plan does not decide who will build each building. The Plan gives priority to roofs, parking lots, industrial estates, and other transformed land. There is an immense field here for self-consumption, energy communities, town councils, cooperatives, the Public Energy Company of Catalonia, and businesses. However, these actors must present projects and assume investments. That said, the map on its own is not enough, as investment projects must be profitable for there to be anyone willing to bet on them.
The proven reduction in the cost of wind, solar, and batteries has made the transition a real possibility; however, currently, its profitability is in question due to the unjustifiable lengthening of processing times and a grid with hoarded capacity that is not being released, the insufficient anticipation of public investments in infrastructure to increase the electrification of demand, and price cannibalization during peak production hours. This situation generates uncertainty, disincentivizes investment, and highlights the need to better coordinate the territorial planning of renewables with the development and modernization of electrical grids.
Profitability is not the problem: it is the engine that allows for mobilizing an investment that the administration could not assume on its own. Capital has two options: to continue fueling fossil fuels or to build the clean system that will replace them. The goal is to decarbonize in a profitable way. The PLATER is a step forward in this direction, as it encompasses generation, storage, and new transport corridors.
This does not mean giving carte blanche to the actors, but rather setting clear rules: environmental assessment, local taxation, participation, economic return, transparency, and demanding deadlines. Catalan regulations require certain projects of more than 5 MW on non-urbanized land to offer at least 20% participation or financing to local actors. Municipalities, cooperatives, and citizens must take advantage of this offer so that part of the benefits remain tied to the territory.
The energy transition needs all actors: public projects that guarantee strategic capacity; municipal and cooperative ones that distribute wealth throughout the territory, and private ones that provide volume, affordable prices, accelerated deployment, technology and financing. The goal is not to replace a fossil fuel monopoly with an electric one, but to build a diverse ecosystem that produces clean energy and shares the benefits.
What does it mean for society not to accelerate the energy transition? And how do we ensure investment arrives on time? This is the debate that Catalonia must resolve. Without private capital we will not reach the necessary scale, without public leadership and local participation we will not have legitimacy. The question is not to prevent renewables from being profitable, but to ensure that private capital, the public sector, and the territory move in the same direction. Collaboration between all actors is urgent.

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A research team from India’s Vellore Institute of Technology has designed and tested a glazing system that combines transparent wood (TW) with transparent solar PV (TSPV) modules. Transparent wood is produced by removing light-absorbing lignin from wood and filling the resulting porous structure with a transparent polymer.
“The proposed system comprises two layers: a TSPV panel layer, which generates electricity while maintaining transparency, and a second layer of TW, which would remain transparent and blocks heat gain in the interior portion of the building,” the researchers said. “A thorough investigation was conducted to assess the impacts of these materials on heat gain and illuminance through experimental analysis.”
The researchers tested the proposed system as skylight glazing. They fabricated transparent wood from 1 mm-thick veneers of balsa, poplar, and pine, as well as bamboo. They removed the lignin through chemical treatment before vacuum-infiltrating the remaining structures with transparent epoxy resin.
The researchers then combined the samples with commercially sourced PV modules featuring nominal transparency levels of 0%, 20%, 40%, and 60%. They evaluated 21 configurations, including PV modules without transparent wood and an 8 mm-thick clear-glass reference. The tests involved small cardboard building models measuring 12.5 cm on each side, with a 5.5 cm × 5.5 cm skylight opening.
Halogen lamps simulated hourly solar irradiance calculated for Vellore’s climate, while heat-flux sensors and a lux meter measured heat gain and indoor illuminance. The researchers repeated the heat-gain measurements four times and extrapolated representative-day results across the March-to-October cooling season. They then calculated cooling costs and avoided emissions based on an air-conditioning coefficient of performance (COP) of 3.5, an electricity tariff of $0.08/kWh, and an emissions factor of 0.98 kg CO2/kWh.
“Bamboo emerged as the most effective material in combining with TSPV, achieving the lowest heat gain at all levels of transparency, even at 60%, it has shown 371.78 kWh/m² and exhibited effective cost saving of 20.32 $/m²/year,” the researchers said. “Moreover, it has intense power in mitigating carbon emissions, and it has mitigated as much as 0.058 tCO2/year per annum for the PV module with 60% nominal transparency combined with transparent bamboo.”
The results showed that integrating transparent wood slightly reduced cooling energy demand, with PV modules combined with transparent bamboo consistently recording the lowest operating costs among the TSPV glazing configurations.
“Because of reduced transparencies in 0% and 20%, the operating cost, cost savings and CO2 emission mitigations show similar values to the baseline TSPV glazing systems,” the researchers said.
They presented their findings in “Transparent wood integrated with transparent solar photovoltaic panels for enhanced building energy performance and economic benefits,” which was recently published in Scientific Reports.

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Tuesday, November 24, 2026
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm CET, Berlin, Paris, Madrid
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Day 1 | Europe’s Solar and Storage Markets 2027: What works where?
Day 2 | Solar + Storage Co-location: Three markets, three business cases
Day 3 | Solar Quality: Which technical risks still need better answers?
Day 4 | Cybersecurity and Procurement: What can European solar projects source in 2027 and beyond?
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Clarkson’s solar panels prove you must choose between money and principles in the countryside  The Telegraph
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The Industrial Training Fund has begun converting its facilities in Jos, Plateau State, to solar power in a move aimed at reducing dependence on the national grid and diesel generators.
The fund said it had completed and commissioned solar installations at its Area Office and Staff School in Jos, while work was ongoing at its Model Skills Training Centre and the Director-General’s residence.
The ITF also plans to install a larger solar power system at its Jos headquarters as part of a proposed transition to off-grid electricity supply across its facilities in the state.
The development was disclosed in a statement issued by the fund on Friday in Abuja.

The statement read, “The Director-General of the Industrial Training Fund has declared an irreversible war on darkness and epileptic power supply, unveiling an ambitious plan to take all ITF infrastructure in Jos completely green and off-grid.”

Speaking during the commissioning of the completed projects, the Director-General of the ITF said unreliable electricity supply was undermining productivity and the delivery of skills training.
He said the fund could not effectively prepare Nigerians for modern industrial workplaces while depending on an unstable power supply.

“We cannot train Nigerians for the industries of tomorrow with the power failures of yesterday. If we want productivity, we must generate our own clean power. Jos will be our model city for green energy,” he said.
At the ITF Area Office, the fund installed a solar photovoltaic system with a stated capacity of 100kWh, alongside 100kWh of battery storage and a 50kW inverter.

The ITF Staff School also received a 100kWh solar installation and 100kWh battery storage system, which the fund said would provide electricity for teaching and other school activities.
Work is ongoing at the Model Skills Training Centre and Academy, where the ITF plans to install a 350kW solar system supported by 500kWh of battery storage.
The facility, which has a maximum load requirement of about 70kW, houses training workshops, machinery and information and communications technology laboratories.
The Director-General’s residence is also undergoing a solar installation involving a 100kW photovoltaic system and 128kWh of battery storage.
The largest proposed installation is at the ITF headquarters in Jos, where the fund plans to deploy a 500kW solar system and a 1.5MWh battery system.

According to the statement, the headquarters currently has a peak electricity demand of about 139kW.
The projects come against the backdrop of persistent electricity supply challenges in Nigeria, which have forced businesses, schools and public institutions to rely on diesel and petrol generators to maintain operations.
Unreliable grid supply and the rising cost of alternative energy have also increased operating expenses for organisations, making solar power an option for institutions seeking more reliable electricity.
The ITF said it intended to ensure that its facilities in Jos no longer depended on the national grid or diesel generators for their electricity needs.
Damilola Aina is a journalist at Punch Newspapers with over five years of experience covering energy, business, investment, infrastructure, and property sectors. He specializes in producing well-researched and insightful reports that inform readers and provide clarity on complex topics. Damilola’s work demonstrates practical newsroom experience, editorial insight, and a strong commitment to accurate and engaging journalism.
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EcoFlow’s solar panel kits are finally available to buy, with potential savings of £187 a year on energy bills  T3
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At COP31 in Antalya, solar energy in Türkiye received a concrete boost: eight international lenders signed a letter of support to finance two Acwa photovoltaic plants totaling 2 GW. The announcement was made on November 11, 2026, in the presence of the energy ministers of Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, Abdulaziz bin Salman and Alparslan Bayraktar.
In addition, the document brings together multilateral banks, development institutions and commercial lenders. The signatories are the Asian Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, DEG, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Finance Corporation, the Islamic Development Bank, Société Générale and Standard Chartered. With their signatures they confirm support for both initiatives and open the structuring of the financing package.
For its part, Acwa estimates the two plants will cost about €1.6 billion combined. The letter is not yet a financial close, but it sets the path toward the loans that will drive solar energy in Türkiye and serves as a reference for the financial management of renewable infrastructure.
On another front, Sivas and Taşeli are two independent solar energy projects in Türkiye, wholly owned by Acwa and with 1 GW each. The Sivas plant will be built about 500 kilometers east of Ankara. The Taşeli plant will sit in Karaman, about 400 kilometers south of the capital.
As for the contractual framework, the investment agreement signed in February 2026 with the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources tasks Acwa with the development, financing, construction, commissioning and operation of both plants. Likewise, the company closed key terms of a power purchase agreement with Elektrik Üretim Anonim Şirketi (EÜAŞ) to sell the electricity each facility generates.
According to Minister Bayraktar, the tariff agreed for Sivas is 1.995 euro cents per kilowatt hour (€19.95 per megawatt hour), the lowest contracted in the country so far. In Taşeli the price is 2.3415 euro cents. With those values, solar energy in Türkiye sets a new price benchmark in long-term contracts.
For its part, Acwa CEO Samir J. Serhan thanked the eight financial partners. He noted that Sivas and Taşeli are the first two plants under the intergovernmental agreement and that the company expects to deliver clean electricity to Turkish homes from 2029.
Meanwhile, Türkiye ended 2025 with 25.1 GW of solar capacity and 14.8 GW of wind within a total capacity of 122.5 GW. With the two new plants, national photovoltaic capacity would grow by about 8% on that base.
Likewise, large-scale domestic generation would reduce the need for imported fuels, in line with the goal of greater energy independence. For the country, solar energy in Türkiye is becoming a piece of its supply security.
In turn, Sivas and Taşeli provide 2 GW of the 5 GW of solar and renewable capacity agreed between Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, with total investment estimated at USD 5 billion. The program continues Acwa’s first investment in Türkiye: the Kırıkkale independent power plant (IPP), of 927 MW, operating since 2017.
In parallel, the company had floated a second phase of 3 GW with solar, wind and storage, a field where energy innovation will define competitiveness.
As a next step, each institution must turn its letter into a credit agreement, a condition for starting construction and meeting the 2029 target. If the schedule holds, solar energy in Türkiye will add 2 GW at a fixed price and gain a replicable model for the next phase of the program with Saudi Arabia.
Source and photo: Acwa
I am a civil engineer and I work in the writing area. I have a deep passion for civil works. I constantly seek to update myself on new engineering technologies to integrate them into my work, since my main interest is exploring how innovations in the industrial sector can improve and transform the world.
The biodiesel plant in Ralston, Iowa, returns to operation with Chevron, a feedstock agreement with Landus and capacity for 42 million gallons a year.
The company approved the development of Longtail in the Stabroek block, with an FPSO to process gas and produce condensates from 2030.
AWS in Chile activated its first cloud region for select customers and plans an investment of more than $4 billion and 4,100 jobs per year.
Sustainable aviation fuel faces structural profitability and feedstock barriers that limit its industrial-scale output.
OCIMF guidelines ensure safety and efficiency in managing friction chains for SPM systems.
The Krautkrämer PAXYS scanner facilitates corrosion mapping using PAUT and encoded scanning for industrial inspections.
Both companies will evaluate enhanced geothermal systems to expand continuous electricity generation in Turkey.
Brent and WTI crude fall as increased oil supply and risks in Hormuz weigh on the oil market.
Coteso Group combines engineering, equipment supply and project management for storage tanks and industrial terminals.
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© 2025 THE COOL DOWN COMPANY. All Rights Reserved. Do not sell or share my personal information. Reach us at hello@thecooldown.com.
Rising electricity prices and dynamic tariffs have complicated that math for homeowners.
Photo Credit: iStock
Dutch households send most of their rooftop solar power to the grid, keeping only about 30% for themselves. A home battery could flip that balance, pushing self-use toward 70%.
That’s according to Rolf Heynen, chief executive of Sunergy Research, who said an expected drop in payments for exported electricity is making self-consumption more important for homeowners.
Residential battery uptake in the Netherlands more than doubled over nine months, according to Sunergy Research, which sells services to Dutch households with solar panels, as IndexBox reported.
The Netherlands plans to end its residential solar net metering scheme on Jan. 1, 2027. Heynen credits the incentive, which is approaching its phaseout as battery uptake rises, with helping make rooftop solar financially appealing.
Rising electricity prices and dynamic tariffs have complicated that math for homeowners. Under net metering, a steady rate of €0.21 per kilowatt-hour made it simple to calculate.
For homeowners exploring storage, EnergySage offers a resource for researching battery products and comparing competitive installation estimates.
EnergySage has partnered with electrification company Qmerit to help homeowners secure the best available battery storage pricing.
Sunergy’s figures show that installations of 5- to 15-kilowatt-hour batteries nearly tripled between January and September. Growth was even stronger for the smaller systems, those storing no more than 5 kilowatt-hours, which roughly quadrupled in the same stretch.
With energy prices through the roof, there’s never been a better time to go solar — and EasyHome can help you find the best prices from the best installers in your area.
EasyHome takes the guesswork and headaches out of energy upgrades by showing you estimated savings from a network of vetted local partners. To get started, just enter your ZIP and share a few details about your home — seeing your estimate is really that easy.
Heynen said the bigger, permanently installed systems tend to appeal to households that have already gone deep into electrifying their homes, while the smaller batteries are pulling everyday households into the market for the first time, per Index Box.
He also pointed to a coming shift to variable grid pricing, set to start in 2029, as another factor shaping household energy decisions beyond the end of net metering.
For households interested in backup without a whole-home installation, Pila offers a plug-and-play battery alternative at a substantially lower price point than whole-home backup systems.
Plug-in batteries lead the Dutch home battery market despite being a comparatively new option, according to Sunergy’s data. The company’s figures show installations more than doubled during the nine-month period covered.
Besides helping homes use the power they generate from solar, batteries configured for backup can keep selected essentials powered during outages, while systems designed for off-grid use can supply electricity away from a utility connection. Storage paired with solar can also trim monthly electricity costs, since power that would otherwise sell back to the grid at a reduced rate can instead cover a household’s own use.
In the Netherlands, solar owners can consult Sunergy’s free, 33-page Home Batteries Selection Guide as they weigh residential storage options. The company said it had released the publication to help households work through the growing range of systems Heynen described.
Changes to solar export payments are giving homeowners across Europe another reason to consider battery storage.
• A Dutch solar owner rejected pricey compatible batteries as 2027 export charges loom.
• In the U.K., solar owners say falling export payments make home batteries increasingly crucial.
• In Poland, solar owners can add larger home batteries if electricity exports remain capped.
• A U.K. homeowner weighed a £2,330 battery addition against an estimated 13-year payback.
• A U.K. solar owner weighed a £2,500 home battery against 90p in peak rate electricity.
Get TCD’s free newsletters for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here.
© 2025 THE COOL DOWN COMPANY. All Rights Reserved. Do not sell or share my personal information. Reach us at hello@thecooldown.com.

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Southwick Planning Board rejects request to delay solar bylaw hearing  MassLive
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Yanhe Technology launched three independently developed space photovoltaic modules into a 535 km sun-synchronous orbit aboard Galactic Energy’s Ceres-2 Y3 rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Nov. 7. The company described the mission as China’s first simultaneous in-orbit validation of three perovskite-based PV technologies.
Two tandem modules – a perovskite-crystalline silicon device and a perovskite-CIGS device – are installed on the North University of China-1 satellite. The spacecraft operates in a dawn-dusk orbit, where near-continuous sunlight places demanding requirements on power density and long-term stability.
A flexible single-junction perovskite module is installed on the Yunyao-1 28 satellite. The device will undergo imaging during thermal cycling and performance monitoring to assess degradation caused by particle radiation and atomic oxygen exposure.
Yanhe has not disclosed the conversion efficiencies, rated power outputs, active areas, or weights of the three modules. The company had not responded to a request for additional technical specifications at the time of publication. Yanhe’s official announcement and independent industry reports confirmed the launch, satellite platforms, and orbital altitude.
The mission builds on an earlier in-orbit testing campaign launched in September, when Yanhe deployed a flexible perovskite module aboard the Tianyi-52 satellite for long-term performance monitoring. The company described that deployment as China’s first component-level in-orbit test of flexible perovskite PV technology.
In October, Yanhe also established a joint laboratory with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to conduct research on perovskite solar cells, space photovoltaics, orbital energy systems, and flexible devices.
Yanhe Chief Technology Officer Peng Zongyang said the perovskite-silicon and perovskite-CIGS tandem architectures target different segments of the space PV market. He said the latest mission aims to evaluate the efficiency and stability of both technologies under actual orbital conditions.
The company is assessing the fully thin-film perovskite-CIGS tandem architecture for potential advantages in flexibility and radiation resistance over silicon-based tandem devices.
Perovskite solar cells have attracted interest for space applications because of their potential for high specific power and lower material costs compared with the III-V gallium arsenide solar cells commonly used in satellite power systems.
Yanhe is targeting the growing low Earth orbit satellite constellation market, where lighter PV modules could help reduce launch costs.
However, the ability of perovskite solar modules to maintain performance under prolonged radiation exposure and repeated thermal cycling remains a key technical challenge.
The latest mission is expected to generate comparative in-orbit performance data for the three architectures. Yanhe has not specified the duration of the monitoring campaign or the amount of telemetry data expected from the satellites.

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Tuesday, November 24, 2026
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm CET, Berlin, Paris, Madrid
The new issue of pv magazine Global is out now!
Available in print and digital – get your copy today!
Day 1 | Europe’s Solar and Storage Markets 2027: What works where?
Day 2 | Solar + Storage Co-location: Three markets, three business cases
Day 3 | Solar Quality: Which technical risks still need better answers?
Day 4 | Cybersecurity and Procurement: What can European solar projects source in 2027 and beyond?
As a media partner of Genera 2026, pv magazine will organize and moderate a session in Spanish in Madrid, during International Electrification and Decarbonization Week.
Monday, November 23, 2026
11:00 am – 12:00 pm CEST, Berlin, Paris, Madrid

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Solar is being adapted to Uttarakhand’s diverse farming conditions, from creating new income opportunities in the hills through agrivoltaics (Agri-PV) to reducing irrigation costs and emissions in the plains.
Visual Credits: Arkatapa Basu
Rows of solar panels line once-barren terraced fields on a mountain slope, catching the eye from a distance. Beneath them, rows of fragrant rosemary plants grow in their shade, bringing a new scent of hope to a landscape that had long lain abandoned.
Rajni Devi clears weeds at the plant alongside two other women. When asked her age, she pauses to think before saying she must be over 60.
The work earns her ₹400 a day. She works for seven to eight days a month. “There are no means of employment here, so most young people from the village have migrated in search of livelihoods. Two of my five sons have gone abroad, while two others live outside the state. They come home only once every two to three years,” she says.
The fields that once helped her raise her children can no longer sustain her family. “The weather has changed. When we need rain, it does not come, and sometimes we get unseasonal rain. Whatever we manage to grow is destroyed by monkeys and wild boars. I grow pulses, just enough for our own consumption. That is all we get from our fields,” she says.
 
Most of Uttarakhand’s land is classified as forest or barren, with around 9% under cultivation. As residents migrate in search of livelihoods, agricultural land in many villages is left fallow.
Chinmay Agrawal, a 28-year-old from Rishikesh bought one such farm three years ago in Garh Kolkdhar village, in Chamba block of Tehri district, where he set up a 400-kilowatt agri-photovoltaic plant with two partners. 
The project combines solar power generation with agriculture, an approach known as agri-photovoltaic or agri-PV. The idea is to use the same land for both electricity generation and cultivation, potentially diversifying income.
“We are cultivating rosemary and geranium beneath our solar panels while supplying the electricity generated to the grid. I researched suitable plants at the Centre for Aromatic Plants in Dehradun, where we identified three to four varieties that could grow in this area,”  Chinmay says.
The agri-PV farm spans around 10,000 square metres, of which 4,000 square metres is under aromatic plant cultivation. Chinmay is now working to expand production. “We have planted 5,000 rosemary plants so far. They are perennial and require less water. We have sold dried rosemary leaves, for use as a seasoning, and have produced hydrosol (rosemary water). We are also preparing a nursery to grow more plants and scale up production so that we can also produce essential oil from it,” he explains.
With wild animals increasingly damaging crops in Uttarakhand’s hill districts, the state government is also promoting the cultivation of aromatic plants. Since these plants do not produce edible fruits, they are less likely to attract wildlife, making them an alternative for farmers grappling with crop damage.
“We also have a few geranium plants. We tried growing Damask roses and kiwi, but the results were not very encouraging,” Chinmay says, pointing to the solar panels mounted about five feet above the ground. “Instead of the usual two-pole structure, we used a four-pole setup to mount the panels. This leaves more space underneath for cultivation and farm work.”

With little income from their own land, Bijendra Singh Panwar and his wife, Swari Devi, work at the plant and help maintain it. Their sons, too, have moved to cities for work.
“I grow pulses and earn ₹15,000–₹20,000 a year from their sale. At the plant, I earn ₹15,000 a month,” Bijendra notes. He has enough land to consider a similar venture, but feels he is too old to take it up himself. However, he hopes his sons might explore such an opportunity.
The agri-PV model offers a new possibility for farmland that can no longer provide a reliable livelihood. “We are generating solar power and growing crops on the same land, while also creating some employment for local people,” says Chinmay.
A 400-kW solar plant costs around ₹2 crore to set up, with a provision for a 40% subsidy from the state government. At an estimated annual generation of six lakh units and a tariff of ₹4.49 per unit, it could generate gross electricity revenue of around ₹27 lakh a year, before operating and other costs.
This would be supplemented by the cultivation of rosemary which the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s Aroma Mission estimates to generate an annual profit of ₹2 lakh per hectare. While solar plants on agricultural land can create concerns about competition between food and energy production, agri-PV provides a solution by allowing cultivation beneath the panels. 
Chinmay’s project offers one such example from Uttarakhand’s hills.

A 2026 report by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) estimates that 2.8 million hectares of agricultural land in India are highly suitable for agrivoltaics with crops such as fruits, vegetables, spices and medicinal plants. The report estimates that this land could support solar power capacity of 1,192GW–2,129 GW.
Dr DK Singh, former Principal Investigator of the Centre of Excellence for Agri-PV at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR-IARI), New Delhi, says shading from solar panels can affect photosynthesis and crop yields. “But if the yield decreases by 10 per cent, farmers can compensate for the loss through the income they earn from selling electricity. Shade-loving crops such as turmeric, ginger, strawberries, lemon grass and rosemary may be more suitable for cultivation beneath the panels,” he says.
The Centre is collecting data on crop yields, plant growth, and soil fertility to assess how Agri-PV affects agricultural productivity. Singh acknowledges that the high initial investment can be a barrier for small and marginal farmers. “Farmers with small landholdings can opt for lower-capacity solar plants of 20, 50, or 100 kW with government support under schemes such as PM-KUSUM. Ideally, solar panels should cover no more than 30% of their farmland. Since most farmers in India are small or marginal, this approach could improve rural electricity availability while contributing to the country’s net-zero mission.” 

Beyond combining solar power with farming, solar energy is also helping address another challenge for farmers in Uttarakhand: the cost and emissions associated with irrigation.
In Uttarakhand’s Terai plains, particularly in Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar, farmers grow water-intensive crops sugarcane, wheat and paddy, including summer paddy. Many rely on electric and diesel pumps to irrigate their fields. 
Sanjay Choudhary, a farmer in Gurukul Narsan village in Haridwar district, has been using a solar pump for more than two years. He says it has reduced his electricity expenses on pumping water.
“I have around 5 acres of land. With the solar pump, I can irrigate my fields throughout the day when there is sunlight, especially during paddy cultivation. My electricity bill used to be more than ₹10,000 in the summer. That expense has come down, and the solar pump does not cause pollution during operation,” he says.
Farmers in Udham Singh Nagar also rely heavily on irrigation. Avtaar Singh Dhaliwal, who owns 16 acres of farmland in Badripur village in Bajpur block, says his irrigation costs have fallen since he started using a solar pump during the day a year ago.


“From June to September, we pump groundwater continuously for paddy irrigation, and my electricity bill used to exceed ₹25,000 over these months. We need less irrigation for wheat in winter. The solar pump has reduced our costs, but we still use an electric pump at night when needed,” he says.
A study by researchers at the ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering in Bhopal, based on 45 solar-powered irrigation systems and a survey of 225 farmers, found that solar irrigation reduced operating costs by more than 95% compared to electric and diesel pumps. It cut irrigation-related carbon emissions by more than 99% compared to grid electricity. Combining solar irrigation with crop diversification reduced annual greenhouse gas emissions by 90%.
During the study period, groundwater levels in the Gadarpur block of Udham Singh Nagar declined by an average of 0.88 metres per year.
Dr Ved Prakash Choudhary, one of the researchers and head of the Agricultural Mechanization Division at ICAR-CIAE, says farmers in Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar grow water-intensive crops, particularly paddy.“Earlier, farmers often ran their pumps throughout the day and night because of frequent power cuts. With solar pumps, they have a more assured supply during daylight hours, usually from 8 am to 6 pm, so farmers pump water for fewer hours. This helps reduce groundwater extraction and emissions from electricity generation. Farmers have also saved on costs because they no longer have to pay electricity bills for this pumping or rely as much on diesel pumps when power is unavailable.” 

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Energies Media
A container port runs on diesel cranes, steel hulls and tidal schedules, not sunlight.
But this fall, a different kind of cargo arrived on the water itself.
Workers anchored a raft of dark photovoltaic panels across a sheltered harbor basin.
No tracker motors, no farmland, no rooftop, just panels riding pontoons beside working quay cranes.
The system is rated at one full megawatt, modest next to a utility solar farm but unusual for where it sits.
That location raises a question nobody answers on dry land the same way.
A floating photovoltaic array does not simply swap dirt for water underneath identical hardware. Harbor water cools the underside of each panel, and that cooling effect typically lifts output compared with a rooftop or ground array baking in still air nearby.
Engineers have measured gains in the range of several percentage points at floating installations elsewhere, though the exact figure depends on water temperature and how much airflow reaches the panel’s back surface.
So the tradeoff runs the other way too. Saltwater carries humidity, salt spray and constant movement that ground mounted frames never have to survive. Corrosion resistant coatings and marine grade connectors become mandatory, and every electrical joint has to assume it will eventually get wet.
Then there is motion itself. A harbor basin is not a still pond. Wakes from passing vessels, tidal surge and wind chop all flex the mooring lines and the floats, so the structure has to absorb movement without cracking a seal.
The port is one of the busiest container gateways in the Mediterranean, built for rapid vessel turnaround rather than steady generation. Gantry cranes loom over the basin where the floating array now sits, and container stacks line the quay within sight of the panels.
The contrast is deliberate. Engineers wanted a live industrial environment, not a sheltered test pond, because a reservoir offers calm water and predictable conditions that a working harbor simply does not.
Boat wakes arrive at unpredictable intervals, and dredging operations stir sediment that can cloud the water beneath the floats. Because the port authority runs its own electrical infrastructure, the generated power can feed directly into onsite operations rather than crossing a public grid, a path similar in spirit to the way a hybrid renewable site pairs generation with local load.
That local use case matters for ports worldwide, since many already have captive onsite demand for cranes, lighting and cold storage that floating solar could offset without new transmission lines.
The two platforms, named Paiporta and Catarroja after towns hit by Spain’s 2024 floods, entered their testing phase at the start of October, with the Port Authority of Valencia confirming that the demonstrator is now logging performance data under live harbor conditions rather than laboratory simulation. That distinction matters because floating solar research has, until recently, leaned heavily on reservoir and canal installations where water stays calm for most of the year.
A port basin is a harsher, more realistic proving ground. Ships do not stop coming through a testing phase.
Vessel movements, propeller wash and tidal change all register in the mooring loads and panel output in ways a calm irrigation canal never would. That is the operating data port authorities and offshore engineers actually want before committing larger budgets.
A one megawatt pilot is a long way from powering an entire port, and nobody involved has suggested otherwise. Scaling up inside a working harbor means finding basin space that does not interfere with vessel maneuvering, dredging schedules or safety clearances around moving ships, a constraint land based solar projects never face.
Maintenance access is another open question. A technician reaching a floating panel in open water needs a boat, calm conditions and a window that does not conflict with port traffic, unlike a ground based system that can simply walk a fixed row. Saltwater intrusion into electrical housings over multiple years remains the harder test, since corrosion damage often shows up only after repeated wet and dry cycles rather than in a single season.
If the array performs reliably through a full year of vessel traffic, storms and tidal cycles, ports elsewhere have a template that does not require clearing new land or building rooftop structures over active cargo yards. That matters most in dense port cities where available land is scarce and expensive.
Even a modest one megawatt system offsetting onsite electricity use chips away at a port’s diesel and grid dependence, particularly for lighting and pumps that do not need utility scale power. The pilot’s real value lies less in its current output than in the operating record it builds, much as the floating panels covering a working wastewater lagoon proved their worth through uninterrupted operation rather than peak numbers.
None of that guarantees easy replication at a larger container terminal, where safety margins around moving ships are strict and space is contested by design. But the panels now riding this harbor water are already answering a question land based solar never had to ask: what happens when the ground itself refuses to hold still.
Hugo is an engineer with strong technical expertise. Multilingual from an early age, his writing combines technical clarity with a strong interest in science and energy.
Hugo is an engineer with strong technical expertise. Multilingual from an early age, his writing combines technical clarity with a strong interest in science and energy.
Hugo is an engineer with strong technical expertise. Multilingual from an early age, his writing combines technical clarity with a strong interest in science and energy.

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Germany’s solar power production nears record level  Yahoo
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Oyster Renewable Energy, a hybrid renewable energy solutions provider for commercial and industrial (C&I) consumers, is building a 60.9 MW wind-solar hybrid power project in Kadapa district, Andhra Pradesh, at a total project cost over INR 350 crore. The project comprises 39.3 MWp of solar and 21.6 MW of wind capacity and will supply all its power to Laurus Labs under a captive power arrangement.
The full 39.3 MWp of solar capacity has been commissioned and is generating. The commissioned solar capacity is expected to generate about 51.51 million units (MU) of electricity a year, avoiding an estimated 35,571 tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually.
The remaining 21.6 MW of wind capacity is expected to be commissioned by December 2026, completing the project. Once fully operational, the hybrid project is expected to generate about 124 million units (MUs) a year and avoid an estimated 88,040 tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually.
“For energy-intensive manufacturers, renewable power is only useful if it is reliable. Pairing wind with solar is how we give customers like Laurus Labs clean power well beyond daylight hours. More C&I consumers across sectors such as pharmaceuticals, cement and steel are moving to hybrid renewable power for exactly this reason, and Kadapa shows how that model works at scale,” said Siddharth Bhatia, MD & CEO, Oyster Renewable.
“The commissioning of the 39.3 MWp solar project marks an important milestone in Laurus Labs’ journey towards building more energy-efficient and sustainable operations. Alongside expanding our renewable energy footprint, we remain focused on reducing energy intensity through process optimisation, improved utility performance and the adoption of energy-efficient technologies across our facilities. With additional solar and wind power arrangements, we aim to achieve around 50% of our energy requirements from renewable sources by Q4 FY27,” said Dr Satyanarayana Chava, Founder & CEO, Laurus Labs.
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Installation has begun on a rooftop solar project at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, led by Ribchester-based Green Shield Group.
The 439.2kWp system is expected to generate 397,157kWh of electricity a year and save an estimated 55.6 tonnes of CO₂e, helping the historic school lower its energy bills and reduce the amount of electricity it buys from the grid.
Stonyhurst College traces its roots to 1593, when English Jesuit priest Fr Robert Persons SJ founded a school in Saint-Omer, then part of the Spanish Netherlands and now in northern France. Following periods of relocation across mainland Europe, the school moved to Lancashire in 1794 and became fully co-educational in 1999.
Today, the independent Catholic school and its preparatory school, Stonyhurst St Mary’s Hall, educate a combined 680 pupils aged three to 18, with nearly 400 boarding, and senior pupils representing 30 countries. Former pupils include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, and England Rugby World Cup winner Will Greenwood.
Solar panels are now due to be fitted to the Grade II* listed South Front and part of the Grade I listed Old Quadrangle, as well as to the roofs of the Refectory, swimming pool and St Mary’s Sports Hall.
As lead consultant on the Stonyhurst solar installation, Green Shield Group coordinated surveys and liaised with Ribble Valley Borough Council, which granted planning permission and listed building consent on 17 April 2026. Historic England raised no objection on heritage grounds after additional information was submitted on roof loading and the layout of electrical equipment.
AMPYR Distributed Energy is providing funding for the rooftop solar project. A single power purchase agreement covers the solar installation across all the buildings involved.
Alex Palffy, lead engineer at Green Shield Group, said, “It was a wonderful brief to be given, and a demanding one. The first time you see the South Front at the end of the dramatic driveway, you understand why people care so much about how the college looks.
“With a sharp focus on enabling the school to generate its own electricity while keeping the character of the buildings that generations of pupils have known, we had to show that the historic roofs could carry the extra weight, set the panels back behind parapets where possible, and plan where the cables and electrical equipment would go.
“The SolarEdge system selected includes equipment designed to shut down solar generation in an emergency. We also had to consider wildlife and where reflections from the panels might be visible.
“There’s a lovely connection with the college’s observatory. In the late 19th century, people here made grids to plot the positions of sunspots, and astronomers went on to use them around the world. I love the idea that the same school that helped astronomers map the surface of the Sun will now be using sunlight to power some of its day-to-day life.”
While the wider project also includes four electric vehicle charge points, the solar installation is expected to be commissioned in early 2027.
Paul Sharples, commercial director at Stonyhurst College, said, “Generating more of our own electricity will help us manage our energy costs and cut our carbon footprint. We needed a design that worked with roofs of very different ages and protected the buildings and collections in our care.
“Green Shield helped us work through the practical questions about roof loading, visibility and fire safety, and coordinated the surveys needed for planning. That work has helped us move ahead with a scheme that makes sense for the college and its buildings.”
For further information, go to www.greenshieldgroup.co.uk or www.stonyhurst.ac.uk.
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Nearly 2GW of PV on offer in Saudi Arabia’s latest renewables tender  PV Tech
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By Sept 27, solar output had already reached 90.2 terawatt-hours, surpassing the 90 terawatt-hours generated during the whole of 2025, according to the German Solar Association (BSW-Solar), based in Berlin.
An unusually high number of sunshine hours and the continued expansion of photovoltaic capacity contributed to the figures, the association said, citing a generation update released by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE on Saturday.
By contrast, 20 years ago, solar power generated just 2.2 terawatt-hours over an entire year.
The approaching record marks a milestone in Germany’s energy transition, said Carsten Kornig, managing director of BSW-Solar.
“Photovoltaics has developed from a niche technology into a cornerstone of our electricity supply,” Kornig said.
“Society as a whole benefits from this: through cheaper electricity, fewer energy imports and significantly lower climate-related damage.”
An electricity output of 100 terawatt-hours represents an enormous amount of energy. One terawatt-hour is equivalent to one billion kilowatt-hours.
For comparison, Hamburg consumed 10.7 terawatt-hours of electricity last year.
Households in Germany typically consume between 2,000 and 4,000 kilowatt-hours a year.
According to Germany’s Federal Statistical Office, 59.1% of all electricity generated domestically in the first half of 2026 came from renewable sources
Photovoltaics accounted for 17.8% of total domestic electricity generation, making it the country’s third-largest electricity source, behind wind power, the leading source, and coal.
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Fluorinated Monolayers Balance Passivation and Charge Transport in Perovskite Solar Cells
Fluorinated self-assembled monolayers can optimize hole transport layer stability while balancing interfacial defect passivation and charge transport in perovskite solar cells, according to quantum chemical calculations and numerical device simulations. Researchers evaluated donor-acceptor type self-assembled monolayers based on the 3-(7-(4-(bis(4-methoxyphenyl)amino)phenyl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazol-4-yl)-2-cyanoacrylic acid molecule, commonly designated as MPA-BT-CA, to identify how progressive fluorination modulates electronic and interface performance in photovoltaic architectures.
Using density functional theory and time-dependent density functional theory alongside one-dimensional SCAPS-1D device modeling, the team investigated the electronic, optoelectronic, non-linear optical, and thermodynamic behavior of the modified organic molecules. The theoretical findings showed that introducing fluorine substituents does not significantly alter the vibrational modes of the core MPA-BT-CA framework, but it establishes a defined physical trade-off between interfacial passivation capabilities and intrinsic charge transport dynamics.
The quantum calculations revealed that difluorination to produce 2FMPA-BT-CA alters the fundamental molecular orbital energy levels of the assembly. Specifically, the energy of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital decreased from -3.17 eV to -3.34 eV, while the highest occupied molecular orbital energy shifted from -5.24 eV down to -5.36 eV.
Alongside the orbital shifts, difluorination increased the molecular reorganization energy, which constrained the calculated intrinsic hole mobility of the 2FMPA-BT-CA monolayer to 4.10e-3 cm2 V-1 s-1. Concurrently, the modification maximized the non-linear optical response, yielding an 8.38 percent increase in molecular hyperpolarizability, alongside improved structural stability for the passivating layer.
Despite the observed decrease in hole transport parameters as fluorine content increased, the difluorinated variant exhibited pronounced interfacial properties. The 2FMPA-BT-CA molecule demonstrated a very high effective state density NV of 62.02e20 cm-3 and superior chemical reactivity indices, pointing to a strong physical capacity for passivating defect sites located at the perovskite interface.
When simulated within a complete perovskite solar cell architecture based on a MA0.5FA0.5PbI3 absorber layer using SCAPS-1D software, the device incorporating the 2FMPA-BT-CA monolayer achieved a power conversion efficiency of 20.25 percent.
In contrast to the difluorinated configuration, the monofluorinated FMPA-BT-CA molecule presented an alternative performance profile. The monofluorinated structure offered a superior compromise across optoelectronic metrics, displaying ultraviolet-visible absorption features, a dipole moment, and a refractive index that aligned more closely with the optical characteristics of the perovskite absorber material.
By using density functional theory and time-dependent density functional theory, the researchers evaluated the influence of fluorination across thermodynamic stability, vibrational modes, and optoelectronic indices.
The comparative data reveal an explicit divergence in design priorities between monofluorinated and difluorinated configurations. While progressive fluorination systematically degrades hole transport parameters, the difluorinated molecule compensates through an 8.38 percent gain in hyperpolarizability and superior chemical reactivity indices, suggesting enhanced capacity for passivating interfacial defects. Conversely, the monofluorinated structure resolves this trade-off by avoiding severe transport penalties and instead optimizing optical compatibility, displaying a closer refractive index match with the perovskite absorber alongside favorable dipole moment and ultraviolet-visible absorption characteristics.
Regarding scope and limitations, these findings reflect predictive quantum modeling and numerical simulations rather than empirically measured device prototypes. The 20.25 percent power conversion efficiency was calculated through one-dimensional SCAPS-1D simulation specifically for a MA0.5FA0.5PbI3 perovskite architecture, meaning the modeled performance serves as a theoretical benchmark.
Subject of Research: Computational modeling of fluorinated self-assembled monolayers for perovskite solar cells
Article Title: Fluorinated MPA-BT-CA self assembled monolayers for perovskite solar cells balancing interfacial passivation and charge transport investigated by DFT and SCAPS-1D simulation
Article References: Banka, N. C. T., Fomekong, L. T., Ngoupo, A. T., Abe, M. T. O., Ngue, P. G. D. K., Eone II, R. J., & Ndjaka, J. M. B. (2026). Fluorinated MPA-BT-CA self assembled monolayers for perovskite solar cells balancing interfacial passivation and charge transport investigated by DFT and SCAPS-1D simulation. Discover Applied Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-026-09790-9
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1007/s42452-026-09790-9
Keywords: perovskite solar cells, self-assembled monolayers, MPA-BT-CA, hole transport layers, density functional theory, SCAPS-1D, fluorination, charge transport, interfacial passivation, power conversion efficiency, molecular hyperpolarizability, frontier molecular orbitals, photovoltaic devices, reorganization energy, effective state density, optoelectronic properties
News Source: Denise Maddox. (November 13, 2026). Fluorinated Monolayers Balance Passivation and Charge Transport in Perovskite Solar Cells. Scienmag.
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After months of debate over the future of large-scale solar development in Dearborn County, a proposed zoning amendment remains unresolved after the county's planning commission voted to table the measure Thursday.
Most Ottawa-area ski hills have heavily invested in snow-making technology and can usually open before winter's first major snowfall.
Letters to the editor of the Ottawa Citizen for Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026.
VANCOUVER — In 2015, Kimberly Polman was unemployed and living in low-income housing in British Columbia when she made a life-changing decision — she would move to war-torn Syria and join her husband in the Islamic State terrorist organization.
Is a cure on the horizon for hepatitis B? A newly-approved drug offers hope, but wiping out this viral liver infection remains a challenge.
Thousands of post-secondary and university students held strikes across Quebec this week to denounce “austerity measures and growing precariousness” among students in the face of the rising cost of living and the provincewide housing crisis. Among other things, the coalition is calling for a reform of Quebec's student financial aid program.
Kimberly Prost, a Canadian judge at the International Criminal Court, was sanctioned by the Trump administration last August. Despite impacts including cancelled credit cards and frozen bank accounts, she says attempts to intimidate her and other court officials are 'futile.'
Montreal is planning a $35-million makeover for Dieppe Park, including replacing its crumbling riverfront retaining wall. But surfers, fishermen and visitors will have to wait until 2029 for work to begin, and even that tentative date depends on further planning and environmental approvals.
Kimberly Prost, a Canadian judge at the International Criminal Court, was sanctioned by the Trump administration last August. Despite impacts including cancelled credit cards and frozen bank accounts, she says attempts to intimidate her and other court officials are 'futile.'
In any other party, Mike Morrice would be acclaimed as leader. But the Green Party of Canada prides itself on doing things differently than the political mainstream.
The city of Brantford and the counties of Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk will this week swear in new mayors elected in Ontario's municipal election last month.
Of the 59 cities and regions in reports for every province reviewed by CBC News, none had a provincial minimum wage equal to the calculated living wage — the amount a full-time worker needs to meet their basic needs, manage unexpected expenses and participate meaningfully in their community.
Ontario's proposed Bill 140 would remove a municipal support requirement for certain large landfills, prompting concerns about groundwater and the time available for Caledon's incoming council to respond.
MANILA — Prime Minister Mark Carney says trade talks with the U.S. are making progress, but Ottawa won't accept a deal that doesn't allow for a viable auto sector.
The Federal Aviation Administration said airplane departures could resume Friday after the agency lifted a nationwide ground stop caused by communications problems. A limited number of domestic flights departed after the stop was lifted around 8:15 p.m. ET. But the effects could be felt for days, with officials saying the system is likely to be operating normally in time to handle the Thanksgiving travel rush. (AP video by Howie Rumberg)
The leaders of the United States, China and Russia plan to meet Thursday on the sidelines of next week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in China's tech hub of Shenzhen – an unprecedented gathering of the heads of the world's biggest nuclear powers.
MANILA — Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada will not waiver in its support of NATO allies, as European leaders express concern at Russia seeking a reordering of continental security in negotiations with Ukraine.
MANILA — Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Philippine counterpart concluded talks for a free-trade agreement in Manila, with the deal expected to be formally signed next year.
Prime Minister Mark Carney praised Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Junior for the work he’s done on the relationship between the two countries. (Nov.14, 2027)
On Friday, hundreds gathered at the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps to break a record for most number of people dressed as Rocky. The city organized events this month to celebrate the legacy of the beloved fictional boxer. (AP Video: Tassanee Vejpongsa)
Flights across the US have since been cleared to resume following the lifting of the nationwide ground stop, although delays are expected to continue. The pair said their boarding had already begun when the flight was cancelled. (AP video by: Ty ONeil)

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Oswal Pumps, an India-based manufacturer of solar pumps and modules, is to set up a 1.2 GW TOPCon solar cell plant through its subsidiary Oswal Solar Energy. Domestic cell makers had offered supply deals, but the company has said that their prices and deposits did not match its view of value. The plant is therefore to secure a steady supply of DCR cells, and it will meet about 75% of the cell needs of the subsidiary. Production is to begin by April 2028, and the module lines of that subsidiary are to take all of the output. The project is estimated at about INR 456 crore (~ $48.36 million), of which about INR 296 crore (~ $31.39 million) is to be borrowed. The remaining INR 159.85 crore (~ $16.95 million) is to come from unused IPO proceeds that were raised for other facilities. The shareholders must still approve that change, according to the company.
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Newport's water utility pitched floating solar panels on two Portsmouth reservoirs, saying shade could curb algae. The Planning Board took no vote and moved stormwater rules and a storage hearing to Dec. 10.
Newport's water utility and its solar partners want to float solar panels on Sisson Pond and a second reservoir in Portsmouth. They said the shade could reduce algae, warming and evaporation. Board members raised questions about views, noise and where the power would go. No vote was taken, and town staff said the approval path is still undecided. Separately, Portsmouth has no post-construction stormwater ordinance; a draft returns December 10 with possible changes. A self-storage hearing on West Main Road was also moved to that date.
Portsmouth, R.I. — The Portsmouth Planning Board on Thursday night heard an early pitch from the City of Newport Utilities Department to put floating solar panels on two reservoirs in Portsmouth. The board also pushed a proposed stormwater ordinance and a self-storage hearing on West Main Road to a December 10 meeting, according to the Portsmouth Planning Board's published meeting recording.
No vote was taken on the solar idea. It was a pre-application review, an informal early look that lets an applicant hear a board's questions before filing formal plans. One member summed it up during the discussion: "tonight we're not even giving an opinion."
The agenda listed the item as a conceptual review for Bluewave and Laketricity, applicants for the City of Newport, covering floating solar on Sisson Pond and a second Newport reservoir off Union Street.
Robert Schultz Jr. of the City of Newport Utilities Department said every reservoir that supplies water across five municipalities is impaired, meaning polluted. He said the city sees the project as more than a solar installation. Shading the water, he said, could mean fewer algae blooms, cooler water and less evaporation. "If this was just a solar project, we wouldn't be standing here," Schultz said.
He said the city sought qualifications and proposals two or three years ago and chose the current team. He said the two sites were picked partly because transmission lines run right there.
Nathalie Johnson-Birac, managing director of one of the floating solar companies, said the firm has built more than 350 projects globally and 45 in the United States. She said the company was formed 10 years ago and is headquartered in California.
The presenters said the floats are made of the same type of plastic used for water pipes, are anchored to the bank or bottom, and can be dismantled and removed. They said the arrangement with Newport would be a lease of at least 20 years, with possible extensions. Asked how much Newport would invest, the answer given was "Zero, zero," with a lease that would provide revenue depending on the project's final size.
Asked whether the problem justified the project, the presenters said Newport spends six figures every year treating for algae alone, "and it's probably not enough." Asked how much the panels would change that, the answer was "Don't know."
Board members pressed on several points. One member who said they live on Union Street asked how the panels would handle drought and low water. The presenters said the floats move up and down with the water level.
A member said residents near past solar farms have complained about lost views and property values. That member said the proposal would get more traction if the electricity stayed on Aquidneck Island. The presenters said how the power would be sold has not been finalized.
A member noted that neighbors of past projects complained about transformer hum. The presenters said noise would need to be studied and that the project is at a concept stage. Another member raised cattle and horses that drink from Sisson Pond. The presenters said neighbors have no rights to the water but the utility has allowed that use to keep good relationships.
The presenters said the system would connect directly to the utility, with no battery storage. A board member noted that the Town Council, as of its last meeting, was considering banning battery backup storage in town. Members also asked about ice, snow, birds and maintenance. The presenters said crews would inspect the panels twice a year, and Newport water staff visit each reservoir at least weekly.
On bankruptcy risk, the presenters said there would likely be two or three bonds or similar guarantees, including for removal.
A town official said the Planning Department still has to work with Newport to figure out the approval process. Options discussed included a special use permit, Planning Board approval, or treating it as a utility use. The official said "this is not a land use that's identified in our zoning at all" and that legal help would be needed.
No one online raised a hand to comment. Town Planner Lea Hitchen asked anyone with questions to contact her by phone or email. She said she would route them to the companies or to Schultz. The presenters said the utility would post the presentation and documents on its website.
The board was scheduled to give the Town Council an advisory recommendation on a draft post-construction stormwater ordinance, Chapter 337. Those rules govern drainage systems that stay in place after a project is built. Instead, the board voted to continue the item to the December 10 meeting, by voice vote, after a motion seconded by member Frank Rego.
A town official said Portsmouth currently has no post-construction stormwater ordinance at all. The official called it "another tool in our toolbox."
A consultant from Weston & Sampson walked the board through the draft. The consultant said it would apply to all development and redevelopment, with exemptions for small projects such as additions and minor landscaping and for certain public works jobs. Non-exempt projects would need Planning Board approval. Applicants would submit a stormwater plan prepared by a licensed professional engineer.
The draft emphasizes low-impact development, which uses small, site-level features to reduce runoff. It also emphasizes stricter treatment near polluted waters. The consultant said those sections were strengthened because the state Department of Environmental Management has told other towns to make their ordinances more specific on those points.
Under the draft, property owners would maintain their stormwater systems, such as ponds or rain gardens, under recorded agreements that pass to new owners. The town would have inspection authority and could issue daily penalties. If an owner does not fix a problem, the consultant said, the town could make repairs and recover the cost, including through a lien collected when a property is sold.
Several ideas came up during discussion. One was requiring Municipal Court approval before the town makes non-emergency repairs, so owners could dispute whether work is needed. The consultant called that reasonable and suggested letting the town choose. Another was requiring maintenance plans to be recorded before a property is sold or occupied. Members also raised homeowners associations that dissolve or lose track of who maintains a system.
The consultant said inspections would follow each owner's maintenance plan, with records kept by the owner and available to the town. The consultant described the ordinance as "set up to be a backend tool," adding that a more proactive approach would cost staff time and carry liability. Asked about state housing laws, the consultant said there should be no conflict because the ordinance sits outside zoning.
The agenda listed a public hearing on Highland Development Ventures LLC's preliminary plan for five self-storage structures on West Main Road. The company's attorney asked for a continuance. The attorney said a neighbor meeting the prior Thursday produced suggestions that may lead to changes in landscaping and siding.
A member noted the board does not typically meet in December. The board then voted by voice vote to continue the hearing to a December 10 meeting.
Hitchen reported that she approved an administrative subdivision on Union Street at the site of a former landscaping business. She said a new owner is reconfiguring lot lines to add another house after receiving Zoning Board approval. The board also approved the October 7 minutes by voice vote.
The stormwater ordinance and the West Main Road self-storage hearing return at the board's Thursday, December 10 meeting. Questions about the floating solar proposal can go to Hitchen at the Planning Department.
This story was sourced from the complete transcript of the meeting and carefully summarized with an LLM. While we make every effort to ensure accuracy, the possibility of transcription errors could lead to inaccuracies. How we report meeting stories →
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Acwa expects the two solar plants, representing approximately $1.78bn in combined investment, to begin operating in 2029.
Acwa Power has announced that eight international lenders have agreed to a letter of support to finance its Sivas and Taşeli solar photovoltaic (PV) independent power producer (IPP) projects in Türkiye.
The agreement was formalised during COP31 in Antalya.
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With a proposed capacity of 1GW each, the two plants represent the initial 2GW phase of a broader 5GW renewable energy intergovernmental agreement between Saudi Arabia and Türkiye.
The Sivas site is located in Sivas Province, about 500km east of Ankara, and Taşeli is situated in Karaman Province, around 400km south of the capital.
Acwa estimates that the total investment for both sites will be approximately €1.6bn ($1.78bn) and aims to begin operations in 2029.
The eight lenders backing the Sivas and Taşeli projects include the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), DEG–Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG), and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
The group also consists of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), Société Générale, and Standard Chartered.
By signing the letter of support, these institutions have demonstrated their intention to support the financing arrangements for both facilities.
Once operational, the Sivas and Taşeli facilities are projected to supply electricity to more than 1.3 million households and cut CO₂ emissions by roughly 1.65mt annually.
Acwa CEO Samir Serhan said: “Large-scale renewable energy projects can be built only when governments, offtakers, and lenders have agreed on how they will be financed and delivered.
“We are grateful to our eight lending partners for the confidence they have shown in Sivas and Taşeli, and to the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and EÜAŞ for their continued support.
“These are the first two plants that we will build under the Intergovernmental Agreement between Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, and we look forward to working with all of our partners to complete them safely and on schedule, so that they can begin supplying clean electricity to households across Türkiye from 2029.”
In February 2026, Acwa signed agreements with the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources to develop, finance, build, commission and operate the two plants.
The company has also reached terms for the sale of generated power to Elektrik Üretim Anonim Şirketi (EÜAŞ).
The 5GW programme comes after Acwa Power’s initial involvement in Türkiye through the Kırıkkale IPP, commissioned in 2017.
According to Acwa, the new plants are intended to support Türkiye’s plans for increased energy independence by boosting domestically generated renewable electricity and decreasing reliance on imported energy sources.
Last month, EIG and Acwa agreed to establish Plenum Power, a new partnership with an initial equity commitment of approximately $4bn aimed at investment opportunities in the US power sector.
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Energies Media
Retrofitting a hydropower dam with solar panels has the potential to power thousands of households in Portugal.
The thing is, starting a new renewable energy plant from scratch requires a massive amount of effort.
The planning, construction, and obtaining of permits can pose severe bottlenecks.
This is why EDP decided to launch Portugal’s first onshore hydro-solar hybrid project at the Pracana dam.
Can upgrading historic hydropower dams with solar accelerate the future of European clean energy?
The Pracana dam is a historic hydroelectric facility located in central Portugal along the Ocreza River.
Its construction began in 1947, and by 1951 the dam was fully operational.
For the past 70 years, it has been supplying the region with 41 MW of hydroelectrical power.
Today, the historic facility combines its legacy infrastructure with a modern solar installation. 
EDP, a global energy giant, has been pioneering the hybridization of renewable energy facilities for a number of years now.
This time, they turned their attention to the Pracana dam.
The company officially added a new 48-MW solar installation to supply energy to the regional power grid in January 2026,
The combined output of the hydro and solar facilities marks Portugal’s first onshore hydro-solar hybrid installation.
Combined, the integrated system has a total output of 89 MW capacity.
Bureaucracy is the biggest bottleneck when starting a renewable energy development from scratch.
Power grids are so congested in Europe that applying for a new grid connection can often take years.
Since Pracana was already active, it had an established grid connection point ready to use.
This allowed the new solar plant to plug directly into existing infrastructure without waiting for new approvals.
In addition, retrofitting legacy renewable infrastructure does not just bypass red tape alone.
It also strengthens the existing facility without impacting the visual and environmental resources negatively.
The Pracana facility went from 41 MW to 89 MW total capacity and now generates roughly 140 GWh of clean energy annually.
The station supplies electricity to about 51,800 local households, while cutting carbon emissions by 35,000 tonnes per year.
The expediency of the hybridization model cannot be overstated.
EDP began the construction of the new solar plant in January 2025.
Within a year, they had already launched the 90,000-panel solar installation on site.
More than 30,000 hours of work have been recorded without accidents.
At peak, the facility had no more than 150 workers involved during the construction phase.
Plus, the added installation is estimated to produce 87 GWh of solar energy annually.
EDP plugged the new solar panels into the dam’s established electrical connection.
By doing so, they bypassed the lengthy bureaucratic queues and reduced their overall operational and construction costs.
In turn, the historic Pracana dam has transformed into a highly efficient renewable energy hub that powers thousands of households.
“Pracana is another milestone in our strategy,” said Pedro Vasconcelos of EDP.
As head of the group’s business in the Iberian Peninsula, Pedro went on to say that it is EDP’s first project of this kind globally.
He also emphasized how the project proves that innovation and efficiency can go hand in hand.
By modernising a hydroelectric facility with solar panels, the project is powering thousands more people in Portugal.
Instead of waiting years for a brand-new transmission line, the hybrid model maximizes the capacity of the current wires.
It turned an old grid connection into a shared highway for both sun and water power.
Hybridizing historic hydro stations with solar power paves the way to accelerate the future of European clean energy.

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India has ramped up its wind and solar energy. It now needs to expand places to store it  AP News
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India pivots to German solar technology after China proposed curbs  NewsBytes
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Solar Power Proves Most Cost-Effective for Water Pumping in Nigeria
Solar photovoltaic technology has emerged as the most cost-effective renewable energy option for powering water pumping systems across six representative locations in Nigeria, according to a modeling and simulation study published in Energy & Environment Nexus. The investigation, led by corresponding author Richard Oladayo Olarewaju, evaluated the economic and technical performance of solar, wind, and biomass energy systems to address persistent water access challenges in communities where electricity infrastructure is limited or expensive.
Access to reliable water remains a major challenge across many parts of Nigeria, where water pumping systems frequently depend on conventional energy sources that increase operating costs and environmental concerns. As countries seek cleaner and more affordable alternatives, identifying the most suitable renewable energy technology has become increasingly important. Olarewaju noted that reliable access to water is essential for public health, agriculture, and sustainable development, emphasizing that renewable energy technologies should be selected based on local environmental conditions and economic performance rather than assuming that one solution works everywhere.
To investigate the potential of renewable-powered water pumping, the research team analyzed and compared ten solar photovoltaic modules, nine wind turbines, and biomass-based electricity generation systems. The analysis covered six locations representing Nigeria’s major geopolitical regions: Ibadan, Abakaliki, Benin, Abuja, Bauchi, and Dutse. The researchers evaluated energy production efficiency and electricity generation costs through mathematical modeling and simulation using 11 years of solar radiation and wind speed data recorded from 2014 to 2024.
The study revealed substantial cost differences among the evaluated technologies, with solar power consistently achieving the lowest estimated electricity generation cost across all six study sites. Solar electricity costs ranged from $0.21 to $0.40 per kilowatt-hour, compared with $0.42 to $1.11 per kilowatt-hour for biomass systems. Wind energy was substantially more expensive, with estimated generation costs ranging from $1.84 to $8.58 per kilowatt-hour, showing that wind power could not match solar energy’s economic competitiveness for the water pumping applications considered.
The researchers also evaluated specific equipment performance across the test locations. Among the solar technologies examined, a Panasonic photovoltaic module delivered the highest capacity factor at every study site, reaching a peak of 19.09% in Dutse. For wind energy, the DW 54 EWT turbine demonstrated the strongest overall performance among the evaluated turbine models, though even its higher output remained economically uncompetitive compared to the solar photovoltaic options.
Beyond energy cost comparisons, the researchers examined wind shear, which describes how wind speed changes with height above the ground. By analyzing 37 locations across Nigeria, the team identified wind shear exponent values ranging from 0.10 in Calabar to 0.48 in Asaba. The authors noted that these findings could assist engineers in estimating wind speeds at different turbine heights, thereby improving equipment selection and project planning for future wind installations.
The 11-year dataset also demonstrated significant seasonal patterns across the country. Solar radiation levels and wind speeds were generally lower during Nigeria’s rainy season and higher during the dry season, emphasizing the necessity of accounting for seasonal variations when designing renewable energy infrastructure.
The study’s findings suggest that solar photovoltaic systems deserve priority consideration for renewable-powered water pumping in the locations studied, while biomass and wind technologies may remain relevant under different local conditions. Olarewaju stated that the results provide a practical foundation for policymakers, engineers, and energy investors to make informed decisions about renewable water infrastructure, moving communities toward more sustainable and affordable water supply systems while reducing dependence on conventional fuels.
The broader significance of the investigation lies in establishing a structured framework that connects renewable energy performance directly to water infrastructure demands.
The study further emphasizes that renewable energy implementation cannot rely on uniform assumptions across diverse territories. Conducted by Olarewaju alongside co-investigators Ayodeji Samson Olatunji Ogunjuyigbe, Temitope Raphael Ayodele, Samson Oladayo Ayanlade, Ignatius Kema Okakwu, and Olusola Kunle Akinde, the research demonstrates why technology selection must be anchored to local environmental conditions and verified economic performance.
Published in Energy & Environment Nexus, an open-access journal focused on the relationships between energy systems and environmental sustainability, including renewable energy and carbon mitigation, the research illustrates how combining multi-year observations with simulation clarifies the viability of clean energy options.
Subject of Research: Cost-effectiveness of renewable energy technologies for water pumping in Nigeria
Article Title: Solar power emerges as the most cost-effective renewable energy source for water pumping in Nigeria
Article References: Solar power emerges as the most cost-effective renewable energy source for water pumping in Nigeria. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: Not provided
Keywords: solar photovoltaic technology, water pumping systems, renewable energy economics, biomass electricity generation, wind energy costs, wind shear exponent, capacity factor, Panasonic photovoltaic module, DW 54 EWT turbine, Ibadan, Abakaliki, Benin, Abuja, Bauchi, Dutse, Calabar, Asaba, Energy & Environment Nexus
News Source: Faith Mcneil. (November 13, 2026). Solar Power Proves Most Cost-Effective for Water Pumping in Nigeria. Scienmag.
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The Swiss Federal Council, Switzerland’s federal executive authority, recommended rejecting the Solar Initiative without a counterproposal on 11 November 2026. Submitted on 10 December 2025, the initiative proposed mandatory solar installations on suitable buildings, walls, parking areas and other structures, with specific exemptions. The government cited existing photovoltaic expansion targets and financial support measures. It argued that compulsory installations would interfere with property rights and shift energy policy away from incentives. The Council also raised concerns about summer electricity surpluses, additional grid interventions and cantonal responsibilities. It questioned whether sufficient skilled workers would be available for such extensive photovoltaic deployment.
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© 2025 THE COOL DOWN COMPANY. All Rights Reserved. Do not sell or share my personal information. Reach us at hello@thecooldown.com.
Participants do not have to buy the bill-cutting equipment upfront.
Photo Credit: iStock
A free home battery could help households save nearly £500 a year on electricity bills, even without solar panels.
According to E.ON Next, customers taking part in its Battery Boost program are seeing those savings without changing their daily electricity use.
E.ON Next is investing £4 million to provide 1,000 additional home batteries through an expansion involving three electricity network operators. Households at risk of fuel poverty are a particular focus, and participants do not have to buy the bill-cutting equipment upfront.
The company is continuing its work with Northern Powergrid, with UK Power Networks and SP Electricity North West joining as new partners. Households in Greater Manchester, Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and the east and northeast of England are covered by the expansion.
Battery Boost batteries supply homes during periods of high electricity demand and prices, using power stored during cheaper, off-peak hours. Earlier battery projects produced bill savings from installation day onward in every type of housing, the energy supplier said.
E.ON Next’s research found that 73% of people were unaware that batteries can power homes without solar panels. It also found that 59% favored managing energy spending over the long term rather than receiving short-term help, a preference the company is seeking to address through Battery Boost, which was started in June 2025.
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The network partnerships also aim to manage the extra electricity demand created by the electrification of Britain’s homes, transport, and industry.
By moving household electricity use away from the busiest periods, batteries can ease pressure on local networks while improving how renewable electricity is used, according to E.ON Next.
Balancing electricity supply and demand increasingly requires generators, network operators, suppliers, and consumers to coordinate their work.
E.ON Next and its network partners are choosing battery locations to maximize the combined benefits for households and the grid.
UK Power Networks included Battery Boost in a flexibility services procurement covering several future years, the company said. That gives the battery program a role in planning how the network will accommodate rising electricity demand.
The modeling indicated potential annual savings of roughly £150 million for about 615,000 households and a reduction in most of a possible 3.74-gigawatt grid constraint by 2035. Households can find more information or register through E.ON Next’s Battery Boost page.
Chris Norbury, chief executive of E.ON UK, said shifting electricity use can benefit the wider network.
“Most people do not know a home battery works without solar panels. For the households in Battery Boost, it works without them paying a penny for it: the battery is provided free, fills up overnight when electricity is cheap and runs the home when it is not, and the previous customers are nearly £500 a year better off as a result. That is what making new energy work for everyone means in practice — the benefit reaching those who need it most.
“The network operators matter because this cuts both ways. Every unit of electricity shifted off the evening peak is a unit the local grid does not have to be reinforced to carry. Working with three operators lets us put batteries where they do the most good for the household and the network at the same time, and build the case for doing this at real scale.”
As Battery Boost shows, home batteries can help cut electricity bills without solar panels.
• A U.K. homeowner learned batteries without solar panels could repay costs within four to five years.
• A U.K. homeowner considering battery-only storage for savings received a warning about G98/G99 requirements.
• After ruling out solar, a U.K. homeowner considered a battery-only setup and asked about moving it.
• U.K. electricity tariff users discussed home batteries without EVs, while flagging potentially costly exit fees.
• Octopus Energy users said small battery exports can earn rewards without reducing peak consumption.
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© 2025 THE COOL DOWN COMPANY. All Rights Reserved. Do not sell or share my personal information. Reach us at hello@thecooldown.com.

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Lee Group’s Industrial Park Targets 15,000 Jobs and 29 Factories in Ogun
FG, MIT to Support Nigerian Innovators Through Six-Month Acceleration Programme
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FG Skills Portal Still Open: Nigerians Can Apply for Free Vocational Training and ₦30,000 Monthly Stipend
Call For Applications: 3MTT Cohort 5 Delivery Partner Program 2026 for Nigerian Training Organizations
Call For Applications: Nigeria Sustainability Essay Competition 2026 for Secondary School Students (Win Up to ₦1 Million )
Call For Applications: Solar Power Nigeria National Youth Competition 2026 (Up To ₦390,000 Grant)
Anambra 1Youth2Skills Phase 3: Apply for Free Skills Training, Startup Funding and Mentorship Before November 16
Lee Group’s Industrial Park Targets 15,000 Jobs and 29 Factories in Ogun
FG, MIT to Support Nigerian Innovators Through Six-Month Acceleration Programme
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FG Targets 19% Local Automotive Component Production: How Nigerian MSMEs Could Benefit
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Nigeria Could Spend 72% of Government Revenue on Debt by 2030: What It Means for the Economy, Businesses and MSMEs
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FG Approves ₦70,000 Monthly Transport Support for Workers: Who Qualifies and When Will Payments Begin?
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Applications are now open for the Solar Power Nigeria National Youth Competition 2026, offering young Nigerians the opportunity to receive a ₦390,000 project grant, mentorship and fellowship opportunities to develop innovative solutions that improve electricity access in their communities.
The competition is organised by the Solar Power Nigeria Coalition, led by the Global Initiative for Food Security and Ecosystem Preservation (GIFSEP), in partnership with the Network of Youth for Sustainable Initiative (NGYouthSDGs).
The initiative seeks to empower young Nigerians between the ages of 18 and 35 to develop practical community-based projects and advocacy campaigns that promote clean energy adoption and improve electricity access across Nigeria.

Who Can Apply?

The competition is open to young Nigerians who meet the following requirements:

• Be between 18 and 35 years old.
• Be a Nigerian residing in any state of the country.
• Have an innovative idea addressing electricity access challenges in their community.
• Be willing to implement a three-month advocacy campaign or community-based project.

Applicants are not required to have an engineering or energy-related background.

Competition Focus Areas

Interested applicants can submit proposals under either of the following categories:

1. Advocacy Campaign: Developing campaigns that engage policymakers, communities and the public to promote improved electricity access and clean energy adoption.
2. Practical Community Solutions: Proposing community-based interventions demonstrating how solar energy can improve education, healthcare, entrepreneurship and local economic development.

Benefits and Prizes

Seven successful applicants will be selected as Solar Power Nigeria Fellows and receive:

• ₦390,000 project grant to implement a three-month project.
• Expert mentorship and technical guidance.
• Access to clean energy partners and industry stakeholders.
• Media exposure and visibility.
• Opportunities to engage with policymakers.
• Participation in the Solar Power Nigeria Fellowship.

Additionally, two outstanding Fellows will have the opportunity to nominate a public primary school or public health facility in their communities to receive a complete solar photovoltaic (PV) system.

Selection Process

Applications will be assessed by a five-member Competition Review Panel.
Shortlisted applicants will be invited to pitch their proposed projects, after which seven successful Fellows will be selected.
The announcement of selected Fellows is expected in late December 2026.

How to Apply

Interested and eligible young Nigerians should follow these steps:

1. Visit the official Solar Power Nigeria competition application portal.
2. Review the eligibility requirements and competition guidelines.
3. Develop a practical idea or advocacy campaign addressing electricity access challenges.
4. Complete the application form with the required personal and project information.
5. Submit the application before the deadline.

Application Deadline: 24 November 2026.
Apply Here: https://bit.ly/SPNCompetition

Alternative Application Link: https://bit.ly/SPNApply
Official Information: https://nigerianyouthsdgs.org/got-a-solar-idea-the-solar-power-nigeria-youth-competition-is-open/

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Lee Group has commenced the development of its first industrial park along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, with the project expected to accommodate 29 factories and create up to 15,000 jobs.
The groundbreaking ceremony was held on Thursday, November 12, 2026, with Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, and the Chairman of Lee Group, Mr Sheau Fung Lee, among those in attendance.
The industrial park is expected to strengthen manufacturing activities and expand industrial capacity in Ogun State, while creating employment opportunities through the factories planned for the facility.
The development could also create opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses involved in manufacturing, logistics, equipment supply, raw materials and other services that support industrial operations.
The planned 29 factories could generate demand for local suppliers and service providers as production activities develop. However, the extent of opportunities available to MSMEs will depend on the types of businesses established in the park and their supply-chain requirements.

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The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) has partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) MIT Solve initiative to support 10 Nigerian innovators through a six-month acceleration programme aimed at improving the commercial viability of their inventions.
The selected innovators will emerge from the DELTA-2 and Developing Engineering Leaders Through Her (DELT-Her) programmes, initiatives designed to strengthen Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem and promote homegrown technologies.
The programme will be implemented in collaboration with the Presidential Implementation Committee on Technology Transfer (PICTT) and will provide technical support, mentorship and access to global networks to help participants refine their business models and take their innovations to market.
The Chairman of PICTT, Dr Dahiru Mohammed, disclosed this on Thursday during a media briefing at the committee’s office in Abuja.
He said 20 innovators from the two programmes would pitch their solutions before a panel of judges, from which 10 would be selected for the six-month acceleration programme with MIT Solve in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

Mohammed explained that the selected participants would undergo an assessment to identify their individual and collective needs, allowing MIT Solve to develop tailored support for them.
He added that the intervention would help participants strengthen their business models, improve their pitching skills and develop the entrepreneurial leadership required to grow their ventures.
The programme will also organise cohort engagements involving industry associations, academic institutions and other stakeholders to encourage partnerships and improve the visibility of Nigerian innovations.
Mohammed described the partnership as an opportunity for local innovators to access international expertise and networks with government backing.
He explained that DELTA-2 focuses on helping entrepreneurs access global funding and partnerships to develop their innovations and undertake research, development and innovation activities that could produce commercially viable solutions for Nigeria’s industrial development.

DELT-Her, on the other hand, focuses on female engineers across Nigeria, providing opportunities for them to showcase their research and innovations and bring their solutions to market.

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The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has set aside $2bn to finance bankable projects across African sub-national governments, including Cross River State, with agriculture and tourism among the sectors targeted for investment.
The funding could create opportunities for Nigerian small businesses if state governments develop viable projects that support local industries, agricultural processing and other productive sectors.
The bank’s Director of Trade Facilitation and Investment Promotion, Dr Gainmore Zanamwe, disclosed this in Calabar during a media briefing ahead of the 6th African Sub-Sovereign Governments Network (AfSNET) Investment Conference, which held from November 12 to 14.
Zanamwe said the facility was available to support viable projects, dismissing concerns that a lack of capital was the major obstacle to development across African states.
He explained that access to the funding would depend on the quality and bankability of proposed projects rather than simply identifying development needs and approaching investors for money.

According to him, state governments must establish clear economic development visions, identify priority sectors and prepare projects that align with their investment objectives.
He identified agriculture and tourism as potential areas for investment, while urging governments to focus on two or three priority sectors where they could develop competitive projects.
Zanamwe said state governments could access capital by developing projects that meet the financing requirements of institutions such as Afreximbank or preparing investment proposals capable of attracting private investors.
He added that governors and other state representatives would have opportunities to present their investment proposals during conference sessions.
The Afreximbank official also disclosed that the bank’s investment promotion initiative had facilitated opportunities valued at more than $3bn over the past five years, trained over 2,000 people and worked with 21 African countries.

The proposed financing could benefit MSMEs through investment projects developed by state governments, particularly in agriculture and tourism. If states secure funding for viable agricultural projects, small businesses involved in farming, food processing, storage, packaging and distribution could benefit from improved production and processing infrastructure.
For agricultural MSMEs, investments in processing facilities could create opportunities to supply raw materials, provide supporting services and participate in more organised value chains. This could also help businesses add value to locally produced commodities and improve their capacity to serve larger markets.
Tourism-related projects could similarly create opportunities for small businesses in hospitality, transportation, food services, entertainment and other activities connected to the tourism value chain.
However, the $2bn facility is intended to finance bankable projects presented by sub-national governments. It is not a direct grant or loan scheme for individual MSMEs. Businesses would benefit indirectly where government-led projects create opportunities for suppliers, service providers and other private sector participants.
Speaking on behalf of Governor Bassey Otu, the state’s Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Pastor Ekpenyong Cobham, said Cross River was seeking to use its agricultural potential to revive the state’s economy.

He said the government was working to improve the processing of agricultural products to meet international standards and attract investment into the sector.
Cobham added that the state was prepared to collaborate with investors to develop an integrated system that would improve the production, processing and marketing of its agricultural commodities.
The conference brought together African sub-national governments, development finance institutions, investors and private sector operators to explore investment opportunities and financing partnerships.

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“The best and cheapest way to shield Australians from these shocks is to help them go electric.”
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Many Australian renters are missing out on the thousands of dollars that households can save by switching to electric appliances and vehicles. 
Rewiring Australia’s 2026 Home Energy Savings report uncovered that Australians are accelerating their electrification, but the momentum is uneven. As the New England Times noted, the pattern relates to incentives.
Tenants get the bill savings when landlords install solar panels or replace appliances, leaving property owners with little financial incentive to make those changes.
More than 40% of owner-occupiers have solar, but uptake is only about 10% among renters, the report found.
The report said households can save an average of 4,300 Australian dollars ($2,947) a year after upgrade costs by switching to electric appliances and cars and adding rooftop solar and a battery. Replacing gas appliances and gasoline-powered cars alone delivers average net annual savings of 3,000 Australian dollars ($2,056).
Tenants, retirees, and homeowners on low incomes still face barriers to the benefits of electrification despite falling equipment prices, according to the New England Times.
Residential solar can lower electricity costs, and in the United States, $0-upfront solar leases may offer savings of hundreds of dollars. EasyHome offers a free explorer tool to estimate potential savings and find vetted local installers.
Rewiring Australia said full electrification can save an apartment household as much as 1,800 Australian dollars ($1,234) a year. Around 1.6 million of Australia’s nearly 3 million renting families live in apartments, the company’s CEO Francis Vierboom told the New England Times.
With energy prices through the roof, there’s never been a better time to go solar — and EasyHome can help you find the best prices from the best installers in your area.
EasyHome takes the guesswork and headaches out of energy upgrades by showing you estimated savings from a network of vetted local partners. To get started, just enter your ZIP and share a few details about your home — seeing your estimate is really that easy.
A solar-equipped home that already runs entirely on electricity can reduce its annual energy costs by 800 Australian dollars ($548) to 1,200 Australian dollars ($815) by adding a 15-kilowatt-hour battery. Home batteries are becoming more common, with installations averaging 1,100 a day since July 1, 2025, according to the publication.
The report added that BYD’s Atto 1 and Dolphin offer 1,800 Australian dollars in annual savings from the start, with upfront prices matching gasoline-powered small cars. Across a group of 13 electric vehicle models, prices have fallen by roughly 24,000 Australian dollars ($16,448) since 2020. Buyers have gained more lower-cost options from the surging used EV market, too.
Victoria has developed a plan to move away from gas, while the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales offer low- or no-interest loans for home upgrades, Vierboom relayed to the New England Times.
To help more households afford the initial costs, Rewiring Australia recommended government-backed flexible financing. The report also called for a nationwide plan to phase out gas networks. Vierboom advocated that special care applies to renters.
“Ensuring appliances in rentals are upgraded to electric over time will unlock savings for these millions of renters — and it only gets better if we also get plug-in solar and batteries on Australian shelves,” he told the publication.
Electrification can protect renters and homeowners alike from high fuel prices.
“The best and cheapest way to shield Australians from these shocks is to help them go electric,” Vierboom concluded.
For households with control over installation decisions, EasyHome also offers battery-storage exploration options and can help users curate competitive bids from local solar installers. Pairing solar with suitable battery storage can reduce electricity costs and provide backup power during outages.
Making solar and batteries available to more renters could help them lower their energy bills. 
• Western Australia plans to change plug-in solar rules so systems can legally be connected.
• In the U.K., solar kits with batteries promise renters savings if lawmakers allow them.
• In Texas, a renter considering backyard solar received advice to start with portable equipment.
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Voltage Monitoring Framework Detects and Forecasts Solar Panel Shading in Real Time
Solar energy systems have rapidly expanded across global electrical grids over the past decade, driven by climate mitigation initiatives, decentralized generation, and notable manufacturing cost reductions. Industry projections suggest solar photovoltaic installations are positioned to reach 2632 gigawatts of worldwide capacity by 2030, sustained by an average annual growth rate of roughly 13 percent. However, the operational reliability and overall energy yield of photovoltaic arrays remain persistently vulnerable to partial shading conditions. When atmospheric factors such as shifting cloud cover and haze, or localized obstructions like surrounding architectural structures, growing foliage, dust accumulation, and bird droppings, block incoming solar irradiance from reaching individual sections of an array, severe electrical mismatches arise. Because individual photovoltaic modules within a string are typically wired in series, current passing through every module must remain uniform, forcing any partially shaded module to behave as an electrical resistive load. This mismatch distorts standard current-voltage and power-voltage output curves, creating multiple local maximum power points, impairing power extraction, and generating intense localized hotspots that can permanently degrade module encapsulants or pose fire hazards.
Addressing the hazards and harvesting losses caused by non-uniform illumination has conventionally relied on passive protective hardware, such as bypass diodes, or post-hoc diagnostic routines that only flag disturbances after power output drops significantly. Most existing artificial intelligence diagnostic frameworks require external optical cameras, satellite feeds, or specialized meteorological stations, which introduce prohibitive installation costs and complex maintenance overheads that prevent deployment in distributed or resource-constrained environments. Furthermore, purely reactive detection tools cannot anticipate impending shading events or distinguish transient cloud cover from permanent physical obstructions in advance. To resolve these operational limitations, researchers led by M. A. Habibu have engineered a lightweight, three-stage diagnostic and forecasting architecture that relies exclusively on voltage time-series data gathered from low-cost Internet of Things sensors. Evaluated experimentally on a multi-panel photovoltaic array, the system combines edge-level rule-based anomaly detection, deep temporal pattern classification, and recurrent predictive learning to deliver a continuous, proactive shading management workflow without requiring optical equipment or auxiliary meteorological hardware.
Module specifications established under standard test conditions of 1000 watts per square meter irradiance, air mass 1.5, and a 25-degree Celsius cell temperature served as the baseline electrical benchmark. To assess array performance under non-uniform illumination, researchers simulated four distinct operational scenarios designated SP0 through SP3, comparing uniform unshaded baselines against configurations where single modules, two modules within the same series string, or three modules situated across separate strings experienced shading factors ranging from zero to 100 percent under irradiance levels of 1000 and 700 watts per square meter.
Complementing the simulated baseline, physical experimental testing was conducted under clear atmospheric conditions with ambient temperatures hovering around 39 degrees Celsius and incident solar radiation spanning 600 to 900 watts per square meter. The research team applied calibrated shading factors to physical photovoltaic modules using layers of dark vinyl polyester fabric, reliably reproducing shading conditions that extended from isolated single-cell occlusions to complete multi-cell coverage. The embedded detection routines running on the ESP32 require between 1.4 and 1.5 megabytes of flash memory alongside 270 to 300 kilobytes of static random-access memory, fitting comfortably inside the chip’s native 4-megabyte flash and 520-kilobyte memory limits. Operating with a two-second sampling interval, the edge microcontroller executes data aggregation, preliminary noise filtering, and communication management, transmitting synchronized data packets over local Wi-Fi channels to an Internet of Things cloud platform.
The initial stage of the operational pipeline executes a rule-based detection algorithm directly on the edge microcontroller to verify the presence of partial shading without incurring high computational penalties. Operating with a linear time complexity of O(n) relative to consecutive voltage measurements within a sliding observation window, the edge routine processes each discrete sample in just two to eight microseconds. The detection mechanism continuously tracks incremental voltage differences between successive time steps, verifying both the magnitude of voltage decreases and the directional polarity consistency of consecutive variations. By setting a minimum voltage decrease threshold of 0.5 volts, a polarity consistency count of N equals three consecutive measurements, and a duration threshold of 15 seconds, the system successfully filters out oscillatory voltage noise caused by ambient temperature drifts or benign atmospheric variations. This polarity check achieved an optimal operating balance at an aggregate error rate of 1.54 percent, while the 15-second duration threshold incorporates a 2.8-second safety margin above observed transient electrical disturbances. Across empirical evaluations, this rule-based stage demonstrated 99.05 percent overall detection accuracy, maintaining stable identification across twenty percent parametric threshold variations.
Once the edge microcontroller confirms a genuine partial shading event, the diagnostic framework initiates its second operational phase: automated shading pattern classification powered by deep temporal neural network modeling. The classification architecture uses stacked Long Short-Term Memory networks specifically tuned to interpret the temporal settling behavior of voltage signals following the onset of illumination drops. Shading events whose voltage signals stabilize within zero to 15 seconds are categorized as dynamic shading patterns, representing fast-moving cloud formations or transient atmospheric shifts. Conversely, voltage signatures requiring more than 15 seconds to reach steady-state stabilization are classified as static shading patterns, reflecting persistent obstructions such as structural shadows, tree growth, or surface dust and particulate buildup. Because the classifier triggers only upon confirmed shading occurrences rather than analyzing uninterrupted streams, its computational complexity of O(T multiplied by H squared) imposes minimal processing overhead on the host platform. Operating with a maximum static event detection latency of approximately 17 seconds, the Long Short-Term Memory classifier attained an empirical classification precision of 95.51 percent across dynamic and static shading categories.
The third functional stage extends system capabilities beyond diagnosis by introducing short-term predictive forecasting of shading intensity over a ten-second forward horizon. While conventional solar management systems remain limited to reacting to ongoing performance drops, the predictive Long Short-Term Memory model captures subtle pre-shading voltage fluctuations to anticipate impending power drops before severe harvesting degradation materializes. Cloud-based predictive inference operates over sliding temporal windows with a processing runtime of eight to 15 milliseconds, readily satisfying sub-second latency requirements for real-time supervisory control. To optimize model architecture, researchers implemented a random-search hyperparameter exploration strategy across one to three stacked layers, layer widths ranging between 16 and 128 hidden units, learning rates from 0.0001 to 0.01, dropout rates between zero and 0.5, sequence lengths spanning five to 30 time steps, and batch sizes from 16 to 128 samples. The model was trained using the Adam optimization algorithm at a 0.001 learning rate, utilizing sigmoid activation functions within memory gates, hyperbolic tangent functions for cell candidate computations, and softmax activations for discrete categorical outputs.
Model training and statistical benchmarking utilized a comprehensive experimental repository comprising 97400 measured voltage samples, partitioning 70 percent of available data for initial model training and reserving the remaining 30 percent for testing and validation. The hyperparameter selection protocol applied stratified five-fold cross-validation, using mean squared error minimization alongside mean absolute error and determination coefficient monitoring, backed by early stopping with a ten-epoch patience threshold. The optimal architecture yielded a compact footprint of approximately 48 to 50 kilobytes of parameter memory, representing a 25 percent reduction compared to baseline Gated Recurrent Unit models while reducing training time by roughly 23 percent relative to larger 128-unit architectures. Benchmarking on an HP Pro Tower 280 G9 PCI workstation powered by an Intel Core i7 processor and 32 gigabytes of random-access memory confirmed that the final model converged to a short-term forecasting determination coefficient R squared of 0.932, a mean absolute error of 1.349 volts, and a root mean square error of 1.992 volts.
Comparative evaluations against Gated Recurrent Unit baselines demonstrated the superior predictive consistency of the Long Short-Term Memory design. Scatter plot evaluations revealed a Pearson correlation coefficient r of 0.9734 for the Long Short-Term Memory model compared to 0.70 for the Gated Recurrent Unit, indicating that the chosen architecture accounts for approximately 93.2 percent of observed voltage variance. Error boxplot evaluations showed a narrower interquartile error distribution and fewer extreme residual outliers for the primary model, although both systems exhibited slight negative mean bias errors of 0.01 volts and 0.006 volts respectively, denoting minor systemic underestimation of shading intensities. Paired two-tailed Student’s t-tests confirmed that the performance advantages achieved by the Long Short-Term Memory model were statistically significant, yielding p-values below 0.05 for absolute and root mean square error metrics, and p-values below 0.001 for the determination coefficient. Across ten independent experimental iterations using distinct random seed initializations, narrow standard deviations of plus or minus 0.19 percent for detection accuracy, 0.44 percent for classification, 0.031 volts for prediction error, and 0.006 for R squared verified experimental reproducibility.
To guarantee long-term operational resilience under fluctuating outdoor conditions, the architecture incorporates an adaptive retraining pipeline that updates model parameters incrementally without requiring costly full-dataset retraining. Evaluated across three successive online retraining cycles, each incorporating roughly 3500 newly captured voltage samples via a sliding-window data buffer, initial baseline performance metrics of 1.620 volts mean absolute error and 0.871 R squared improved to 1.349 volts and 0.932 R squared, reflecting respective gains of 16.7 percent and 7.0 percent. The computational efficiency of continuous learning was demonstrated by rapid convergence across cycles, dropping progressively from an initial 45 epochs down to 18, 14, and 11 epochs. While these results establish the efficacy of voltage-only monitoring on a five-by-three string array, the authors note several engineering boundaries that warrant future research.
Subject of Research: Real-time detection, classification, and short-term prediction of partial shading in photovoltaic arrays using voltage time-series analysis and machine learning
Article Title: Real-time partial shading detection and prediction in photovoltaic systems
Article References: Habibu, M. A., Sivakumar, S., Ramesh, S., Bashir, S. M., & Mwanandiye, E. S. (2026). Real-time partial shading detection and prediction in photovoltaic systems. Discover Internet of Things, 6(1), Article 145. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43926-026-00481-w
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1007/s43926-026-00481-w
Keywords: photovoltaic systems, partial shading detection, long short-term memory, voltage time-series, solar energy, internet of things, edge computing, ESP32 microcontroller, maximum power point tracking, hotspot mitigation, shading pattern classification, recurrent neural networks, gated recurrent units, adaptive retraining, array reconfiguration, renewable energy forecasting
News Source: Faith Mcneil. (November 13, 2026). Voltage Monitoring Framework Detects and Forecasts Solar Panel Shading in Real Time. Scienmag.
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“Am I misunderstanding the limits of what you can feed back into the grid?”
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Using solar panels at home can be a great way to reduce reliance on the expensive energy grid and save money in the long term. But what can households do when they produce more power than they need?
An 8-kilowatt grid-export limit left one U.K. homeowner unsure how much solar energy they could send back to the grid. 
They worried about having more power on a sunny day than they could either export or use at home and on Reddit asked whether running more appliances would be necessary to handle the surplus.
“Silly question I’m sure but on days of peak production, what are you doing with the excess if you have a 9 kW battery and your DNA has a limit of 8 kW,” they posed. “Surely you wouldn’t have enough electrical items to run everything for the rest? Or am I misunderstanding the limits of what you can feed back into the grid?”
One commenter clarified that the key limit-related figure describes how quickly electricity can be sent back to the grid.
“Your battery will be 9 kWh so would take 9 hours to fully charge at 1 kW production,” another added. “Or 3 hours at 3kW production. Your limit will be in W. So instantaneous production. Lots of people mix up kW and kWh — it’s a bit like mixing up distance and speed.”
For homeowners exploring battery storage as another landing spot for extra power, EnergySage offers a resource for researching battery products and comparing competitive installation estimates.
The homeowner had noted their capacity as 7.35 kW in a follow-up message. One commenter confirmed that solar output alone from the homeowner’s array would not reach the 8 kW export cap. 
With energy prices through the roof, there’s never been a better time to go solar — and EasyHome can help you find the best prices from the best installers in your area.
EasyHome takes the guesswork and headaches out of energy upgrades by showing you estimated savings from a network of vetted local partners. To get started, just enter your ZIP and share a few details about your home — seeing your estimate is really that easy.
If excess power can’t be used, installing a battery could be a good way to make the most of that energy. Conserving more power generated at home can help further avoid grid pricing fluctuations and reduce a property’s polluting output, while also making it more resilient in the event of outages. 
Battery-shopping decisions involve installation costs as well as system specifications. EnergySage has partnered with electrification company Qmerit to help homeowners find the best available battery-storage pricing — a useful comparison-shopping consideration for anyone weighing storage alongside a solar installation.
Storage can also support greater energy independence, including off-grid use when a system is designed for that purpose.
But for those whose priority is backup power, Pila offers a plug-and-play battery alternative at a substantially lower price point than whole-home backup systems. A Pila battery can keep appliances like refrigerators and freezers running for hours during a blackout, stopping food from spoiling and going to waste.
Other U.K. homeowners are working out how much solar power they can generate, store, and send to the grid: 
• A U.K. solar buyer added a third battery and questioned a larger inverter’s value.
• A homeowner’s roof fit 23 solar panels, but grid rules capped output at 4 kW.
• When considering battery-only storage, one person received warnings about G98/G99 requirements for grid connections.
• A new solar panel owner faced delays in export setup, giving surplus electricity away.
• U.K. solar users have noted that falling electricity export rates are making home batteries increasingly important.
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Lee — On the heels of voters approving a new Clean Energy zoning bylaw last month, the Open Door Community Church is slated to test out the new provision with a request to construct a medium-sized solar photovoltaic installation on its 87 Summer Street property.
The group filed a special permit application on October 6, within a week of the provision’s passage on October 1, for a project that would link multiple solar panels together to generate electricity. The Lee Planning Board scheduled a public hearing on the matter for 6:15 p.m. on November 23 at the Lee Town Hall Courtroom.
The Open Door Community Church special permit application summary can be found here.
The request proposes to create a ground-mounted solar array and related underground utility infrastructure on a site that has already been developed within the church’s tract. The flag-shaped lot is zoned residential and surrounded by homes on three sides, with one side fronted by Mandalay Road. Applicants state that most of the parcel is made up of forest and meadow, with its center portion—that houses existing buildings and cleared areas—planned to accommodate the array and infrastructure.
“Furthermore, as a passive use, the array will not generate traffic, emit noise, or place any additional demands on municipal systems,” the application summary states.
According to Mark Harris, who serves on the church’s board of trustees, the project will encompass about 1,920 square feet of the 30-acre parcel and include 80 to 84 panels, for a generating capacity of 37.38 kilowatts DC. The documents show the array to be about 121 feet long and 13 feet tall. Additionally, according to the application, the array will be placed in a lower area of the tract, making it less visible, and no trees will be removed for the project.
Harris, who is also a part-time employee of the Town of Lee and a local real estate agent, said he expects the project to offset the church’s current energy costs. Once the pending special permit is approved, he said weather and contractor availability will determine the endeavor’s timeline.
The site plan for the Open Door Community Church proposed solar voltaic system can be found here, courtesy of the Town of Lee.
The application states that undeveloped areas and adjacent resources won’t be disturbed. “Within those constraints, the array location was selected to optimize solar production,” the filing provides.
Harris estimates the church has about 100 parishioners.
During the latest Town Meeting, Lee residents handed a green light to a warrant article that reorganized local zoning regulations, crafting new bylaws governing battery energy storage systems (BESS) and renewable energy projects, permitting regulations the town lacked. As a result, Lee adopted a new Clean Energy section of its bylaws.
“We decided and contracted to do this project last year, which as you know, was prior to the new bylaws,” Harris said. “It is my understanding that the plans were amended to adhere to the new bylaws at the request of Town Hall officials.”
The Planning Board had been working on BESS provisions for quite a while, and some of the new regulations govern facilities that stockpile excess electricity as a renewable energy source. The push was driven by Gov. Maura Healey, who signed an executive order in March aimed at bringing more renewable energy into the state and requiring municipalities to adopt corresponding bylaws, including a system to evaluate development permits for the facilities, by October 1.
Lee’s new Clean Energy Bylaw can be found here.
According to local bylaws, this type of solar photovoltaic installation cannot be taller than 15 feet, with lighting limited to what is necessary for safety and operations, “reasonably shielded from abutting properties,” and directed downward. Only one sign at the site is allowed that identifies who operates the installation and a small sign at its perimeter providing emergency contact information.
For medium-sized projects such as this one, owners must make a reasonable effort to minimize visual impact, preserve natural vegetation, and screen abutting properties, and they may add a fence for security. When the installation reaches the end of its useful life or is abandoned, the owner or operator must decommission it. If they don’t, the action falls to the town, which can recover its costs from the responsible party.
The Lee Planning Board is required to consent to the special permit for the project to proceed.

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The new light-powered technique uses miniature solar cells to wirelessly guide living cell alignment without electrodes.
Researchers used miniature photovoltaic cells to generate electrical fields that influence how living cells align, without wired electrodes.
Experiments with human lung and skin fibroblasts showed that cell orientation followed the patterns of the solar cell arrays.
Researchers plan to test cardiac and muscle cells before exploring three-dimensional environments for more precise tissue organisation.
Researchers at Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) have developed a way to control the alignment of living cells using miniature solar cells, potentially offering a wireless alternative to bulky electrical systems used in tissue engineering.
The approach uses tiny photovoltaic cells patterned across silicon chips to convert light into local electrical fields that influence how cells orient themselves. By changing the size and arrangement of these microscopic solar cells, researchers can guide groups of cells into specific patterns without connecting electrodes directly to them.
The technique could eventually help scientists organize cells more precisely when developing biological tissues through 3D bioprinting.
Bioprinting uses living cells and biological materials, known as bioink, to build tissues layer by layer. Keeping these cells organized is important because their alignment can influence how tissues develop and function.
Researchers have traditionally used electrical stimulation to influence cell orientation. However, these systems often rely on bulky equipment, wired electrodes, and invasive connections that make precise control more difficult.
To address this, the Penn State team developed patterned arrays of silicon photovoltaic microcells. These tiny devices capture light and convert it into electrical signals, generating local fields that influence cellular behavior.
In a study published in Advanced Functional Materials, the researchers tested two approaches. They changed the diameter of individual photovoltaic cells, ranging from 80 to 800 micrometers, and experimented with different arrangements while keeping the cell size constant.
The team placed commercially sourced human lung and skin fibroblasts on the silicon chips. Fibroblasts are connective-tissue cells that help produce and maintain the structural framework surrounding tissues.
The samples were exposed to different light intensities over seven days. The researchers then compared their alignment with cells grown on chips that received no illumination.
The results showed that fibroblasts grown without illumination displayed largely random alignment. Cells exposed to light, however, arranged themselves according to the patterns of the photovoltaic arrays.
The researchers also found that changing the illumination intensity influenced the electrical response of the solar cells, providing another way to regulate cellular alignment.
By adjusting the size, spacing and arrangement of the photovoltaic microcells, the team could modify the electrical fields generated across the chip.
The approach does not provide complete control over cell organization, as interactions between neighboring cells still influence their movement and orientation. However, it demonstrates how light-powered electrical stimulation can guide groups of living cells without wired electrodes.
The researchers now plan to test the technique on more sensitive cell types, including cardiac and muscle cells, to investigate whether electrical stimulation can also influence their functions.
They also want to move beyond flat surfaces and explore three-dimensional environments. This could allow photovoltaic arrays to generate electrical fields in different directions, offering greater control over how cells organize themselves within developing tissues.
The findings could eventually support more precise tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, although further work is needed before the approach can be applied to functional 3D-printed tissues.
With over a decade-long career in journalism, Neetika Walter has worked with The Economic Times, ANI, and Hindustan Times, covering politics, business, technology, and the clean energy sector. Passionate about contemporary culture, books, poetry, and storytelling, she brings depth and insight to her writing. When she isn’t chasing stories, she’s likely lost in a book or enjoying the company of her dogs.
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Artificial Intelligence Review Highlights Efficiency Gains and Operational Challenges in Photovoltaic Systems
A newly published review article in Discover Applied Sciences evaluates the integration of artificial intelligence with solar photovoltaic systems, characterizing it as a breakthrough solution designed to enhance the performance, reliability, and forecasting of solar energy generation. Authored by Gaurav Kansal, the comprehensive survey provides an international perspective on how machine learning and advanced computational frameworks contribute to core operational domains. The analysis indicates that artificial intelligence-based techniques allow for optimized system operation and can improve overall energy conversion efficiency.
The review delineates several principal technical domains where artificial intelligence techniques deliver primary operational contributions within photovoltaic systems. These areas include maximum power point tracking and power generation forecasting. In addition, the paper examines the essential role of artificial intelligence methodologies in fault diagnosis and overarching system optimization.
The review details how techniques such as particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithms have shown significant potential in optimizing photovoltaic system parameters. These techniques have also shown significant potential toward optimizing maximum power point tracking and hybrid artificial intelligence-based frameworks under varying operating conditions.
Despite these technical performance advantages, the review underscores that artificial intelligence implementations face prominent practical challenges that complicate deployment in real-world solar systems. High computational demands, complex requirements for data management, and the persistent necessity of ongoing model maintenance present serious hurdles for operators. At the same time, continuing advancements in underlying artificial intelligence algorithms and supporting hardware technologies are steadily facilitating the integration of renewable energy systems, which may substantially decrease reliance on traditional energy sources.
To establish an application-oriented synthesis, the author conducted extensive literature searches across major scientific indexing databases during the defined review period. The analyzed literature was identified through systematic queries of Scopus, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, and ScienceDirect. The scope of this bibliographic survey specifically focused on evaluating research literature directed toward artificial intelligence applications in photovoltaic power forecasting, maximum power point tracking algorithms, operational fault diagnosis, image-based inspection routines, and critical cybersecurity concerns across modern installations.
The paper also provides a review of recent developments in the field, emerging research directions, and emerging solutions. These emerging solutions include transfer learning, few-shot learning, and edge computing.
The principal contribution of the review is a critical application-oriented synthesis of these artificial intelligence techniques. By systematically highlighting existing practical challenges, identifying current research gaps, and outlining emerging directions, the review establishes a foundation for more reliable and intelligent system operation.
Subject of Research: Artificial intelligence applications and emerging operational techniques in solar photovoltaic systems
Article Title: A comprehensive review of artificial intelligence applications in solar photovoltaic systems and future perspectives
Article References: Kansal, G. (2026). A comprehensive review of artificial intelligence applications in solar photovoltaic systems and future perspectives. Discover Applied Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-026-09822-4
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1007/s42452-026-09822-4
Keywords: artificial intelligence, photovoltaic systems, solar energy generation, maximum power point tracking, power generation forecasting, fault diagnosis, system optimisation, metaheuristic algorithms, particle swarm optimisation, genetic algorithms, energy conversion efficiency, data management, model maintenance, transfer learning, few-shot learning, edge computing, image-based inspection, cybersecurity
News Source: Blake Davidson. (November 14, 2026). Artificial Intelligence Review Highlights Efficiency Gains and Operational Challenges in Photovoltaic Systems. Scienmag.
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