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Sunshine, government subsidies and high power prices are driving record solar installations
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Zoom in on satellite pictures of the Melbourne postcode 3029 and one feature becomes glaringly obvious – there are lots and lots of solar panels on lots and lots of roofs.
“If you walk along the streets, it’s actually hard to see a house without solar panels,” says Saajidh Nizam, a software engineer who lives in Tarneit with his wife, two children and a 6.6kWh solar system on the roof.
This western Melbourne postcode has more rooftop solar than anywhere else in Australia. More than 28,000 systems have been installed there since 2001, according to Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator.
Australia generates more electricity per person from solar panels than anywhere else in the world, making postcode 3029 the poster child for Australia’s residential solar sector.
There are about 4m homes and small businesses with rooftop solar – about 36% of households have a system – and the country’s enthusiasm for the photovoltaic panels is only building with 2026 on track to be a record year of installations.
But the copious amounts of sunshine hitting Australia compared with other countries isn’t the only reason solar is booming.
For more than 20 years, the Australian government has been issuing certificates to homes and businesses that erect rooftop solar, cutting the upfront costs. The scheme has been extended this month to include larger systems on corporate premises.
Tristan Edis, the director of analysis and advisory at research and analytics firm Green Energy Markets, says relatively high electricity prices together with less onerous regulations than other countries, in particular the US, are two reasons why Australians have adopted solar so enthusiastically.
The other is the types of homes built around the country with “low-density housing and a lot of roof space, making [solar] easier to install,” Edis says.
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According to the Clean Energy Council, an industry group representing the renewables sector, in the second quarter of this year, records were broken in every Australian state for installations, with 102,234 systems installed on roofs – the highest quarter on record.
Ten years ago, rooftop solar was generating less than 3% of the country’s electricity while coal supplied 75%. In the last 12 months, electricity from rooftops supplied almost 14%, while coal was down to 50%.
“There are more rooftop solar systems in Australia than there are swimming pools in backyards,” said a spokesperson for the Australian Energy Market Operator.
They said uptake of solar had “fundamentally changed the electricity system” and “given millions of consumers a more active role in how they produce and use electricity, and now store it with the influx of residential batteries”.
Solar had led to demand for grid electricity falling and wholesale electricity prices reaching zero, or even going negative, in the middle of the day, they said. In winter, with fewer sunshine hours, rooftop solar still covered 10% of the electricity used in the national electricity market, which supplies more than 85% of the population.
In the national market, rooftop solar now routinely supplies more than 40% of the electricity used during the middle of the day; on some days, it peaks above 60%. To cope with all of that solar power, new rules have been introduced requiring electricity retailers in most areas to offer customers three hours of free electricity every day.
A report from the government’s corporate watchdog found households with solar and batteries had bills that were between 20% and 52% lower than regular electricity customers, and households who joined a virtual power plant – where the battery’s output can be linked with other households and controlled by a retailer – had bills 57% to 63% lower.
Now, with the sudden arrival of home batteries – supported by a federal government program that has seen half a million installed since July last year – Edis says the traditional evening peak for electricity use is being flattened as solar-charged batteries kick into gear.
“That is going to destroy the economics of fossil fuel generators,” Edis says.
But how much bigger could Australia’s rooftop solar boom get?
The government agency that operates the main electricity market produces a blueprint every two years for the most likely development of the electricity system.
This blueprint forecasts that the capacity of rooftop solar systems will grow from its current level of 20GW to 87GW by 2050 – meaning 56% of homes would have rooftop solar systems, “driven by ever-falling costs”. Two-thirds of those homes would also have batteries. If that change materialised, the energy market operator said rooftop solar alone would be supplying about 27% of the country’s electricity.
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The challenge, the operator said, was “not simply accommodating more solar panels but making the most of the electricity they produce”.
Edis’s own projections have suggested even higher amounts of rooftop solar could be possible.
He says a typical 10kW solar system in Australia can produce more than enough electricity for an average household, even if they run an electric car.
“Their demand for electricity is almost entirely taken care of by their solar and their battery. Residential electricity consumption disappears from the grid,” he says.
A rising motivator for Australians buying solar systems, says Edis, is the advent of electric cars.
“There’s a relationship developing between electric cars and solar. For a lot of Australians, charging up their car will be incredibly cheap,” he says.
Some electricity system analysts, including Edis, point to commercial buildings and rental units as a “missing middle” where, with better rules, rooftop solar could grow even further.
This week in Fiji at a preparatory meeting before November’s UN global climate talks in Turkey, Australia became the first country to endorse a global voluntary pledge to double the number of homes with rooftop solar from 150m to 300m by 2030.
“Rooftop solar is the sleeping giant of global climate diplomacy,” says Heidi Lee Douglas, the chief executive of Solar Citizens, an advocacy group representing more than 200,000 rooftop solar owners.
“This is going to create a billion solar citizens,” says Douglas, who was in Fiji for the announcement. “[Rooftop solar] is politically popular, and it appeals to people because of the cost of living benefits and now, with energy security issues, governments are more motivated.
“A lot of energy ministers are going to sit up and take notice of this. Rooftop solar has the potential to do so much good but it has been so underrated. We know it is safe and it is a known quantity, and it is easy to deliver quickly.”
Solar Citizens was set up in Australia 16 years ago to advocate for solar owners and create a new political economy around rooftop systems.
The charity is working with civil society groups in Japan, Taiwan, Pakistan, Vanuatu, Malaysia and Indonesia to set up “solar citizen movements” and build advocacy campaigns, says Douglas.
In Australia, Douglas is pushing to double the amount of rooftop solar that is connected to batteries over the next three years.
Back in Tarneit, Saajidh Nizam says he is doing the sums on adding a battery to the solar system on his roof.
“It’s a good idea,” he says, looking around his record-setting suburb.
“We’re not putting as much pressure on the grid, and we’re trying to be a bit more self-sustaining and a bit less damaging on the environment.
“We’re doing good on that front.”

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ContourGlobal has begun construction on a 2,000-acre battery storage system, with Tesla and Arizona as its major partners.
ContourGlobal has announced a 509-megawatt solar power plant with a massive battery storage system as part of a 2,000-acre project. Under a long-term agreement, Tesla will receive 90 percent of the facility’s expected electricity output.
Project Sterling was officially launched with a groundbreaking ceremony on October 6. The facility, however, will begin operations in 2028. Once operational, it will become ContourGlobal’s largest renewable energy asset worldwide.
According to Electrek, Sterling is expected to generate more than 1.1 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity annually, enough to supply a year’s worth of electricity to a city of 100,000 to 120,000 residents.
Located in Mohave County, 20 miles north of Lake Havasu City, the facility spans more than 2,000 acres and will incorporate over 760,000 solar modules alongside more than 300 battery storage containers.
The storage system will use lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries with liquid cooling and integrated fire-protection technology. The batteries can deliver full power for about four hours. The combined solar and storage system can supply clean electricity for up to 16 hours each day.
Arizona has become a pioneer in solar development with 13,198 MWdc installed across the state. Currently, the state generates about 18.23 percent of its electricity from solar, powering nearly two million homes. “The partnership reinforces Arizona’s role in regional grid reliability,” stated PV Magazine in a report.
Project Sterling is expected to add 509 megawatts (MW) of direct-current (DC) solar capacity to Arizona, corresponding to 450 MW of alternating-current (AC) capacity. The associated battery energy storage system is designed to deliver 360 MW of power and store approximately 1.4 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity.
The project expands ContourGlobal’s U.S. portfolio to 2.4 GW of thermal, renewable, and storage capacity operating or under construction, as per PV Magazine USA.
The facility will connect to the Western Area Power Administration’s transmission network and has secured transmission rights into the California Independent System Operator’s electricity market, Electrek reports.
Moreover, Project Sterling will generate an average of approximately 400 local construction jobs. Construction includes a new 5.2-mile access road, called Polaris Road, connecting the site to a historic stretch of Route 66 between Topock and Kingman. The privately financed project has also secured an equity bridge loan from a syndicate of international banks to finance construction.
ContourGlobal will supply Tesla with more than 1 terawatt-hour (TWh) of clean electricity a year under a long-term corporate power purchase agreement (PPA), according to Electrek.
It’s one of the largest corporate solar-plus-storage PPAs signed for a single hybrid renewable energy plant in the United States. The agreement covers about 90 percent of the facility’s expected output.
“Our teams engineered the project around the specific needs of our customer, enabling it to deliver reliable clean power for up to 16 hours a day,” said Antonio Cammisecra, president and CEO of ContourGlobal, in PV Magazine USA.
Originally from LA, Maria Mocerino has been published in Business Insider, The Irish Examiner, The Rogue Mag, Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines, and now Interesting Engineering.
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Another homeowner said their panels were “designed for 3″ hail.”
Photo Credit: iStock
A Texas homeowner said a hailstorm severe enough to total both a roof and a vehicle still left all 16 of their rooftop solar panels untouched, offering a striking example from a Reddit discussion about how home solar can hold up when extreme weather hits.
Across replies from Texas, Kansas, and central Florida, homeowners generally said hail did more damage to other parts of the property than to the panels themselves.
Examples in the r/solar thread ranged from Florida to Texas. A Florida homeowner said 37 Silfab 340 panels had made it through “3-5 hailstorms” over six years on a central Florida roof.
In Texas, another user said, “Several years ago in Texas we had a hailstorm that totaled our roof and a vehicle parked outside, but our 16 solar panels were undamaged.”
Owners also mentioned product ratings. One user said their panels were “designed for 3″ hail,” while another said their system was rated “class 4 just like the rest of my roof.”
Visible cracks were not the only potential problem raised when discussing hailstorms. After a storm with 2-inch hail, one homeowner said a full roof replacement was needed, and although “no panels were cracked by the hail,” EL testing later found internal cell damage, leaving about half the panels needing replacement.
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Power production alone may not reveal the full extent of storm damage, either. One user said affected panels would “likely still produce power, but probably safer to shut off system to prevent other issues,” even if they continue generating electricity.
Some users also saw the panels as partial protection for the roof below. One person said panels “could also absorb damage that would otherwise have happened to the roof,” while another joked that the covered sections of a house get “ablative silicon armor.”
Insurance was a recurring theme in the discussion. One homeowner said a rider added in advance later covered panel removal and reinstallation after hail damaged the uncovered half of the roof — a cost they said was “basically full installation price again.” Another user said, “add the panels to your HO insurance and decide whether or not to make a claim.”
The recovery process can also take time. One user warned that “all of this could take months to complete…” after filing an insurance claim, scheduling panel removal, replacing the roof, and reinstalling or replacing the solar equipment.
For homeowners still considering solar, EnergySage offers free tools to compare competitive bids from local installers without giving those companies your contact information unless you decide to move forward. That can make it easier to ask about hail ratings, insurance requirements, and mounting choices before signing a contract.
Extreme weather can affect solar in different ways, and these articles show how that has played out at homes and larger projects. They cover hail damage on rooftops and Texas solar farms, hurricane impacts, backup power after storms, and a Texas homeowner’s roof leak dispute.
• Energy experts say destructive storms hit rooftop solar panels without always causing the worst damage.
• In Texas, image of a major solar farm following a hailstorm sparked debate over what the photos actually showed.
• After a hurricane, experts said strong winds can damage solar and other infrastructure alike.
• In Texas, one homeowner said solar panels left his roof leaking for months after installation.
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ERM argued in early 2025 that the energy transition was overlooking a critical market: the market for risk. Eighteen months after, and the shift from simply paying for renewable output to demanding firmness and shape is already evident. An example deal being the 600 MW, 12-year South Australian (SA) supply agreement between Firmus and Swiss commodity trading firm Gunvor.   
As coal-fired power stations retire, they remove not only physical generation capacity from the National Electricity Market (NEM) but also a significant source of financial hedging products. This will increasingly impact market liquidity of traditional ASX and Over the Counter (OTC) hedging products and drive demand for a new generation of bulk renewable energy, shaping and firming services. 
Large renewable energy generators and battery owner-operators can no longer stand on the sideline. 
Several intersecting policy initiatives have been driving the transition to a renewable power system in the NEM, with the Federal Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) taking over from the Commonwealth Renewable Energy Target (RET) Scheme to incentivise pre-2030 investment in renewables and storage alongside the New South Wales (NSW) Long-term energy services agreements (LTESA), Victorian Renewable Energy Target (VRET) Scheme and SA Firm Energy Reliability Mechanism (FERM).  
Australia’s renewable energy market is now approaching a significant inflection point. Looking beyond 2030, the Electricity Services Entry Mechanism (ESEM) proposed by the NEM Wholesale Market Settings Review Panel, is expected to become a key driver of long-term investment in renewables and storage.
Importantly, the ESEM is emerging at the same time as Federal and state government policy initiatives. These policies place obligations on data centres to contract for new renewable supply, as well as address shaping and firmness to contribute towards system reliability. 
These policy developments respond to the same underlying market reality: buyers will be seeking solutions that combine energy, shape and firmness. ESEM attempts to create liquid products for these services, while emerging data centre policies seek to mandate their procurement. Together they signal a fundamental shift away from energy-only PPAs. 
Several intersecting policy initiatives have been driving the transition to a renewable power system in the NEM, with the Federal Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) taking over from the Commonwealth Renewable Energy Target (RET) Scheme to incentivise pre-2030 investment in renewables and storage alongside the NSW Long-term energy services agreements (LTESA), Victorian Renewable Energy Target (VRET) Scheme and SA Firm Energy Reliability Mechanism (FERM).  
Australia’s renewable energy market is now approaching a significant inflection point. Looking beyond 2030, the Electricity Services Entry Mechanism (ESEM) proposed by the NEM Wholesale Market Settings Review Panel, is expected to become a key driver of long-term investment in renewables and storage. Importantly, the ESEM is emerging at the same time as Federal and state government policy initiatives. These policies place obligations on data centres to contract for new renewable supply, as well as address shaping and firmness to contribute towards system reliability. 
These policy developments respond to the same underlying market reality: buyers will be seeking solutions that combine energy, shape and firmness. ESEM attempts to create liquid products for these services, while emerging data centre policies seek to mandate their procurement. Together they signal a fundamental shift away from energy-only PPAs. 
Unlike earlier support schemes, the ESEM is intended to create liquid, standardised products capable of bridging the gap between short-dated exchange-traded contracts and the long-term revenue certainty required to finance large renewable and storage projects.
To achieve this, products must be sufficiently fungible and detached from the characteristics of individual projects to support secondary market trading. This represents a fundamental departure from the traditional run-of-plant PPA model. 
The legislation and rules required to implement the first tranche of priority ESEM products are expected to be finalised by March 2027. Based on the current design, key implications for renewable generators and storage owners are significant.
Rather than transferring shape and volume risk to buyers, sellers will increasingly be expected to manage and underwrite these risks themselves. Capturing the value premium and tenure available under the ESEM will favour asset operators with diversified portfolios, sophisticated trading capability and an ability to manage shape, volume and firmness risk over long contracting horizons. 
At the same time, data centres are rapidly emerging as a new category of buyer. The AEMC’s advice to the Commonwealth, the NSW Data Centre Guidelines and Victorian Sustainable Data Centre Action Plan point towards future obligations that require large data centres to support additional renewable generation, firming capacity and demand flexibility. Unlike the corporate PPA buyers that dominated the first wave of renewable procurement, data centres may need integrated solutions that address renewable energy, firming and compliance requirements simultaneously.
Practical implications of fungibility?This simply means one MW or MWh is interchangeable with another identical unit, regardless of which project underpins the product. Products must thus be standardised to ensure liquidity. This implies a shift away from the physical project context that has driven many key commercial terms (e.g. force majeure, thermal curtailment, etc.) under run of plant, tolling and capacity swap agreements. 
For sellers, data centres represent a substantial growth opportunity. However, the capabilities required to compete effectively in this market are likely to mirror those needed under emerging ESEM product constructs, namely the ability to package energy, shaping and firmness solutions through sophisticated portfolio and risk management. 
This is early days in shaping data centre policies, with significant work still to be done to align federal and state policies. To prepare your organisation to be well positioned to capture the data centre opportunity, you must carefully consider both the similarities and differences between the obligations proposed at Federal and state level.
Whilst the Victorian energy- related recommendations for data centres suggest alignment with the Commonwealth framework, subject to finalisation, the NSW Government’s proposals differ from the AEMC’s recommendations in several material respects, as outlined below.
Looking ahead: the next generation of offtake markets 
Data centres represent an attractive new class of renewable energy buyer. They have large and growing electricity demand. Furthermore, unlike many energy-intensive industrial sectors, electricity costs, while significant in absolute terms for data centres, often represent a smaller proportion of overall operating costs, which combined with emerging renewable energy and firming obligations may increase both their willingness and ability to pay for renewable energy and firming services. 
Whilst significant uncertainty remains around both data centre policy settings and the implementation of NEM Review and ESEM reforms, it is increasingly clear is that the market is moving beyond traditional run-of-plant PPAs. The retirement of coal generation, the emergence of ESEM, and the rapid growth of data centres are accelerating the unbundling of value into three distinct categories: 
In this environment, future buyers are likely to seek integrated solutions that combine these elements within a single offtake arrangement. The organisations best positioned to succeed in this next phase of the energy transition are therefore unlikely to be those with the lowest-cost wind, solar or battery assets alone. Instead, competitive advantage will increasingly reside with participants that can offer: 
Does your organisation have the trading, portfolio and risk-management capabilities needed to compete in this future market?
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Authors: ERM Partner Anita Stadler, ERM Partner Gilles Walgenwitz, ERM Consulting Senior Associate Martin Bates.
This article is published with permission of ERM.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those held by pv magazine.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those held by pv magazine.
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Solar plants are built to run for 30 years or more, yet the choices that shape those decades are often made in a matter of weeks, under pressure to hit pipeline targets. A panel organized by the Solar+ Leaders ecosystem at Solar & Storage Live Italia asked what it takes to lead with that long horizon in mind, arguing that resilience and energy security depend as much on the people who lead the sector as on the capacity they deploy.
A recurring theme was that much of a solar plant’s fate is sealed at the start. Letizia Petracci, Vice President Technical at Starlight Energy, part of the NextEnergy Group, pointed to Italy’s connection queue: requests for renewables exceed 300 GW, roughly four times the new capacity foreseen in the national plan to 2030. Since September, grid access goes to whoever obtains authorization first, not whoever applies first, which raises the stakes on choosing which projects to pursue.
Why does that choice weigh so heavily? Because, as Petracci explained, the developer is the first link in the chain: its decisions are inherited by those who build, finance and operate a plant for 30 years, and by the community that hosts it. In its first weeks, a project is cheap and still easy to stop; the further it advances, the harder it becomes to say no, not for technical reasons, but because pipeline targets loom and the time already invested feels wasted. The new rules sharpen the dilemma: developers must now move fast and carry projects all the way to authorization with no certainty of a connection.
“Leadership is measured above all in a little-celebrated skill: knowing how to decide early, and honestly, what not to do,” Petracci said. Speed built on competence and organization pays off, she argued; haste simply passes the cost of shortcuts to whoever comes next.
David Moser, managing director Italy at Becquerel Institute, spent 13 years leading a research group at Eurac in Bolzano studying how PV plants age and degrade. He has repeatedly seen plants underperform after eight or ten years because of choices made by people who have since moved on. “Whoever takes shortcuts isn’t getting ahead: they are offloading a cost onto someone else in the value chain, and sooner or later that cost comes back,” he said. Now developing AI tools for PV, Moser warned that fast answers can become a shortcut to not thinking, and that tools must show what they are based on and where they are uncertain, so that a person can still take responsibility for the decision. Now more than ever we need to develop and apply critical thinking.
Holistic thinking, connected teams
Domenico Biasi, government and regulatory affairs at Sonnedix, framed renewable plants as long-term assets that stay in a territory for decades. An IPP, he said, must be recognized not only as able to build, but as a serious investor that keeps its commitments, which means weighing financial, social, environmental and regulatory risks together. “Responsible leadership does not give up on performance; it makes it sustainable,” Biasi said, calling for cross-functional teams involved from day one and T-shaped professionals who combine deep expertise with the ability to talk across disciplines.
For Maria Sabella, founder and CEO of Enlight Energy Services, which supports investors across the lifecycle of Italian utility-scale PV, continuity is the overlooked risk. Plants often change hands, so service providers must preserve their operational memory. “Our leadership is key to maximizing team retention and encouraging continuous training, so that knowledge is not concentrated but shared and preserved,” she said. Sabella also stressed long-term partnerships and genuine value co-creation with key suppliers, and the growing need to connect plant owners with energy consumers whose core business lies elsewhere.
Angelica Almi, head of legal at ESCo Kataclima and co-founder of Italia Rinnovabile, a benefit cooperative developing renewable energy communities, warned against mistaking compliance for impact. “One of the most dangerous temptations is confusing a project that ‘works’ with a project that ‘will work’,” she said. A community can meet every deadline and secure its incentives, yet fail if governance is unclear or citizens don’t understand how benefits are shared. Almi also urged organizations to give young professionals responsibility before they have 20 years of experience – otherwise, she noted, companies end up searching for talent someone else has trained.
Moderating the panel, Gulnara Abdullina, Advisory Board Member at Circular Synergies, the organisation behind Solar+ Leaders, commented: “I opened by asking whether our leadership models are evolving as fast as the energy systems we’re building. Our panellists, Maria, Letizia, Domenico, Angelica and David, shared their very diverse experiences and identified the typical risks associated with weak leadership. None of these risks was capacity or technical problems. They are judgment calls, made by usually one person, usually early, before there’s any data to back the decision up. That’s what “intelligence in leadership” actually means in this sector: not having the answers, but building an inclusive organisation that lets someone make the call and be backed for making it.”
The people-centred theme carried into an additional session organised by Women in Solar+ Europe (WiSEu) where speakers argued that teams that flag a weak project early and share knowledge rather than hoard it, depend on something more basic: environments where everyone feels safe to speak, and is expected to.
Maribel Otaño, Country Manager Italy at Solis: “I witnessed something fundamental when it comes to psychological safety: creating spaces where people feel safe to share their opinions is not a luxury. It’s essential. At Solis, my team and I work every day to foster an environment where all voices are truly heard. For me, it’s critical that the decisions we make are based on active listening, without judgment, without dismissal, always with respect. When that happens, people speak up early. They challenge ideas. They contribute what they really think. And the quality of what we build improves. This responsibility is not just mine as a leader. It belongs to everyone in the organization. Each person decides, every day, whether to create that safety and protect it. That takes commitment from leadership and courage from everyone else, and it’s worth the investment.”
Elena Maspoli, founder of Greenspire, has followed renewables from the finance side as they grew from a pioneering niche into a sector employing nearly 2 million people in the EU. As the industry matures, she noted, skills become more specialised and organisations more complex, requiring constant dialogue between project management, legal, external relations and structured finance. Inclusive organisations are also a retention tool, as candidates increasingly weigh work-life balance alongside role and pay.
Maspoli described psychological safety as something built through small “nudges”, borrowing Nobel laureate Richard Thaler’s term. A manager who asks the team for ideas before imposing a decision, and explains why ideas are set aside, teaches people to form and share opinions. The main obstacle, she said, is often time, in organisations focused on getting results as fast as possible. “In the long run, what creates a stable organisation is getting from A to B with the contribution of everyone involved,” Maspoli said. For those without formal authority, her advice was to occupy spaces rather than wait for them: a silence or hesitation in a meeting can be the moment to put forward a solution.
Ercilia Estrada, project manager oversight at Gruppo Undo, an integrated industrial operator and IPP with around 150 MW installed, pointed to trust and mutual respect, recognition of everyone’s contribution and a culture of candid, constructive feedback. But she stressed that safety brings responsibility. “When everyone knows they can speak up, it becomes essential to also take responsibility for putting one’s skills at the service of the organisation,” Estrada said, calling for a solution-oriented mindset rather than simply describing problems. She applied the same logic to battery storage: developing BESS in Italy involves institutions and private operators alike, and will depend on leadership that strengthens coordinated collaboration among all of them every day.
Giulia Muia, an independent advisor who connects foreign investors and IPPs with developers, EPC contractors and landowners, and who helps energy-intensive clients through the energy transition, brought the view of someone who has often been both the youngest and the only foreigner in the room, after a decade in Germany working in M&A, strategy consulting, investment funds and IPPs. A classicist by training, she started from etymology: security comes from the Latin sine cura, “without worry”, meaning, at work, without fear of being judged too harshly for speaking up or making a mistake. That matters most when you are young. She recalled how, as a junior strategy consultant, the head of her company would sit down with her, open his notebook and ask how things could improve, writing down her answers. “He probably knew it all already, but in that moment I felt I could tip the scales,” she said. “That confidence taught me to take space, and later to give it.”
Being a foreigner, she added, raises the bar further. In meetings in Germany, she had the ideas but had to express them in a language learned at 20. “Speaking on the street is one thing; speaking in a meeting is another. I needed more time to say the same things.” That kind of space rarely appears on its own; it has to be deliberately created. For Muia, everyone has to be heard: the young, women, foreigners, and those who lack the expected title or credentials. Their input should then be integrated and judged on its merits. Her example came from the field: engineers and geologists can complete every study, yet it is the local farmer who warns that the land floods. “The information that changes a project often comes from the source you least expect,” Muia said. Just as no one would build energy security on a single source, she argued, diversification is what makes teams resilient. But that space cannot depend on the courage of the youngest or the most exposed: empowerment has to come top-down, not bottom-up. With the sector expanding fast, now is the time to train and integrate new talent: “We have a rare chance to build an industry’s culture as it is born, instead of having to correct it later.”
Across both sessions, the common thread was clear: Italy’s energy security will depend not on the megawatts requested, but on the megawatts actually built, connected and operated well for decades, and on leaders, with or without a formal title, who create the conditions for every voice to shape the choices that get them there.
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Monday, October 12, 2026
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“I think I’m getting the ‘go away’ quote here.”
Photo Credit: iStock
A New Jersey homeowner who already had solar expected that adding seven more panels to cover a new HVAC load would be a relatively minor upgrade. 
Instead, the quote nearly matched the cost of many full starter systems.
On Reddit, they explained the sticker shock centered on a seven-panel expansion priced “north of $16,000.” 
The homeowner explained to the r/solar subreddit that the same installer had previously put in an 18-panel Maxeon system with Enphase microinverters and a 25-year installer warranty for about $20,000. They had gone back to that company after a new HVAC setup increased their power needs and asked about adding four to seven panels. 
Want to go solar but not sure who to trust? EnergySage has your back with free and transparent quotes from fully vetted providers in your area.
To get started, just answer a few questions about your home — no phone number required. Within a day or two, EnergySage will email you the best options for your needs, and their expert advisers can help you compare quotes and pick a winner.
The bid used seven REC panels and matching microinverters, leading the homeowner to write, “I think I’m getting the ‘go away’ quote here.”
People in the thread said the cost is not only about the extra panels themselves. One commenter noted that adding microinverters would still mean connecting into the combiner box.
“But both options require touching the original install,” a user wrote. “No way of getting around that.”
Going solar can save money on home energy, but you need to size your system with future needs in mind from the beginning, or expansion will be costly down the road. Homeowners comparing first-time installs or upgrades can use EnergySage to get free solar installation estimates and compare quotes.
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Want to go solar but not sure who to trust? EnergySage has your back with free and transparent quotes from fully vetted providers that can help you save as much as $10k on installation.
To get started, just answer a few questions about your home — no phone number required. Within a day or two, EnergySage will email you the best local options for your needs, and their expert advisers can help you compare quotes and pick a winner.
Part of the frustration was the equipment comparison. The homeowner said their first system used 18 Maxeon panels, while the expansion quote called for seven REC panels that they viewed as less expensive gear. Even so, the add-on came back with a much higher per-panel price.
Replies in the thread also pointed to the fixed costs that can make tiny projects expensive. A commenter said a company they once worked for added $1,000 to systems under 5 kilowatts because “the labor is calculated by the half day.”
Another commenter offered a comparison from their own experience, saying an eight-panel addition to a 9-kilowatt system cost $13.5k and that they should have added an “expansion pack too.”
Much of the advice boiled down to getting more quotes. One commenter said $16,000 for seven panels “feels like they just don’t want to bother with it,” and others recommended trying smaller local installers.
💡Go deep on the latest news and trends shaping the residential solar landscape
A commenter also raised the idea of having another installer leave the first array untouched and build a second, separate system. A different user mentioned plug-in solar or a ground-mount alternative.
The OP indicated that the seven panels remained their goal in their replies, but they needed a better price.
With EnergySage’s help, the average person can save up to $10,000 on solar purchases and installations. That can be critical if you find yourself in the original poster’s boat down the road.
EnergySage’s solar map shows the average cost of a home solar panel system by state, along with solar incentives in each state. Together, those resources can help homeowners get the best price for rooftop solar panels and access available incentives.
Adding battery storage to a solar setup is one of the best ways to protect your home during outages, save money on energy, and go off-grid. Homeowners interested in pairing panels with backup power can explore EnergySage for information about home battery storage options, including competitive installation estimates.
If you’re weighing a solar quote, there are many factors to consider.
• In many states, rooftop solar can save homeowners $700 yearly or more.
• Before expanding a rooftop array, homeowners should budget for cleaning, repairs, and maintenance too.
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Delays for large natural gas turbines can last for years.
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Rising U.S. power demand is driving more investment into clean energy projects that can be deployed quickly.
Aligned Climate Capital said its new investment vehicle, Aligned Solar Partners 7, has completed an initial close and aims to raise $500 million for distributed solar and energy storage projects nationwide.
As pv magazine USA reported, the fund is intended to own, finance, and operate middle-market assets amid electricity demand growth tied to expanding data centers, industrial reshoring, and transportation electrification.
Aligned said ASP7 has already identified more than 500 megawatts of potential projects. The fund focuses on construction-ready assets from developer partners, providing capital to build them and then keeping them as operating projects.
Want to go solar but not sure who to trust? EnergySage has your back with free and transparent quotes from fully vetted providers in your area.
To get started, just answer a few questions about your home — no phone number required. Within a day or two, EnergySage will email you the best options for your needs, and their expert advisers can help you compare quotes and pick a winner.
Utilities also face shortages in conventional generation options, and delays for large natural gas turbines can last years.
“Distributed solar and energy storage are now among the fastest ways to add reliable capacity to the grid, and the middle market is where much of that build-out actually happens,” said Peter Davidson, CEO of Aligned Climate Capital.
Homeowners can use EnergySage to compare options and get free solar installation estimates.
The new fund follows six earlier vehicles launched since 2018. Through those funds, the firm acquired 56 projects in 10 states and built an operating portfolio that has generated more than 218 gigawatt-hours of clean electricity.
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Founded in 2019, the company reported about $2.2 billion in total assets under management as of Dec. 31, 2025. It operates through two primary strategies: the Aligned Climate Fund, which invests in venture-stage clean energy technology companies, and Aligned Solar Partners, which owns and operates distributed infrastructure assets.
Transactions across Aligned Climate Capital’s platform included $33 million in construction financing for two Delaware community solar projects and the acquisition of a community solar development in Illinois. Those deals reflect its broader strategy of backing projects that are already advanced enough to move quickly into construction, then supplying the financing and execution needed to complete them.
For homeowners following the same shift toward solar, comparison tools can make a big difference. With EnergySage’s help, the average person can save up to $10,000 on solar purchases and installations. EnergySage’s solar map shows the average cost of a home solar panel system by state, along with details on solar panel incentives for each state; together, these resources help homeowners get the best price for rooftop solar panels and access available incentives.
Adding battery storage to a solar setup is one of the best ways to protect your home during outages, save money on energy, and go off-grid. That aligns with ASP7’s focus on co-located storage, which is increasingly paired with solar as a faster-to-deploy source of reliable capacity. Homeowners can also explore EnergySage for information about home battery storage options, including competitive installation estimates.
💡Go deep on the latest news and trends shaping the residential solar landscape
“These projects need specialized financing and execution, which is what we have built the firm to do,” Davidson said. “The continued support from our investors gives us the capital to keep acquiring and building construction-ready projects.”
Rising electricity demand is fueling a broader wave of solar investment and deployment across the U.S. Here are a few more stories on major funding rounds, battery-backed projects, and new ways to build solar capacity.
• Nexamp secured the largest capital raise to date to expand community solar for U.S. households.
• A Dutch investor made an enormous stake in Silicon Ranch as U.S. solar demand climbed.
• Nevada switched on the largest solar and battery system serving Las Vegas-area electricity needs.
• In California, Avangrid brought a major solar project online with guaranteed long-term revenue.
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DC’s green energy mandate burdens those who can afford it least  Utility Dive
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Cargill is rarely the first name that comes to mind when people talk about wind turbines or solar panels.
The company is better known for beef, sweeteners and animal feed, products made in large and power-hungry plants.
Those plants are now the focus of a push to clean up the electricity that runs them.
Cargill has announced two renewable power agreements in the central United States, covering a wind farm in South Dakota and a solar project in Oklahoma.

Both projects sit within the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), a regional grid serving much of the central US.
That matters because Cargill runs several large facilities in the region.
The wind deal covers 87 megawatts (MW) from the Sweetland Wind project in South Dakota.
The agreement runs for 12.6 years and is expected to generate about 392,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity a year.
Cargill puts the annual saving at roughly 162,000 metric tons (MT) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), a measure that converts different greenhouse gases into a single comparable figure.
The solar half of the pairing is the 85 MW Choctaw Fields Solar project in Oklahoma, for which Cargill previously signed a long-term deal covering its full output.
The project began commercial operations in August 2026.
Cargill projects it will avoid about 1.3 million MT of CO2e over the life of the agreement, or around 86,000 MT a year.
Taken together, the company expects the two projects to support about 3.3 million MT of emissions reductions across their contract terms.
Both deals are virtual power purchase agreements, often called VPPAs.
Under this structure the electricity is delivered to the regional grid rather than to Cargill’s own sites.
The company instead receives the environmental attributes of that renewable generation.
Such contracts are typically financial arrangements that settle against wholesale power prices, which gives developers the revenue certainty they need to secure project funding.
The release does not disclose price terms or explain how the emissions savings were calculated.
It is a distinction worth keeping in mind when reading the headline figures.
Cargill’s explanation is as commercial as it is environmental.
Its operations sit inside its customers’ supply chains, so the electricity used at a beef plant ends up in the carbon footprint of the products those customers buy.
Christina Yagjian, Senior Director of Global Renewable Energy at Cargill, said the pressure is coming from that direction.
“Our customers are looking for ways to reduce emissions from the products they source from us, and we’re partnering closely with them to support their goals,” she said.

“By expanding renewable electricity in the regions where we operate, we can connect our energy sourcing more directly to the products and ingredients we supply to our customers.”
The projects feed into a target to cut absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 25% by 2035 from a 2020 baseline.
Scope 1 covers emissions released directly from a company’s own operations, while Scope 2 covers those from the electricity it buys.
“Absolute” means total tonnage rather than emissions per unit of output, so growth in production cannot hide behind efficiency gains.
Cargill says its renewable electricity portfolio now includes six VPPAs in North America and more than 100 projects across 30 countries.
What the release does not say is how far the company has travelled towards its 25% goal.
Nor does it state what share of Cargill’s electricity demand the two projects cover.
Those gaps matter because power contracts alone cannot deliver the full reduction.
Cargill also points to energy efficiency and onsite energy generation among its other approaches.
For now, the announcement shows a food giant treating power procurement as a supply-chain issue.
Whether the 2035 target is within reach will depend on disclosures yet to come.
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GreenCo, an African renewable energy trading company, has signed a 200 MWac power purchase agreement (PPA) with AXIAN Group for the Kudu solar photovoltaic project. The agreement, announced during the Energy Forum for Africa (EFFA) 2026 in Lusaka, represents GreenCo’s largest PPA to date. At the event, the company also presented Zambia’s Grid Resilience Programme, coordinated by GreenCo Power Services. Discussions covered regional electricity trading, open-access transmission and partnerships with mining companies. GreenCo also engaged with delegates from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Its Founder and Group CEO, Ana Hajduka, received the Innovative Energy Finance Impact Award for pioneering Zambia’s debt-for-energy swap initiative.
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Rooftop solar is reshaping what Portland buyers want and how fast sellers can close  OregonLive.com
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Bill Vitale discusses how solar energy enhances our communities and our planet, with Tony Veloz, Community Development Program Manager with the City of Reading.
Tony, who recently installed an array of solar panels on his rood, describes the installation process and requirements of the property.
Originally aired on BCTV: 10/6/26
For a full listing of BCTV’s live broadcast schedule, visit https://www.bctv.org/tv-schedule/.
This program was produced at the BCTV studio in beautiful downtown Reading, PA. If you’re a member of the Berks County community and are interested in producing or submitting a program for air on BCTV, visit https://www.bctv.org/about-us/propose-a-program/.
#BerksCounty #Pennsylvania #CommunityMedia

From the program: Building Green
Fantastic work and thanks so much for the quick turnaround!  Always a pleasure to work with you and the rest of the BCTV team!
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Thanks for your commitment to communication far and wide, for your technical support, and tireless efforts to bring fresh programs to BCTV. Bravo!
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Patrick Hinton with NessCampbell Crane, left, guides a box of 31 solar panels gently down onto the roof of the Aviation Pavilion as Ian Scott with A&R Solar stands ready to help at the Museum of Flight on Wednesday. When completed, there will be 1,863 individual panels installed on the roof of the Pavilion, providing 1.08 megawatts of power that will power the museum’s West Campus. (Jennifer Buchanan / The Seattle Times)
Patrick Hinton with NessCampbell Crane, left, guides a box of 31 solar panels gently down onto the roof of the Aviation Pavilion as Ian Scott with A&R Solar stands ready to help at the Museum of Flight on Wednesday. When completed, there will be 1,863 individual panels installed on the roof of the Pavilion, providing 1.08 megawatts of power that will power the museum’s West Campus. (Jennifer Buchanan / The Seattle Times)
Seattle may not be known for sunny days, but the Museum of Flight is looking to soak up every sweet ray this city gets as the West Campus, which includes the Space Gallery and the Aviation Pavilion, soars toward going 100% solar.
A towering crane hoisted 1,863 solar panels onto the roof of the museum’s Aviation Pavilion this week — a surface the size of more than two football fields. Each panel weighs about 60 pounds, said Jen Olson, marketing director at A&R Solar, which is installing the panels. It will take about two months for the new panels to be installed and hooked to the building’s power grid.
Sunlight is sparse and short-lived around here in winter, but Olson said the solar panels will provide all of the West Campus’ energy, 1.08 megawatts, year-round through a process called metering.
In the summer, when the sun rises early and hangs out until 10 p.m., the solar panels will produce so much energy that the museum won’t be able to use it all. 
“The system is overproducing what the buildings need at that point,” Olson said. 
That means the excess energy gets dispersed through the grid to power neighboring buildings. In return, the museum gets credits on its energy bill, which it can rely on when the days get shorter and the gloom sets in.
The panels are manufactured in Washington by Silfab, a company that designs them specifically for the North American environment.
The project will cost just over $4 million, but $1.2 million of that is funded by the Washington State Department of Commerce through the Climate Commitment Act, according to the museum. In addition to sustainable energy, the law supports pollution reduction, jobs and public health.
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That kind of top-line total does not show which factories are far enough along.
Photo Credit: iStock
With a steady stream of U.S. solar factory announcements, it’s hard to tell how much of the surge reflects real construction and how much remains on paper.
Using PV Tech Research’s US Domestic Solar Manufacturing Tracker, which separates simple announcements from projects with visible signs of progress, the U.S. has 55.90GW of credible cell manufacturing projects under construction, 41.36GW of module capacity, 22.1GW of polysilicon and ingot capacity, and 13.3GW of wafer capacity.
Publicly disclosed investment include at least $3.2 billion tied to about 19GW of new module capacity and at least $5.8 billion tied to roughly 21.46GW of new cell capacity.
For households, the stakes go beyond factory headlines since going solar is one of the best ways to save money on home energy. Homeowners who want to compare options can try EnergySage to get free solar installation estimates and compare quotes.
Want to go solar but not sure who to trust? EnergySage has your back with free and transparent quotes from fully vetted providers in your area.
To get started, just answer a few questions about your home — no phone number required. Within a day or two, EnergySage will email you the best options for your needs, and their expert advisers can help you compare quotes and pick a winner.
PV Tech said companies have unveiled hundreds of billions of dollars in plans spanning dozens of efforts to build out the U.S. solar supply chain. However, that top-line total doesn’t show which factories are far enough along to become real operating sites.
Those funding numbers are likely conservative because some companies have announced factories without revealing a public dollar amount. That means the verified $3.2 billion for modules and $5.8 billion for cells cover only the portion of the pipeline with disclosed investment values.
More module factories alone wouldn’t close the supply-chain gap if domestic wafer production remains comparatively thin, because that would limit progress toward a more complete U.S.-made solar manufacturing base.
By focusing on credible capacity already under construction, PV Tech Research’s U.S. Domestic Solar Manufacturing Tracker offers clearer tracking.
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To get started, just answer a few questions about your home — no phone number required. Within a day or two, EnergySage will email you the best local options for your needs, and their expert advisers can help you compare quotes and pick a winner.
For consumers considering rooftop solar as the manufacturing picture develops, EnergySage’s solar map shows the average cost of a home solar panel system on a state-by-state level, as well as details on solar panel incentives for each state. With EnergySage’s help, the average person can save up to $10,000 on solar purchases and installations. Together, these resources can help homeowners get the best price for rooftop solar panels and access available incentives.
Adding battery storage to a solar setup is one of the best ways to protect your home during outages, save money on energy, and go off-grid. Homeowners can also explore EnergySage for information about home battery storage options, including competitive installation estimates.
These stories show where the U.S. solar manufacturing boom is turning into real projects and China’s expanding role in solar supply.
• In New Mexico, Ebon Solar promoted a $1 billion cell factory that promises hundreds of jobs.
💡Go deep on the latest news and trends shaping the residential solar landscape
• Heliene and Suniva moved U.S.-made solar panels closer to market with a multimillion-dollar deal.
• First Solar’s Ohio footprint shows America’s largest solar panel maker is already reshaping jobs and local economies.
• Enphase began domestic microinverter manufacturing, expanding a critical U.S. link beyond cells and modules.
• China is heavily invested in the global solar supply chain, sharpening pressure on U.S. factories.
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Solar power is one of the most promising and fastest-growing sources of clean, renewable energy on the planet — and it has had an interesting evolution. It has been available since the 1950s, and President Carter even installed solar water-heating panels in the White House as early as 1979. But utility-scale solar farms barely existed by the turn of the century. In fact, the first large-scale farm capable of supplying power to the grid didn’t go online until 2007. Since then, their numbers have grown so fast that by 2020 they were producing over half of all solar electricity in the United States. In May 2026, solar generated more electricity in the U.S. than coal for the first time ever. 
But as with any kind of large-scale development that moves at such a pace, it’s worth pausing to take a look at what we might be missing. Large solar farms come with a real set of consequences that might not always be the topic of dinner-table conversations. It’s important to note that we’re talking about the large, ground-mounted kind that covers hundreds of acres of land and not the panels on someone’s roof or other solar-powered gadgets that can come in handy for homeowners. They are two very different things, and the downsides of one are not necessarily the downsides of the other.
We’re not aiming to make a case against solar power here, either. It is, after all, one of the best tools we have for generating clean energy at scale. What we are aiming for is to simply lay out what peer-reviewed research and official bodies actually say about the issues that come with these farms. Nothing is perfect, and solar farms are no exception. But understanding where the problems lie is the first step toward doing solar better.
According to a 2024 report by the Economic Research Service, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, most of the land now occupied by large solar farms in rural America was previously used for farming. This has happened even in areas where there was little cropland to begin with. And that’s because solar farms need what farmland offers: flat land with plenty of sun. In other words, solar farms and regular farms compete for the same ground. A 2022 study by researchers Mark and Greta Bolinger, published in the IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, notes that the rapid buildout has raised concerns about land use. It also suggests many more utility-scale solar farms are on their way, given that they are considered central to cutting U.S. carbon emissions.
However, the land taken up by these large solar farms (and wind farms) is still only a small slice when measured against the total amount of farmland in the U.S. In fact, it’s only around 0.05% out of roughly 897 million acres of farmland as of 2020, according to the USDA report. Furthermore, the Bolinger study found that between 2011 and 2019, solar farms became much more space-efficient, with somewhere between 43% and 52% more solar-panel capacity packed into each acre. This means that older figures that many still rely on make solar farms out to be far more land-hungry than they really are.
It’s a fact of life that solar farms work best in dry, sunny places. It’s also a fact of life that these are the places with the least amount of water. While regular photovoltaic (PV) solar farms use very little water, concentrated solar power (CSP) plants can consume large amounts of it. Despite this, CSP plants are increasingly used because they can store heat and continue to generate energy long after the sun has gone down. But the process needs water to clean the mirrors used to concentrate the sunlight, while large amounts are also needed for cooling and steam cycling. Some CSP plants even use as much water as coal-fired power stations, a concern flagged in a 2025 review by a researcher at Al-Baha University in Saudi Arabia.
Northwest China is a region that shows how serious the problem can become. The Chinese government is pushing huge solar projects into the country’s desert areas, where there is an abundance of sunshine and vast open land. But there is little water in these arid regions. A 2023 study in the scientific journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling found that solar power places around 23 times more pressure on water resources in the country’s dry provinces than it does in the wetter ones. It also found that most of the northwest area will not have enough water for future solar expansion unless it gets more supply. Droughts are expected to become more frequent and more severe. The study concludes that solar farms need to be planned around the water that is actually available, especially when using technologies like CSP.
A preliminary research paper from 2025 investigated one of Poland’s oldest photovoltaic solar farms and found elevated levels of indium and antimony in the surrounding soil. Indium can stunt plant growth and interfere with plants’ ability to absorb essential nutrients, while antimony is toxic and can build up in plant tissue. Writing in the scientific journal Environmental Geochemistry and Health, researchers suggest the presence of these chemicals may be down to long-term use of the panels. They imply that as solar panels age, tiny cracks eventually leak micro amounts of metals from inside, which are then carried down by rainwater into the soil below.
The study also noted, however, that the area researched is Upper Silesia, one of Poland’s most heavily mined and industrially developed regions. The far bigger contamination risk actually came from the region’s long history of mining and smelting, with cadmium, chromium, lead, and zinc all showing up in much higher levels. Tests also showed that, despite the elevated levels, concentrations of indium and antimony were only moderate. This suggests that the chemicals had either built up in the soil over time, given the plant’s age, or were already there long before the plant was built. Because of this, the researchers say their work should be considered preliminary, and they call for similar studies to be carried out in areas without the same industrial background before any firm conclusions are drawn.
Solar PV panels are built to last. In fact, they have a lifespan of up to 30 years. Once they get to that ripe old age, their power output drops by roughly a fifth. That decline means farms need to replace them — but those old panels need to be disposed of carefully. While they are generally considered safe during their expected working life, panels that are being retired and disposed of can leach toxic metals like lead and cadmium. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says this varies from panel to panel. But a 2024 review published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal found that most published studies of old panels it examined concluded that crystalline silicon solar panels past their lifespan could qualify as hazardous waste.
That means the scale of what is yet to come could be significant. By 2030, it’s thought there will be up to 8 million tons of discarded PV panels worldwide. By 2050, that number is expected to reach 60 to 78 million. Recycling them is an option. But because solar panels are not yet classified as federal universal waste in the U.S., disposal is currently a problem. Rules differ from state to state, and it’s clear something needs to be done sooner rather than later. Thankfully, after being petitioned, the EPA is currently working on consistent national rules for how to dispose of solar panels.
Solar farms can pose a serious threat to animals, especially airborne wildlife like birds and bats. This danger is most present at CSP plants, where thousands of mirrors focus sunlight onto a single point. Temperatures in those beams can reach almost 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, and anything flying too close runs the risk of incineration. Even birds that escape with only singed wings can face a slow death because they can no longer fly, cannot feed, and become an easy target for predators.
A 2025 review by P.A. Fleming, published in the journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, estimates around 17 million bird deaths caused by solar facilities around the world every year. CSP plants account for 5.6 times more bird deaths per megawatt and considerably more bat fatalities than PV farms. Among the CSP facilities where such incidents have commonly occurred is the Ivanpah plant in the Mojave Desert, where hundreds of birds are found dead or injured every year.
However, panel and infrastructure collisions are also common at PV farms, especially when the panels reflect polarized light. To birds passing overhead, this can look like sunlight reflecting off water, so they may dive toward it at speed. That said, the review also states that fatality numbers among birds recorded at solar facilities are still much lower than those counted on highways and roads, regular buildings, and fossil power plants.
The same review, published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, shows that the threat posed to wildlife also includes trapping and displacement. The sheer size of these solar farms means they can break up natural habitats and create barriers on routes animals use for daily movement and migration. A farm’s perimeter fencing can also trap large birds that find their way inside and don’t have enough space to take off again. Waterbirds, such as ducks and cormorants, also need to build up speed to get airborne, so they are particularly vulnerable and often get stranded.
Ground-dwelling birds face their own particular risks. At the Ivanpah CSP facility in the Mojave Desert, the Greater roadrunner shows up on mortality records at rates you wouldn’t expect from a bird that rarely flies. Then there are birds in flight that are drawn to light-reflecting panels. Even if they avoid a collision, the extra distance the detour adds to their migratory route can drain their energy reserves.
But it’s not only overhead wildlife that is affected. During construction of a solar facility in Pahrump, Nevada, tortoises had to be removed from the site and relocated. It has also been noted that rattlesnakes and mammals like the kit fox and the black-tailed jackrabbit use fence openings at the same facility. It’s not all bad news for wildlife, though. Fleming’s review also notes that some species benefit from solar farms, with their panels and structures offering places to perch, roost, nest, and even forage. Indeed, this floating solar farm is doing a lot more than just generating electricity: It’s providing sheltered spaces and dedicated habitats for aquatic wildlife.
Building a solar farm is a more disruptive process than you might think. One big problem is sediment flux — or dust, to you and me. The dust generated by solar farm construction can affect air quality and can be harmful to health — and not just to us, but to wildlife and farmland, too. It can even affect the solar farms themselves by settling on panels and reducing how much energy they produce, while it can also gradually degrade equipment.
As it turns out, the amount of dust kicked up can be controlled by how you build the farm. A study published in May 2026 tracked how much dust was thrown up at two PV solar farm construction sites in the Mojave Desert. One farm was built the conventional way, stripping out plants and leveling the ground, otherwise known as “blade and grade,” while the other used a method called “overland travel,” where machinery moves across the site with minimal disturbance to soil and vegetation.
Tracking lasted for almost two years, and results were recorded from the moment construction began to the point where the farms started generating power. What the researchers found was rather alarming. The conventional site was shown to generate about 100 times more dust than a patch of undisturbed land nearby. And while the overland-travel farm still produced more dust than the untouched land, it was significantly less than the conventional farm’s, at between just five and 10 times more.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2025 analyzed the sales of almost 9 million properties in the United States alongside data from several thousand large-scale solar facilities. The purpose was to find out what impact a nearby solar farm had on property values. The answer for anyone with a home built near one was not good. In fact, it showed that homes within three miles of a solar farm sold for 4.8% less on average than homes farther away. The closer to the site the property was, the less it went for. The hit dropped to no measurable effect beyond three miles.
Interestingly, it made no difference if you could see the farm from the property. The study put this down to what is known as the “stigma effect.” This is when a price drop comes not from a physical problem but from how people perceive something. On the flip side, both agricultural and vacant land within two miles of a solar farm went up in value by 19.4%, which the study suggests is driven by demand from potential solar leases. The study also showed that when solar farms were built on land that was previously either contaminated or industrial, the effect on nearby home values was actually positive.
Solar panels and their electronics generate electromagnetic fields, or EMFs. They can produce radio interference, which can be strong enough to cause aviation communication problems. In a 2024 review, researchers from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden found that putting panels next to an air traffic control system can reduce its communication range. In fact, in one simulation, the Swedish Defence Research Agency found the system could only reach half its usual range.
Solar panels near airports can also bounce back radar signals, which could result in confusion for air traffic controllers and pilots who need precise locations of aircraft. Because of these risks, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recommends that airports thoroughly check for interference with radar and navigation equipment before installing any panels.
Large installations have caused problems in the past, including a 17-megawatt solar plant in the U.S. that triggered interference with a nearby telephone system. Solar installations have also been found to interfere with amateur radio operators and digital radio, with interference detected across a frequency range from around 10 kHz to several MHz. However, the majority of incidents on record involve small rooftop systems, rather than large-scale solar farms.
When construction starts on a solar farm, foundations are dug, cables are buried, and access roads are built. This can destroy what is under the ground, and sometimes, that can be an undiscovered archaeological site. This problem is exacerbated by rules in places like Denmark. There, solar park sites are not checked for buried remains in the same way other building projects are. Around one-fifth of a typical construction site in Denmark is checked before work begins, but when it comes to solar farms, the share is much smaller.
Pernille Kruse of Museum Sønderjylland points out in a 2025 paper that archaeologists in Denmark are only allowed onto narrow strips of ground where the topsoil will actually be removed. She also notes that trucks have driven across ground that hasn’t been surveyed, which has breached the surface and destroyed buried remains. And she explains that certain buried remains, such as cremation burials, cannot be reconstructed once solar panel posts have been driven through them.
Kruse notes that archaeologists across the border in Germany are experiencing similar problems, and UNESCO has raised similar concerns. The international heritage organization calls for proper checks to ensure anything of historical or archaeological importance is not buried under potential sites first, and, if anything is discovered, for construction to be moved elsewhere or for proper steps to be taken to protect it. Kruse adds that without these checks, solar farms could end up destroying important cultural remains.
This article draws on peer-reviewed research and other authoritative sources, including studies published in leading scientific journals, reports from government bodies, and guidance from international organizations. The process began with two major peer-reviewed studies: a global satellite analysis of 116 solar farms and a comprehensive review of solar facility impacts on wildlife. These were used to identify the key issues, which were then researched further using credible and up-to-date sources. So, now you know some downsides to solar farms; perhaps you’ll be interested to find out how U.S. solar farms are doing a lot more than just generating energy.

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Egypt’s Ministry of Electricity plans to increase power generation by 3,500 megawatts with the launch of a project as part of its five-year (2012-17) energy plan.

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Rain. High 61F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Localized flooding is possible..
Cloudy with periods of rain, some heavy early. Isolated tornadoes possible. Low 58F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 2 to 3 inches of rain expected.
Updated: October 10, 2026 @ 12:36 pm
The 100-bed mansion in Marlborough, Wiltshire, known as Tottenham House. (SWNS)
(SWNS)
(SWNS)
(SWNS)

The 100-bed mansion in Marlborough, Wiltshire, known as Tottenham House. (SWNS)
By Tom Bevan
A billionaire has been given the green light to build a 40-acre solar farm on his land after winning a planning dispute with neighbors.
Hedge fund owner Chris Rokos has been renovating a 100-bed mansion in Marlborough, Wiltshire, known as Tottenham House.
His representatives also submitted plans to Wiltshire Council to turn 40 acres of his 4,500-acre Savernake Estate into a solar farm that were approved despite concerns from locals.
The project “seeks to ensure Tottenham House and Estate’s long-term and sustainable future” by supplying the mansion and its outbuildings with “a sustainable form of power and water to enable its functional operation.”
It had been described by one neighbor in objections as a “substantial visual and historical intrusion.”
(SWNS)
But Rokos can now move forward after Wiltshire Council approved key construction details for the project.
Council planners have partially discharged a planning condition covering construction and environmental management, allowing work on the solar array itself to begin.
The plans for the huge solar farm were initially met with criticism from both neighbors and the local parish council.
And while some praise Rokos’ overall regeneration efforts, fears were also expressed that the huge number of panels would negatively impact the “area of outstanding natural beauty.”
The proposed plot, situated on the northern boundary of the extensive plot, is currently used as pasture for dairy cows and for producing silage.
The site adjoins a public footpath which runs between the hamlet of Durley and St Katharine’s Church and elementary school – though it is shielded from view by trees.
Once operational, the ground-mounted panels are expected to generate around 794,600 kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to meet a significant share of the estate’s energy needs.
(SWNS)
About 44 percent of the electricity produced will be used on site, with the remainder exported to the local grid.
The scheme forms part of efforts to secure a more sustainable future for Tottenham House, one of Wiltshire’s most significant historic properties, which has undergone extensive restoration in recent years.
Despite being located within the estate’s historic parkland, planners concluded the benefits of the project outweighed any harm to the heritage setting.
The array will be screened by existing woodland and new planting designed to reduce its visibility, while the panels will be mounted on screw piles rather than permanent concrete foundations. This means the installation could be removed in the future if required.
The land will also remain in agricultural use, with grazing able to continue around the panels.
The solar project was originally approved as part of a wider package of works that also includes a large water storage lagoon, a new utility water connection and landscape improvements across the estate.
While construction of the solar array can now proceed, further environmental management details will still need to be approved before work begins on other parts of the wider development, including the water lagoon and associated infrastructure.
Several neighbors objected to the initial plans.
(SWNS)
Among them was nearby resident Richard Frics who said: “The restoration of Tottenham House is clearly a very desirable step in reversing the degradation of a Grade 1 Listed mansion, which was on the register of Heritage Assets at Risk.
“The creation of a solar PV array has not previously been mooted and it is in respect of this element of the latest planning application that we wish to lodge our objection.
“We understand that the ground mounted PV array will cover ‘a little over one hectare of ground’.
“Not only will it be situated in an AONB but also a Grade 2* Registered Park and Garden next to a Capability Brown landscape.
“In addition it will be in direct view of the Grade 2* listed stable block. The glare from a three-acre block of glass will massively change the outlook from this protected historic building.
“The proposal will erode the special qualities of this Heritage Landscape. It will also set an undesirable precedent for future planning applications elsewhere in the country.”
Another neighbor Mark Colquhoun added that he commended the overall restoration, which he described as “an exemplary project.”
But he described the solar farm as a “substantial visual and historical intrusion.”
He added: “To place modern energy infrastructure here undermines the character and legibility of this protected setting, contrary to national and local heritage policies.”
The former owner of Tottenham House, the Earl of Cardigan David Brudenell-Bruce, sold the 4,500-acre Savernake Estate to a developer in 2014 for £11.25 million ($15.1 million) after it had been in the same family for 200 years.
Tottenham House was part of the Savernake Estate, which dates back to the Norman Conquest when it was a royal hunting forest.
Originally published on talker.news, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
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Robotics & Automation News
Where Innovation Meets Imagination
October 8, 2026 by Sam Francis
TrinaTracker, a global provider of smart tracking systems and a wholly owned subsidiary of Trinasolar, has launched two self-developed robotic products: Buildex PV Module Installation Robot and Aurora PV Cleaning Robot, to expand its Smart PV Ecosystem.
TrinaTracker is evolving from a tracking system equipment supplier into a smart PV and robotics solution provider.
By integrating high-reliability trackers, AI algorithms, installation and cleaning robots, and engineering and intelligent operations services, the company delivers a full lifecycle solution for PV power plants by optimising plant design, improving construction and O&M (operations and maintenance) quality, and reducing operational costs.
Large-scale PV projects have traditionally relied heavily on manual module installation, resulting in high labour requirements, long construction cycles, higher costs, inconsistent installation precision and safety risks – all of which can hinder standardised deployment.
Buildex reshapes PV construction through automated, standardised and intelligent workflows.
Powered by high-precision AI vision positioning and integrated precision mechanical control systems, Buildex autonomously completes module picking, transportation, alignment and placement.
It adapts to complex terrain and diverse tracker layouts, reducing labour intensity and safety risks while improving installation accuracy and delivery speed for utility-scale PV projects.
Millimetre-level visual perception for precise construction: equipped with industrial 3D cameras and AI vision algorithms, the robot identifies modules and structures to achieve millimetre-accurate alignment and standardised laying. A LiDAR-AI multi-sensing safety system mitigates on-site risks.
Automation sets new efficiency benchmarks: the robot installs up to 90 modules per hour, 3-4 times faster than manual labour. Its innovative fork-and-flip mechanism supports automatic feeding and is compatible with both landscape and portrait mounting, streamlining material handling and site schedules.
Wide compatibility for complex terrain and trackers: the height-adjustable robotic base works with fixed and tracking brackets as well as modules in 1P/2P tracker scenarios. With 17 degree platform levelling capability, it operates reliably on sloped land and expands viable construction scenarios.
Continuous operation to improve construction efficiency: designed for continuous operation, Buildex can help shorten installation cycles, reduce labour requirements and lower overall construction costs.
PV plants operate under harsh outdoor conditions. Dust and stains on module surfaces block sunlight and reduce power generation, undermining long-term plant revenue. Conventional manual cleaning is constrained by terrain, weather, labour and safety risks, making consistent cleaning across large-scale PV plants challenging.
Aurora delivers automated, non-damaging and intelligent cleaning to maintain module cleanliness, support energy yield and reduce long-term O&M costs.
Self-correcting intelligent algorithms for tough sites: powered by high-performance hardware and proprietary self-correction algorithms, Aurora overcomes height offsets of up to 50 mm to sustain continuous cleaning on complex sites.
Autonomous route planning with active risk avoidance: drawing real-time data from the plant, trackers and environmental sensors, it generates optimal cleaning plans and takes proactive safety measures.
Self-powered operation for closed-loop regular O&M: powered by PV modules with self-cleaning functions, it performs unattended cyclic cleaning, reducing routine management workload and expenses.
TrinaTracker’s investment in AI and robotics goes beyond hardware development, representing a strategic expansion of its full-stack “Tracker+” smart energy ecosystem.
AI serves as the digital brain for robotic hardware, connecting construction automation and routine O&M. Physical PV assets are coupled with digital twins to help plant owners lower LCOE and maximise asset value.
Global operational data from TrinaTracker’s worldwide portfolio fuels continuous AI algorithm optimisation, equipping its robots with strong adaptability for complex terrain, extreme weather and dynamic structural conditions.
Robot data integrates with Trina’s digital platform to create a new model of fully automated, intelligent PV plant management.
Gonzalo Baselga, head of TrinaTracker Europe, says: “The launch of Buildex and Aurora robots represents an important step in how we are evolving TrinaTracker beyond tracking hardware towards a more intelligent, integrated approach to utility-scale solar.
“By bringing together trackers, AI, robotics and digital capabilities, we can address challenges across the full lifecycle of a PV plant – from construction through to long-term operation.
“For our customers in Europe, the goal is clear: greater efficiency, lower LCOE and OPEX, stronger asset performance and comprehensive local support.”
The Buildex and Aurora robotics solutions are now available across Europe and Latin America.
Filed Under: Energy, Environment, Infrastructure, News Tagged With: artificial intelligence, aurora, buildex, cleaning robots, construction robots, photovoltaic, pv, renewable energy, robotics, solar automation, solar farms, solar robots, trinasolar, trinatracker, utility scale solar
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New Georgetown solar parts maker plots rapid hiring spree  The Business Journals
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Chile’s Environmental Assessment Service (SEA) has approved the environmental impact statement for the Sidon Solar photovoltaic project, which will include 158.17 MWdc of solar generation and 1,296 MWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity.
Sidon Solar SpA, established by Trina Solar Systems (Chile) SpA in July 2023, will develop the project across the municipalities of Cabrero in the Biobío region and Pemuco in the Ñuble region.
The approved configuration comprises 218,160 solar modules rated at 725 W, installed on 4,040 single-axis trackers. The panels will cover two areas totaling 185.44 hectares and will be supported by 18 transformer stations.
The project’s DC capacity is lower than the 162.55 MWdc included in the configuration submitted for environmental assessment in 2025. That version specified 150 MWac of generation, which also appears as the project’s net capacity in a June 2025 project report from Chile’s Ministry of Energy.
Sidon Solar will also include 324 Huawei Luna2000 battery units across a 30,967-square-meter site. The environmental approval sets total storage capacity at 1,296 MWh, with an injection capacity of 150 MW for five hours. The batteries will shift part of the solar generation for injection into Chile’s National Electricity System (SEN) after dark.
Electricity will be evacuated from the project substation through a 220 kV transmission line to the Entre Ríos substation, which is already connected to the SEN. The 5.7 km line will have a single circuit and a nominal capacity of 170 MVA. Construction of the transmission infrastructure is expected to take 17 months.
The project will occupy 275.31 hectares, including the solar plant and transmission line. The declared investment is $100 million, while the project is expected to operate for 33 years.
Construction is scheduled to take 24 months and is expected to employ an average of 350 workers, with a peak workforce of 600. The operational phase is expected to require 12 workers for maintenance.
Sidon Solar has also committed to promoting the hiring of workers from Cabrero and Pemuco through the municipalities’ employment offices.
From pv magazine LatAm
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North Macedonia–based PiKCELL Group announced on Facebook that it would build a factory for the production of state-of-the-art photovoltaic panels in the Technological Industrial Development Zone (TIDZ) in Tetovo with German company AE Solar.
The construction is planned to begin in October, and the plant should start production as early as March. The factory in North Macedonia’s western part will create 200 jobs, according to the firm headquartered in Skopje.
PiKCELL Group revealed the factory would produce panels composed of multi-junction solar cells of the “latest technology with a 23% efficiency” and that the production capacity would reach 1 GW annually.
PiKCELL Group is a high-tech company for the development and production of monocrystalline and polycrystalline photovoltaic solar modules and photovoltaic thermal modules. The annual production capacity of its existing plant, spanning 4,000 square meters, is 250 MW, according to its website.
The company was established in 2018. One of its founders is Prime Minister of North Macedonia Dimitar Kovačevski.
AE Solar was launched in 2003 in Königsbrunn. The company’s portfolio comprises over 3,200 installations in more than 95 countries. It has factories in Europe and Asia, and the largest single-roof production unit in Europe, located in Georgia, with a capacity of more than 1 GW per year.
The German company announced last year that it would invest EUR 150 million in the construction of a solar panel factory near the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv and that it would open a plant with a capacity of 1 GW per year in Kayseri, Turkey.
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Energies Media
Floating solar power on a massive reservoir has expanded Singapore’s green footprint.
The nation is actively pursuing its ambitious national climate goals, but faces severe land constraints.
By deploying photovoltaics on water bodies, the nation boosts its clean energy generation while overcoming spatial limits.
However, careful monitoring of the panels’ impact on the abundant aquatic wildlife is key to maintaining biodiversity.
Can Singapore successfully balance rapid economic growth with environmental preservation?
Climate change is accelerating, raising concerns and pressures worldwide.
Atmospheric shifts are continuing at a rapid pace due to record-high greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels.
This is despite strict international climate regulations mandating widespread decarbonization.
Island nations, such as Singapore, are especially struggling with the green energy transition.
Singapore has historically heavily relied on imported fossil fuels to power its economy.
Today, natural gas still accounts for 93 percent of its electricity generation, meeting over 60 terawatt-hours of annual demand.
Despite this, the nation aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
However, securing a sustainable energy supply has proven difficult due to physical constraints.
Land scarcity has become a major hurdle for Singapore’s renewable adoption.
The nation has a very high population density.
Available land use is usually prioritized for housing, commerce, industry, and essential transport.
This leaves little to no room for large-scale clean energy facilities, necessitating innovative approaches.
Worldwide, island nations are increasingly turning to solar generation.
Among all renewable energy sources, solar is a viable domestic option, and for Singapore, it is the only one.
The island’s tropical location ensures high solar irradiance year-round.
Yet its spatial limitations make the deployment of standard ground-mounted photovoltaic farms nearly impossible.
Rooftop installations help, but they do not meet large-scale electricity demands alone.
Singapore’s overall power demand increased by 4 percent in 2024.
That is why specialized energy concepts and solutions, such as floating photovoltaics, are rising in popularity.
The nation’s National Water Agency, PUB, has taken a leading role in boosting the deployment of floating solar power.
PUB Singapore oversees all the reservoirs and is actively transforming the water catchment areas into clean energy hubs.
For example, the Tengeh Reservoir hosts 122,000 floating panels, which significantly reduce annual carbon emissions.
However, there are potential ecological trade-offs tied to the floating technology.
Maintaining reservoir ecological integrity is vital, and floating panels can disrupt this.
The Tengeh Reservoir is home to a landmark 60-megawatt floating solar farm.
PUB partnered with Sembcorp to develop the floating facility. The reservoir was chosen due to its massive surface area and low human disturbance.
Before deployment, comprehensive environmental impact surveys were conducted from 2015 to 2018.
This helped create customized floating structures that protect aquatic ecosystems and drinking water quality.
Floats were manufactured with food-grade, UV-resistant polyethylene, which prevents chemical leaching.
The panels feature wide openings to preserve sunlight penetration, thermal mixing, and air exchange.
Water aerators were installed to preserve healthy oxygen levels for fish and microorganisms.
The panels also have an anti-reflective coating that prevents blinding foraging species.
The reservoirs’ smooth-coated otters, fish, and raptors continue to live alongside the floating infrastructure.
In 2025, PUB began an expanded biodiversity survey to build a long-term ecological record.
By using camera traps and continuous water testing, the company can ensure that wildlife safely coexists with the green installations.
Positive long-term findings will help pave the way for floating solar deployment across other reservoirs.
Real-time biodiversity sensors will also help with early detection of ecological shifts.
Ultimately, developers must implement strategic monitoring and management measures to ensure that solar generation does not disrupt local biodiversity.
Anke Maree is a writer with a clear and engaging editorial style. Her work focuses on making complex topics accessible, informative, and relevant for readers across different areas of interest.
Anke Maree is a writer with a clear and engaging editorial style. Her work focuses on making complex topics accessible, informative, and relevant for readers across different areas of interest.
Anke Maree is a writer with a clear and engaging editorial style. Her work focuses on making complex topics accessible, informative, and relevant for readers across different areas of interest.

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Work begins on nearly $100M Orangeburg County solar farm to help meet energy demand  WLTX
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Front-Electrode Engineering Pushes Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells to 33% Efficiency
Perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells have long been heralded as the technology that will carry photovoltaics beyond the limits of silicon, and a new study now shows that one of the most overlooked components of these devices—the front electrode—may hold the key to unlocking their full potential. Researchers report monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem cells reaching a power conversion efficiency of 33.06%, with a certified value of 32.28%, achieved not through exotic new absorber chemistry but through the careful co-optimization of the transparent conductive oxide and the metal grid that sits atop the cell. The work, published in Advanced Science, offers a practical blueprint for the industrialization of tandem technology at a moment when global photovoltaic capacity has surged to nearly 3 terawatts and solar power now supplies more than 10% of global electricity demand.
The motivation behind the study stems from a fundamental tension in solar cell design. Crystalline silicon cells, the workhorse of the photovoltaic industry, have reached a record efficiency of 28.1%, uncomfortably close to their theoretical ceiling of 29.4%. Perovskite/silicon tandems sidestep this bottleneck by stacking a wide-bandgap perovskite absorber on top of a silicon bottom cell, allowing the device to harvest different portions of the solar spectrum. Yet while the past decade has seen intense research into perovskite passivation, interconnecting layers, and sub-cell compatibility, the front electrode—the transparent conductive oxide layer paired with an opaque metal grid—has received comparatively little attention. In most tandem configurations, the transparent conductive oxide extracts charge carriers from the transport layer and moves them laterally to the metal grid, which then feeds the current into the external circuit. Every step of that journey dissipates energy, and the metal grid itself casts shadows that block incoming light.
The research team began by replacing the industry-standard transparent electrode material, zinc-doped indium oxide (IZO), with tungsten-doped indium oxide (IWO). Both films, roughly 40 nanometers thick, were deposited on quartz glass by reactive plasma deposition. Optical measurements showed that IWO maintained an average transmittance of 80.5%, slightly better than IZO’s 80.0%, with the advantage concentrated at wavelengths above 450 nanometers—particularly in the near-infrared region that matters enormously for tandem cells, where the silicon bottom cell depends on long-wavelength photons passing through the front layers. Hall effect measurements revealed that IWO also carried a higher carrier concentration of 3.88 × 10²⁰ cm⁻³ compared with IZO’s 3.55 × 10²⁰ cm⁻³, along with improved mobility, cutting the sheet resistance from 99.0 to 88.5 ohms per square and thereby reducing lateral resistive losses.
The electrical benefits of IWO extended deep into the device physics. Kelvin probe force microscopy and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy showed that IWO possesses a work function of just 4.87 electron-volts, substantially lower than the 5.46 eV of IZO and the 5.54 eV of the tin oxide buffer layer beneath it. This favorable energy-level alignment narrows the energetic offset between the electrode and the adjacent functional layers, facilitating efficient electron extraction. Photoluminescence measurements confirmed the consequence: perovskite stacks paired with IWO exhibited weaker emission and shorter carrier lifetimes, signatures of faster carrier removal rather than recombination. Luminescence mapping further showed that IWO-based stacks delivered more homogeneous emission across the film, a reflection of the electrode’s uniform surface potential distribution.
When translated into complete tandem devices, the gains were immediate. With identical metal grids, IZO-based champion cells achieved a maximum efficiency of 31.65%, with a short-circuit current density of 20.51 mA/cm², an open-circuit voltage of 1.96 V, and a fill factor of 78.74%. Swapping in IWO lifted the champion efficiency to 32.49%, driven primarily by an increase in the fill factor to 79.51%, alongside a modest current rise to 20.74 mA/cm² and a stable voltage of 1.97 V. External quantum efficiency measurements showed that IWO alleviated the current mismatch between the perovskite top sub-cell and the silicon bottom sub-cell, with integrated currents of 21.06 and 20.65 mA/cm² respectively, and improved the photo-response in the near-infrared. Stability testing added further reassurance: after 500 hours of maximum power point tracking under one-sun illumination, unencapsulated IWO devices retained 91.3% of their initial efficiency, compared with only 86.1% for IZO counterparts.
Even with the improved transparent electrode, the fill factor remained below the theoretical limit, and the researchers traced the discrepancy to series resistance from a non-optimized metal grid. Rather than relying on costly trial-and-error fabrication, the team developed a custom simulation program that models how grid geometry affects total power loss. The model incorporates the sheet resistance of the transparent conductive oxide, the width, height, and resistivity of the metal fingers, the grid spacing, and the contact resistance between the oxide and the metal. Crucially, it revealed that while some parameters influence power loss monotonically, finger width and grid spacing behave non-monotonically because of an inherent trade-off: wider, more closely spaced fingers block more sunlight, while narrower, widely spaced fingers force current to travel farther through the resistive oxide layer.
Contour plots of the simulated power loss divided the design space into two regimes. In the high-loss region, increasing grid width and decreasing spacing drove the total loss ratio from 0.2 to 0.7 as shading came to dominate. In the low-loss region, shading and resistive contributions balanced, keeping the loss ratio below 0.1, with the minimum occurring for grid widths below 100 micrometers and spacings below 5 millimeters. The simulations also showed that higher sheet resistance demands tighter grid spacing to shorten lateral transport distances, while the optimal grid width remained fixed at approximately 25 micrometers regardless of the oxide’s sheet resistance—a strikingly universal design rule.
Experimental verification followed. Fabricating tandems with grid widths of 51.09, 92.96, 130.65, and 176.71 micrometers at a fixed spacing, the team watched the short-circuit current decline monotonically as the theoretical shading ratio climbed from 1.52% to 5.15%. Although wider lines slightly improved the fill factor by lowering series resistance, the shading penalty dominated, and overall efficiency fell. The narrowest achievable grid, at 51.09 micrometers, delivered the best performance. Varying the spacing at fixed width told the complementary story: narrowing the spacing from 3.3 to 2.5 millimeters raised shading only modestly, from 1.52% to 2.99%, while substantially boosting the fill factor by shortening the lateral carrier transport distance. The champion device, combining a 50-micrometer grid width with 2.5-millimeter spacing, achieved 33.06% efficiency with a fill factor of 80.87%—the optimal balance point between the two competing loss mechanisms.
The implications reach well beyond the laboratory. The researchers note that industrial metallization techniques such as screen printing, electroplating, and laser transfer printing can already produce metal fingers as narrow as 10 micrometers, meaning the design principles established here translate directly to manufacturing. Challenges remain, including the development of low-temperature curable silver pastes compatible with the perovskite thermal budget, the oxidation susceptibility of cheaper copper-based alternatives, and the corrosive wet chemistry of electroplating routes. On the transparent electrode side, scaling uniform IWO deposition to large areas and reducing dependence on costly indium are flagged as critical next steps. Still, by demonstrating that a humble electrode—long treated as an afterthought—can push tandem cells past the 33% threshold, the study makes a compelling case that the fastest route to cheaper, more efficient solar power may lie in the details hiding in plain sight.
Subject of Research: Front-electrode engineering of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells to balance shading and resistive losses
Article Title: Balancing Shading and Resistive Losses: 33% Efficient Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells via Front‐Electrode Engineering
Article References: Ji, Y., Wang, F., Li, J., Luo, Y., Zhang, H., Liu, Q., Chen, P., Yao, K., Shi, Q., Meng, F., Zhang, L., Yang, C., Liu, J., Liu, Z., Liu, W., & Yu, J. (2026). Balancing Shading and Resistive Losses: 33% Efficient Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells via Front‐Electrode Engineering. Advanced Science, Article e78191. https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.78191
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1002/advs.78191
Keywords: perovskite, silicon, tandem solar cells, transparent conductive oxide, IWO, metal grid, fill factor, shading loss, resistive loss, photovoltaics, solar energy efficiency, electrode engineering
News Source: Denise Maddox. (October 10, 2026). Front-Electrode Engineering Pushes Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells to 33% Efficiency. Scienmag.
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ROBERTSON COUNTY, Texas (KBTX) – Robertson County will soon be home to what developers describe as the largest solar project ever built at an existing coal plant in North America.
Construction began this summer on Big Rooter Power, a $1.7 billion energy project built alongside the current Twin Oaks Power Plant.
Spanning nearly 10,000 acres, the project will feature a 1.2-gigawatt solar farm powered by 2 million panels.
Plans also include a robust 1.6-gigawatt-hour battery storage facility, more than 20 miles of transmission lines, and enough high-tech infrastructure to support a potential future data center.
Designed to feed entirely into the ERCOT grid, the facility’s combined solar and battery output will flow straight to the state’s power network.
The Big Rooter Power project is split into two sections, the west and the east. The western half of the project is scheduled to go online in August 2028, with the east site finishing the following year.
Once complete, the development will be more than 13 times the size of the city of Franklin.
Panamint Capital, the project’s developer, said the project’s scale reflects rising energy demand in Texas.
“You’re having like a major increase in demand with your load growth, and Texas is seeing that,” said Julia Olguin, Panamint Capital Chief Operating Officer.
“It’s important that as developers that we’re out there building these solar generation facilities now in order for us to make sure that we keep the cost low,” Olguin said.
Rather than shutting down the decades-old Twin Oaks coal plant, Panamint Capital is integrating a 1.2-gigawatt solar array directly alongside it.
As Olguin explained, leaning on existing infrastructure avoids environmental disruption.
“We already have a plant that’s been here for years, we have a mine that’s been here for years, so the difference in our philosophy and our vision is that we’re not going out and cutting down trees and destroying land that’s not been repurposed, this is all reclaimed land,” Olguin said.
The 310-megawatt coal plant and new solar generation will operate in tandem for now, combining to output 1.5 gigawatts — enough to power at least 300,000 homes — while extensive on-site battery systems store and sustain that power hours after sunset.
The site reserves 790 megawatts of capacity for a potential data center, though Panamint notes that this portion of the project is not a done deal yet.
“I don’t want to say, yes, we are doing a data center because I don’t know the answer to that yet,” Olguin said. “It is part of our plan, and as we step through this process and as it gets closer, we would be more than happy to let the community know.”
Panamint said studies are underway on how a data center would work on or near the site, which could open within five years.
Plugging in new, clean energy into existing infrastructure speeds up construction, but the long-term lifespan of the coal plant remains uncertain.
“I don’t have a direct answer for that because we are doing quite a bit of cost analysis right now and just kind of seeing where’s the best fit for us to move forward,” Olguin said.
Panamint, however, ensures that current workers will not be left behind.
“It is our goal to keep everybody employed and moving forward and having a future here,” Olguin said.
Big Rooter Power will bring 800 temporary construction jobs, but long-term operation of the solar farm will require a skeleton crew.
According to tax abatement documents KBTX obtained, the contract requires only four full-time jobs. Those four employees also do not have to be residents of Robertson County.
“It’ll be about 5 to 10 people to manage the facility,” Olguin said. “They’re just really low maintenance.”
For some neighbors, the project threatens the rural way of life they moved to Robertson County to find.
Shane Bonnin and his wife bought 50 acres off FM 46 about three years ago.
“We just fell in love with it; we fell in love with the people, the land… beautiful land,” Bonnin said.
It was supposed to be their forever home. Instead, their wide-open horizon is about to become a sea of solar panels.
“It’s going to be right there, looking at us,” Bonnin said. “It is a huge, huge project… and they are putting panels on every inch of land they can find.”
The acreage behind the Bonnins’ property was previously mined for coal, but mining operations moved away years ago, and the land was reclaimed.
“And just when they were moving down, and we were getting some peace and fixing to plant the trees back, and the wildlife was really coming back strong… That’s when we found out,” Bonnin said.
A “for sale” sign now sits in front of the Bonnins’ home. Shane said potential buyers have backed out after learning about the project.
“Everybody drives by and loves the house, and they say, ‘We love what y’all have done out there, we love it,’ but now that this project’s coming in, they’re like, ‘We are so sorry, you’re not going to be able to sell that place, nobody is going to buy it,’ and that’s unless I come down a third of what it’s worth and we just can’t do that,” Bonnin said.
The Bonnins are not the only ones being impacted.
A neighboring home’s front door will sit about 150 feet from where the first row of solar panels will be placed.
“The dust is going to be so bad for them. I mean it’s just going to be horrible for them,” Bonnin said.
Bonnin said county leaders did not adequately inform the community about where exactly the project would be located, and now they are paying the price.
“There was very little transparency at all,” Bonnin said.
Panamint Capital agreed to remove a nearby construction entrance and plant vegetation buffers but did not agree to buy the Bonnins’ home.
With more potential projects on the horizon, Shane worries about rural Robertson County’s future.
“People can do what they want on their land, but we don’t need to give them the incentives to come to do these types of projects because once you give one, it’s a floodgate. They all follow,” Bonnin said.
Robertson County leaders agreed to a 10-year, 100% property tax break under Chapter 312 tax abatement rules on all new equipment built at the site.
In exchange, Panamint agreed to annual payments in lieu of taxes, known as PILOT payments.
The deal has sparked financial scrutiny over the projected revenue gap.
County officials estimate that standard, unabated property taxes would have yielded between $25 million and $30 million over the 10-year span.
By contrast, the contract guarantees the county just over $13 million. Even if operations scale up to full capacity—pushing the guaranteed figure closer to $17 million, plus an additional $2 million in land taxes for a $19 million total—the agreement still results in a $6 million to $11 million discount compared to standard taxation.
And County Judge Joe David Scarpinato said the project was coming regardless of the deal.
“They were coming no matter what we did, and that’s the reason why we didn’t get as many protections in place that we wanted… We got what we could get,” Scarpinato said.
Scarpinato said the agreement provides 10 years of budget predictability and avoids potential tax court battles over appraisal value protests.
“For these purposes we are not using it for an incentive; we are using it for, kind of, control,” Scarpinato said.
Scarpinato said the deal was the best option available because Texas counties have no zoning authority.
“Counties don’t have any control to regulate; this is the only regulatory tool we have for these projects. I don’t think it’s fair… And you’ve got several counties banding together sending resolutions in to our legislature, senators, anybody, ERCOT, asking for more control,” Scarpinato said.
Scarpinato said locking in cash payments protects the county against the depreciation of solar equipment as coal revenue winds down.
The contract requires four full-time jobs, basic road repairs and a $200,000 road deposit.
The tax abatement agreement includes no protections for residents living near the project.
Documents obtained by KBTX include a heavily redacted map of the project’s reinvestment zones, making it difficult to determine where exactly the facilities will be located.
Scarpinato admitted that the county did not know the exact project boundaries upfront before approving the deal, and now some residents are facing visual impacts without protections in place.
“We don’t take that lightly, and we understand why they are upset,” Scarpinato said.
Now the county is relying on company promises to build vegetation buffers and landscaping.
Scarpinato said relying on a verbal agreement was a mistake the county will not make again.
“That’s some of the things we couldn’t get up front with them… they were dead set on what they wanted to do. We’re gonna dig our feet in and get some protections for the neighboring properties,” Scarpinato said. “They’ve been a good neighbor for 40 years… We were hoping they would step up and abide by what we asked… and we learned, no, you gotta get it in writing.”
Scarpinato said the county held the legally required public meetings for the project, but acknowledged more could have been done to advertise those meetings to the community.
“Everything that we needed to do was posted properly; it’s just… Maybe they wanted it posted on Facebook… I don’t know… But we are going to consider that as we move forward with any new projects… Getting the information out,” Scarpinato said.
He said in the future, he plans to require developers to host town halls to handle community outreach themselves.
“Getting the developer to take the brunt of the heat because you know some of these projects aren’t popular and … make them do their groundwork informing the public to help the county out,” Scarpinato said.
A future data center, which could be built within five years, would draw more than double the power the Twin Oaks coal plant currently produces.
“That’s why we want to get in front of it… So we can do what we can do to protect the county,” Scarpinato said.
Scarpinato said Panamint did not disclose plans for a data center during tax negotiations, and the county is now preparing for that possibility.
“It is a benefit to the tax base… But at the same time… where are they going to put it, what is it going to be next to? And hopefully we got the team in place with the consultant we’ve hired, we’ve got attorneys on board… that give us those protections going forward,” Scarpinato said.
Some residents have raised questions and concerns about the wildlife being affected by the expansive solar farm.
When KBTX asked Panamint about the environmental impact, we were told animals find a way to adapt to the industrial equipment.
“You’re probably going to get a kick at how they like to relax underneath the solar panels,” Olguin said.
Panamint Capital estimates Big Rooter West alone will generate 66 million dollars for Robertson County and local school districts over its full operating lifespan.
Panamint said they will continue to work with landowners to address their needs, including vegetation buffers, road adjustments, and other project-related considerations.
Copyright 2026 KBTX. All rights reserved.

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Explore SummitExplore-summit | Oct 9, 2026
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The Summit High School mountain bike team is having a banner year. After attaining its first Division 1 win in team history on Aug. 24, 2025, Summit has continued to go on a tear, securing top-10 finishes and being crowned team champions. Coming off its third-straight team win at the Cloud City Challenge in Leadville on Sept. 21, Summit traveled to Buena Vista for its final regular season race, the Chalk Creek Stampede, on Oct. 4. The team won the race, due in no small part to the efforts of the team’s freshmen. The team was also awarded the Division 1 Piedra Region overall trophy. The Tigers were slated to have 27 athletes compete at the Colorado High School Cycling League’s state competition starting on Oct. 18.
— From the Oct. 8, 2025, edition of Summit Daily News
Public Health Director Amy Wineland reported Summit County was experiencing a downward trend in COVID-19 cases during a joint Board of Health and Summit Board of County Commissioners meeting on Oct. 5, 2021. Though the community’s incidence rate continued to hover between 100 and 200 cases per 100,000 people, the community’s confirmed and probable cases were both decreasing along with the percent positivity rate. Wineland pointed out that while people should be optimistic about where the community’s numbers are heading, there could still be setbacks on the horizon as the cold weather brings people back indoors. She encouraged people to continue to mask up and stay home when sick.
— From the Oct. 7, 2021, edition of Summit Daily News
The opening of the Flight For Life Mahany Heroes Park in Frisco on Oct. 8, 2016, was the first time Patrick Mahany’s family got to see a plaque honoring the man who died July 3, 2015, when his Flight For Life helicopter crashed in the parking lot of the Summit Medical Center. Julie Kelble, the chair of the park committee, spoke and explained the many pieces of symbolism throughout the park. She read the names of the 15 people who were working on the day of the crash to get pilot Patrick Mahany and crew members Matt Bowe and Dave Repsher away from the resulting fire. In the park there are 15 aspen trees planted in their honor.
— From the Oct. 9, 2016, edition of Summit Daily News
The Summit County Sheriff’s office is looking for leads after a $3,500 four-panel solar array was taken from the Section House hut on Boreas Pass. Representatives from the Summit Huts Association, the nonprofit that owns the building and arrays, told authorities they hadn’t checked on the building for several weeks when they arrived Oct. 1, 2011 to find the array was missing. The array was located behind the buildings, and well out of sight from the road, and there was no sign of damage to the 8-foot pole it was mounted on.
— From the Oct. 5, 2011, edition of Summit Daily News
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A passenger rail project covering 642 miles of track in Colorado may become a reality within three to five years, according to a Colorado Department of Transportation proposal. Still, officials say residents shouldn’t don’t look for a link between Denver International Airport and Vail along Interstate 70 anytime soon. A comprehensive nine-month study evaluated the feasibility of passenger rail service in 18 corridors around the state and narrowed the group down to the highest performers. A steering committee recommended the following corridors be included in the core system:. Fort Collins to Denver, Colorado Springs to Denver, Steamboat Springs to Vail to Aspen, Grand Junction to Glenwood Springs, Vail to Leadville, and Denver to Winter Park to Steamboat Springs. Designers opted against a Vail-to-Denver corridor along l-70 because of the price tag — $ 1.2 billion. 
— From the Oct. 7, 1996, edition of Summit Daily News
Thomas Tonge, the versatile correspondent of New York and London journals who specializes in mining, manufacturing and scenic write-ups, arrived in Breckenridge from Denver on Oct. 5, 1901. Tonge stays until Oct. 7 as he worked on a descriptive article about the placer mining properties in the area. He was reportedly well please with the present and prospective conditions of the territory, and his articles will likely be read with eager interest by all citizens and well-wishers of Breckenridge.
— From the Oct. 12, 1901, edition of Summit County Journal

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Independent power producer ContourGlobal has marked the start of construction on Project Sterling, a hybrid solar-plus-storage facility in Mohave County, Arizona, according to pv-tech.org. The project is privately funded, following the company’s securing of an equity bridge loan from an international banking syndicate.
Project Sterling pairs 450MWac of solar photovoltaic capacity with a 1.4 GWh battery energy storage system. The storage portion consists of 300 containers using lithium iron phosphate batteries. Once operational, the site is projected to produce more than 1.1 TWh of clean electricity annually.
Roughly 90% of the energy generated will be sold through a power purchase agreement with Tesla, signed in July 2026. That offtake arrangement is described as one of the largest hybrid solar-plus-storage agreements completed to date.
The installation will occupy more than 2,000 acres in one of the sunniest parts of the United States and is expected to be finished in 2028. Its infrastructure will include a 5.2 mile road linking the site to Route 66.
Antonio Cammisecra, president and chief executive of ContourGlobal, commented that the project is designed around the specific needs of the customer, enabling reliable clean power delivery for up to 16 hours a day by storing part of the solar output for use after sunset.
The groundbreaking took place a week after ContourGlobal finished construction of a 324MW solar facility in Colorado, which is currently the company’s largest operating solar plant.
Arizona ranks fourth among U.S. states for total installed solar capacity, with 13.2GW in place, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Since 2022, the state’s annual solar installations have increased to more than 2GW, most of it utility-scale. Arizona is expected to add 18.4GW of new solar capacity over the next five years.
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By Griffin Beach on Friday, October 9th, 2026 in Columbia Basin News Columbia Basin Top Stories

WALLA WALLA – Walla Walla Public Schools are continuing to power up its student transportation with the completion of a new solar array that will power the district’s electric bus fleet.
The new installation, located at the Southeast Washington Transportation Cooperative, was made possible through a $601,756 grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce Clean Energy Grant program, partially supported by Washington’s Climate Commitment Act.
The array connects directly to charging stations, and district officials anticipate it will reduce operating costs for transportation.
“While it is hard to predict the exact cost savings, we’re anticipating using 84 percent less electricity thanks to these new solar panels,” said WWPS Director of Fiscal Services Janette Jeffris.
Photo courtesy of Walla Walla Public Schools
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“We do understand the concern of the community and want people to know that we fully take our responsibility.”
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After a storm dropped more than 7.5 inches of rain in 24 hours in Orange Beach, Ala., murky water outside the Margaritaville Resort construction site sparked accusations that the development had sent runoff into nearby water.
According to WEAR-TV, residents in Orange Beach posted photos of cloudy water beside the development at the Wharf following the storm, labeling it as runoff and raising questions about whether safeguards at the waterfront project were strong enough.
Jason Alley, development principal for the new resort, told WEAR-TV that the cloudiness cleared in less than 24 hours. “We do understand the concern of the community and want people to know that we fully take our responsibility,” Alley said, adding, “To be very clear, we had no breaches. We had no loss of dirt. None of that actually. None of that happened.” 
According to Alley, the stormwater system at the construction site performed as intended during the heavy rain, and the murky appearance was turbidity — water clouded by suspended sediment.
“What happens when you have an event like we had yesterday is that there’s so much water in the system it moves through the system without being able to be below those sediment pieces, and so while most of the bit-larger sediment particles do settle, some of the finer particles get through, which causes the cloudiness of the water,” Alley said.
The Margaritaville Resort Orange Beach at the Wharf is scheduled to open in late 2027.
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After reports about the murky water came in, the company notified the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and reached out to local environmental groups. Alley also confirmed that crews were sent to the site.
Alley told WEAR-TV that with more rain in the forecast, the site was adding extra silt fencing, hay stacks, and rock to help keep sediment from washing into nearby water.
Alley said, “We are part of the community, and we have always taken those extra steps to make sure we go above and beyond. We will continue to do so.”
Here are a few more stories on the effects of heavy rain involving runoff controls, pollution disputes, cleanup efforts, and flooding.
• A homeowner turned a garage into a green roof with native plants that helps slow runoff.
• Cooke Aquaculture is expected to face a massive pollution lawsuit over waste in waterways.
• In Brighton, England, an urban nature reserve tested a solution to toxic runoff through aquifers.
• After heavy rain, a homeowner watched garden beds float away as the yard washed out.
• On one beach, volunteers launched a cleanup for plastic pollution after polystyrene beads spread.
Get TCD’s free newsletters for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here.
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Conventional hybrids saw a modest 7.7% increase, but plug-in vehicles led the growth.
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Higher gas prices appear to be reshaping New Zealand’s car market, according to Radio New Zealand.
As 91-octane gas rose from 2.90 New Zealand dollars ($1.62) a liter to NZ$3.35 ($1.87) a liter in the third quarter, electric vehicle registrations surged 206% year over year.
The quarter brought 55,317 passenger car registrations, per RNZ. 
That was up 14% year over year and over 50,000 for the first time since late 2023. Overall, new car registrations increased 19%.
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Conventional hybrid registrations increased 7.7%, and plug-in vehicles led the growth. Battery EV registrations jumped 230% year over year, and plug-in hybrid registrations rose 169%.
“I think what we’re seeing at the moment is that there’s quite a big focus from both households and businesses on trying to get the most fuel efficient and cost-effective option,” Brad Olsen, principal economist at Infometrics, said, per RNZ. “Even if they’ve got to pay a bit more up front for a new EV, it’s still got better running costs over time.”
Olsen told RNZ that full battery EVs and plug-in hybrids took a much larger share of the market in the quarter, making up 19% of all car registrations, up from 7%. 
“The number of petrol and diesel registrations continue to fall, and that’s because people are again switching things up, trying to be a little bit more cost-effective and making a much stronger decision on what car they might be purchasing next,” he added.
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Olsen noted that interest in EVs dropped sharply after the clean car discount subsidy was removed in 2023, then started recovering. 
The upswing has continued and has also been supported by more EVs becoming available at different price points, he told RNZ.
Households and businesses are weighing higher purchase prices against the potential to spend less on fuel and other running costs, according to Olsen.
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For families squeezed by price pressures, solar can lower another recurring expense. 
EnergySage can save the average person up to $10,000 on a solar purchase and installation. 
EnergySage’s solar map shows the average cost of a home solar panel system by U.S. state along with details on solar panel incentives in each state, helping homeowners get the best price for rooftop solar panels and access available incentives.
Adding battery storage to a solar setup is one of the best ways to protect your home during outages, save money on energy, and go off-grid. EnergySage has information about home battery storage options, including competitive installation estimates.
“Funnily enough, New Zealand consumers are fairly rational. When prices go high for fuel, people think, ‘Maybe I’m better off looking at an EV,’ and they have,” Olsen told RNZ.
High fuel prices are only one reason more drivers are looking at EVs.
• Across the U.S., fuel prices sparked pump anxiety as drivers reconsidered gas cars.
• For drivers, EVs save money versus gas cars when fueling and maintenance are added.
• Worldwide, EVs now make up 1 in 4 new car sales.
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Suppose a solar developer takes an option on 200 acres at an eventual operating rent of $1,200 per acre. The landowner might expect $240,000 a year once the project starts generating electricity. But if the final project uses only 160 acres and rent applies only to those acres, the first annual payment would be $192,000.
That example raises a question worth settling before any agreement is signed: Which acreage receives operating rent, and when does that rent start?
The payment quoted by a developer is only one part of a long-term solar lease. Option periods, grid connections, annual increases, and land restoration obligations can shape solar land lease payments just as much as the headline rate.
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There is no reliable nationwide average based on completed private solar leases. Most public references describe regional estimates or offers, often from different years.
The University of Wisconsin–Madison Extension reports that landowners in Wisconsin have discussed operating rent ranging from about $500 to more than $1,500 per acre annually. Those figures come from conversations with landowners, not a survey of executed leases.
Penn State Extension reported typical Pennsylvania offers of $1,000 to $1,200 per acre annually in October 2021, within a wider range of $800 to $2,000. Access to electrical infrastructure, project size, and contracted power sales helped explain the variation.
Purdue University’s March 2026 Ag Economy Barometer provides a newer snapshot. In that survey, 12% of farmers said they had discussed leasing their land for solar in the previous six months. About 21% of reported lease rates exceeded $1,500 per acre. The survey also found that 56% of respondents reported offers with an annual escalator clause, most commonly between 2% and 3%.
These sources describe different markets and different kinds of evidence. A comparison of published solar land lease rates and offer data keeps the figures with their source dates instead of turning them into one national estimate.
A developer may need several years to study the property, secure permits, arrange an electricity buyer, and determine whether the grid can accept the power.
An option agreement can give the developer control over the land during that process. Option payments may be considerably lower than the operating rent stated in the proposed lease.
If the project never gets built, the landowner may never receive the operating payments shown in the proposal. The agreement should specify what happens if permits are denied, interconnection costs are too high or the developer decides not to proceed.
The acreage definition also matters. An option may cover the whole property while the final solar facility occupies only part of it. The contract should explain how the paid area is measured and what happens to unused acreage. Access roads, transmission corridors, and other easements can have separate terms.
Consider an illustrative lease with 160 paid acres, a starting rent of $1,200 per acre, a 30-year operating term, and a 2% annual increase.
First-year rent would be $192,000. By year 30, the annual payment would be about $341,000. Adding the payments over the full 30 years gives approximately $7.79 million in nominal operating rent.
The same lease without an annual increase would produce $5.76 million over 30 years, a difference of roughly $2.03 million.
These figures assume the project operates for all 30 years and makes every scheduled payment. They exclude option payments, construction payments, taxes, expenses, and changes in the purchasing power of money.
A solar lease payment calculator can show how the totals change when the paid acreage, starting rent, option period, or escalator changes.
A higher projected total is not necessarily a better offer. The timing of payments, the developer’s obligations, and the risks carried by the landowner still need to be compared.
Grid access is often decisive. A parcel near a substation may be attractive, but the connection can still require upgrades or face delays in the interconnection queue. Developers also consider whether enough of the property can be built on after accounting for wetlands, setbacks, terrain, roads, and local restrictions.
A large property with costly connection work may be less appealing than a smaller one with an easier route to the grid.
The electricity project also has to make financial sense. Power-sale agreements and financing affect how much a developer can pay for land.
Some projects allow farming or grazing alongside electricity generation. The U.S. Department of Energy calls this agrivoltaics, a category that includes growing crops, grazing animals, and maintaining pollinator habitat beneath or between solar arrays.
Sheep can sometimes graze beneath conventional panels and help manage vegetation. Growing crops beneath panels often requires a different design, including taller structures or wider spacing. Those changes can affect construction costs and electricity output.
Landowners should not assume they can continue agricultural work unless the lease explicitly permits it. Access, fencing, water, insurance and the right to receive grazing or crop income should be addressed in writing.
A solar lease may remain in effect after the property changes ownership. It may also include renewal options that extend the commitment beyond the initial operating term.
Before signing, landowners should know who pays property taxes, who repairs construction damage, what happens to drainage and soil, and how the developer must remove equipment when the project closes. Decommissioning security deserves particular attention because restoration can occur decades after signing.
An attorney familiar with agricultural and energy leases can review those obligations alongside the payment terms. The useful comparison is the full agreement, not just the annual price per acre.
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The Chinese are raising solar capacity by repurposing collapsed coal mining grounds.
Worldwide, nations are pressured to accelerate renewable energy deployment to meet international and national climate regulations.
For densely populated China with increasingly limited land, artificial flooded subsidence lakes are ideal sites.
However, deploying floating infrastructure can create unforeseen ecological trade-offs, urging further monitoring.
Will the latest research help developers to strike a balance and protect foundational aquatic ecosystems?
China has become synonymous with green energy, securing its position as the top global renewable producer.
This achievement is driven by the nation’s ambitious, yet contradictory climate targets.
Its primary interim goal is to peak carbon emissions before 2030, then reach complete carbon neutrality by 2060.
Solar power plays an essential role in decarbonizing the economy.
China is the leading photovoltaic manufacturer in the world, with the highest total installed renewable capacity.
Despite China’s clear decarbonization mission, its continued reliance on fossil fuels has been difficult to break.
Nearly 57 percent of the nation’s electricity is still generated by coal and other fossil fuels.
This is regardless of having over 1.28 trillion watts of photovoltaic power.
The nation’s carbon-heavy footprint remains high, as coal plants provide reliable, dispatchable power during intermittent solar production.
To break this dependence, rapid, large-scale deployment is necessary, but land scarcity presents a severe bottleneck.
The development of utility-scale facilities with standard ground-mounted panels requires vast stretches of flat land.
This creates direct conflict with agriculture and urban growth over land-use competition.
Fortunately, land scarcity issues can now be addressed by deploying floating photovoltaic systems.
In China, developers are particularly turning to flooded coal mining subsidence lakes as ideal deployment sites.
Across the nation, underground mining has caused over 4.9 million acres of land to collapse.
This hollowed land then fills with water, becoming artificial subsidence lakes.
Deployment of floating solar panels on artificial water bodies offers distinct benefits.
Ruined, uncultivable land is repurposed, avoiding land conflict.
Additionally, the electrical infrastructure from former coal operations enables cost-effective grid connection.
Furthermore, the water naturally cools the panels, boosting generation efficiency by up to 15 percent.
Nonetheless, these floating structures can also present ecological trade-offs.
A recent study focused on these impacts at a microscopic level.
Floating solar arrays can cause unforeseen shifts in water ecology.
Researchers from Anhui University of Science and Technology conducted the study evaluating floating photovoltaics on the subsidence lake in Huainan.
The team monitored light levels, water column dynamics, and plankton community responses across varying coverage scenarios.
The research placed special focus on physical disturbances during construction.
Additionally, post-installation changes in solar radiation, nutrient levels, and water mixing were also evaluated.
During construction, physical agitation and modified water column mixing triggered early hatching of resting zooplankton.
Light penetration was reduced and thermal conditions changed. This created a surge in small rotifers, which dominated the zooplankton community.
High-coverage panels caused more shading, suppressing algal biomass and photosynthetic activity.
This favored shade-tolerant species and reduced cyanobacteria blooms.
As a result, these high coverage levels significantly altered the foundational aquatic food web.
The study’s findings indicate that floating solar arrays can change underlying water ecosystems, depending on coverage levels.
Chinese developers should carefully refine their design guidelines to prevent potential disruptions.
Leaving open-water corridors for light and air exchange will be key to ensuring vital preservation.
Real-time water quality monitoring will also help with panel configuration adjustments.
Ultimately, floating solar power is essential for boosting green capacity, but requires strategic spatial planning.
The study’s findings can be reviewed with: Gao, Y., Zhou, Y., Song, Y., Duan, J., Kong, L., & Chen, X. (2026). Response of zooplankton and phytoplankton community structure to photovoltaic coverage scenarios: A case study of a coal mining subsidence area in Huainan. Algal Research, 104816.
Anke Maree is a writer with a clear and engaging editorial style. Her work focuses on making complex topics accessible, informative, and relevant for readers across different areas of interest.
Anke Maree is a writer with a clear and engaging editorial style. Her work focuses on making complex topics accessible, informative, and relevant for readers across different areas of interest.
Anke Maree is a writer with a clear and engaging editorial style. Her work focuses on making complex topics accessible, informative, and relevant for readers across different areas of interest.

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Households in Cyprus that invested thousands of euros in rooftop solar panels are seeing their expected savings eroded by increasingly frequent cuts to renewable electricity generation, while the shift from net metering to net billing threatens to make new installations considerably less financially attractive.
The existing net-metering system, which has allowed many households to benefit from generating their own renewable electricity, is increasingly struggling to fulfil its purpose. Excess solar power fed into the electricity grid is forcing authorities to curtail generation more frequently, while the newer net-billing system offers significantly less favourable financial terms than those available just a few years ago.
As a result, homeowners who invested in photovoltaic systems to cover their electricity needs are finding that equipment worth thousands of euros is sitting on their roofs without delivering the returns they expected, or would otherwise have achieved.
The underlying problem is straightforward, although finding a solution is far more complicated.
Cyprus lacks a centralised energy storage system capable of absorbing surplus renewable electricity and providing backup power in the event of grid failures at night. Without such infrastructure, excess electricity generated during periods of high solar production goes to waste.
Net metering is increasingly unable to operate as originally intended because of the large number of photovoltaic installations and the substantial amount of electricity they generate at times when demand is relatively low.
This is why households applying for new photovoltaic systems from 2026 are being placed under the net-billing system.
However, the change does not resolve the underlying problem.
Households with existing net-metering contracts will continue generating electricity and being billed under the same arrangement until their contracts expire.
Each residential contract lasts 15 years. This means someone who installed a photovoltaic system in 2025 will remain under net metering until 2040, when they will move to net billing or another scheme that may have been introduced by then.
The main difference between net metering and net billing lies in how electricity generated and consumed is calculated.
Under net metering, the number of kilowatt-hours produced by a household’s photovoltaic system is offset against the number of kilowatt-hours drawn from the grid.
For example, if a household generates 30 kWh in a day but consumes only 20 kWh, it effectively retains a credit of 10 kWh, which can be carried forward and offset against electricity consumption on subsequent bills.
In practice, net metering allows households to use the electricity grid as an indirect form of energy storage.
Net billing, by contrast, offsets the financial value of electricity rather than the number of kilowatt-hours.
Under this arrangement, the value of electricity exported to the grid when it is generated is compared with the cost of electricity drawn from the grid at another time, such as during the evening.
This distinction can result in substantially higher electricity bills.
During periods of excess renewable generation, electricity prices can fall to extremely low levels. In the evening, however, when conventional power stations supply more of the electricity needed, prices can rise sharply.
Households may therefore receive relatively little for the surplus solar electricity they export during the day while paying considerably more for electricity purchased from the grid at night.
Almost all households with photovoltaic systems are exposed to electricity generation curtailments, regardless of whether they operate under net metering or net billing.
There is, however, an important exception.
Households whose contracts were signed when ripple control systems were not mandatory are exempt from these curtailments because their installations cannot be remotely disconnected or have their production reduced through that mechanism.
An estimated 20,000 residential photovoltaic systems were installed before 2020.
Today, approximately 100,000 households have solar installations, meaning that around 70% to 80% of residential photovoltaic systems are subject to curtailments, while approximately 20,000 older installations are exempt.
An estimated 350,000 to 400,000 other homes in Cyprus do not have photovoltaic systems.
The implications go beyond their inability to generate renewable electricity.
Under the net-metering arrangement, these consumers indirectly subsidise the approximately 100,000 households with rooftop solar panels.
The reason lies in the difference between offsetting units of electricity and offsetting their monetary value.
Under net metering, households with solar panels can offset electricity consumed at night against electricity generated during the day, even though the electricity supplied at night is more expensive to produce.
This difference contributes to higher electricity costs across the system, effectively spreading part of the expense among all consumers.
However, this is not the only imbalance.
A further problem arises from the way electricity generation curtailments are applied.
Both net-metering and net-billing customers are subject to curtailments, despite facing very different financial arrangements.
Households under net billing may receive low electricity prices exported during the day but pay considerably more when purchasing electricity from the grid in the evening.
At the same time, their photovoltaic systems are subject to the same production cuts imposed on net-metering installations.
This places net-billing households at a particular disadvantage: they receive less favourable financial compensation for the electricity they generate while also losing potential production when curtailments are imposed.
In effect, they face both higher electricity costs and reduced returns from their investment.
Under current conditions, and without centralised energy storage, every group of electricity consumers faces some form of financial disadvantage, although households without photovoltaic systems arguably bear the greatest burden.
For those operating under net metering, curtailments reduce the amount of electricity their systems generate, extending the time needed to recover the initial investment.
Households joining net billing face a more difficult calculation.
They must account for both lost production caused by curtailments and potentially higher electricity bills because of the different pricing mechanism.
Consequently, recovering the cost of a new photovoltaic installation could take considerably longer than it did for households that joined the net-metering scheme.
Those without photovoltaic systems, meanwhile, continue paying prevailing electricity prices while indirectly contributing to the costs associated with existing net-metering arrangements.
October and the spring months are the most difficult periods for photovoltaic electricity generation curtailments in Cyprus.
Large commercial solar installations should expect cuts on an almost daily basis during these periods.
Residential installations, meanwhile, can face several hours of lost production on numerous days each month.
There is no straightforward solution.
Homeowners who already have photovoltaic systems, as well as those planning to install them, need to recognise that the time required to recover their investment may be significantly longer because of generation curtailments and the transition from net metering to net billing.
Residential battery storage and systems designed for zero export or self-consumption during curtailment periods are possible options for households seeking to make better use of the electricity they generate.
However, their financial viability depends on each household’s individual circumstances.
Homeowners need to assess the costs and potential benefits of installing batteries or other energy management systems against their electricity consumption patterns and requirements.
There is no single solution that will deliver the same financial benefits to every household.
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University of Tokyo

Japan’s Seventh Strategic Energy Plan sets ambitious targets of 40–50 per cent renewables and 20 per cent nuclear by 2040, but slow reactor restarts, constrained renewable development sites and overwhelming dependence on Chinese solar panels mean the country’s decarbonisation trajectory remains deeply uncertain. The decarbonisation of thermal power generation through ammonia co-firing and hydrogen substitution offers the most realistic plan B should Japan’s primary energy transition pathways fall short of expectations.
Japan is the world’s fifth-largest energy consumer, yet it remains heavily dependent on overseas sources for its energy supply. A stable energy supply has long been regarded as a matter of critical national importance, and the government has pursued a policy of reducing its dependence on oil and diversifying its energy portfolio since the 1973 oil crisis.
As concerns over global climate change intensified from the 1990s, carbon dioxide emissions emerged as a key policy consideration, leading to a growing reliance on nuclear power and natural gas. Consequently, Japan’s oil dependency, which had accounted for nearly 80 per cent of primary energy supply in 1973, declined to approximately 40 per cent by 2010. During the same period, the country’s energy self-sufficiency ratio also improved from approximately 9 to 20 per cent.
This trajectory changed dramatically following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The earthquake and subsequent tsunami triggered a loss of power at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in a meltdown and substantial radioactive releases. All 54 nuclear reactors were progressively shut down and subjected to comprehensive safety reviews, while public confidence in nuclear energy fell drastically.
Nuclear power, which had supplied approximately 25 per cent of Japan’s electricity generation mix, fell to virtually zero by 2014. To compensate for the resulting supply shortfall, ageing thermal power plants were brought back into operation. Japan also sought simultaneously to ensure energy security and achieve decarbonisation by expanding renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. The introduction of the Feed-in Tariff scheme in 2012, which guaranteed long-term and fixed-price purchases for renewable energy by electric utilities companies, stimulated rapid growth in renewable energy deployment, particularly solar photovoltaics.
By 2020, the share of renewables in Japan’s electricity generation mix had more than doubled to over 20 per cent. But this growth has slowed considerably and thermal power generation continues to account for 67.5 per cent of Japan’s domestic electricity supply.
In 2020, then prime minister Yoshihide Suga announced Japan’s aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. As an interim milestone, the 2025 Seventh Strategic Energy Plan reaffirmed the target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 46 per cent relative to 2013 levels by 2030 — a target set earlier in 2021.
The critical question is how Japan can bridge the gap between this ambitious target and the reality that thermal power generation still accounts for almost 70 per cent of electricity production.
To address this challenge, the government revised its nuclear policy in 2024 from ‘reducing dependence’ to ‘maximum utilisation’. Still, the pace of reactor restarts has remained slow — only 11 reactors out of 33 have resumed operation.
At the same time, Japan is not well endowed with renewable energy resources — solar irradiance levels are well below those of major solar markets such as California. The country’s mountainous terrain also means that many of the most favourable development sites have already been exploited. In some cases, aggressive development of solar sites has generated local opposition, leading to renewable energy facilities being viewed by some communities as undesirable infrastructure.
Reflecting these constraints, Japan’s Seventh Strategic Energy Plan adopts a relatively modest target of approximately 20 per cent nuclear generation by 2040 while relying heavily on substantial expansion of renewables, particularly photovoltaic power generation, to achieve its overall objectives. It sets the target share for renewable energies at 40–50 per cent by 2040, meaning photovoltaic installations need to be expanded to more than 200 gigawatts nationwide — 2.5 times more than 2024 levels.
Whether such an ambitious strategy can be realised remains an open question. In 2011, the Japanese Ministry of Environment estimated that the maximum potential of non-residential photovoltaic generation is 150 gigawatts nationwide. Since then, efforts have been made to expand solar capacity, but many stakeholders still view the 200 gigawatts target as challenging.
Given the persistent public scepticism about nuclear safety, progress in nuclear expansion must be accompanied by transparent communication, demonstrated safety performance and sustained efforts to build public trust. Nuclear energy development also requires exceptionally long lead times, often spanning two to three decades, making a bold expansion strategy unrealistic. The government’s shift from a 20–22 per cent nuclear target for 2030 to around 20 per cent for 2040 reflects its recognition that rapid expansion is unlikely.
Renewable energy also faces mounting challenges. In addition to the depletion of suitable development sites, rising labour costs, raw material prices and equipment costs have increased project expenses, reducing investment attractiveness. The near depletion of domestic solar panel manufacturing has resulted in overwhelming dependence on imported products from China, raising concerns regarding economic security and supply chain resilience.
To achieve its decarbonisation and energy security targets, alongside promoting renewable energy and nuclear power, Japan must establish a robust Plan B should these approaches fail to deliver as expected.
An alternative plan lies in the decarbonisation of thermal power generation. In coal-fired power plants, carbon emissions can be reduced through the co-firing with ammonia in existing boilers. Substituting hydrogen for natural gas could also enable electricity generation without direct carbon dioxide emissions during combustion.
The technologies required for these approaches have already been developed and demonstrated. Though widespread adoption remains limited due to the high cost of low-carbon fuels, these technologies represent one of the most promising pathways for achieving large-scale decarbonisation of thermal power generation and are likely to become more important. The Japanese government has so far decided to provide subsidies to nine hydrogen/ammonia projects to accelerate the use of such low-carbon fuels.
Japan is among the few countries that possess both extensive experience in energy transition and a broad portfolio of advanced energy technologies, including nuclear power and renewable energy systems. Successfully navigating this transition would not only establish a new national normal for Japan but also position the country to accelerate energy transitions around the world.
Michio Hashimoto is Professor at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo.
This article appears in the most recent edition of East Asia Forum Quarterly, ‘Japan’s normalisation’, Vol 18, No 3.

EAF | Japan | Japan’s ambitious decarbonisation strategy needs a Plan B
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OLIVIA — Despite setbacks, brothers Larry Rauenhorst and Rolly Rauenhorst are continuing to pursue their claim against Renville-Sibley Cooperative Power Association in a dispute over the state’s net metering law.
Larry Rauenhorst filed a civil lawsuit asking the court to order the power cooperative to compensate them at the average retail rate for the electricity produced by a 37-kilowatt capacity solar system they installed on farmland he owns south of Olivia.
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The brothers installed 10 towers, each 12 feet tall, at dispersed locations in a cornfield. They hold a total of 80 solar panels.
Larry Rauenhorst also filed a petition with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission asking it to reconsider the case brought to it on Aug. 25. He asked the PUC to order the cooperative to pay the retail rate under the net metering law.
The commission voted not to consider the case, deciding it involved a rate dispute and not the practices of the cooperative. The commission said it does not have authority over the rates set by cooperatives.
The dismissal was one of two setbacks for the brothers. The second was a mediation session with the cooperative that failed to reach an agreement, according to Rolly Rauenhorst.
The brothers are working with the University of Minnesota to demonstrate whether agrivoltaics — co-locating agriculture production with solar energy generation — can be economically feasible. The electricity produced on the cropland would be used to power an on-site charging station for an electric tractor and equipment used in farming the land.
Power not used by the farming operation would be provided to the grid through the Renville-Sibley Cooperative Power Association system at the location.
The brothers argue that the state’s net metering law requires the cooperative to compensate them at the average retail rate for electricity. The state’s net metering law requires utilities to pay the retail rate for qualified power facilities of under 40 kilowatts, according to the Rauenhorsts.
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The cooperative argues that it is not obligated to pay the retail rate because it does not believe the system installed in a farm field meets the spirit of the net metering law. It does not serve a house, farm or business and does not offset power that would otherwise be purchased by the brothers.
The small cooperative, with 1,564 members, also argues that paying the retail rate represents a significant cost burden to its members.
The cooperative has offered to compensate the Rauenhorsts at the average avoided cost for the electricity, which is significantly less than the retail rate.
Of the decision to pursue the rulings: “It’s too important not to,” Rolly Rauenhorst said.
According to him, the economics of the system do not work if the cooperative pays only the average avoided cost for electricity provided to the grid.
He said the system they installed is not currently connected to the cooperative’s network and is not producing electricity. The lawsuit asks for $9,000 in compensation for the electricity the system would have produced during 2025.
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A growing number of states are authorizing the use of inexpensive plug-in solar panels people can hang on balconies and back fences. Fire escapes, too. 
Can installing solar panels really be a DIY project? Outside Pensacola, Florida, Eric Henley got his up and running in an afternoon and is now saving about $50 a month on his electric bill.  
“I had the lowest electric bill in May that I have had since I moved here over three years ago,” Henley says. 
Call it “plug-in” or “balcony” solar. Made up of just a few, easily connected panels, these small systems — usually capable of powering a TV, a fridge and a few other appliances but not a whole home — don’t require professional installers. They don’t require building permits or utility interconnection agreements either — the kind of things that can make getting rooftop solar a time-consuming and expensive endeavor in the U.S. 
Plug-in panels turn sunshine into electricity using the same photovoltaic process that rooftop panels do. But because they’re less powerful than larger rooftop systems, rather than routing the electricity through a breaker box, with a plug-in system, you send the electricity through a regular outlet. And because electric lines inside American homes can safely incorporate the amount of electricity a plug-in system can produce, they won’t blow your breakers or fuses.  
Across the country, these small solar power systems are gaining popularity fast. Plug-in solar is now officially authorized in eight states. Twenty-six more have legislation waiting on governors’ desks or bills working their way through state houses. (Technically, plug-in solar is not illegal anywhere in the U.S.) 
Utah was the first state to authorize plug-in solar in March 2025, with near-unanimous, bipartisan support. (Six legislators abstained.)  
What could bring Republicans and Democrats together at this time in history? “Utility bills keep going up and the production cost of solar keeps going down,” explains Cora Stryker of the plug-in solar advocacy group Bright Saver.   
“The technology is one of those win-wins we keep talking about in relation to solar power,” says Ted Kelly, who leads the clean energy program at the global nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund. “Plug-in solar is a relatively easy lift that can save people money and reduce climate and air pollution, all at the same time.” 
Plug-in solar got its start in Germany in 2010, as a result of high electricity prices and popular interest in clean energy. About a decade later, installations in the country, now numbering an estimated 4 million, really took off thanks to the plummeting cost of solar panels, even higher electricity prices resulting from the war in Ukraine, and concern about global warming, explains Lucas Meissner, a research associate at Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin, a technical university.  
As these systems have gained in popularity, prices for the equipment in Europe have fallen significantly, from about $600 for a 400-watt panel in 2022 to $285 today, making the payback period between 1-3 years. It’s a price drop advocates anticipate will happen in the U.S. as the market for plug-in solar expands. 
Another plug-in solar advantage, especially for renters: The panels, often affixed only with zip ties, can easily pack up and go with their owners should they move.
These days, balcony solar’s popularity in Germany is also helping keep electricity prices down by replacing the need for some new power plants. The approximately 1.5 million owners who’ve gone to the trouble of registering their systems on a government website, Meissner says, produce about as much daytime energy as an entire nuclear power facility. 
Word about balcony solar’s success spread to the U.S. in the earlier part of this decade. Stryker heard about it from the writings of Bill McKibben, the well-known climate advocate.  “And like everyone else, I was, like, ‘Wow, what a cool thing! Why don’t we have it here?’” she says.  
Her group, which got its start in January 2025, aims to be both “the AARP and the Costco of clean energy,” she says. In addition to working on state policy, it recently started selling 180-watt and 360-watt systems at cost (plus a $29 membership fee) to residents of 47 states. 
Already, the movement’s success with lawmakers is pretty unprecedented.  
“Usually, you introduce a bill in a state legislature and it takes at least a year for legislators to even get used to the idea,” says EDF’s Kelly. “These easy wins for plug-in solar are huge.” 
 
So is the technology’s potential. Bright Saver estimates the country could host 60 million plug-in solar installations by 2035. “It is available to a totally different group of people who have really been shut out of clean energy generation to offset their electric bills,” Stryker says. “Because it doesn’t often require any building alterations, this is available to renters. It’s available to the kind of people who can’t afford the upfront cost of a rooftop solar system.”
Just to be clear, the 25-year cost savings that come with rooftop solar far exceed those of its plug-in counterpart. “You’re comparing $600 a year in savings to $6,000-15,000 a year,” says Kristina Zagame of EnergySage, which offers consumers free consulting on solar power, electric vehicle charging and heat pump options. “But you’re also comparing a $500–1,000 setup with $30,000 in panels.”
Some of the price difference is attributable to the size of each kind of system — plug-in systems are smaller than rooftop systems, and generally run from 180 watts to about 1.2 kilowatts, whereas the average rooftop system in the U.S., which can power an entire home, is about 7.5 kilowatts. With rooftop solar, you also have to factor in the cost of the electrical work needed to hook up 7.5 kilowatts of power — something that shouldn’t be done by amateurs — as well as costly building permits and permission from the local utility to interconnect with your area’s electric grid. With plug-in solar, none of those are needed.
The only thing required for plug-in solar is enough sunlight and an outdoor dedicated circuit — an outlet that has no other electrical activity on the line. (You might need an electrician to install one, at a cost of up to $300.) 
These systems should also be UL-certified, according to all of the states authorizing plug-in solar so far. 
Plug-in systems have other benefits, too. Like rooftop solar, they can plug into battery packs to supply power during emergencies or to use during certain times of day, like the early evening, when electricity prices tend to be particularly high. 
For Brooklyn, New York resident Priya Mulgaonkar, the process of getting and setting up plug-in solar this spring was actually pretty simple. (Though she doesn’t have a balcony, she does have a fire escape.) She ordered her 180-watt panel online. “I was a little intimidated at first because this enormous box kind of showed up on my doorstep. But it was quite lightweight.” She found it relatively simple to follow the installation instructions, she says. “I think the most nerve-wracking part was just getting it out my window onto my fire escape.” 
Now, she’s looking forward to some noticeable electricity bill savings. And she figures her solar panels — like Henley’s — may inspire her neighbors with a glimpse of what the clean energy future might look like. She says, “Imagine [everyone] walking by a multistory building and seeing balconies and thinking, ‘You could put a solar panel there.’” 
Bright Saver has a user-friendly online calculator that can help you figure that out. It even factors in a variety of possible increases in electricity prices. Wonkier folks might want to take a look at the calculator put out by the Clean Energy States Alliance.  
To take best advantage of plug-in solar, you need at least 6 hours of direct sunlight a day. You can ascertain that the old-fashioned way, simply by spending a day watching the sun. Or check out online tools like SunTrace3D.com. 
Southern exposures work best. East and west can work, too. Be on the lookout for trees and other things that might cast shadows on the panels, which can limit your electricity production. 
It’s safest to plug your solar system into a dedicated outdoor outlet — one that has no other electricity-using appliances or devices attached. Without one, you have to run the system’s electric cord through an open window, which will make your home use more electricity in the long run. 
Depending on their dimensions — many run about 34” by 46” — you can place panels almost anywhere you can zip tie them on or screw them in: a balcony, a railing, a fence, a wall. They even work in backyards or on patios, if you attach them to a ground-mounted frame. Either way, be sure to attach them securely so they don’t blow away in a storm. 
The answer depends on how much electricity you can reasonably use during the day. (Unless you plug your system into a battery pack, you can only use the power when it’s being produced – daylight hours, rain or shine. And you can’t sell any excess power back to your utility. It’s use it or lose it.)  
An average fridge uses about 200 watts of power, a TV runs on less, and smaller appliances like an internet router and most computers, use less than 20 watts. A very efficient washing machine can get by on 400 watts, but some gobble up as many as 1,400. (Check out a machine’s UL label for exact usage.) You probably wouldn’t be able to run a dishwasher off plug-in solar alone, as it can require as many as 2,500 watts of power.  
If you are thinking about getting a battery pack, check local laws to see if they’re allowed in homes in your area.  
Plug-in solar isn’t technically illegal anywhere in the U.S. But using it in a state that has yet to officially authorize it “is in a legal gray area,” says Cora Stryker from the plug-in solar advocacy group Bright Saver. To date, eight states — Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, Utah, Vermont and Virginia — have laws authorizing plug-in systems, although some of these laws don’t go into effect until January 1, 2027.  
Contact EnergySage. It offers consumers free consulting on clean energy projects, including home solar systems, electric vehicle chargers and heat pumps. 
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Premier Energies, an India-based integrated solar cell and module manufacturer, has received orders that are worth INR 4,001 crore (~ $412.97 million) during the July-September quarter. Those orders require the company to supply 2.308 GW of solar cells and modules, and they also require it to execute EPC projects. They have been placed by power producers, by module manufacturers and by EPC companies, whereas the orders of the retail market segment have been kept out of the total. Premier Energies has stated that the order inflow is supporting its growth while its manufacturing capabilities are being expanded. The module manufacturing capacity of the company has nearly doubled to 11.1 GW as a result of that expansion. The solar cell manufacturing capacity has likewise increased from 3.6 GW to 10.6 GW. That increase has followed the commissioning of a 7 GW TOPCon solar cell facility at Naidupeta in Andhra Pradesh in September.
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Solex Energy, an India-based solar PV module manufacturer, has secured two work orders together with its wholly owned subsidiary, Solex Green Energy. The orders are worth INR 194.14 crore (~ $20.05 million) in all, and each of them calls for the supply of TOPCon bifacial glass to glass modules. Solex Green Energy has received the larger order, which is valued at INR 180.98 crore (~ $18.69 million). That order is to be executed by January 2027, as Solex Energy has stated in its filing with the stock exchanges. The parent company has received the smaller order, and that order is worth INR 13.16 crore (~ $1.36 million). Solex has said that the two orders will add to the order pipeline of the group, which is scaling up its module manufacturing. That manufacturing is carried out at Tadkeshwar near Surat, where the company operates a plant with a production capacity of 4 GW.
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U.S. solar photovoltaic manufacturing capital expenditure is forecast to decline year over year in 2027 compared with the roughly $3 billion expected for 2026, according to pv magazine. The publication, in the final installment of its Austin-debrief series, reported that the analysis behind the outlook draws on a bottom-up survey of more than 50 companies active in U.S. manufacturing.
Spending on domestic solar manufacturing reached a peak in 2024 at close to $4 billion, with First Solar and Qcells accounting for more than half of that total. The concentration of their commitments in a single year is described as a one-time effect; had those phases been spread across 2023 or 2025, the 2024 peak would have been less pronounced. Outside those two companies, no other spender operates at the billion-dollar annual level, even though the number of manufacturing sites tied to U.S. solar capex now exceeds 60.
For 2027, the report finds that more than 70% of announcements made over the previous 12 to 18 months that would have required spending that year are either unfunded or stranded. Since 2025, U.S. solar manufacturing capex has been in a minor downturn cycle, a consequence of the heavy 2024 loading by First Solar and Qcells and the absence of another major annual spender.
The largest uncertainty in the 2027 forecast is Tesla and its planned ingot-to-module manufacturing operation, described as potentially the most disruptive play in the history of U.S. solar PV manufacturing. The report notes that the timing of when spending will genuinely begin remains unresolved, as does how long the company intends to keep Chinese equipment in warehouses. Incorporating Tesla’s capex plans and phasing them to drive incremental production volumes across the silicon-based value chain is presented as the missing link for a credible 2030 capex and production forecast, which downstream buyers and upstream equipment and materials suppliers need.
The series previously covered domestic module production forecasting and cell production by quarter through the end of 2027. Themes were discussed at the Solar Manufacturing USA 2026 event held in Austin, Texas, on 22-23 September. The author indicated at that event that capex is the most important aspect of solar market research, with spending cycles central to understanding it. End markets can expand during capex downturns, but such a downturn is likely a symptom of other industry factors that may carry longer-term implications.
Financing details and the phasing of solar manufacturing capital expenditure are described as key to forecasting domestic U.S. productivity out to 2030 and beyond. The report notes that many in the industry have spent recent years relying on interactive mapping tools, a trend begun in 2022 by U.S. trade associations and government portals after the introduction of the IRA. A return to 2030 production forecasting is expected in the coming days, pending the Tesla question.
Interactive table based on the Store Companies dataset for this report.
This report is an independent strategic market study that provides a structured, commercially grounded analysis of the market for Solar Cells and Module in the United States. It is designed for battery and storage manufacturers, power-electronics suppliers, system integrators, EPC partners, developers, utilities, investors, and strategic entrants that need a clear view of deployment demand, technology positioning, manufacturing exposure, safety and qualification burden, project economics, and competitive structure.
The analytical framework is designed to work both for a single specialized storage or conversion component and for a broader renewable energy generation component, where market structure is shaped by chemistry, duration, project economics, system integration, safety requirements, route-to-market, and grid-interface logic rather than by one narrow customs heading alone. It defines Solar Cells and Module as Semiconductor devices that convert sunlight directly into electricity, manufactured as individual cells and assembled into modules (panels) for integration into solar power systems and examines the market through deployment use cases, buyer environments, upstream input dependencies, conversion and integration stages, qualification and safety requirements, pricing architecture, commercial channels, and country capability differences. Historical analysis typically covers 2012 to 2025, with forward-looking scenarios through 2035.
This report is designed to answer the questions that matter most to decision-makers evaluating an energy-storage, battery, renewable-integration, or power-conversion market.
At its core, this report explains how the market for Solar Cells and Module actually functions. It identifies where demand originates, how supply is organized, which technological and regulatory barriers influence adoption, and how value is distributed across the value chain. Rather than describing the market only in broad terms, the study breaks it into analytically meaningful layers: product scope, segmentation, end uses, customer types, production economics, outsourcing structure, country roles, and company archetypes.
The report is particularly useful in markets where buyers are highly specialized, suppliers differ significantly in technical depth and regulatory readiness, and the commercial landscape cannot be understood only through top-line market size figures. In this context, the study is designed not only to estimate the size of the market, but to explain why the market has that size, what drives its growth, which subsegments are the most attractive, and what it takes to compete successfully within it.
The report is based on an independent analytical methodology that combines deep secondary research, structured evidence review, market reconstruction, and multi-level triangulation. The methodology is designed to support products for which there is no single clean official dataset capturing the full market in a directly usable form.
The study typically uses the following evidence hierarchy:
The analytical framework is built around several linked layers.
First, a scope model defines what is included in the market and what is excluded, ensuring that adjacent products, downstream finished goods, unrelated instruments, or broader chemical categories do not distort the market boundary.
Second, a demand model reconstructs the market from the perspective of consuming sectors, workflow stages, and applications. Depending on the product, this may include Grid-connected solar farms, Commercial rooftop installations, Residential solar systems, Industrial self-consumption projects, Off-grid electrification, and Solar-powered consumer electronics and mobility across Power Generation (Utilities/IPPs), Commercial Real Estate, Industrial Manufacturing, Residential Construction, Telecommunications, and Public Infrastructure and Technology R&D and Pilot Lines, Capacity Planning and CAPEX Deployment, Supply Chain Sourcing and Qualification, Manufacturing Process Optimization, Quality Assurance and Certification, Sales Channel and Distribution Setup, and Project Design and System Integration. Demand is then allocated across end users, development stages, and geographic markets.
Third, a supply model evaluates how the market is served. This includes Polysilicon, Silicon Wafers (Mono Grown, Cast Multi), Solar Glass, Encapsulation Materials (EVA, POE), Backsheets, Frames (Aluminum), Silver Paste & Conductive Adhesives, and Specialty Gases and Chemicals, manufacturing technologies such as Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell (PERC), Tunnel Oxide Passivated Contact (TOPCon), Heterojunction Technology (HJT), Interdigitated Back Contact (IBC), Bifacial Module Design, Half-Cell and Shingled Cell Interconnection, and Advanced Module Encapsulation and Framing, quality control requirements, outsourcing, contract manufacturing, integration, and project-delivery participation, distribution structure, and supply-chain concentration risks.
Fourth, a country capability model maps where the market is consumed, where production is materially feasible, where manufacturing capability is limited or emerging, and which countries function primarily as innovation hubs, supply nodes, demand centers, or import-reliant markets.
Fifth, a pricing and economics layer evaluates price corridors, cost drivers, complexity premiums, outsourcing logic, margin structure, and switching barriers. This is especially relevant in markets where product grade, purity, customization, regulatory burden, or service model materially influence economics.
Finally, a competitive intelligence layer profiles the leading company types active in the market and explains how strategic roles differ across upstream material suppliers, component and controls providers, OEMs, storage-system integrators, EPC partners, project developers, and distribution or service channels.
This report covers the market for Solar Cells and Module in its commercially relevant and technologically meaningful form. The scope typically includes the product itself, its major product configurations or variants, the critical technologies used to produce or deliver it, the core input categories required for manufacturing, and the services directly associated with its commercial supply, quality control, or integration into end-user workflows.
Included within scope are the product forms, use cases, inputs, and services that are necessary to understand the actual addressable market around Solar Cells and Module. This usually includes:
Excluded from scope are categories that may be technologically adjacent but do not belong to the core economic market being measured. These usually include:
The exact inclusion and exclusion logic is always a critical part of the study, because the quality of the market estimate depends directly on disciplined scope boundaries.
The report provides focused coverage of the United States market and positions United States within the wider global energy-storage and renewable-integration industry structure.
The geographic analysis explains local deployment demand, domestic capability, import dependence, project-development relevance, safety and approval burden, and the country’s strategic role in the wider market.
This study is designed for strategic, commercial, operations, project-delivery, and investment users, including:
In many energy-transition, storage, power-conversion, and project-driven markets, official trade and production statistics are not sufficient on their own to describe the true market. Product boundaries may cut across multiple tariff codes, several product categories may be bundled into the same official classification, and a meaningful share of activity may take place through customized services, captive supply, platform relationships, or technically specialized channels that are not directly visible in standard statistical datasets.
For this reason, the report is designed as a modeled strategic market study. It uses official and public evidence wherever it is reliable and scope-compatible, but it does not force the market into a purely statistical framework when doing so would reduce analytical quality. Instead, it reconstructs the market through the logic of demand, supply, technology, country roles, and company behavior.
This makes the report particularly well suited to products that are innovation-intensive, technically differentiated, capacity-constrained, platform-dependent, or commercially structured around specialized buyer-supplier relationships rather than standardized commodity trade.
The report typically includes:
The result is a structured, publication-grade market intelligence document that combines quantitative modeling with commercial, technical, and strategic interpretation.
Energy-Storage Market Structure and Company Archetypes
Leading US solar module producer; vertically integrated
Now part of Maxeon Solar Technologies (US HQ); premium residential/commercial
Key supplier for module-level power electronics
Major inverter supplier for residential/commercial
Swiss-origin but US-headquartered subsidiary; US production
US HQ for Hanwha's solar arm; large US factory in Georgia
Chinese parent but US-headquartered sales and distribution
US HQ for Chinese-based manufacturer; major importer
Canadian parent but US-headquartered operations
Chinese parent; US HQ for sales and service
Largest US residential solar company; not a module manufacturer
Acquired by Sunrun; still operates as brand
Major US solar-as-a-service provider
Produces modules at Gigafactory New York
US-based module producer; owned by OCI Company
Canadian-origin but US-headquartered subsidiary
Canadian-origin but US-headquartered manufacturing
Small US module assembler
Focus on aesthetic residential modules
Specializes in architectural solar glass
Acquired by SunPower; coating technology
German-origin but US HQ for sales; wafer technology
Acquired by Hanwha; US-based wafer technology
Focus on perovskite-silicon tandem cells
Acquired by First Solar; technology integrated
US cell and module producer; filed for bankruptcy, restarted
Former US manufacturer; assets acquired by SunPower
Small US module assembler
Part of Saint-Gobain; US HQ for solar roofing
Subsidiary of Standard Industries; US-based
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India’s renewable energy transition has long been tracked through installed capacity figures, but that single measure is no longer adequate, according to pv magazine. The more pressing question is how well the electricity system can absorb, coordinate and extract value from the renewable capacity being added.
The scale is considerable. Data as of Sept. 30, 2026 shows India had 299 GW of renewable energy generation capacity, comprising 171 GW of solar and 59 GW of wind, while total non-fossil capacity reached 308 GW, according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. These figures confirm the volume India has built, yet they also highlight the operational task that lies ahead.
Solar and wind cannot deliver power on demand. Solar output peaks during daylight hours while consumption can stay elevated into the evening, and wind generation fluctuates with weather and location. As variable renewable energy expands, the difficulty shifts from merely adding generation to aligning generation with consumption and making the power system more responsive.
That difficulty is expected to intensify. The International Energy Agency projects India’s electricity demand rising at an annual rate of 6.4% through 2030, adding more than 570 TWh to yearly consumption. The agency also expects variable renewable energy to reach 24% of India’s electricity generation in 2030, up from 14% in 2025. With demand and variable generation both climbing, flexibility becomes a necessity for the grid rather than a choice.
This is where Battery Energy Storage Systems become essential. Yet discussions about BESS frequently focus only on capacity. Capacity matters, but it is not the sole factor determining system value.
Take a battery paired with a solar plant. Charging whenever surplus solar is available may seem logical, but several questions arise: what if a demand spike is expected later, what if the battery must hold a minimum state of charge for ancillary services, what if committed schedules, market opportunities or grid requirements shift within the same operating period, and what if heavy cycling generates value now but shortens the battery’s useful life? The worth of storage therefore rests not only on how much energy a battery can hold but on the ongoing decisions made about that stored energy.
This turns storage into an intelligence problem.
The size of the requirement is clear in India’s planning documents. The Central Electricity Authority estimates that integrating 364 GW of solar and 121 GW of wind through 2031-32 would need 73.93 GW/411.4 GWh of energy storage capacity, of which 47.24 GW/236.22 GWh would be BESS. As of end-2024, India’s energy storage capacity was only 4.86 GW, with 0.11 GW from BESS.
An Energy Management System can no longer serve merely as a tool for monitoring assets or executing pre-programmed schedules. In a renewable-dominated environment, it must become the decision-making system that links generation, storage and grid requirements.
That calls for combining multiple real-time inputs: forecasted generation, demand, state of charge, committed schedules, grid conditions, deviation risk, market signals, charging and discharging limits, and battery degradation. The aim is not just to keep the battery charged and ready, but to continuously identify when stored energy will be most valuable and how to deploy it without breaching technical, operational or economic requirements. In effect, the system must sense, predict, decide and execute.
Such intelligence cannot come from an EMS alone. As renewable plants grow more complex, SCADA, Power Plant Controllers, forecasting, optimisation and Energy Management Systems increasingly need to function as parts of a coordinated control architecture. A renewable or hybrid plant may hold multiple assets and systems, but the grid ultimately needs the plant to act as one coordinated, predictable and responsive entity. That demands reliable visibility into current conditions, the ability to anticipate what is likely to happen, intelligence to choose the right response and control systems able to carry it out.
The February 2025 Advisory from the CEA illustrates this shift in system requirements. It acknowledged the importance of storage for grid stability, reliability and effective energy utilisation, and recommended that future solar tenders include at least two hours of storage co-located with the solar farm, equal to 10% of solar capacity. This moves the discussion beyond batteries to the technology that manages and coordinates them.
India’s cleantech opportunity is therefore not limited to mass production of solar panels, wind turbines and batteries. It also involves building the intelligence and control systems needed to make these components work together. Indigenous EMS, SCADA, PPC, forecasting and optimisation systems can gain strategic importance as the grid becomes more dynamic and storage assets are expected to perform multiple functions.
At Smart Grid Analytics, the approach to the renewable energy control problem has been to treat it not as a set of isolated software systems but as an intelligence layer connecting renewable generation, storage and the grid. The underlying requirement is straightforward: the system needs to know what is happening across the plant, anticipate changing conditions, decide what should happen next and translate that decision into coordinated action.
This becomes more important as the number of assets, operating conditions and decisions grows. Monitoring alone is insufficient. A dashboard may display state of charge, generation or grid condition, but creating value requires determining what action should follow from that information.
The opportunity for India is thus larger than developing individual indigenous technologies. It lies in building indigenous expertise to make sense of an increasingly complex flow of data on generation, storage and grid conditions, and to turn that data into coordinated decisions.
This also suggests that the next wave of energy metrics must move beyond installed capacity numbers. Gigawatts and gigawatt hours will remain important indicators of physical size, but they should increasingly be supplemented by utilisation, responsiveness, renewable energy accommodation, availability, provision of grid services and the value created from installed capacity.
India has shown it can create renewable capacity at large volumes. The challenge ahead is whether that capacity can become more responsive, coordinated and efficient. The next phase of the energy transition will require more than generation and storage assets; it will require the intelligence layer that connects them. The battery creates flexibility, and the intelligence behind it determines how much of that flexibility the grid can harness. The next clean energy benchmark for India may therefore not be a new gigawatt figure, but the ability to get the maximum out of every gigawatt.
The author is the Founder of Smart Grid Analytics. The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those held by pv magazine.
This report provides an in-depth analysis of the Solar Panels market in India, covering market size, growth trajectory, demand structure, supply capability, trade flows, pricing, competitive landscape, and forecast to 2035.
The study is designed for manufacturers, distributors, importers, exporters, investors, procurement teams, advisors, and strategy teams that need a consistent, data-driven view of market dynamics and a transparent analytical definition of the product scope.
This report covers photovoltaic (PV) solar panels, which are devices that convert sunlight directly into electricity. It encompasses the global market for finished modules, including all major product technologies and form factors designed for a wide range of end-use applications.
The report combines the standard market-statistics backbone with strategic chapters that are useful for commercial planning, sourcing decisions, market entry, competitor monitoring, and portfolio prioritization.
The market is segmented into decision-relevant buckets so that demand drivers, pricing logic, supply constraints, and competitive positions can be compared across the same analytical frame.
The market data is classified and analyzed according to international trade codes, primarily under the Harmonized System (HS) headings for photovoltaic cells and electric generating sets. This ensures consistent tracking of trade flows for assembled solar modules and relevant apparatus across global markets.
Coverage focuses on India and includes demand, supply capability where present, trade flows, pricing, competition, and outlook.
The report combines official statistics, trade records, company disclosures, product-level evidence, and analyst validation. Data are standardized, reconciled, and cross-checked to keep market sizing, trade flows, pricing, and forecasts comparable across countries and time periods.
All indicators are mapped to a consistent product definition and reviewed against the segmentation framework used in the Table of Contents.
Report Scope and Analytical Framing
Concise View of Market Direction
Market Size, Growth and Scenario Framing
Commercial and Technical Scope
How the Market Splits Into Decision-Relevant Buckets
Where Demand Comes From and How It Behaves
Supply Footprint and Value Capture
Trade Flows and External Dependence
Price Formation and Revenue Logic
Who Wins and Why
How the Domestic Market Works
Commercial Entry and Scaling Priorities
Where the Best Expansion Logic Sits
Leading Players and Strategic Archetypes
How the Report Was Built
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With utility bill spikes making inflation appear like it's going up at a snail's pace, sticking a bunch of solar panels on the roofs of electric vehicles (EVs) seems logical. However, solar energy and EVs aren't really "friendly" with one another. Just charging an EV with solar panels requires you to track down a backup energy source in order to provide a steady stream of juice — and that's for a stationary car.
So, why isn't there a solar-powered car? It's a combo of limitations in current solar energy tech and car size. Talking about real-world scenarios (one where you'd actually drive the car), the main problem with installing solar roofs on EVs is that the surface of the roof is relatively small, typically around 10 to 25 square feet. In the best conditions, which is the middle of the day, the sun is capable of delivering approximately 92 Watts per square foot.
It depends on the size of the roof and panel efficiency, but this setup will convert only about 20% to 25% of the power, meaning that you'd get maybe a couple of hundred watts. Considering that a run-of-the-mill EV is able to cover three to four miles per kilowatt-hour, solar panels would maybe give you an extra mile of range from an hour of charging — absolutely not enough for regular travel.
Read more: 5 Disadvantages Of Switching To Home Solar Power
While solar-powered EVs may seem far from feasible, they could be arriving faster than you'd expect. In fact, there is a solar-powered BMW EV prototype that may produce enough energy for regular driving. Designed by students from the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research, the car is practically a solar panel on wheels that can collect 5.7 kWh per day. That's enough to cover about 12 miles, which expends approximately 1.6 kWh.
Another advancement on this front is Fuyao Group's solar car sunroof that is designed to charge an EV as it drives. It's not just a solar panel strapped to the top, but rather glass panels embedded with solar cells. The maximum output of 720 watts is too weak to get the car from point A to point B on its own. Nonetheless, it can power onboard electronics, which may give you an extra few miles on the highway.
Solar-powered EVs are not totally uncharted territory. Just these two advancements represent a step in the right direction towards a fully functioning electric car running on solar power. Until then, we can only cross our fingers and hope that this potentially revolutionary vehicle looks like a car worth driving instead of something designed in Roblox.
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The force anticipate between 7,000 and 10,000 demonstrators will attend the pro-Palestine march.

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Austrian company Sunbooster has obtained a European patent covering its vertical photovoltaic solution built for integration into fences, according to pv magazine. The protection now extends across 18 European Union member states, and the company is pursuing a broader presence in the French market.
The product consists of bifacial photovoltaic strips measuring 18.6 cm in height that slide into existing fence panels in place of conventional privacy slats. Each strip carries a rated output of 62 W at a 2-meter length or 79 W at a 2.5-meter length, with a reported conversion efficiency of 22.8%. The vertical orientation is intended to move part of the electricity generation toward the morning and late afternoon hours.
Yann Schremmer, who manages Sunbooster‘s operations in France, told pv magazine that the company is expanding its presence, especially in France, where it has already completed a first installation. That project involved a 20-meter section of solar fencing in Aix-en-Provence with a total capacity of 3.7 kW. A metalworking company supplied the system, which was integrated into the fence of a customer who wanted both privacy and electricity generation.
Pricing for residential customers is set at EUR619 for the 2-meter strip and EUR719 for the 2.5-meter version. Schremmer said the company deliberately set attractive prices for professionals so they can achieve high margins. Sunbooster plans to concentrate on building a distribution network made up of photovoltaic distributors, major retailers, and fence manufacturers.
The bifacial strips use p-type monocrystalline solar cells cut into quarters. They are designed for rigid double-wire mesh fences of 6/5/6 mm or 8/6/8 mm, inserted into the mesh and connected through MC4 connectors positioned on the bottom strip.
According to the manufacturer, the strips carry an IP67 protection rating and operate within a temperature range of -20 C to 60 C. Maximum system voltage is 50.16 V for the 2-meter version and 63.84 V for the 2.5-meter version.
This report provides an in-depth analysis of the Solar Panels market in Austria, covering market size, growth trajectory, demand structure, supply capability, trade flows, pricing, competitive landscape, and forecast to 2035.
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The market data is classified and analyzed according to international trade codes, primarily under the Harmonized System (HS) headings for photovoltaic cells and electric generating sets. This ensures consistent tracking of trade flows for assembled solar modules and relevant apparatus across global markets.
Coverage focuses on Austria and includes demand, supply capability where present, trade flows, pricing, competition, and outlook.
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Renewables Now is a leading business news source for renewable energy professionals globally. Trust us for comprehensive coverage of major deals, projects and industry trends. We’ve done this since 2009.
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