Germany Vehicle Integrated Solar Panels – Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends and Insights – IndexBox

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How value is built from materials and components through validation, OEM integration, and aftermarket delivery.
Where value is created from OEM design-in and qualification through production, service, and replacement cycles.
Germany represents one of the most strategically significant markets for vehicle integrated solar panels globally, combining Europe’s largest automotive production base with ambitious electric vehicle adoption targets and advanced solar technology competencies. The German automotive industry produced approximately 4.1 million vehicles in 2025, of which an estimated 35–40% were electrified powertrains (BEV, PHEV, and mild hybrid), creating a substantial addressable base for solar integration. The product category spans rigid monocrystalline silicon panels, flexible thin-film modules (CIGS and amorphous silicon), conformal solar glass roofs, and structural composite-integrated photovoltaic layers, each occupying distinct application niches based on vehicle type, available surface area, aerodynamic requirements, and cost sensitivity.
The market operates through three principal channels: OEM factory-fit programs where solar panels are integrated during vehicle assembly; Tier 1 integrated module supply for platform-level design-in; and aftermarket distribution and installation networks serving fleet operators, recreational vehicle manufacturers, and specialty converters. Germany’s dense automotive supplier ecosystem, strong engineering services sector, and established PV research infrastructure (including Fraunhofer ISE and multiple automotive-application research clusters) provide a favorable environment for system development, validation, and just-in-sequence delivery to assembly plants. However, the market remains early-stage in adoption terms, with factory-fit solar integration estimated at 2–4% of new EV registrations in Germany during 2025, suggesting considerable headroom for expansion as technology matures, costs decline, and OEM design cycles incorporate solar-ready vehicle architectures.
While absolute market value figures for Germany’s vehicle integrated solar panel market are not publicly reported in aggregated form, growth indicators across multiple demand signals point to sustained double-digit expansion throughout the forecast period. Annual installed capacity (measured in peak kilowatts integrated into vehicles) is estimated to have grown at a compound rate of 25–35% between 2022 and 2025 from a very low baseline, and the pace is expected to moderate to a still-strong 22–28% CAGR through 2035 as scale increases. The growth trajectory is supported by three primary structural drivers: the rising share of BEVs in German new-car registrations (projected to reach 50–60% of new registrations by 2030 under current EU policy trajectories), the increasing average solar panel power output per vehicle as efficiency improves and available surface area utilization expands, and the broadening of solar integration from premium-segment vehicles into volume models.
Segment-level growth dispersion is notable. The passenger EV and PHEV category, which currently accounts for the bulk of installed units, is forecast to maintain the largest volume share but see its proportional weight decline somewhat as commercial vehicle uptake accelerates after 2028. The light commercial vehicle and van segment—where daily driving patterns, depot parking profiles, and auxiliary electrical loads (refrigeration, telematics, tail lifts) create strong economic incentives for solar integration—is projected to grow at a 28–35% CAGR through 2035, making it the fastest-growing application category.
The recreational vehicle segment, while smaller in unit terms, benefits from Germany’s large and affluent caravan and motorhome ownership base, where off-grid power independence carries high perceived value. Revenue growth across all segments is expected to outpace unit growth through at least 2030 as average system power ratings increase and premium technologies (bifacial, V2G-capable) gain share, before cost-down effects begin to moderate revenue-per-unit trajectories in the 2032–2035 timeframe.
Demand for vehicle integrated solar panels in Germany is structured across four distinct technology types and five end-use sectors, with significant variation in adoption maturity, willingness to pay, and technical requirements. By technology type, rigid monocrystalline silicon panels dominated the installed base in 2025 with an estimated 55–65% share, favored for their high cell efficiency (22–24%) and well-established supply chain.
Flexible thin-film CIGS panels held approximately 20–25% share, prized for their conformability to curved body panels, lighter weight, and superior performance under partial shading or diffuse light conditions typical of German weather. Conformal solar glass roofs accounted for 10–15% of demand, primarily integrated into panoramic roof systems of premium passenger EVs, while structural composite-integrated PV—embedding solar cells into body panels, spoilers, or tonneau covers—represented a nascent 2–5% share but is expected to grow rapidly as vehicle architectures are redesigned for solar-readiness.
On the application side, EV range extension and battery maintenance form the dominant use case, absorbing an estimated 65–75% of installed capacity in 2026. For a typical BEV with a 60–80 kWh battery pack, a 300–500 W solar array can contribute 8–15 km of range per day under average German insolation, reducing grid-charging frequency and extending battery life through sustained state-of-charge maintenance during parking.
Auxiliary power for HVAC, telematics, refrigeration, and onboard electronics represents the second-largest application segment at 15–20%, particularly significant for commercial fleet vehicles and public transport where cabin comfort and equipment loads directly impact operational costs. Off-grid power for recreational vehicles and specialty vehicles (emergency services, military, mobile workshops) accounts for 8–12% of demand but carries high per-unit value, with customers typically willing to pay a significant premium for autonomy from grid charging infrastructure.
Fleet operational cost reduction, while still a minor application share in 2026 (estimated 3–5%), is projected to become one of the fastest-growing demand drivers after 2029 as fleet operators accumulate real-world data on fuel savings, reduced charging costs, and lower maintenance intervals for auxiliary batteries.
The pricing structure for vehicle integrated solar panels in Germany is multilayered and significantly more complex than for standard photovoltaic modules. At the PV cell and module level, automotive-grade monocrystalline PERC cells command a substantial premium over commercial-grade cells, with module costs ranging from €1.80–3.00 per watt depending on certification level, encapsulation specification, and order volume.
The integration kit premium—encompassing automotive-qualified Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) electronics, low-profile wiring harnesses with automotive connectors, robust mounting systems validated for crash safety, and conformal encapsulation—adds €1.20–2.50 per watt, effectively doubling or tripling the raw module cost. OEM validation and homologation cost amortization represents a further 15–25% adder for production volumes of 10,000–50,000 units per year, though this overhead declines as platform sharing and higher volumes spread fixed validation costs across more units.
For end customers, system-level pricing varies substantially by channel and complexity. Aftermarket installation and certification labor for a typical retrofit on a passenger EV ranges from €800 to €2,200 for a 200–400 W system, depending on vehicle complexity, workshop certification level, and whether structural modifications are required. OEM factory-fit options, when offered as a line-item option on new vehicles, typically carry a premium of €500–1,500 over the standard roof configuration, representing a 15–30% cost reduction compared to aftermarket equivalents due to assembly-line integration efficiencies and amortized validation.
Tier 1 value-add for design-for-manufacture and just-in-sequence delivery adds a further margin layer of 12–18%, reflecting the engineering, logistics, and quality assurance services required for seamless OEM supply. Cost reduction over the forecast period is expected to follow a learning-curve trajectory of 12–18% per cumulative doubling of installed capacity, driven by larger cell and module production volumes, reduced MPPT electronics costs through automotive-grade semiconductor scaling, and simplified vehicle interfaces as platforms are designed for solar integration from the outset rather than retrofitted.
The supplier landscape for vehicle integrated solar panels in Germany is characterized by a mix of specialist automotive solar technology firms, integrated Tier 1 system suppliers, traditional PV manufacturers with dedicated automotive divisions, and in-house OEM development teams. German-headquartered specialist firms occupy a distinctive position, combining photovoltaic expertise with automotive engineering and homologation capabilities, and they typically supply modules and integration kits directly to OEMs or through Tier 1 partners.
Several of these companies have established cooperation agreements with German OEMs for series-production solar roof programs, providing validated modules and MPPT electronics tailored to specific vehicle platforms. Their competitive advantage rests on automotive-grade quality systems, long-term supply commitments, and deep familiarity with German type approval procedures.
Beyond the specialist segment, international Tier 1 automotive suppliers—covering electronics, thermal management, and body structures—are increasingly entering the space through internal development programs or acquisitions of solar technology startups. These firms bring established OEM relationships, just-in-sequence logistics networks, and high-volume manufacturing capabilities, positioning them to capture a significant share of factory-fit supply as solar integration moves from niche to mainstream.
Traditional PV manufacturers based in Asia and Europe have established automotive divisions targeting the vehicle integration segment, though their automotive share remains small relative to their utility-scale and rooftop PV core businesses. Competition intensity is expected to increase substantially after 2028 as platform volumes reach 100,000+ units per year and multiple suppliers compete for design-win positions on next-generation EV architectures.
At present, the market structure is relatively concentrated in the homologated, series-production segment—perhaps 4–6 qualified module suppliers capable of delivering fully validated automotive product—while the aftermarket channel is more fragmented, with numerous importers, distributors, and regional installers serving the conversion and specialty vehicle market.
Germany’s domestic production capacity for vehicle integrated solar panels is concentrated in module assembly, system integration, electronics development, and final validation rather than in upstream PV cell manufacturing. High-efficiency monocrystalline PERC cells and CIGS thin-film absorber layers are predominantly sourced from outside Germany, with Asian producers (particularly in China, South Korea, and Taiwan) accounting for an estimated 70–85% of cell supply for automotive applications in 2026.
European cell production, primarily from facilities in Germany itself and neighboring Central European countries, supplies a meaningful but minority share, constrained by limited total cell output and the challenge of qualifying automotive-grade reliability specifications under the PV industry’s historically utility-scale quality paradigm.
However, the domestic value-add in module assembly—where cells are interconnected, encapsulated to automotive-level durability specs, and integrated with frame structures and connectors—is substantial, with 8–12 assembly and lamination facilities in Germany actively producing automotive PV modules, primarily in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, and Saxony.
The domestic supply chain is reinforced by an advanced ecosystem of supporting industries. German specialty chemical and materials companies produce high-performance encapsulants, backsheets, and adhesives specifically formulated for automotive thermal cycling, UV exposure, and impact requirements. Automotive electronics firms develop and manufacture MPPT controllers, DC-DC converters, and communication modules that comply with stringent EMC and functional safety standards. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) and several university research groups provide testing, certification support, and process development services.
Despite these strengths, Germany’s vehicle integrated solar panel supply chain remains selectively import-dependent for core PV cell technologies, and supply security considerations—particularly for thin-film CIGS where production lines meeting automotive reliability specifications are scarce globally—are emerging as strategic concerns for OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers planning volume ramp-ups in the 2028–2032 period.
Trade flows in Germany’s vehicle integrated solar panel market reflect the product’s dual character as both an automotive component and a photovoltaic device. Import patterns are dominated by PV cells and partially assembled modules classified under HS 854140 (photosensitive semiconductor devices), with Germany’s imports of automotive-grade solar cells estimated to originate predominantly from Asia, where large-scale PV cell manufacturing infrastructure and cost advantages remain concentrated.
The trade flow is not simply one-directional: Germany exports fully assembled, validated vehicle integrated solar modules—embodying high domestic value-add in encapsulation, MPPT electronics integration, and automotive certification—to neighboring European Union markets where German OEMs operate assembly plants or where Tier 1 suppliers serve multinational vehicle platforms.
This intra-European trade in finished modules is facilitated by the EU Customs Union’s tariff-free movement and mutual recognition of type approval, enabling German suppliers to serve assembly operations in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Spain, and other production locations.
Beyond the EU, German vehicle integrated solar modules and integration kits are exported to several premium automotive markets, including the United States, China, and Japan, primarily as content within vehicles manufactured by German OEMs with global component sourcing strategies. The trade balance for the finished product category is likely positive for Germany, reflecting the country’s role as a hub for automotive-grade solar integration engineering and module validation.
However, this is offset by the structural import dependence for upstream cells, creating a classic technology trade pattern where high-value finished goods are exported and lower-value, capital-intensive intermediate inputs are imported. Tariff treatment for imported PV cells entering Germany is governed by EU customs rules, with the applicable duty rate depending on product origin, HS classification (the product may involve multiple HS codes depending on whether it is imported as a cell, a module, or a subassembly), and any applicable trade defense measures.
For the forecast period, no major tariff policy shifts are anticipated that would fundamentally alter Germany’s import dependence profile, though EU efforts to strengthen domestic PV manufacturing capacity through the European Solar Photovoltaic Industry Alliance could gradually reshape cell sourcing patterns by the mid-2030s.
Distribution of vehicle integrated solar panels in Germany follows three parallel channel structures, each serving distinct buyer groups with different procurement behaviors, technical requirements, and service expectations. The OEM factory-fit channel is the largest in value terms and operates through direct procurement relationships between vehicle manufacturers and pre-qualified module suppliers.
OEM procurement teams and engineering organizations evaluate potential suppliers through rigorous technical audits, validation sample testing, and platform-specific integration studies, with contract awards typically occurring 3–4 years before series production start. This channel is characterized by multi-year framework agreements, just-in-sequence deliveries to assembly plants, and close collaboration on vehicle interface design.
Buyers in this channel prioritize reliability, homologation completeness, weight optimization, and long-term supply assurance over initial cost, with price sensitivity increasing as the technology matures and moves toward volume-segment platforms.
The aftermarket distribution and installation network serves a diverse buyer base including fleet management operators, recreational vehicle manufacturers, specialty vehicle converters, and individual consumers. This channel operates through a tiered structure: national and regional distributors import or purchase modules from suppliers, stock integration kits and spare parts, and supply certified installation workshops across Germany.
The German workshop network for vehicle solar integration is estimated to include 150–250 specialized installers, many of them affiliated with automotive electronics service centers, caravan and motorhome outfitters, or commercial vehicle bodybuilders. Buyers in this channel—fleet managers evaluating total-cost-of-operating improvements for delivery vans, RV owners seeking off-grid autonomy, or emergency vehicle converters requiring durable auxiliary power—are more sensitive to turnkey system price and warranty terms than factory-fit OEM buyers, and they rely heavily on installer reputation and certification.
The third channel, specialty vehicle manufacturer supply, operates as a hybrid between OEM and aftermarket models, involving direct module supply to upfitters producing ambulances, mobile workshops, military vehicles, and municipal utility vehicles, where requirements for ruggedization, low-profile mounting, and combat-zone or emergency-service reliability create distinct product specifications.
How commercial burden rises from technical fit toward approved-vendor status, validated supply, and service support.
The regulatory environment for vehicle integrated solar panels in Germany is shaped by a layered framework of automotive safety standards, electrical system homologation requirements, vehicle type approval procedures, and photovoltaic module certifications, creating a compliance landscape that is materially more demanding than for stationary solar installations.
At the vehicle level, any modification to a vehicle’s electrical system—including the addition of solar panels, MPPT controllers, and associated wiring that interacts with the traction battery or auxiliary power network—requires compliance with EU Whole Vehicle Type Approval (WVTA) regulations, which mandate testing for electrical safety, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), crash integrity, and fire safety.
The integration of solar panels into body panels or roof structures also implicates pedestrian protection regulations, roof crush resistance standards, and airbag deployment zones, requiring close coordination between PV module designers and vehicle structural engineers. Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, KBA) oversees type approval for new vehicles, while aftermarket retrofit systems require individual approval or compliance with technical guidelines under §19 StVZO (German Road Traffic Licensing Regulations).
At the product level, automotive-grade PV modules in Germany are expected to meet stringent qualification standards that extend well beyond the IEC 61215 and IEC 61730 certifications typical for utility-scale solar panels. Automotive-specific requirements include thermal cycling tests spanning –40°C to +85°C for 1,000+ cycles, damp heat testing at 85°C/85% relative humidity for 2,000+ hours, vibration and mechanical shock testing simulating real-world road loads, UV preconditioning for 200+ hours, hail impact testing at higher velocities than stationary standards, and salt spray corrosion testing for corrosion resistance.
Solar cell efficiency and durability certifications from recognized testing bodies are typically required by OEM procurement teams as a condition for supplier qualification. The regulatory framework is evolving: EU-level discussions on standardized requirements for vehicle-integrated photovoltaic systems are ongoing, and the forthcoming Euro 7 emissions standards and revised CO₂ fleet targets will indirectly incentivize solar adoption by pressuring OEMs to reduce auxiliary load on traction batteries and improve overall vehicle energy efficiency.
For the forecast period, regulatory convergence across EU member states is expected to reduce homologation complexity for cross-border vehicle production, while increased clarity on aftermarket retrofit approval pathways could unlock a meaningful secondary-market segment currently constrained by approval delays.
The Germany vehicle integrated solar panel market is forecast to experience sustained, structurally driven growth through 2035, with adoption transitioning from early-adopter and premium-segment niches toward volume-market penetration as technology matures, costs decline, and vehicle platform integration becomes more standardized. Over the 2026–2035 period, the aggregate installed capacity on German-registered vehicles is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 22–28%, driven by the combination of rising EV adoption rates, increasing average system power per vehicle (from a typical 200–350 W in 2026 to 400–700 W by 2035 as high-efficiency cells and multi-panel arrays become standard), and expanding solar integration across commercial vehicle and specialty vehicle segments. The trajectory is expected to follow an S-curve pattern: gradual growth through 2028 as next-generation OEM platforms undergo validation and tooling, a period of rapid acceleration from 2029 to 2032 as multiple high-volume vehicle programs launch with factory-fit solar options, and continued but moderating growth from 2033 to 2035 as market saturation begins to affect incremental adoption rates.
Segment composition is forecast to shift notably over the decade. Passenger EVs and PHEVs will remain the largest volume segment throughout the forecast period, but their share of total installed capacity is expected to decline from approximately 65–70% in 2026 to 50–55% by 2035, as light commercial vehicles and vans grow from 15–20% to 25–30% and the recreational and specialty vehicle segment expands from 10–15% to 15–20%.
The factory-fit share of total installations is projected to increase from an estimated 45–55% in 2026 to 65–75% by 2035, as OEM design cycles incorporate solar integration and aftermarket share is gradually displaced by original-equipment offerings. Price declines of 30–45% at the system level over the forecast period are expected to improve payback periods for fleet operators from 4–7 years in 2026 to 2–4 years by 2032, substantially broadening the addressable market.
By 2035, market evidence suggests that vehicle integrated solar panels could be standard equipment on 20–35% of new electrified vehicles sold in Germany, representing a structural transformation from a niche technology to a mainstream automotive feature, supported by regulatory tailwinds, cost reduction, and growing consumer and fleet awareness of the operational and environmental benefits.
The Germany vehicle integrated solar panel market presents several clearly identifiable opportunity areas for participants across the value chain. The most significant near-term opportunity lies in securing design-win positions on high-volume OEM electric vehicle platforms scheduled for 2028–2032 launches. With multiple German OEMs actively developing solar-ready architectures for their next-generation BEV and PHEV families, suppliers that achieve pre-qualification and platform-specific validation by 2027–2028 will be positioned to capture multi-year, high-volume supply contracts worth substantial cumulative value.
The opportunity is not limited to module supply alone: integrated solutions encompassing MPPT electronics, vehicle-embedded energy management software, telematic performance monitoring, and V2G communication protocols carry higher margins and create deeper customer lock-in than standalone hardware supply.
A second substantial opportunity exists in the commercial vehicle and fleet management sector, where Germany’s large base of light commercial vehicles, delivery vans, municipal utility vehicles, and public transportation assets represents a largely untapped addressable market.
Fleet operators face increasing pressure to reduce operational costs, comply with urban low-emission zone access requirements, and meet corporate sustainability targets, and vehicle-integrated solar offers a measurable pathway to reduce fuel consumption (for hybrid vehicles) or charging costs (for electric vehicles) while providing auxiliary power for telematics, refrigeration, and cabin conditioning.
Developing comprehensive fleet solar solutions—including solar modules, energy management systems, fleet performance dashboards, and installer networks—for this buyer group could yield high growth and attractive contract durations given the long fleet replacement cycles. The recreational vehicle aftermarket in Germany also remains structurally underserved by dedicated automotive-grade solar products, with many RV and motorhome converters still using standard residential PV modules adapted for vehicle use, creating an opening for purpose-designed, certified, and insured vehicle solar systems with higher reliability and aesthetics.
Finally, the convergence of solar integration with autonomous driving sensors, embedded lighting, and vehicle-to-grid communication creates opportunity for innovative products that combine multiple functions in a single body panel or roof module, reducing vehicle complexity while enhancing overall energy and data connectivity.
A role-based view of who controls technology depth, OEM access, manufacturing scale, validation, and channel reach.
This report is an independent strategic market study that provides a structured, commercially grounded analysis of the market for Vehicle Integrated Solar Panels in Germany. It is designed for automotive component manufacturers, Tier-1 suppliers, OEM teams, aftermarket channel participants, distributors, investors, and strategic entrants that need a clear view of program demand, vehicle-platform fit, qualification burden, supply exposure, pricing structure, and competitive positioning.
The analytical framework is designed to work both for a single specialized automotive component and for a broader automotive and mobility product category, where market structure is shaped by OEM program cycles, validation and reliability requirements, platform architectures, localization strategy, channel control, and aftermarket logic rather than by one narrow customs heading alone. It defines Vehicle Integrated Solar Panels as Integrated photovoltaic systems designed to be permanently mounted on a vehicle’s body or roof to generate electrical power for auxiliary systems or battery charging and examines the market through vehicle applications, buyer environments, technology layers, validation pathways, supply bottlenecks, pricing architecture, route-to-market, 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 automotive or mobility market.
At its core, this report explains how the market for Vehicle Integrated Solar Panels 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 Passenger EVs and PHEVs, Light commercial vehicles and vans, Heavy-duty trucks and trailers, Recreational vehicles (RVs) and campers, and Public transport and specialty vehicles across Automotive OEM, Commercial Fleet Operators, Aftermarket Retail and Service, Recreational Vehicle Industry, and Public Transportation Authorities and Vehicle platform integration design, PV module validation and homologation, Tier 1 assembly and just-in-sequence delivery, and Dealer/installer network training and certification. Demand is then allocated across end users, development stages, and geographic markets.
Third, a supply model evaluates how the market is served. This includes Solar-grade silicon wafers, Encapsulation materials (EVA, PVB), Tempered solar glass or polymer substrates, Automotive-grade connectors and wiring harnesses, and Specialized adhesives and sealants, manufacturing technologies such as High-efficiency monocrystalline PERC cells, Flexible CIGS thin-film deposition, Automotive-grade encapsulation and lamination, Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) integration, and Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) bidirectional capability, quality control requirements, outsourcing, localization, contract manufacturing, and supplier 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 materials suppliers, component and subsystem specialists, OEM and Tier programs, contract manufacturers, aftermarket distributors, and service channels.
This report covers the market for Vehicle Integrated Solar Panels 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 Vehicle Integrated Solar Panels. 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 Germany market and positions Germany within the wider global automotive and mobility industry structure.
The geographic analysis explains local OEM demand, domestic capability, import dependence, program relevance, validation burden, aftermarket depth, and the country’s strategic role in the wider market.
This study is designed for strategic, commercial, operations, supplier-management, and investment users, including:
In many program-driven, qualification-sensitive, and platform-specific automotive 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.
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Published at Solar Energy – Comprehensive assessment of metrology techniques for heliostat efficiency and performance evaluation – SolarPACES


Abstract:
Concentrating solar power plants, specifically central receiver type systems and their heliostat field, are struggling with negative reputation in the USA, due to perceived underperformance and reliability issues. This is in part due to a lack of standards for performance assessment as well as overly simplified techno-economical models. A better understanding of influences and losses along the solar radiation path from the sun, across the solar collector to the receiver, increases the fidelity of heliostat efficiency assessment as well as solar field performance predictions. Such data are currently scarce and require a complete set of metrology capabilities to evaluate direct solar irradiance, sun shape, atmospheric attenuation, reflectance, collector shape, slope errors and total beam dispersion. In preparation for establishing a 3rd party metrology platform in collaboration with Sandia National Labs, NLR conducted a scoping study on available metrology. We present an extensive overview of techniques and commercial systems for each category. Our work includes an analysis to increase understanding of strengths and limitations of the many techniques used for surface shape and slope measurement. This applies to a controlled, indoor or outdoor laboratory environment assessing a single heliostat.
Stephanie Meyen, Yu Zhou, Rebecca Mitchell, Guangdong Zhu,
Comprehensive assessment of metrology techniques for heliostat efficiency and performance evaluation, Solar Energy, Volume 312, 2026, 114572, ISSN 0038-092X, https://doi.org/10.1016 j.solener.2026.114572
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'Our energy bills have more than doubled': Connecticut homeowners say they’re suffering fallout from bankrupt solar companies as state AG investigates – moneywise.com

‘Our energy bills have more than doubled’: Connecticut homeowners say they’re suffering fallout from bankrupt solar companies as state AG investigates  moneywise.com
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Trung Nam Group's solar power arm suffers $37 mln loss amid rising debt pressure – Theinvestor

Trung Nam Thuan Nam Solar Power Company Limited, a subsidiary of the multi-sector Trung Nam Group, incurred a net loss of VND969 billion ($36.83 million) in 2025, reversing a profit of VND138.2 billion ($5.35 million) a year earlier, according to its 2025 earnings statement.
The deterioration pushed accumulated losses to VND1.82 trillion ($69.1 million) as of end-2025, more than double the previous year’s figure of VND849 billion ($32.27 million).
Heavy losses sharply weakened the company’s capital base. Owner’s equity fell 62% year-on-year to VND593 billion ($22.54 million) from VND1.56 trillion ($59.3 million).
At the same time, total liabilities rose 13.2% to VND9.94 trillion ($377.72 million) as of December 31, 2025.
Bank borrowings climbed 32.1% to VND1.74 trillion ($66.22 million), while outstanding bond debt declined modestly by 6.4% to VND4.28 trillion ($162.8 million). Other payables increased 35.7% to nearly VND3.91 trillion ($148.66 million).
The imbalance between shrinking equity and expanding liabilities drove the company’s debt-to-equity ratio sharply higher, rising from 5.62 times to 16.76 times.
The company has begun restructuring parts of its debt obligations in an effort to stabilize its balance sheet.
By March 31, 2026, Trung Nam Thuan Nam had repurchased portions of nine bond tranches originally issued in May 2020, with total early buybacks amounting to around VND68.6 billion ($2.61 million).
In April, disclosures on the Hanoi Stock Exchange also showed the company amended terms and conditions for 10 bond issuances, signaling broader negotiations with creditors and bondholders.
Trung Nam Thuan Nam operates a large-scale solar power project covering 557 hectares in the former Ninh Thuan province, which is now part of the central province of Khanh Hoa following their merger last July.
The integrated complex includes a 450 MW solar plant, a 500kV substation and transmission lines, representing one of Vietnam’s largest renewable energy infrastructure projects developed during the country’s solar boom.
The facility uses more than 1.3 million solar panels and has a maximum annual output capacity of about 1.2 billion kilowatt-hours. Total construction costs reached approximately VND12 trillion ($456.14 million), with the project entering full operation in October 2020.
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Trung Nam Thuan Nam Solar Power Company Limited, a subsidiary of the multi-sector Trung Nam Group, incurred a net loss of VND969 billion ($36.83 million) in 2025, reversing a profit of VND138.2 billion ($5.35 million) a year earlier, according to its 2025 earnings statement.
Companies – Sat, May 9, 2026 | 3:01 pm GMT+7
A delegation of 15 major French companies and industrial groups has expressed interest in participating in Vietnam’s planned North-South high-speed railway project.
Infrastructure – Sat, May 9, 2026 | 2:38 pm GMT+7
Bach Hoa Xanh, a grocery chain operated by Vietnam’s leading retailer Mobile World Investment Corporation (HoSE: MWG), has opened its first store in Hanoi, marking entry into one of the country’s most competitive consumer markets.
Companies – Sat, May 9, 2026 | 8:17 am GMT+7
U.S. chipmaker Intel will continue expanding investment, supporting workforce training, and helping develop Vietnam’s semiconductor ecosystem as the country refines investment support mechanisms to retain large-scale high-tech projects, said its executives.
Industries – Fri, May 8, 2026 | 7:48 pm GMT+7
Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index extended gains for a fourth straight session on Thursday, closing at a new all-time high of 1,915.37 points as large-cap banking and property stocks supported the market despite continued foreign selling.
Finance – Fri, May 8, 2026 | 5:49 pm GMT+7
Vingroup’s subsidiary VinMetal has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with global steel giant Primetals Technologies to develop a large-scale integrated steel complex in central Vietnam.
Industries – Fri, May 8, 2026 | 4:25 pm GMT+7
Hanoi authorities have asked Japan’s Sumitomo and local conglomerate BRG Group to quicken the progress of the North Hanoi Smart City project as soon as legal procedures are finalized.
Real Estate – Fri, May 8, 2026 | 3:31 pm GMT+7
Moody’s Ratings (Moody’s) has announced an upgrade of the local currency and foreign currency long-term deposit and issuer ratings for Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MB, HoSE: MBB) from Ba3 to Ba2, aligning with Vietnam’s sovereign rating (Ba2 positive). The outlook remains “Stable.”
Banking – Fri, May 8, 2026 | 3:00 pm GMT+7
Vietnam is ready to create favorable conditions for capable Indian corporations and businesses to expand investment and operations in the country in line with its laws, while ensuring transparency and balanced interests among stakeholders, said Vietnam’s Party chief and President To Lam.
Economy – Fri, May 8, 2026 | 1:59 pm GMT+7
Airports Corporation of Vietnam’s (ACV) slow disbursement for the Long Thanh International Airport project, located in the southern province of Dong Nai, highlights implementation bottlenecks despite the company’s strong profitability in Q1/2026 and substantial cash reserves for the country’s largest aviation infrastructure project.
Companies – Fri, May 8, 2026 | 1:41 pm GMT+7
Vietnamese property developers are increasingly shifting away from the traditional build-to-sell model and focusing instead on accumulating long-term assets capable of generating stable recurring income, as the industry adapts to lessons learned from the market downturn of 2022-2023.
Real Estate – Fri, May 8, 2026 | 12:07 pm GMT+7
Vietnamese and Indian firms on Thursday exchanged 27 cooperation agreements aimed at boosting trade, investment, tourism and training between the two countries, thereby making bilateral partnership deeper, more practical and effective.
Economy – Fri, May 8, 2026 | 11:13 am GMT+7
Military Bank (MB) has emerged as one of Vietnam’s leading providers of working capital financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in key economic sectors, according to National Credit Information Center (CIC) data.
Banking – Fri, May 8, 2026 | 8:56 am GMT+7
Hanoi plans to gradually relocate and reorganize all residential areas outside the Red River dike system as part of an ambitious urban redevelopment strategy aimed at transforming both banks of the river into a new economic and cultural corridor for the capital.
Economy – Thu, May 7, 2026 | 5:04 pm GMT+7
Vietnam’s three major domestic automotive corporations – Thaco, VinFast and TC Group – have urged the government to maintain automobile manufacturing, assembly and import activities within the list of “conditional business sectors,” warning that deregulation could weaken the country’s long-term industrial strategy and expose local producers to unfair competition.
Economy – Thu, May 7, 2026 | 4:09 pm GMT+7
Prudential Vietnam transferred over VND5.1 trillion ($194 million) in retained earnings to its parent company, Prudential Corporation Holdings, earlier this year, according to disclosures in its 2025 financial statements.
Finance – Thu, May 7, 2026 | 3:33 pm GMT+7
0912312954
Licence No.494/GP-BTTTT, dated August 3, 2021.
Parent entity: Vietnam’s Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises (VAFIE)
Editor in Chief: Pham Duc Son
Standing Deputy Editor in Chief: Vo Ta Quynh
Editorial Board Member: Nguyen Thai Son
Managing Editor: Nguyen Hong Hanh
Email: – [email protected]
[email protected]
Head of HCMC Office: Nguyen Thai Son
Headquarters: Floor 5, N01-T2 building, Ngoai Giao Doan complex, Xuan Dinh ward, Hanoi.
HCMC Office: Floor 6, 289 Dien Bien Phu Street, Xuan Hoa ward, HCMC
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Trump Administration Accused of ‘Kneecapping’ Wind and Solar Power in Favor of Oil, Gas – The Good Men Project

Trump Administration Accused of ‘Kneecapping’ Wind and Solar Power in Favor of Oil, Gas  The Good Men Project
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Solar power hour: grappling with the grid, plus new energy in home rooftop panel industry – WUNC News

0:01:00
North Carolina was once an emerging national leader on the solar power front. But disincentives, policy changes and a hold on new projects have changed the solar power landscape. A conversation about energy costs and possible solutions for the future.
Liz McLaughlin, climate change reporter, WRAL
Matt Abele, Executive Director, NC Sustainable Energy Association
0:33:00
Residential solar panels are becoming more common on rooftops in North Carolina. But they are still a big financial stretch for most people. Leoneda Inge talks with a couple who got panels installed several years ago about how they look back on their decision. And, the president of a local solar panel company joins the conversation to talk credits, incentives, and the nuts and bolts of home solar power systems.
Dan and Saritha Vermeer, residential solar panel customers
Karl Stupka, President and Chief Operations Officer, NC Solar Now

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Top Solar Stocks To Research – May 9th – MarketBeat

First Solar, Nextpower, SolarEdge Technologies, Sunrun, and Enphase Energy are the five Solar stocks to watch today, according to MarketBeat’s stock screener tool. Solar stocks are shares of publicly traded companies involved in the solar energy industry, such as manufacturers of solar panels, developers of solar farms, and providers of related equipment or services. For stock market investors, the term usually refers to companies whose profits and growth are tied to demand for solar power and broader trends in renewable energy. These companies had the highest dollar trading volume of any Solar stocks within the last several days.

First Solar (FSLR)

First Solar, Inc., a solar technology company, provides photovoltaic (PV) solar energy solutions in the United States, France, Japan, Chile, and internationally. The company manufactures and sells PV solar modules with a thin film semiconductor technology that provides a lower-carbon alternative to conventional crystalline silicon PV solar modules.
Read Our Latest Research Report on FSLR

Nextpower (NXT)

Nextpower, formerly known as Nextracker, an energy solutions company, provides solar trackers and software solutions for utility-scale and distributed generation solar projects in the United States and internationally. The company offers tracking solutions, which includes NX Horizon, a solar tracking solution; and NX Horizon-XTR, a terrain-following tracker designed to expand the addressable market for trackers on sites with sloped, uneven, and challenging terrain.
Read Our Latest Research Report on NXT

SolarEdge Technologies (SEDG)

SolarEdge Technologies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells direct current (DC) optimized inverter systems for solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, rest of Europe, and internationally. It operates in two segments, Solar and Energy Storage.
Read Our Latest Research Report on SEDG

Sunrun (RUN)

Sunrun Inc. designs, develops, installs, sells, owns, and maintains residential solar energy systems in the United States. It also sells solar energy systems and products, such as panels and racking; and solar leads generated to customers. In addition, the company offers battery storage along with solar energy systems; and sells services to commercial developers through multi-family and new homes.
Read Our Latest Research Report on RUN

Enphase Energy (ENPH)

Enphase Energy, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells home energy solutions for the solar photovoltaic industry in the United States and internationally. The company offers semiconductor-based microinverter, which converts energy at the individual solar module level and combines with its proprietary networking and software technologies to provide energy monitoring and control.
Read Our Latest Research Report on ENPH

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This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.
Before you consider First Solar, you’ll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street’s top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on… and First Solar wasn’t on the list.
While First Solar currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
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US Air Force Sets Its Sights On Space Solar Power – CleanTechnica


Notwithstanding the sharp U-turn in federal energy policy, the US Air Force continues to pursue the next generation of decarbonization solutions, and space solar is in the mix. Yes, space solar. That nutty idea about beaming solar energy down to Earth from space is not so nutty after all, and the Air Force is among those taking steps to move the needle from the lab into real world applications.
US scientist and writer Isaac Asimov is credited with formulating space solar as a 24/7 energy solution all the way back in the 1940s. In theory, orbiting solar panels could collect solar energy regardless of the weather or time of day, and beam it down to Earth. Putting that theory to work has been a distant dream until recent years, though. Solar panels have been a fixture in space applications since the 1950s, but the beaming end of things has been among the hurdles faced by space-to-earth systems (see lots more space-to-earth background here).
The cost of rocket launches has been another formidable challenge, but that has faded out as costs have dropped substantially in recent years. With that, the technology pieces are now in place and more than a few ambitious startups have thrown their hat into the ring.
Cost still remains an obstacle to widespread commercial adoption, but the US startup Overview Energy has come up with a solution. Instead of building standalone receivers here on Earth, the company has designed a space solar system that can piggyback on existing solar power plants.
Overview organized itself in 2022 and it surfaced on the CleanTechnica radar in December of 2025, when the company let word slip that it attracted $20 million from Engine Ventures and Lowercarbon Capital, among other investors.
“The cash infusion is significant because it demonstrates, yet again, that private sector investors can still push the envelope on solar innovation here in the US, regardless of this year’s abrupt shift in federal energy policy,” CleanTechnica observed.
“Launch costs have dropped more than tenfold, and annual launches have grown just as dramatically,” Overview noted in a press statement last December. “Mass manufacturing satellites is now routine. High-efficiency photovoltaics and high-power, high-efficiency lasers have become inexpensive, reliable, and commercially available.”
Overview’s space solar solution eliminates the time, cost, and siting limitations of standalone receivers, by taking advantage of existing solar facilities. The system is designed to function as a sort of roaming peaker plant, but without the gas turbines.
“Overview’s satellites will operate at an altitude of approximately 36,000 kilometers (about 22,000 miles) in geosynchronous orbit, collecting sunlight continuously and transmitting it as low-intensity, invisible infrared light,” Overview explains.
The system deploys the same wavelength as night vision security cameras, commonly used in homes. “The beam is never more intense than the sun, never visible, and never harmful — passively safe for people, wildlife, aircraft, and other spacecraft,” the company emphasizes.
The Air Force emerged as an early adopter of solar technology during the Obama administration, as military planners recognized the value of utility scale on-site solar arrays to improve energy security and resiliency at its facilities. The agency has also adopted small-scale solar applications and  transportable solar systems, and the Air Force Research Laboratory has been front and center in cutting edge solar R&D, so it’s no surprise to see an interest in space solar float across the radar.
On May 6, Overview announced the award of its first Air Force contract. Issued through the Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Energy, and Environment, the contract tasks Overview with demonstrating how its technology can support Defense Department operations.
“The work will focus on energy applications in constrained and contested logistics environments, including how this approach can help power large U.S. military installations in remote locations and reduce reliance on fuel supply chains,” Overview explains.
“The effort will investigate applications across a range of environments, from remote bases like Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska to strategically important locations such as Anderson Air Force Base in Guam, where fuel supply chains can become constrained in contested scenarios,” the company elaborates.
“By reducing the need to transport fuel for power, space solar energy has the potential to improve operational flexibility and support the safety and effectiveness of U.S. personnel,” the company adds.
If that sounds familiar, it is. The high cost and human toll of fuel transportation has been part and parcel of modern warfare ever since internal combustion engines replaced horses and mules in the 20th century, with the Bush presidency providing many 21st century examples during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and US President Donald Trump adding yet another dimension to the fuel cost issue when he decided to launch a war against Iran.
In its May 6 announcement, Overview affirmed that it has already has a capacity reservation in place with Meta among other agreements. Additionally, the company reminded everyone that it has successfully demonstrated the system on an airborne platform using the same equipment to be hosted by its satellites.
Overview expects to send its satellites into low Earth orbit in 2028, followed by megawatt-scale transmission in 2030. “In the early 2030s, we’ll be capable of delivering more than a gigawatt of 24/7 clean energy anywhere on Earth,” the company states.
By that time, there will be more than enough existing solar arrays on Earth to provide Overview with plenty of opportunities to put its orbiting peaker plants to work. The company points out that solar arrays typically sit idle for 65-75% of a day. While batteries and other energy storage systems can squeeze some extra value out of a solar array, Overview notes that its space solar solution will extend revenue-producing hours into the night.
“Utilities can bypass congested corridors and draw on infinite energy reserves above the atmosphere. Households see lower electricity costs as satellites blunt the peaks that drive price spikes,” the company adds. Data centers and other large-load facilities can also deploy space solar to access utility-scale capacity without having to wait in a long grid connection queue.
Extending operational hours for solar power plants could also foster a ripple effect in the green hydrogen and e-fuels field, which has also caught the eye of military planners and defense suppliers (here’s another example). If you have any thoughts about that, drop a note in the comment thread.
Image: The US startup Overview Energy is developing a space solar solution that will extend the operational hours of existing solar power plants on Earth (courtesy of Overview Energy).
CleanTechnica’s Comment Policy
Tina has been covering advanced energy technology, military sustainability, emerging materials, biofuels, ESG and related policy and political matters for CleanTechnica since 2009. Follow her @tinamcasey on LinkedIn, Mastodon or Bluesky.
Tina Casey has 4178 posts and counting. See all posts by Tina Casey

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Meta Touts Space-Based Solar by 2030 in ‘Long Shot’ Deal with Tech Start-Up – The Energy Mix

Meta Touts Space-Based Solar by 2030 in ‘Long Shot’ Deal with Tech Start-Up

Tech behemoth Meta is dabbling in space-based solar as part of an effort to generate 24-hour power from solar.

The Menlo Park, CA-based company behind Facebook is hoping to beam one gigawatt of solar energy direct from space to increase the capacity of existing solar farms and help them deliver power around the clock. Meta, known in Canada for blocking Canadian audiences’ access to Canadian media, announced the deal with Virginia-based space technology start-up Overview Energy in late April.

“Space solar technology represents a transformative step forward by leveraging existing terrestrial infrastructure to deliver new, uninterrupted energy from orbit,” Nat Sahlstrom, Meta’s vice president of energy and sustainability, said in a statement.

““Our approach to space solar energy enables hyperscalers and technology providers to secure clean power with reliable siting, and speed to power,” added Overview CEO Marc Berte. “Together with Meta, we’re looking beyond traditional constraints on where and when power can be delivered to meet the growing demand for electricity.”

In the same announcement April 27, Meta said it would look to Palo Alto-based Noon Energy for 1 GW/100 GWh of ultra-long-duration storage. The media release did not indicate dollar value, electricity costs, or firm timelines for either venture.

For Overview, “details on the startup’s agreement with Meta are sparse so far,” Latitude Media reports. “The hyperscaler declined to comment on investment terms, including whether the tech giant has made any upfront financial investments or what it anticipates the eventual cost-per-megawatt of the power to be beamed down will be. As far as whether Meta is including this gigawatt of space-based solar in its data centre power generation plans, the company said it is continuing to evaluate how that energy will be deployed.”

Both projects “are part of a scramble by AI companies to secure power for their data centres,” Space News writes. “That has, in some cases, led to public backlash regarding the environmental impacts of those centres and increased energy costs.” But neither of those challenges was enough to dampen the enthusiasm in the Meta release.

“Advancing AI at the speed and scale we’re working toward requires more energy, but today’s clean energy technologies have real limits: solar depends on sunlight, wind depends on weather, and the grid still needs more storage to make the most of both,” it states. “From collecting solar energy in orbit to storing renewable power for days at a time, we’re supporting the advancement of innovative technologies that can deliver reliable energy at the scale AI demands—while strengthening America’s energy leadership.”

While the deal with Overview is not a firm contract, Meta confidently predicts that “we’ll deploy up to 1 GW of this orbit-to-grid energy to support our data centre operations,” after becoming “one of the first major technology companies to secure a capacity reservation for space solar energy.” Latitude Media has a rather more sober take.

“It’s a long shot,” the U.S. news site writes. “The promise of space-enabled 24/7 solar has long faced skepticism, in large part because shooting solar panels into space and maintaining them for several decades is very, very expensive. Overview faces most of the same core hurdlee as its space solar peers: namely, that given the high costs of operating in space, the process of converting energy into infrared light and back again would need to be very efficient to have a hope of competing with increasingly cheap grid-scale batteries on the ground.”

News reports refer to Overview “emerging from stealth” last December. Publicly available data from Morningstar’s PitchBook presents the company as an early-stage VC with 25 employees, 11 investors, and total share value of about US$3.7 million.

Meta is expressing confidence that Overview can complete an “orbital demonstration” by 2028 and begin commercial delivery to the United States as early as 2030. The space tech company’s website echoes the 2028 target date for achieving an energy transfer from low earth orbit. But it indicates only that proving and then scaling up energy transfer from geosynchronous orbit—the milestone Meta is looking for—is “upcoming”.

Low earth orbit is “far lower than the 36,000 kilometres above the planet that [Overview] eventually plans to operate from,” Latitude Media writes.

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Meta Touts Space-Based Solar by 2030 in ‘Long Shot’ Deal with Tech Start-Up

Tech behemoth Meta is dabbling in space-based solar as part of an effort to generate 24-hour power from solar.

The Menlo Park, CA-based company behind Facebook is hoping to beam one gigawatt of solar energy direct from space to increase the capacity of existing solar farms and help them deliver power around the clock. Meta, known in Canada for blocking Canadian audiences’ access to Canadian media, announced the deal with Virginia-based space technology start-up Overview Energy in late April.

“Space solar technology represents a transformative step forward by leveraging existing terrestrial infrastructure to deliver new, uninterrupted energy from orbit,” Nat Sahlstrom, Meta’s vice president of energy and sustainability, said in a statement.

““Our approach to space solar energy enables hyperscalers and technology providers to secure clean power with reliable siting, and speed to power,” added Overview CEO Marc Berte. “Together with Meta, we’re looking beyond traditional constraints on where and when power can be delivered to meet the growing demand for electricity.”

In the same announcement April 27, Meta said it would look to Palo Alto-based Noon Energy for 1 GW/100 GWh of ultra-long-duration storage. The media release did not indicate dollar value, electricity costs, or firm timelines for either venture.

For Overview, “details on the startup’s agreement with Meta are sparse so far,” Latitude Media reports. “The hyperscaler declined to comment on investment terms, including whether the tech giant has made any upfront financial investments or what it anticipates the eventual cost-per-megawatt of the power to be beamed down will be. As far as whether Meta is including this gigawatt of space-based solar in its data centre power generation plans, the company said it is continuing to evaluate how that energy will be deployed.”

Both projects “are part of a scramble by AI companies to secure power for their data centres,” Space News writes. “That has, in some cases, led to public backlash regarding the environmental impacts of those centres and increased energy costs.” But neither of those challenges was enough to dampen the enthusiasm in the Meta release.

“Advancing AI at the speed and scale we’re working toward requires more energy, but today’s clean energy technologies have real limits: solar depends on sunlight, wind depends on weather, and the grid still needs more storage to make the most of both,” it states. “From collecting solar energy in orbit to storing renewable power for days at a time, we’re supporting the advancement of innovative technologies that can deliver reliable energy at the scale AI demands—while strengthening America’s energy leadership.”

While the deal with Overview is not a firm contract, Meta confidently predicts that “we’ll deploy up to 1 GW of this orbit-to-grid energy to support our data centre operations,” after becoming “one of the first major technology companies to secure a capacity reservation for space solar energy.” Latitude Media has a rather more sober take.

“It’s a long shot,” the U.S. news site writes. “The promise of space-enabled 24/7 solar has long faced skepticism, in large part because shooting solar panels into space and maintaining them for several decades is very, very expensive. Overview faces most of the same core hurdlee as its space solar peers: namely, that given the high costs of operating in space, the process of converting energy into infrared light and back again would need to be very efficient to have a hope of competing with increasingly cheap grid-scale batteries on the ground.”

News reports refer to Overview “emerging from stealth” last December. Publicly available data from Morningstar’s PitchBook presents the company as an early-stage VC with 25 employees, 11 investors, and total share value of about US$3.7 million.

Meta is expressing confidence that Overview can complete an “orbital demonstration” by 2028 and begin commercial delivery to the United States as early as 2030. The space tech company’s website echoes the 2028 target date for achieving an energy transfer from low earth orbit. But it indicates only that proving and then scaling up energy transfer from geosynchronous orbit—the milestone Meta is looking for—is “upcoming”.

Low earth orbit is “far lower than the 36,000 kilometres above the planet that [Overview] eventually plans to operate from,” Latitude Media writes.

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NASA
Tech behemoth Meta is dabbling in space-based solar as part of an effort to generate 24-hour power from solar.
The Menlo Park, CA-based company behind Facebook is hoping to beam one gigawatt of solar energy direct from space to increase the capacity of existing solar farms and help them deliver power around the clock. Meta, known in Canada for blocking Canadian audiences’ access to Canadian media, announced the deal with Virginia-based space technology start-up Overview Energy in late April.
“Space solar technology represents a transformative step forward by leveraging existing terrestrial infrastructure to deliver new, uninterrupted energy from orbit,” Nat Sahlstrom, Meta’s vice president of energy and sustainability, said in a statement.
““Our approach to space solar energy enables hyperscalers and technology providers to secure clean power with reliable siting, and speed to power,” added Overview CEO Marc Berte. “Together with Meta, we’re looking beyond traditional constraints on where and when power can be delivered to meet the growing demand for electricity.”

In the same announcement April 27, Meta said it would look to Palo Alto-based Noon Energy for 1 GW/100 GWh of ultra-long-duration storage. The media release did not indicate dollar value, electricity costs, or firm timelines for either venture.
For Overview, “details on the startup’s agreement with Meta are sparse so far,” Latitude Media reports. “The hyperscaler declined to comment on investment terms, including whether the tech giant has made any upfront financial investments or what it anticipates the eventual cost-per-megawatt of the power to be beamed down will be. As far as whether Meta is including this gigawatt of space-based solar in its data centre power generation plans, the company said it is continuing to evaluate how that energy will be deployed.”
Both projects “are part of a scramble by AI companies to secure power for their data centres,” Space News writes. “That has, in some cases, led to public backlash regarding the environmental impacts of those centres and increased energy costs.” But neither of those challenges was enough to dampen the enthusiasm in the Meta release.
“Advancing AI at the speed and scale we’re working toward requires more energy, but today’s clean energy technologies have real limits: solar depends on sunlight, wind depends on weather, and the grid still needs more storage to make the most of both,” it states. “From collecting solar energy in orbit to storing renewable power for days at a time, we’re supporting the advancement of innovative technologies that can deliver reliable energy at the scale AI demands—while strengthening America’s energy leadership.”
While the deal with Overview is not a firm contract, Meta confidently predicts that “we’ll deploy up to 1 GW of this orbit-to-grid energy to support our data centre operations,” after becoming “one of the first major technology companies to secure a capacity reservation for space solar energy.” Latitude Media has a rather more sober take.
“It’s a long shot,” the U.S. news site writes. “The promise of space-enabled 24/7 solar has long faced skepticism, in large part because shooting solar panels into space and maintaining them for several decades is very, very expensive. Overview faces most of the same core hurdlee as its space solar peers: namely, that given the high costs of operating in space, the process of converting energy into infrared light and back again would need to be very efficient to have a hope of competing with increasingly cheap grid-scale batteries on the ground.”
News reports refer to Overview “emerging from stealth” last December. Publicly available data from Morningstar’s PitchBook presents the company as an early-stage VC with 25 employees, 11 investors, and total share value of about US$3.7 million.
Meta is expressing confidence that Overview can complete an “orbital demonstration” by 2028 and begin commercial delivery to the United States as early as 2030. The space tech company’s website echoes the 2028 target date for achieving an energy transfer from low earth orbit. But it indicates only that proving and then scaling up energy transfer from geosynchronous orbit—the milestone Meta is looking for—is “upcoming”.
Low earth orbit is “far lower than the 36,000 kilometres above the planet that [Overview] eventually plans to operate from,” Latitude Media writes.

Mitchell Beer

Stephen Lewis Fellow

Mitchell is founding publisher and managing editor of The Energy Mix. He is rumoured to be a frighteningly fast writer, after working seven years as a journalist, 35-plus as a commercial writer, 45-plus as a sustainable energy and climate specialist, and now again as a journalist and editor. In October, 2019, he delivered a TEDx Ottawa talk on building wider public support for faster, deeper carbon cuts. He received the Clean50 Lifetime Achievement Award in October 2022.

Stephen Lewis Fellow
Mitchell is founding publisher and managing editor of The Energy Mix. He is rumoured to be a frighteningly fast writer, after working seven years as a journalist, 35-plus as a commercial writer, 45-plus as a sustainable energy and climate specialist, and now again as a journalist and editor. In October, 2019, he delivered a TEDx Ottawa talk on building wider public support for faster, deeper carbon cuts. He received the Clean50 Lifetime Achievement Award in October 2022.
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Tech behemoth Meta is dabbling in space-based solar as part of an effort to generate 24-hour power from solar.
The Menlo Park, CA-based company behind Facebook is hoping to beam one gigawatt of solar energy direct from space to increase the capacity of existing solar farms and help them deliver power around the clock. Meta, known in Canada for blocking Canadian audiences’ access to Canadian media, announced the deal with Virginia-based space technology start-up Overview Energy in late April.
“Space solar technology represents a transformative step forward by leveraging existing terrestrial infrastructure to deliver new, uninterrupted energy from orbit,” Nat Sahlstrom, Meta’s vice president of energy and sustainability, said in a statement.
““Our approach to space solar energy enables hyperscalers and technology providers to secure clean power with reliable siting, and speed to power,” added Overview CEO Marc Berte. “Together with Meta, we’re looking beyond traditional constraints on where and when power can be delivered to meet the growing demand for electricity.”

In the same announcement April 27, Meta said it would look to Palo Alto-based Noon Energy for 1 GW/100 GWh of ultra-long-duration storage. The media release did not indicate dollar value, electricity costs, or firm timelines for either venture.
For Overview, “details on the startup’s agreement with Meta are sparse so far,” Latitude Media reports. “The hyperscaler declined to comment on investment terms, including whether the tech giant has made any upfront financial investments or what it anticipates the eventual cost-per-megawatt of the power to be beamed down will be. As far as whether Meta is including this gigawatt of space-based solar in its data centre power generation plans, the company said it is continuing to evaluate how that energy will be deployed.”
Both projects “are part of a scramble by AI companies to secure power for their data centres,” Space News writes. “That has, in some cases, led to public backlash regarding the environmental impacts of those centres and increased energy costs.” But neither of those challenges was enough to dampen the enthusiasm in the Meta release.
“Advancing AI at the speed and scale we’re working toward requires more energy, but today’s clean energy technologies have real limits: solar depends on sunlight, wind depends on weather, and the grid still needs more storage to make the most of both,” it states. “From collecting solar energy in orbit to storing renewable power for days at a time, we’re supporting the advancement of innovative technologies that can deliver reliable energy at the scale AI demands—while strengthening America’s energy leadership.”
While the deal with Overview is not a firm contract, Meta confidently predicts that “we’ll deploy up to 1 GW of this orbit-to-grid energy to support our data centre operations,” after becoming “one of the first major technology companies to secure a capacity reservation for space solar energy.” Latitude Media has a rather more sober take.
“It’s a long shot,” the U.S. news site writes. “The promise of space-enabled 24/7 solar has long faced skepticism, in large part because shooting solar panels into space and maintaining them for several decades is very, very expensive. Overview faces most of the same core hurdlee as its space solar peers: namely, that given the high costs of operating in space, the process of converting energy into infrared light and back again would need to be very efficient to have a hope of competing with increasingly cheap grid-scale batteries on the ground.”
News reports refer to Overview “emerging from stealth” last December. Publicly available data from Morningstar’s PitchBook presents the company as an early-stage VC with 25 employees, 11 investors, and total share value of about US$3.7 million.
Meta is expressing confidence that Overview can complete an “orbital demonstration” by 2028 and begin commercial delivery to the United States as early as 2030. The space tech company’s website echoes the 2028 target date for achieving an energy transfer from low earth orbit. But it indicates only that proving and then scaling up energy transfer from geosynchronous orbit—the milestone Meta is looking for—is “upcoming”.
Low earth orbit is “far lower than the 36,000 kilometres above the planet that [Overview] eventually plans to operate from,” Latitude Media writes.

Mitchell Beer

Stephen Lewis Fellow

Mitchell is founding publisher and managing editor of The Energy Mix. He is rumoured to be a frighteningly fast writer, after working seven years as a journalist, 35-plus as a commercial writer, 45-plus as a sustainable energy and climate specialist, and now again as a journalist and editor. In October, 2019, he delivered a TEDx Ottawa talk on building wider public support for faster, deeper carbon cuts. He received the Clean50 Lifetime Achievement Award in October 2022.

Stephen Lewis Fellow
Mitchell is founding publisher and managing editor of The Energy Mix. He is rumoured to be a frighteningly fast writer, after working seven years as a journalist, 35-plus as a commercial writer, 45-plus as a sustainable energy and climate specialist, and now again as a journalist and editor. In October, 2019, he delivered a TEDx Ottawa talk on building wider public support for faster, deeper carbon cuts. He received the Clean50 Lifetime Achievement Award in October 2022.
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Mamaroneck Trustees to Discuss Cannabis, Grants, and Solar Panels – Talk of the Sound

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MAMARONECK, NY (May 11, 2026) — The Village of Mamaroneck Board of Trustees is set to hold a work session on May 11 at 5:30 p.m. in the courtroom at 169 Mt. Pleasant Avenue. The agenda includes several significant items for discussion.
The Westchester Coalition for Clean Water will present to the board. Additionally, the trustees will review PLL M of 2026 concerning public use of cannabis, led by the Village Attorney.
Other discussions will focus on a GTSC HSGP Police Traffic Services Grant, agreements related to Emelin Theatre for a park concert, and self-service kayak and stand-up paddle board rentals. Contract extensions with SLR and Choice Words are also on the table.
The board will consider accepting a grant to set up a capital project for solar panels at Harbor Island Park. The Village Treasurer will lead this discussion.
This article was prepared with the assistance of AI tools under the direction and editing of Robert Cox.
Have information about this story? Email robertcox@talkofthesound (preferred) or contact via WhatsApp: +353 089 972 0669.
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Mua EPEVER MPPT Solar Charge Controller 50A Negative Ground 150V PV Solar Panel Charger With Mt50 Remote Meter Temperature Sensor Pc Communication Cable B07kb4n13b – portalcantagalo.com.br

Mua EPEVER MPPT Solar Charge Controller 50A Negative Ground 150V PV Solar Panel Charger With Mt50 Remote Meter Temperature Sensor Pc Communication Cable B07kb4n13b  portalcantagalo.com.br
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Robbinsdale Wants to Make Going Solar Easier for Residents – CCX Media –

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The City of Robbinsdale wants to make it easier for residents to consider solar power for their homes.
“You don’t need a conditional use permit, you don’t need to get approval from the city council,” said Sustainability Coordinator Kayla Kirtz. “All you need to do is apply for a regular building permit on our city website.”
The City of Robbinsdale has enacted a number of policies and programs designed to help more residents add solar power to their homes.
Kirtz also said the city is partnering with Hennepin County and its involvement in Switch Together to get more people hooked up to solar.
“It’s essentially a solar group buy, so it brings the cost down if residents are looking to install solar on their homes,” said Kirtz. “It’s a program with vetted installers and, ideally, it makes things super easy for folks.”
Over the past two years, the city has installed solar panels on the roof of its water treatment facility and city hall.
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Trump’s crackdown on China-linked solar firms stalls US factory boom – Kuwait Times

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WASHINGTON: Top solar companies, banks and insurers have stopped doing business with at least a half dozen recently built US panel factories because of uncertainty over whether their ties to China could disqualify them from clean-energy subsidies, according to industry executives and documents reviewed by Reuters. The shift, driven by new Trump administration policies, jeopardizes more than a third of US solar capacity in factories initially built by Chinese firms. Details of how the policy uncertainty is driving installers and insurers away from US solar factories with China ties have not been previously reported. The emerging effects dovetail with US President Donald Trump’s broader efforts to block Chinese companies from the US market and to slash government support for green energy. However, the policy could backfire by imperiling growth in US manufacturing jobs and power generation at a time of rising utility bills and soaring electricity demand from data centers serving the artificial intelligence industry, industry experts say.
Sunrun, the largest US residential solar installer, is among the companies now avoiding Chinese suppliers. “It’s holding up financings of desperately needed solar and storage projects,” said Keith Martin, an attorney at Norton Rose Fulbright who advises on renewable energy tax deals.
The potentially far-reaching effects on US manufacturing underscore the difficulty of decoupling from China’s global dominance of renewable energy and green technologies, driven largely by Beijing’s own heavy subsidies for Chinese firms. The global reach of China’s industrial policy creates a dilemma for US regulators who want to block Chinese firms without imperiling US solar manufacturers that depend on Chinese equipment and technology to produce competitive and affordable products. Without robust growth in domestic solar manufacturing, the United States has few options for expanding renewable power beyond importing panels made by Chinese companies, which will lead to higher prices, US executives say.
“This is undoubtedly going to continue to increase the cost of power in the United States,” said Aaron Halimi, chief executive of Renewable Properties, a San Francisco developer of small-scale utility projects that has shifted most of its sourcing to Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar FSLR.O to avoid suppliers with China links. The fresh uncertainty in US solar investments stems from provisions in the Trump-backed “One Big Beautiful Bill” that the Republican-controlled Congress passed in 2025.
The legislation slashed Biden-era clean-energy subsidies and restricted certain foreign countries, including China, from securing those that remained. The US Treasury Department has yet to provide full guidance on how the law will be implemented, and a department spokesperson declined to give a timeline for when that guidance would be published. Trump wants to rapidly expand the US power grid to fuel American data centers. But power-industry experts say solar installations, combined with battery storage that clicks on when the sun isn’t shining, are the quickest way to expand electricity generation because they’re easier to build than gas, coal or nuclear plants.
Trump has called renewable energy unreliable and expensive and enacted policies promoting expansion of fossil fuel power sources. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington criticized the US restrictions as discriminatory and said Beijing would defend its companies’ interests.
China controls about 80 percent of global solar equipment manufacturing, according to Wood Mackenzie. Its companies, including LONGi, Trina, and others, were among the quickest to build and operate U.S. factories when former President Joe Biden’s 2022 climate-change law created a tax credit for clean-energy factories. Since then, solar equipment makers have announced nearly $43 billion in investments supporting a projected 48,000 jobs, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.
Domestic manufacturing is now aligned with US demand for solar panels, eliminating the need for panel imports. But that could change if a significant portion of US factories caught up in the regulatory uncertainty are unable to compete.
The Trump-backed legislation restricts Chinese companies to 25 percent ownership stakes in plants seeking federal subsidies, imposes sourcing requirements, and prohibits “effective control” by Chinese firms. Companies say the subsidies, which include tax credits for solar manufacturing and installation, are crucial to remaining competitive. Chinese companies have sought to comply by selling off factory stakes or otherwise restructuring. But most have preserved financial links to their US plants, sometimes in the form of profit-sharing or supply deals, according to a Reuters review of corporate disclosures.
Industry officials have questions about whether those remaining links disqualify the factories from US clean energy manufacturing credits. Absent guidance from the Treasury Department, installers including industry behemoth Sunrun are shunning these factories, while banks and insurers are withholding financing and coverage.
Sunrun in January circulated a pared-down list of approved solar-panel suppliers to installation partners, according to a document seen by Reuters. The list included only non-Chinese manufacturers such as Qcells, REC, Silfab and Elin. Previously, it had included Canadian Solar, JA Solar, Jinko, LONGi and Trina – all of which are China-linked. — Reuters
“We have taken a conservative stance and do not procure equipment from manufacturers that would raise compliance concerns,” Sunrun Deputy Chief Financial Officer Patrick Jobin said in a statement to Reuters. Palmetto, a North Carolina-based company that sells rooftop solar panels, is also steering clear of China-linked producers despite their attempts at compliance, general manager Sean Hayes said. Meanwhile, banks including Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs have scaled back tax-equity financing for some solar projects due to concerns that future Treasury interpretations could retroactively invalidate tax credits, according to three people familiar with the deals who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The banks declined to comment. Insurers have taken a harder line, refusing to insure companies against the risk they will be barred from clean-energy tax credits, according to Antony Joyce, a tax-insurance specialist at broker Marsh.
“The companies that are best positioned right now are certainly the ones that didn’t have clear ownership ties to a country of concern,” said Peter Henderson, a principal at accounting firm Baker Tilly, who said Treasury’s expected guidance will be crucial.
The Solar Energy Manufacturers for America Coalition, a trade group representing non-Chinese companies with US factories, including First Solar and Hanwha’s Qcells, has urged the Treasury Department to take a tough stance.
The core issue driving firms away is that Chinese companies are maintaining ties with their factories instead of making a clean break. Factories that were originally built and operated by China-linked producers account for at least 25 gigawatts of the nation’s about 66 GW of operating solar module manufacturing capacity. “Very few Chinese manufacturers are actually decoupling themselves from their US factories entirely,” said Elissa Pierce, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie.
China’s JinkoSolar, which operates a factory in Florida, announced on Friday that it had agreed to sell a 75.1 percent stake in its US subsidiary to private equity firm FH Capital, which is also an investor in a South Carolina solar cell manufacturer, ES Foundry.
The Chinese parent company of Boviet Solar, which produces panels in North Carolina, have said they are looking for outside investors. Illuminate USA, a joint venture between China’s LONGi and Chicago-based Invenergy, reduced the Chinese firm’s ownership stake in an Ohio plant built in 2024 to below 25 percent and renegotiated its intellectual property agreement with LONGi, according to an Invenergy source. But Invenergy is uncertain about the future of the plant, which employs around 1,700 workers. Illuminate and LONGi did not comment. In March comments to the Internal Revenue Service urging clear guidance, the company said: “The continued operation of Illuminate USA and other US manufacturers remains at risk.” – Reuters
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New data reveals solar saved Europe over $3 billion last month: 'The benefits are greater than ever' – The Cool Down

© 2025 THE COOL DOWN COMPANY. All Rights Reserved. Do not sell or share my personal information. Reach us at hello@thecooldown.com.
“It’s time to learn the lessons from not one, but two energy crises.”
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The Iran war has driven sharp increases in global fuel prices as oil and gas markets react to supply disruptions. However, solar energy has helped offset those fuel costs in Europe.
An analysis from SolarPower Europe, summarized by Euronews, noted the continent has saved more than $116 million per day since March 1, 2026, totaling about $3.5 billion in savings.
The report observed that solar panel systems are providing a “major buffer” against the soaring fuel costs. If gas prices remain high, experts have said the savings could reach $78.9 billion by the end of 2026. 
With rapid technological and manufacturing improvements, solar energy is widely regarded as the cheapest source of electricity in the world. This data has highlighted how entire power grids are increasingly relying on solar power to protect against price volatility driven by global fuel markets.
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.
Luckily for homeowners, solar savings are not limited to large-scale projects. In fact, a single rooftop system can save some homeowners up to six figures on energy bills over the lifetime of the panels.
If you’re curious about how a solar upgrade could transform your energy costs, check out the free tools from EnergySage to get quick solar installation estimates and compare quotes. 
In Europe, despite strong data showing the benefits of solar, the market is beginning to decline for the first time this decade. In response, industry insiders have asked lawmakers to adopt solar-friendly policies. 
“It’s time to learn the lessons from not one, but two energy crises,” Walburga Hemetsberge, CEO of SolarPower Europe, told Euronews. 
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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.
“The growth of European solar has flatlined at a time when the benefits are greater than ever. The urgent task for policymakers is to now maximize what solar can do for Europe.” 
The U.S. solar market has also seen instability after major federal incentives for homeowners to install solar expired at the end of 2025. Despite shifting policies, solar panels and battery backups are among the best investments to protect your home from rising energy costs and reduce your monthly bills. 
To see how much you can save with a solar panel system, connect with the experts at EnergySage. Those who use its free resources can save up to $10,000 on the cost of solar purchases and installations. 
EnergySage even has a helpful mapping tool that can show you the average cost of solar technology in your area, as well as the incentives available to you. This tool can help you snag the best prices possible for solar panels based on your home and budget. 
💡Go deep on the latest news and trends shaping the residential solar landscape
If you want to save even more on energy costs by avoiding peak rates, protect your home during outages, or even cut ties with the energy grid, consider getting a battery backup to pair with your solar panels. EnergySage has battery resources to help you get started.
Get TCD’s free newsletters for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here.
© 2025 THE COOL DOWN COMPANY. All Rights Reserved. Do not sell or share my personal information. Reach us at hello@thecooldown.com.

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You've put solar on the roof – but will you get the returns you expect? – RNZ

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Falling solar panel prices and the rising cost of power have helped make the decision to put solar on the roof easier for many households.
But once you’ve invested in a system, how can you make sure you get the returns you’re hoping for?
Experts say there are a few things to think about.
The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) says under the right conditions, a system would pay itself off for seven to nine years and could be expected to continue generating power for another 20 years.
It said a typical 5kW system would cost about $12,000 installed. Adding batteries would add to the price.
At a conservative estimate, a household with solar would save about $1000 a year on electricity bills. Power from solar could work out about 75 percent cheaper than grid electricity over the life of the system, EECA said.
EECA lead technical adviser James Le Page, the return would vary around the country, partly due to the number of sunshine hours areas had and also the network pricing.
“I’m in Wellington, and the power prices here are quite low … we’re quite near the main trunk line, whereas up in Northland it’s quite expensive. So that does factor into it, but certainly sunshine hours makes a big difference.
“So Nelson, Marlborough, Taranaki and the Hawke’s Bay, those sort of areas, you will be seeing probably better annual returns than say Wellington or Southland, which is down at the lower end there.”
EECA said solar would work best when houses had a roof with enough area oriented between Northwest and Northeast with a tilt of 30 degrees or more, where there was good sunlight and minimal shade, the household used a reasonable amount of electricity and when it could shift demand to daylight hours.
North-facing panels produce the highest output, but northwest-facing panels can still have 90 percent of the potential output.
Households with larger electricity bills generally stand to gain the most financially.
Le Page said people would only get the returns they were expecting if they optimised their usage.
“If you just pay for panels and have them installed on your roof and go about your life as before, you’re probably not going to see the returns you’re expecting.
“So it is really important to have that in mind when you’re considering solar, to go, ‘Hey, when this gets on the roof, we’re probably going to just change one or two things around here to really get the most out of it’.”
He said the most important thing was changing the time a household used power.
“For some households, it’s easier said than done. In the modern lifestyle, we’re out all day, come home at night, and at this time of year, the sun’s gone.
“So when the sun is hitting your roof and the panels, you’re going to be generating electricity, and that’s when you want to use it so you can get the best bang for your buck from your system.”
He said people might be able to schedule appliances to come on during the day, which could help.
“You might have an EV plugged in if you’re lucky enough to have an EV and can have that charging during the day as well to take advantage of it.”
Le Page said people should also check the sort of plan they were on.
“You might find that if you stick with the same retailer forever, which some of us do, your electricity import rates might be too high, and also your solar buyback or export rates might be too low.
“You really want to be investigating with power comparison websites to make sure you’re on the best deal, and then you want to change the economics of how long your payback is going to be on the system and the sort of savings you should expect from it as well.”
He said sometimes having a flat pricing structure, rather than a time-of-use plan, would be a better option for people with solar.
“The reason I say that is because on a time-of-use plan, you would expect that the prices you pay for electricity should be at its lowest during the off-peak times, and that’s kind of during the middle of the day, when you should be generating electricity yourself.
“Now, it depends on your usage… but generally speaking, if you are getting a cheap rate when you’re generating your own electricity, and then when you come home from work, you’re paying premium prices at a time when you’re not generating electricity, you need to buy it back from the grid, then it ends up being more expensive. “
Le Page said solar did not require a lot of maintenance, but it could not be completely forgotten about.
“We live in a coastal environment, we live in a windy, dusty environment…bird poo, all sorts of things can build up on your panels over time, and that just impacts their ability to generate as much electricity as possible. So often, you might only need to clean them once a year, but it might be more frequently.
“Often with systems, you’ve got an app … So the day that it gets installed, you can work out how much power it should be able to generate at any given time, given the amount of sun on it. Now, this does go up and down over the year, because in the middle of winter, there’s not as much sun.
“But you should be able to work out from there, hey, something might be wrong here. It’s in full sun, and I’ve got a five-kilowatt system, and it’s putting out three kilowatts. What’s going on here? Is there a problem with one of the panels? Or are they really dirty? Do I need to get them cleaned? And so you can work out, you can troubleshoot from there.”
He said people might also need to keep an eye on shade.
“Solar works this year, but in five years’ time, that horticulture that you haven’t really looked at is now shading half your panels. So you need to keep an eye on that side of things as well, because it will have a huge, huge impact on the amount of generation you can get from the panels.”
Batteries allow households to store solar energy generated during the day for evening and early morning periods, which are peak use periods.
EECA said the cost of installing a battery would vary depending on the type and capacity, but was usually between $5000 and $15,000, including GST.
“While there are benefits from installing batteries, they extend payback times on investments for the majority of NZ households. As electricity pricing becomes more time-sensitive and peak pricing increases, batteries will become increasingly valuable.”
Le Page said using a hot water cylinder with a solar diverter or timer could be another way to store excess energy generated during the day. People could choose to heat up their water at times when they might not be using the power being generated.
“If you’ve got an electric hot water cylinder at home, you can think of that as kind of a budget battery in a sense because it stores energy in it, and if you can keep that up during the day, then you’ve got that.
“You don’t have to pay to do it overnight or later on, and you can actually buy diverters when you get a system installed that will make sure that you’re not feeding electricity back to the grid at a low price.”
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Focus groups, fees and plug-in panels: Interest in home solar grows in Colorado Springs – Colorado Springs Gazette

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Colorado Springs Utilities will take another run at enacting new fees for residents who connect their home solar panels to the power grid as the popularity of solar energy continues to grow.
At a Utilities Board committee meeting scheduled for May 18, staff members are expected to present a new model for updating the net metering program with new fee structures. The program, which covers nearly 11,000 customers in Colorado Springs, credits homes for the excess solar power they produce and provide to the city’s electrical grid.
Utilities staff have argued that the system has led to a growing gap between the solar and non-solar bills, adding more cost to the power Utilities has to provide during the evening hours. Over the past four months, Utilities conducted surveys and focus groups to test cost increases that solar customers would be more likely to support.
“There’s a very deep belief that they’re contributing to their own personal energy goals and to the community. We want to make sure that we provide them some autonomy to make choices. That’ll be a very helpful part of getting their buy-in,” said Brittany Harrison, an energy strategy supervisor for Utilities.
Utilities conducted a pair of focus groups at the beginning of April about the solar program, one with 12 solar customers and a second with nine non-solar customers. Utilities shared the results with its board — composed of City Council members — during a working committee meeting on April 20, and it will use the findings to create the upcoming recommendations.
Last year, Utilities proposed a “demand charge” that it would add to the electricity bills of customers in the solar net metering program. The fee would have charged customers more for power used between 5 and 9 p.m. based on their maximum use during the month.
The City Council narrowly voted to remove that charge from the overall rate case after dozens of solar customers and providers attended a council meeting to protest the proposal.
Debra Fortenberry added solar panels to the roof of her house near Bear Creek Regional Park in 2023 and joined the net metering program soon after. The east-facing panels produced more than 200 kilowatt-hours of electricity over the course of April.
Fortenberry accepted that there would likely be increased costs in the net metering program but wanted them to come from a friendly place.
She worried that Utilities was trying to blame solar customers for the increases to other residents’ utility bills.
“There was a large degree of bias against rooftop solar in that (April committee) meeting. We want the Utilities Board to understand that what they’re getting about rooftop solar comes from that place of bias,” Fortenberry said.
The debate over the next version of the program comes as Colorado makes it easier for residents to add solar panels to their homes. On Thursday, Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law permitting the use of portable plug-in solar panels.
Utilities spokesperson Amy Trinidad said the agency will gather public feedback on the proposed plan between May 18 and the Utilities Board meeting in June. If approved, the rate changes would go to the City Council for a vote later this summer.
Leslie Smith, who led the focus groups for Utilities, said the solar customers wanted direct and transparent information from Utilities about future changes to the program. Smith said some users added the panels primarily for environmental reasons, while others wanted to save money on their bills.
Residential solar panels provide around 50 megawatts of power to the city grid, according to Utilities data from the end of 2025. In comparison, the combined power generated from the six large solar arrays Utilities contracts is around 289 megawatts.
The issue for Utilities is that not all power is created equally. The excess power from home solar panels is produced during the mornings and late afternoon, when the grid has less demand. The customers then redeem those credits during the “on-peak” hours starting around 5 p.m. and pay significantly less at that point than other customers.
“When people can afford it, I recommend it. But it’s gotta be for their own use. The problem with rooftop solar isn’t their usage or their fundamental beliefs. It’s when they try to monetize it based off of other customers paying for it,” Utilities CEO Travas Deal said during the meeting.
Last fall, Utilities described the difference as providing “subsidized” power through net metering. The phrasing angered many solar customers, who often spent thousands of dollars to install the panels, and concerned City Councilmember and Utilities board member Nancy Henjum.
“It’s almost as if we’re attacking a belief system in an energy source and their choice to be part of it individually. And that’s super tricky,” Henjum said.
The non-solar customers in their focus group had no problem paying slightly more per month to support the broader benefits of solar power. Smith said those residents did not mind a $2 monthly cost to cover the reduced bills for net metering. Support quickly dropped off as the cost approached $5 per month.
The focus groups were split over how the new rates should be structured. In the survey Utilities ran in January, the leading result was market-based pricing for electricity used when the solar panels were not producing. Yet that result was supported by only 47% of respondents.
In the focus group, the favored new cost was a flat monthly fee to residents to connect their solar panels to the grid.
Several of the non-solar customers said they’d be interested in adding solar panels if there was an easier option.
House Bill 1007, which Polis signed Thursday, allows portable solar panels that can be directly plugged into a wall. The small panels are often known as balcony solar because they can be placed on smaller locations like balconies.
One of the groups that testified in support of the bill was Solar United Neighbors, a national nonprofit backing the residential use of solar panels. Tanner Simeon-Cox, the nonprofit’s Colorado organizer, said the panels could be a rapid solution for families looking to reduce their electricity bills in the long term.
“It’s really important that we talk about ease of entry and ease of use too. These are something that you get and quickly plug in. As long as it had the appropriate safety standards, you can use it without doing a lot to upgrade your home,” Simeon-Cox said.
Simeon-Cox said the new law may not lead to big changes for the net metering program. A single plug-in solar panel might be able to support the house’s demand but not provide enough excess power to be worth connecting to the grid. Anyone who did still want to join net metering might have to install other devices to manage the two-way connection.
Still, Colorado Springs Utilities has seen the net metering program soar in popularity over the past few years even with the higher upfront cost for solar panels. Around 1,000 of the participants have joined since the net metering fee was discussed in October.
Of the options Utilities has discussed, Fortenberry said she would prefer to see reduced credits rather than new fees. Any change to the credits would need to be small, though, because Fortenberry said the point of the program should be encouraging more solar panels.
“When you pay your own customers, the money stays here, with residents who spend it here. You’re not sending our money to Texas or another state to acquire power,” Fortenberry said.
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Relax. Solar panels won’t give you cancer – Eagle-Tribune

Overcast. Low 49F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..
Overcast. Low 49F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
Updated: May 9, 2026 @ 10:46 pm
Solar panels are attached roofs on homes in the Carmel Valley area in August 2025 in San Diego.

Solar panels are attached roofs on homes in the Carmel Valley area in August 2025 in San Diego.
We live in an age of both scientific miracles and superstition about science, increasing more or less in tandem. One year we’re creating novel vaccines that arrest a global pandemic, and four years later we’ve got measles outbreaks because people believe nonsense about vaccines, disseminated by the nation’s chief health official.
Solar power is another example. Here is a technology that, rather than digging up fossils and burning them to unleash solar energy collected millions of years ago, miraculously sucks that energy directly out of the sky. Unlike those fossil fuels, it’s harmless, limitless and on balance doesn’t generate greenhouse gases that heat up the planet.
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Top 6 Performance Metrics to Demand From a Custom Solar Post Top Garden Light Exporter Before Ordering – The National Law Review

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Bangladesh’s ‘merchant’ renewable growth hinges on grid charges – The News Pakistan

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s factories have turned to rooftop solar to cut emissions and power costs, but limited roof space can only meet a fraction of their needs, so they are looking further afield, including buying renewable power from off-site plants.
Bangladesh last year began allowing private companies to sell power directly to large consumers, with electricity from the “merchant power plants” carried over the grid and users paying charges to grid and distribution companies.
India has long allowed open-access power purchases, while Pakistan is working towards a competitive bilateral market, but has faced disputes over use-of-system charges.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s energy regulatory commission is working on the key details of how its own open-access system will work, including the charges that consumers would have to pay to use the grid.
Energy analysts said the viability of open-access power purchase deals partly depends on open-access grid charges and additional surcharges, which will be key to balancing the interests of businesses, households and farmers.
Once the grid charges and rules are finalised, corporate buyers like ready-made garment manufacturers with greenhouse gas emission reduction targets purchase renewable electricity from remote solar or wind power plants directly.
A mid-sized factory can offset between 10 per cent and 15 per cent of its electricity demand through rooftop solar alone, while off-site generation could take that to 50 per cent, 70 per cent or more, said Mohiuddin Rubel, a managing director of garment supplier Denim Expert Ltd.
Companies can also buy renewable energy certificates, or RECs, from renewable energy producers. But Bangladesh so far lacks a well-developed REC market with a sufficient supply of those certificates, garment suppliers said.
“Merchant power plants will allow us to purchase electricity directly, reducing the need for purchasing renewable energy certificates from the market,” said Mashook Mujib, sustainability manager at fashion manufacturer DBL Group.

CHARGES KEY
Bangladesh’s recent annual investment in renewable energy is less than $250 million a year, far less than what is needed, said Shafiqul Alam, energy analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a US-based non-profit.
Merchant power generators could offer a promising way forward in boosting renewable investment, he said.
But recent news reports have suggested the open access charges could be about 2 US cents per kilowatt-hour, on top of renewable tariffs of around 9 US cents per kilowatt-hour. Such charges could raise costs for industrial consumers and the response from industry could be lukewarm, said Alam.
Government officials said the charges should balance the interests of all parties.
“Each party has its own needs: consumers need affordable and reliable electricity; project developers need bankable projects and predictable revenue; and utilities and grid operators need to maintain the system and recover the cost of their services,” said Rashedul Alam, assistant director of Bangladesh’s Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority, or SREDA.
Experts from neighbouring India and Pakistan said the countries offered mixed lessons for Bangladesh.
In Pakistan, the charges for using the transmission and distribution network are stalling the transition to off-site renewables for industry, said Khalid Waleed, research fellow at Pakistan’s Sustainable Development Policy Institute.
“Pakistan’s experience offers a cautionary lesson for countries such as Bangladesh,” he said.
Pakistan has moved towards a flat charge of Rs12.55 ($0.045) per kilowatt-hour, while the industry believes the charge should be closer to Rs5.85 ($0.045) per kilowatt-hour, Waleed said.
As Pakistani consumers switch from the grid to renewable power, the government tries to make up the lost revenue by adding old system costs to bills, he said.

GROWING POWER DEMAND
India, by contrast, has developed remote power purchase arrangements through both long-term open-access deals, as well as short-term power trading.
Indian businesses buying power through open-access arrangements also have to pay an extra charge beyond the grid charge itself, to subsidise many households and farmers.
“If these charges aren’t recovered from open-access consumers, who typically are corporate buyers who can bear these charges, it will be a very heavy burden on poorer consumers,” said Deepak Krishnan, deputy programme director for energy at WRI India.
Bangladesh’s energy regulator has to balance the competing interests by fixing the charges in a transparent way so that utility companies do not lose out, and the market is not destroyed either, said Krishnan.
Prabhakar Sharma, a consultant at Indian consulting outfit JMK Research, said open-access charges should be consistent and stable over a defined period so that investors can plan their business models.
“If the government wants to promote open-access market for solar and wind for industrial consumers, there can be waivers of charges to a certain extent,” added Sharma.
In Bangladesh, open-access power purchase deals could help meet the growing industrial electricity demand, said IEEFA’s Shafiqul Alam. Utilities and policymakers could avoid imposing a high charge right away and revisit the issue after about three years to assess whether utilities are actually losing revenue, he added.
Rashedul Alam from SREDA said Bangladesh would eventually need market platforms, such as energy exchanges or similar arrangements, that allow renewable generators to sell power to alternative buyers if one corporate customer exits.

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30% Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells Last 1,000 Hours – Daily Beirut

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Tech & Science
Chinese researchers achieve 30.3% efficiency in rigid perovskite tandem solar cells with 92% retention after 1,000 hours.
A new crystallization control method has pushed all-perovskite tandem solar cells past the 30 percent efficiency threshold while maintaining strong durability, according to a team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The rigid devices achieved a certified power conversion efficiency of 30.3 percent, with flexible versions reaching 28 percent.
Ge Ziyi, PhD, and Liu Chang, PhD, led the research at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE). They believe the breakthrough could accelerate the development of lightweight, high-efficiency solar technologies that are cheaper and simpler to produce than conventional silicon-based panels.
“The findings provide a pathway to simultaneously improve efficiency and durability in both rigid and flexible devices, thereby advancing the development of lightweight, scalable photovoltaic technologies,” the scientists stated.
All-perovskite tandem cells are considered a promising photovoltaic technology because they capture sunlight more efficiently than single-junction cells and can be manufactured using low-temperature solution processing, which lowers costs. However, asynchronous crystallization—where different parts of the multicomponent perovskite films crystallize at different rates during production—has been a major obstacle, creating structural defects and compositional inconsistencies that hurt efficiency and stability.
To solve this, the team applied hard-soft acid-base (HSAB) theory to design an additive strategy. They introduced specific additives into both wide-bandgap and narrow-bandgap perovskite layers to synchronize nucleation and crystal growth. For wide-bandgap perovskites, they used difluoro(oxalato)borate (DFOB⁻) additives, and for narrow-bandgap layers, tetrafluoroborate (BF4⁻).
Structural and optical analyses confirmed that the method promoted homogeneous crystal growth and prevented halide redistribution, a common cause of defects and stress accumulation inside the cells. The approach also suppressed uneven vertical phase distribution, improving film uniformity across the devices.
The improvements translated into higher overall performance. Wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells saw efficiency rise from 18.5 to 20.1 percent, while narrow-bandgap devices improved from 21.6 to 23.3 percent. When integrated into monolithic two-terminal tandem architectures, the optimized rigid device reached a peak efficiency of 30.3 percent, with an open-circuit voltage of 2.16 volts and a fill factor of 85.2 percent. Flexible tandem cells also performed well, achieving 28.2 percent efficiency with a certified value of 28.0 percent.
Operational stability, a critical bottleneck for commercial adoption of perovskite solar cells, was also strong. The optimized rigid device retained 92 percent of its initial efficiency after 1,000 hours of maximum power point tracking. Flexible tandems maintained 95.2 percent of their original efficiency after 10,000 bending cycles.
The results point to potential applications in wearable electronics, lightweight power systems, and flexible solar technologies. “This study establishes a general chemical principle for regulating crystallization in compositionally complex perovskite systems,” the researcher concluded in a press release. The findings were published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

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Regulators allow Obama-era solar plant to kill thousands of birds annually, investigation finds – AOL.com

Regulators allow Obama-era solar plant to kill thousands of birds annually, investigation finds  AOL.com
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China-linked US solar factories shunned in Trump crackdown – Reuters – MSN

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Romanian Solar Summit – pv magazine International


Now in its 8th edition, the Romanian Solar Summit 2026, organized by Govnet Romania, will take place on May 14 under the established slogan: “Meet the PV Market!”. This year, the event reaffirms its position as the most extensive and comprehensive summit dedicated to solar energy in Romania.
As with every edition, the summit will bring together solar market leaders, companies from complementary sectors, and regulatory authorities, providing a high-level platform for networking and strategic analysis.
We invite you on May 14 to Zooma Events & More (Corbeanca), alongside our partners: AJ Brand, ENEVO Group, Goodwe, Keno, Konica Minolta, LONGi, Power Peak Trading, Raiffeisen Bank, Sunotec, Waldevar, CJR Renewables, Edisson Industries, Electrica Furnizare, Ker Toki Power Romania, Monsson Trading, REIB, Renovatio Solar, Hytech, and MET Romania Energy.
In an ever-changing energy landscape, the discussions will address critical topics for all stakeholders involved in the development of renewable projects. The event structure is designed to guide participants through all the necessary steps of a successful project: from the early stages of planning to implementation and efficient operation.
Romanian Solar Summit 2026 is the mandatory event for professionals looking to gauge the pulse of the photovoltaic market and identify new business opportunities in Romania.
For more details and registration, please visit the official event website: https://www.govnet.ro/Romanian%20Solar%20Summit%202026 or contact us at mihaela.dumbrava@govnet.ro
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Binhai Energy Exits Solar Manufacturing, Pivots to Silicon-Carbon Anode Materials – News and Statistics – IndexBox

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Chinese manufacturer Tianjin Binhai Energy & Development (Binhai Energy) has abandoned a major solar project and shifted its focus toward the lithium battery materials sector, according to a source report published on 2026-05-09. The company formally ended its planned 15-gigawatt ingot pulling and photovoltaic cell manufacturing project, reallocating resources to silicon-carbon anode materials.
The decision was approved by the board of directors through a proposal to terminate the investment and construction of the ingot pulling and solar cell project. The original plan, announced in 2024, envisioned a combined 10-gigawatt ingot pulling and 5-gigawatt cell production facility in Baotou, Inner Mongolia. Although some environmental, energy, and land preparations were completed after initial approval, construction never began. When photovoltaic industry chain prices collapsed in 2025, the company recorded substantial asset impairment provisions that year.
Binhai Energy cited changes in the overall photovoltaic industry, noting that new investments in the industrial chain now face significant uncertainty. With module prices falling below production costs and the broader industry experiencing losses, the company stated that proceeding with additional capacity expansion would be risky. The announcement indicated that Binhai Energy recently signed a revised investment framework agreement with the government of Tumd Right Banner, Baotou, Inner Mongolia. Under this revision, the original crystalline silicon photovoltaic project will be transformed into an integrated project producing industrial silicon, silane gas, porous carbon, and silicon-carbon anode materials. This includes a 2,000-ton-per-year silicon-carbon anode material project currently under construction, as well as a self-developed 1,000-ton-per-year porous carbon project underway in Xingtai.
In contrast to the oversupplied photovoltaic manufacturing sector, silicon-carbon anodes—a new generation of lithium battery materials—can significantly improve energy density and are approaching a demand surge, with gross margins far exceeding those of traditional solar modules. Binhai Energy’s core business is lithium battery anode materials. The company entered the photovoltaic industry in 2023 by announcing cell project investments, which ultimately ended in termination. Over the past few years, many non-photovoltaic companies—including those in real estate, textiles, and traditional energy—moved into the solar sector hoping to gain a competitive edge.
Since 2025, the industry has undergone a brutal consolidation phase, leaving new entrants facing losses as soon as production starts. According to statistics from the China PV Industry Association, dozens of cross-sector photovoltaic entrants have announced project terminations or asset sales since 2026. An industry insider commented that the photovoltaic industry has moved from a gold rush to a high-risk battlefield, where blind capacity expansion poses the greatest danger for entrants lacking cost advantages and core technologies. The source noted that Binhai Energy’s decision to cut losses redirects limited resources from low-efficiency to high-efficiency areas, aligning with the market economy’s principle of survival of the fittest.
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China has begun the second phase of energy assistance to Cuba with a 120 MW solar generation plan, and the first result is a photovoltaic park with batteries that regulates voltage, controls frequency, and provides local autonomy to an island suffocated by ch – CPG Click Petróleo e Gás

Science and Technology
Cuba has just put into operation the country’s first solar park equipped with a battery storage system, an installation that represents much more than five megawatts added to the national electricity grid. Located in the municipality of Majagua, in the province of Ciego de Ávila, the project inaugurates a new phase of energy cooperation between the Caribbean island and China, which has committed to enabling 120 MW in solar generation as part of the second stage of assistance to the Cuban energy sector. For a country suffocated by chronic blackouts and dependence on imported fossil fuels, every installed solar megawatt changes the energy survival equation.
What makes this solar park unique is not only its generation capacity, but also the integrated 1 MW battery system designed to maintain voltage quality, regulate grid frequency, and ensure local autonomy when conventional supply fails. Cuba now has, for the first time, a photovoltaic installation capable of operating independently during outages, something no other solar park in the country offered until now. China provided technology, equipment, and about 20 specialists who participated in the construction alongside Cuban technicians.
The new solar park is located in Majagua, a municipality in the province of Ciego de Ávila, central Cuba. The installation operates at full capacity and has added 5 MW to the national electricity system, a volume that may seem modest in absolute terms but gains relevance when considering the fragility of Cuba’s energy infrastructure. In a grid that suffers frequent collapses due to overload and lack of maintenance, each additional generation source helps reduce pressure on aging thermoelectric plants that operate far beyond their designed lifespan.
Brazil is in the race for the artificial sun with tokamaks, public research, and a global billion-dollar competition that aims to transform plasma at 100 million degrees into clean, safe, and almost inexhaustible energy for the planet’s future.
While more than 50 countries race to create the first “artificial sun,” a nuclear fusion technology that requires plasma at over 100 million degrees and promises nearly inexhaustible clean energy with fuel from seawater, Brazil tries to enter the game with the only tokamak in operation in the Southern Hemisphere.
While millions suffer from water scarcity, Stanford scientists create hydrogel that extracts potable water from the air using solar energy, lasts more than eight months, and paves the way for water supply almost anywhere.
While the Belo Horizonte Metro receives 24 new trains from Chinese CRRC, Series 900 compositions, over 30 years old, will be sent to Recife by CBTU for R$ 10 million each, without air conditioning and amidst a formal complaint from the subway workers’ union to BNDES.
The choice of Ciego de Ávila as the site for the first solar park with a battery is not accidental. The region faces severe instability in energy supply, and the presence of an installation with storage capacity allows electricity generated during the day to remain available after sunset, precisely during peak hours when blackouts most severely affect the population. For Cuba, the Majagua park functions as both a laboratory and a showcase: it demonstrates the technical viability of the model and paves the way for replication in other provinces as cooperation with China progresses.
The technical differential that separates the Majagua solar park from all other photovoltaic installations in Cuba is the 1 MW battery storage system. This component was designed with three specific functions: to maintain the quality of electrical voltage delivered to consumers, to regulate grid frequency during oscillations, and to ensure local autonomy when the national system suffers interruptions. In practice, the battery transforms the solar park from a simple daytime generator into a reliable 24-hour energy source, at least within the limit of the stored charge.
To understand the impact, one must consider the context. Cuba’s electricity grid operates with voltage and frequency variations that damage domestic and industrial equipment, and blackouts do not follow a predictable schedule. When conventional supply fails, entire communities are left without electricity for hours. With the solar park’s battery system, the locality of Majagua gains a safety cushion that absorbs these failures and keeps the energy supply at least partially active while the national grid recovers. This is the first time Cuba has had this response capability in a solar installation, and the model is already being pointed to as a reference for future cooperation projects with China.
The inauguration of the Majagua solar park is not an isolated project. It officially marks the beginning of the second stage of China’s energy assistance to Cuba, a program that foresees the installation of 120 MW of solar generation capacity in Cuban territory. The Chinese commitment represents the largest injection of renewable infrastructure Cuba has ever received from an international partner, surpassing in scale any previous initiative in the island’s photovoltaic sector.
The cooperation involves technology transfer, equipment supply, and technical training. Around 20 Chinese specialists worked alongside Cuban technicians in the construction and commissioning of the Majagua solar park, a model that is expected to be replicated in future projects. For China, energy assistance to Cuba combines diplomacy, geopolitical projection, and a practical demonstration of competitiveness in the solar energy sector, a segment in which the Asian country dominates the global production chain of photovoltaic panels and battery systems. During the inauguration ceremony, Cuban representatives formally thanked China for its support in developing the country’s energy infrastructure.
The 120 MW solar generation plan must be read in the context of a country where energy is the most scarce and contested resource in daily life. Cuba faces chronic blackouts that can last from four to twelve hours a day, a result of a combination of external embargo, obsolete power plants, and fossil fuel shortages. If the 120 MW foreseen in the cooperation with China are fully installed, the island’s solar capacity will make a leap that can significantly reduce the frequency and duration of blackouts in strategic provinces.
However, challenges remain. Cuba’s distribution grid is as aged as the power plants that feed it, and installing generation capacity without modernizing transmission can create bottlenecks that limit the actual utilization of the solar energy produced. The storage battery tested in Majagua points to a partial solution to this problem, by allowing energy to be consumed locally without relying on long-distance transmission lines. If the solar park with battery is replicated in other provinces, Cuba can build a decentralized microgeneration network that bypasses the limitations of central infrastructure and delivers energy directly where it is needed.
And you, do you believe that cooperation between China and Cuba can truly solve the island’s energy crisis? Should the Majagua solar park with battery model be replicated in other countries with chronic blackouts? Leave your comment and say whether 120 MW of solar generation is enough to transform Cuba’s energy reality.
nice for cuba. America can go to hell
America is Satan child
I cover construction, mining, Brazilian mines, oil, and major railway and civil engineering projects. I also write daily about interesting facts and insights from the Brazilian market.
© 2026 Click Petróleo e Gás – All rights reserved

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LONGi EcoLife Series Module Top TaiyangNews Global Ranking, Ushering in the 25%+ Era of Photovoltaic – AD HOC NEWS

LONGi

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LONGi EcoLife Series Module Top TaiyangNews Global Ranking, Ushering in the "25%+" Era of Photovoltaic Efficiency | Corporate – EQS News

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Corporate | 9 May 2026 19:05
LONGi / Key word(s): Miscellaneous
LONGi EcoLife Series Module Top TaiyangNews Global Ranking, Ushering in the “25%+” Era of Photovoltaic Efficiency

09.05.2026 / 19:05 CET/CEST
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

XI’AN, China, May 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Taiyang News, a globally authoritative photovoltaic media outlet, officially released its April 2026 edition of the “TOP SOLAR MODULES LISTING”. LONGi’s EcoLife series modules, built on HIBC technology, have firmly claimed the top spot with a mass production efficiency of 25%. This milestone marks international recognition of LONGi’s innovation strength in the back-contact (BC) technology pathway and ushers in a new “25%+” era for PV module efficiency.
Behind this achievement lies LONGi’s persistent efforts in BC technology. HIBC (High-temperature/Low-temperature Hybrid Interdigitated Back-Contact) cell technology is a major innovation along LONGi’s BC roadmap. It combines the high passivation performance of heterojunction (HJT) technology with the superior light utilization of the back-contact structure, achieving the world’s first mass production of such modules. In April 2025, the ISFH (Institute for Solar Energy Research in Hamelin) certified LONGi’s HIBC cell efficiency at 27.81%, setting a new world record for this technology and approaching the theoretical limit of single-crystalline silicon cells.
The EcoLife series modules, designed specifically for residential applications, deliver a maximum power output of up to 510W. The EcoLife series modules increase the cell-to-module area ratio from 93.2% to 95.1%, thereby significantly enhancing light absorption. To address shading issues, the modules feature a unique quasi-bypass diode structure that enables current routing. Under shading, power loss is reduced by more than 70% compared to TOPCon products, making them highly resistant to soiling and shadows. With a leading power density of 250W/m², the modules effectively solve the challenge of generating more power on limited roof areas, substantially reducing household electricity costs.
Martin Green, known as the “Father of PV” and a professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia, has praised the technology: “On the ‘Solar Cell Efficiency Tables’ list, LONGi’s HIBC technology dominates, taking the number one spot. This is also attributable to LONGi’s persistent efforts on the BC technology track.”
To date, LONGi’s HIBC and BC series modules have gained extensive market validation worldwide. In January 2026, the LONGi EcoLife won the German Excellence Award 2026 in the “Energy & Environment” category. The jury’s citation read: “LONGi EcoLife: Higher Power Generation, Higher Safety – Modules for an Uncertain Climate Future,” specifically acknowledging the product’s technical leadership and application value. In February, LONGi renewed a three-year framework agreement with Energy 3000, a well-known European energy solutions provider, to continuously supply a total of 2GW of high-efficiency PV modules, focusing on HPBC 2.0 and LONGi EcoLife modules based on HIBC technology.
At present, HIBC cell technology has already achieved large-scale mass production. Moving forward, LONGi will continue to drive technological innovation, further boost module efficiency and power density through its BC technology platform, deepen global market applications of high-efficiency products such as HIBC, and strive to deliver more valuable clean energy solutions to customers worldwide, contributing to the global energy transition and the realization of carbon neutrality goals.
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09.05.2026 CET/CEST Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by EQS News – a service of EQS Group.
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2324502  09.05.2026 CET/CEST
9 May 2026
LONGi EcoLife Series Module Top TaiyangNews Global Ranking, Ushering in the “25%+” Era of Photovoltaic Efficiency

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Australia's Floating Solar Array Is Doing A Lot More Than Generating Electricity – bgr.com

Australia’s water supplies are evaporating. According to researchers at Deakin University, the country’s water infrastructure loses nearly 370 billion gallons every year due to evaporation, about three times the water in Sydney Harbor. But the land down under has crafted a novel solution to persevering its water supplies, one that has an added bonus of inching the country closer to its zero-emissions goals: floating solar power cells. 
Known as floating photovoltaics (FPVs), or floatovoltaics, these massive floating installations of solar panels are cropping up across Australia’s dams and water reservoirs. By covering the surface of water reserves, solar panels drastically reduce the rate of evaporation. Critically, it does so without triggering algal blooms that ruin water quality, a common problem with traditional covers that block out too much sunlight. Instead, the installations actually keep water supplies clean while adding renewable energy to the country’s power grids.
Of course, solar panels are not a catch all to Australia’s energy or water concerns, however, their proliferation across the country exemplifies how municipalities and industrial partners can address climate issues when provided sufficient funding and will power. Furthermore, the solar projects underscore the interconnectedness of global climate concerns and the auxiliary benefits of their solutions. And although floating solar panels may not grab as many headlines as the solar moon-ring project proposed by Japanese firm Shimizu, they may prove an essential piece of the green energy puzzle. 
Floating solar farms are becoming increasingly popular as a green energy measure, since floatovoltaics offer several benefits over traditional solar projects. For one thing, the water is a natural coolant, a critical advantage given solar panels’ efficiency rates decrease as temperatures rise. Solar arrays that use bifacial panels, which capture sunlight on both sides of the panel, further increase efficiency by using the light reflecting off the water. As such, floatovoltaics can be more efficient than traditional arrays. The water savings from such arrays are more than a knock-on effect. Australian utilities have found that laying solar panels across 70% of a reservoir’s surface can cut evaporation rates by over half (via Bloomberg). 
This could prove particularly helpful in rural agricultural areas, where canals and irrigation channels often lose massive amounts of water. In California, for example, researchers found that the state’s 4,000 miles of aqueducts could conserve roughly 63 billion gallons of water every year by installing solar arrays. The revelations helped spur California’s latest energy experiment, Project Nexus, which looks to install solar panels across the state’s network of agricultural canals.
Similar projects are underway in Australia, where installing FPV infrastructure in the country’s agricultural areas is increasingly becoming a priority. In 2025, for instance, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency invested $8.5 million in a five-year initiative to test the technology’s viability in Australia’s agricultural settings. The project is part of the Australian government’s Future Drought Fund’s Resilient Landscapes program, and plans to deploy the floating arrays across the country’s farm irrigation infrastructure.
Market researchers expect demand for such installations to climb over the next decade, due in large part to the Australian government’s willing support. One example is the floating solar farm in Warrnambool, Victoria. Completed in 2026, the array is the country’s largest, consisting of 1,200 bifacial solar panels. Generating more than 600,000 kWh of electricity annually, the energy from the array powers the Warrnambool Water Treatment Plant, and is expected to reduce the utility’s greenhouse gas emissions by over 650 tons per year. Similar projects are cropping up around the country. Norwegian photovoltaics company Ocean Sun and Singaporean firm Canopy Power, for instance, have partnered to bring 70-meter solar rings to Australian utilities.
Australia isn’t the only country that wants to deploy the technology. In fact, the country’s collection of floating solar farms are relatively diminutive compared to other nations long invested in the technology, such as Japan. In 2016, it erected what was then the largest floating plant consisting of 50,000 photovoltaic panels. By 2019, the country’s lakes had 73 of the world’s 100 largest floating solar plants. Since then, China has risen into a world leader in solar energy, boasting several of the world’s largest floating projects, including its 320 MW Dingzhuang solar farm. However, both South Korea and India are developing solar projects that will surpass the Dingzhuang project. France, the Netherlands, Indonesia, Portugal, Taiwan, Norway, Italy, and the U.K. are among the countries investing in floating solar power. In the U.S., the NJR Clean Energy Ventures in Milburn, New Jersey is the continent’s largest floatovoltaic project.

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Elderly resident rescued after solar panels catch fire in Waterbury, crew says – CT Insider

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China and India power Asia-Pacific’s growth in global solar expansion – Asian Power

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China installed an estimated 278.9GW of solar capacity in 2025 alone.
Asia-Pacific (APAC) is now the world’s largest solar PV market, accounting for about 68% of global installations by the mid-2020s.
According to GlobalData’s Asia Pacific Renewable Energy Policy Handbook 2026 report, China is the primary driver of growth, installing an estimated 278.9GW of solar capacity in 2025 alone—far ahead of other markets.
India followed as another key contributor, adding around 31GW and strengthening its position amongst the world’s largest solar markets.
Mature markets also continued steady expansion, with Japan adding approximately 6.5GW and Australia contributing about 4.6GW, largely driven by widespread rooftop solar adoption.
Elsewhere in the region, countries across Southeast Asia and South Korea have also recorded rapid solar capacity growth in recent years, with Vietnam emerging as a notable hotspot for deployment.
GlobalData Power Analyst Sudeshna Sarmah attributed the sustained momentum to structural cost declines and strong policy support.
“Solar equipment costs have fallen sharply due to strong supply, keeping solar PV amongst the cheapest sources of new power,” he said. “At the same time, governments are reinforcing growth through renewable targets, incentives, and competitive auctions, with solar positioned as a central pillar of national decarbonisation and energy security strategies.”
The report also cited APAC’s dominance in the global solar supply chain, led by China, which continues to enable economies of scale and reduce project costs across the region. Improved investor confidence and growing experience with large-scale projects have further accelerated deployment.
Looking ahead, GlobalData expects the region’s leadership to continue, supported by rising electricity demand and ambitious national targets through 2030.
China is projected to remain the largest single contributor to global renewable additions, whilst India and other emerging markets scale up installations.
“Despite challenges such as grid integration and land constraints, policy adjustments and newer applications such as floating solar are helping sustain growth, positioning APAC to retain leadership in solar PV well into the 2030s,” said Sarmah.
 
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India Power Booms on Capex, Faces Non-Solar Hour Challenges – Whalesbook

India's power sector is experiencing a historic surge in capital investment, fueled by demand for electrification, data centers, and manufacturing, with growth projected at 5-6% annually. This boom, covering power generation, transmission, and storage, is expected to last years, according to Citi Research. Yet, the sector faces major challenges keeping the grid stable during non-solar hours due to outages and reliance on intermittent solar power, prompting a regulatory shift towards reliability.
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India's power sector is in the midst of a historic capital investment boom. This broad expansion across thermal power, renewables, transmission, and grid storage is driven by soaring demand from electrification, a surge in data centers, increased cooling needs, and government manufacturing initiatives. Citi Research expects this momentum to continue for years, forecasting a 5-6% annual growth rate. This multi-year investment cycle offers strong visibility and stability as power demand becomes more diverse nationwide.
Electricity demand in India is shifting. Rapid electrification, the fast growth of data centers and AI, and higher cooling needs due to rising temperatures are fundamentally changing how and when power is used. This leads to sharper, more volatile peak demand patterns, placing new pressures on the grid compared to past profiles.
Regulators are shifting focus from just adding capacity to ensuring system reliability and flexibility. Tools like the Central Electricity Authority's (CEA) resource adequacy guidelines and long-term transmission plans support this change. However, the grid faces major strain during non-solar hours (6 PM to 6 AM) when solar power is absent. Recent data shows significant shortfalls and outages, partly due to thermal plants going offline. This creates a critical challenge: maintaining steady power when solar generation stops, requiring strong baseload and storage.
Leading power companies are pursuing different strategies. NTPC, India's largest public producer, provides stability with regulated tariffs and a diverse generation mix, including significant renewable investments. It typically trades at more conservative P/E multiples than private firms. Adani Power, meanwhile, has seen rapid stock growth and capacity expansion, mainly in thermal power, and commands higher P/E ratios. Other key players like Tata Power, Power Grid Corporation, and JSW Energy are also integral to the sector's growth. Citi Research recommends 'Buy' ratings on several, with NTPC as a top pick. However, analysts point out that valuations for high-growth companies like JSW Energy are still debated.
Despite positive forecasts, underlying risks remain. The financial stability of electricity distribution companies (DISCOMs) is a persistent concern due to their accumulated losses and debt. While the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) aims to modernize them, many still struggle with unsustainable debt. Delays in project approvals and land acquisition can hinder vital transmission infrastructure development, a key part of the current investment cycle. Moreover, rising demand from data centers and cooling, worsened by heatwaves, brings environmental and water usage concerns that could cause conflict. The National Electricity Policy 2026 (NEP 2026) seeks to tackle these issues, but its goals for universal access, fair pricing, and DISCOM health face significant practical and political hurdles. The cost of new technologies like nuclear power, also mentioned in NEP 2026, raises questions about affordability compared to renewable energy with storage.
Analysts generally maintain a positive outlook, with 'Buy' ratings on key companies from firms like Citi and Jefferies. Citi has provided price targets: NTPC (₹485), Tata Power (₹525), Power Grid (₹380), and JSW Energy (₹650). The sector's future depends on ongoing government support, successful renewable integration, managing supply chain issues, and companies' ability to turn investments into profitable growth. While the projected 5-6% annual growth is backed by diverse demand, investors will watch execution across the entire value chain for returns.
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Dozens of solar and battery storage projects face delays over Cyprus grid capacity – Kathimerini.com.cy

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Hybrid solar-diesel power is less expensive than diesel alone in parts of rural Alaska, study shows – Alaska Beacon

Hybrid solar-diesel power is less expensive than diesel alone in parts of rural Alaska, study shows  Alaska Beacon
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While countries lose water in the heat and dispute land for energy, India places solar panels over irrigation canals to generate electricity, shade the water, and transform agricultural infrastructure into a clean power plant. – CPG Click Petróleo e Gás

Interesting facts
India has placed solar panels over irrigation canals to generate electricity and, at the same time, create shade over the water. The idea transforms a common agricultural structure into a kind of clean power plant installed directly over the irrigation path.
The project gained prominence in Gujarat, an Indian state that pioneered this model. The proposal draws attention because it combines solar energy, reduced water evaporation, and more intelligent land use, without occupying large areas that could remain linked to agriculture.
The investigation was published by Mongabay India, a journalistic website on environment and development. The case shows a solution with strong environmental appeal, but also with cost and maintenance challenges.
While land-based data centers consume energy to prevent overheating, China is placing servers 35 meters deep in the sea, using ocean water to cool the machines, and is also raising an alert about sonic attacks against the digital cloud.
Egypt wants to transform sand into farmland with a new artificial river in the desert, but experts warn that the water could disappear into the soil before turning into cheap food.
While London was trying to cope with the suffocating heat of the Underground, a ghost station, closed since 1922, became a hidden energy hub that heats homes, a school, and community buildings in Islington.
Italy will deploy more than 70 concrete megacaissons, up to 33 meters high, in the Mediterranean to erect a 6 km offshore wall on foundations 50 meters deep to receive giant 400-meter ships.
Irrigation canals exist to carry water to agricultural areas. With the installation of solar panels over these canals, the same structure gains a second function: producing electricity.
This change seems simple, but it has a big impact. The area over the water, which was previously empty, is now used to generate clean energy.
Furthermore, the panels cast shade over the canal. With less direct sun on the water, the solution helps reduce water evaporation, an important problem in hot regions.
The result is a dual-use structure. The canal continues to carry water for irrigation and, at the same time, becomes a support for solar energy production.
Gujarat became a reference because it pioneered this type of installation. The Indian state showed that existing canals can be used as a base for solar panels on irrigation canals.
The main advantage lies in land use. Common solar farms require large open areas, which can lead to competition for space in agricultural regions.
In solar canals, this competition decreases. Energy is now generated on a structure that is already part of the irrigation system.
Therefore, the model is of interest to regions that need to balance agricultural production, water conservation, and solar energy generation. The solution does not eliminate problems, but it opens up a smart alternative for places with pressure on land and water.
The most curious point of the project is the visual aspect and function of the structure. The panels form a cover over the canal, like a roof that produces energy.
In practice, it is a solar power plant suspended over the water. While capturing sunlight, the structure reduces the direct incidence of heat on the canal.
This combination explains the interest in the model. The same work delivers electricity and helps protect part of the water used for irrigation.
The logic is direct: the sun that could accelerate evaporation is also used to generate energy. The water is better protected, and the infrastructure gains an extra function.
The great strength of solar canals lies in avoiding the use of new land areas. This matters because the expansion of solar energy can compete with other land uses.
In agricultural areas, every space has value. Installing solar energy over canals allows for the utilization of a strip already occupied by irrigation infrastructure.
Even so, the solution is neither automatic nor simple. Installation over canals can be more complex than in common solar farms.

Maintenance also requires attention. Access to the panels can be more difficult, and the structure needs to coexist with the operation of the irrigation canal.
Mongabay India, a journalistic website on environment and development, detailed the central points of the topic. The expansion of solar canals in India has been slower than that of conventional solar parks.
The reason involves economic and operational challenges. Although the solution has environmental benefits, it can cost more and be more difficult to maintain.
This point helps to understand why an idea considered ingenious doesn’t spread as quickly. The technology needs to be good for the environment, but it also needs to fit the budget and function well in daily life.
The comparison with common solar parks is important. They can be simpler to install, even if they occupy more land. Solar canals, on the other hand, save space but require a more careful structure.
The installation of solar panels over irrigation canals shows a creative way to better use agricultural infrastructure. The canal ceases to have only one function and also helps in electricity production.
The real impact appears in four points: energy, water, land, and agricultural planning. The proposal addresses problems affecting hot regions and areas dependent on irrigation.
At the same time, the case shows that innovation needs to overcome economic reality. A beautiful and efficient solution on paper can face barriers when it involves cost, maintenance, and operation.
Still, Gujarat highlighted an important question for the future of solar energy: where to install panels without further pressuring land use?
India showed that irrigation canals can become clean power plants without ceasing to bring water to the fields. The idea combines solar energy and protection against evaporation but depends on viable cost to scale.
Do you think covering canals with solar panels would be a smart solution for agricultural regions in Brazil, or would the cost still outweigh the benefits? Don’t forget to leave your comment.
Flavia Marinho is a postgraduate engineer with extensive experience in the onshore and offshore shipbuilding industry. In recent years, she has dedicated herself to writing articles for news websites in the areas of military, security, industry, oil and gas, energy, shipbuilding, geopolitics, jobs, and courses. Contact flaviacamil@gmail.com or WhatsApp +55 21 973996379 for corrections, editorial suggestions, job vacancy postings, or advertising proposals on our portal.
© 2026 Click Petróleo e Gás – All rights reserved

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INSIGHT-Trump’s crackdown on China-linked solar firms stalls U.S. factory boom – Lee News Central

INSIGHT-Trump’s crackdown on China-linked solar firms stalls U.S. factory boom  Lee News Central
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The global energy shock is driving people to EVs, solar and batteries. What renewables subsidies are available in Australia? – The Guardian

Electric upgrades can mean long-term savings. We look at ways the government can help reduce their upfront cost
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Interest in EVs – and electrification more generally – has risen along with fuel prices amid the global energy shock unleashed by the US-Israel war on Iran.
Kristen McDonald, a director at Rewiring Australia, says the case is “even more compelling now” for electric upgrades to home appliances, solar panels, batteries or cars.
“Because once you do have them in place, they’re permanent savings for you,” she says.
It can be a costly undertaking, however. Here’s what is available to Australians looking to electrify on a budget.
The federal government’s electric car discount program provides an exemption from fringe benefits tax (FBT) for novated leases and company cars.
Australian employers typically pay FBT on non-salary benefits they provide to employees. Under the program, workers can get an eligible EV using a novated lease – a three-way agreement between themselves, their employer and a financing company – and pay for it with their pre-tax income, reducing the amount of income tax they pay each year.
The Albanese government confirmed earlier this week it would extend the tax break, which is its signature measure to boost electric vehicle uptake. The program had been under review, after the Productivity Commission last year recommended it be scrapped because it was costing the government more than expected in lost income and FBT tax revenue.
The policy will be extended until April 2027. After that, the FBT discount will only apply to vehicles costing under $75,000 until April 2029, in a bid to encourage manufacturers to offer more affordable EVs in Australia.
During this second phase, electric vehicles costing more than $75,000 but priced below the luxury car tax threshold – currently set at $91,387 for fuel-efficient vehicles – would receive a 25% FBT discount. In the third and final phase, from April 2029, the electric vehicle incentive will be limited to a 25% fringe benefits tax discount for all EVs below the luxury car tax threshold.
McDonald says the fringe benefits exemption should stay until the market matures and more EVs flow through to secondhand sales.
It is “too early to take away the incentives that would encourage a switch to electric vehicles,” she says. “Only 2% of Australia’s car fleet are electric vehicles.”
There aren’t any direct subsidies for EVs any more. States and territories have phased out subsidy schemes, and many have stopped providing discounts on registration fees and stamp duty. However, there are still a few incentives.
In Queensland, EV owners are eligible for small discounts on stamp duty and annual registration costs.
In New South Wales, electric vehicles and some low-emission hybrid vehicles receive a concession on motor vehicle tax and a small discount on registration costs.
In the Northern Territory, buyers of new or used battery-electric, fuel-cell and plug-in hybrids can receive a $1,500 discount on stamp duty until July 2027. New and existing EVs are eligible for free registration.
The Western Australian government has a $15m grants scheme to help small businesses, not-for-profits and local governments install EV charging infrastructure.
McDonald says she saves money by plugging her EV into an ordinary wall socket and charging it slowly overnight, using a retail plan that has a “really cheap” overnight charging rate.
“It won’t charge your whole battery overnight, but if you’re only doing short distances, then that’s fine because you only need a little top-up each night,” she says.
Available Australia-wide, the federal government’s small-scale renewable energy scheme reduces the cost of most new residential and business rooftop solar systems. The government estimates the amount of electricity your system will generate until 2030 and issues your installer with small-scale technology certificates (STCs). The installer then gives you a discount based on the certificate’s worth.
You may also qualify for other incentives such as a payment or subsidy for a solar system, or a loan with a favourable interest rate. This varies depending on where you live, your personal financial situation, and the panels you’re after. For example, in Victoria, eligible households can receive a rebate of up to $1,400 on solar panels plus an interest-free loan.
The federal government has a tool you can use to check what assistance is available for individuals and businesses here.
You can be paid for additional electricity you send into the network – once your solar system is up and running. The feed-in tariffs vary depending on which state or territory you live in. Generally, rooftop solar owners receive a lower rate for the electricity they contribute than what the power is sold for.
Solar batteries allow you to store energy generated by your panels for use at night and during times of peak demand.
Similar to its scheme to incentivise solar panel uptake, the federal government offers STCs for solar batteries installed by households and small businesses. If eligible, you can get a discount on the purchase price of your battery system.
As of May this year, the scheme has changed. The available discount for new battery systems will decline more quickly over time – every six months, and at a higher rate.
The discounts will be applied on a tiered basis depending on the size of your battery, tapering off after 14 kilowatt hours.
The government says the changes ensure the system can be sustained until 2030. It has a calculator here to estimate how many small-scale technology certificates your battery is worth.
You may be eligible for other battery programs at the state, territory or local government level. You can check what’s available here.
If you live in Victoria, NSW or South Australia, and own a battery, you may be able to get a higher feed-in tariff and other discounts if you sign up to a virtual power plant – a network of small distributed energy resources that operate together.

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These small-town neighbors teamed up to get discounted solar panels & cut their electric bills – AOL.com

These small-town neighbors teamed up to get discounted solar panels & cut their electric bills  AOL.com
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Workshop: IRENA SolarCity Simulator – Grenada – International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)

Workshop: IRENA SolarCity Simulator – Grenada  International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
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High Open-Circuit Voltage–Fill factor product in perovskite solar cells enabled by ferroelectric heterojunction modulation – Nature

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Nature Communications volume 17, Article number: 2897 (2026)
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Overcoming the inherent limitations of perovskite-perovskite heterojunctions in simultaneously boosting built-in potential and suppressing non-radiative recombination remains a critical challenge in perovskite solar cells. Here, we introduce a ferroelectric-based heterojunction architecture that addresses this dual challenge through synergistic mechanisms. Firstly, the spontaneous polarization inherent to the ferroelectric-based heterojunction significantly amplifies the built-in electric field, enhancing charge separation and transport, thereby increasing open-circuit voltage from 1.16 to 1.21 V. Secondly, ferroelectric nuclei effectively regulate perovskite crystallization kinetics via dissolution-recrystallization modulation, effectively suppressing trap states and elevating fill factor from 83.6% to 86.8%. The champion devices achieve a power conversion efficiency of 26.62% (certified 26.07%) with an open-circuit voltage-fill factor product of 1.05 V, reaching 90.3% of the Shockley-Queisser limit. Furthermore, the modified devices demonstrate enhanced operational stability with over 85% efficiency reservation after 500 h of maximum power point tracking, charting clear pathways towards high-performance photovoltaic cells.
The emergence of metal halide perovskites has catalyzed a paradigm shift in photovoltaics1,2,3. Leveraging their exceptional optoelectronic characteristics, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have achieved rapid breakthroughs in power conversion efficiency (PCE), with the current record of 27.3% positioning them as a compelling contender to the monocrystalline silicon benchmark4. Despite the encouraging progress achieved, energy loss remains an intractable challenge within PSCs, restricting further efficiency climbing towards the Schockley-Queisser (SQ) limit5,6,7. The performance of PSCs with certain functional layers is closely related to the difference between quasi-Fermi levels for electrons and holes, which determines the established built-in potential and the achievable energy conversion in devices8,9.
The built-in electric field can serve as the driving force for charge separation and transport from the perovskite absorber to the corresponding electrodes, with its reinforcing assistance to enhance carrier extraction and mitigate energy loss10. However, non-radiative recombination loss stemming from defect capture and interface mismatch poses significant obstacles, potentially threatening the splitting of quasi-Fermi levels and the open-circuit voltage (VOC) deficit11. Furthermore, the lower fill factor (FF) of PSCs, as compared to the commercial silicon and GaAs photovoltaics, is primarily attributed to carrier transport limitations and interfacial recombination12. As such, research efforts to achieve efficiency breakthroughs are centered on addressing the losses in VOC and FF, both of which bridge the gap of at least 5% from the theoretical values13.
Among the non-radiative recombination pathways identified in PSCs, the high-density defect within the solution-processed perovskite films and mismatched band structure are the predominant sources14. The rapid nucleation and growth process generally causes disordered crystallization issues on both spatial and time scales, resulting in films characterized by inhomogeneous compositional distributions and severe defect residue15. The high-density charged defects and lattice dislocations serve as the charge recombination centers to capture the carrier by Coulombic interactions and restrain the charge transport efficiency16. Additionally, the deep-level defects can also induce charge accumulation and yield the back electric field inside devices, thereby compromising device performance11. Besides the defect influences, the considerable energy offset between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level of the general carbazole-based self-assembly monolayers (SAMs) and the valence band edge of perovskite causes a weak built-in electric field for driving the carrier separation and extraction in inverted PSCs17. This results in unbalanced charge transfer and significant carrier accumulation at the contact interfaces, further exacerbating the energy loss and compromising the device performance. Therefore, to overcome the theoretical limit of solar cells, optimizing the crystallization kinetics to minimize defect density and strengthening the built-in field to accelerate charge transport in PSCs tends to be imperative.
The perovskite-perovskite heterojunction emerges as an effective strategy to enhance the built-in electric field in PSCs. This approach involves blending two types of perovskite compositions with distinct band gaps and optoelectronic properties, achieved through in situ phase segregation within the absorber layer18. Low-dimensional perovskite materials, including 2D perovskite crystals, 1D perovskitoids, and 0D quantum dots, have been incorporated into bulk 3D perovskites to introduce an additional electric field, thus promoting more efficient charge extraction19. Theoretically, ferroelectric perovskites, which exhibit dipole characteristics under external fields, are expected to enhance the built-in potential of PSCs through self-polarization20. Well-controlled intrinsic polarization directions and the precise spatial distribution of ferroelectrics are beneficial for aligning the local electric field, ultimately impacting charge collection efficiency. Quite recently published pioneering work has demonstrated this concept by introducing a 2D photo-ferroelectric perovskite to form a 2D/3D layered junction, which induced the spontaneous accumulation of the 2D ferroelectric phase21. This approach mitigated interfacial recombination in PSCs and achieved a significant VOC gain of 1.21 V. However, despite this VOC enhancement, substantial energy loss persists in such 2D/3D layered perovskite junctions. These losses are primarily attributed to the high density of non-radiative recombination sites in the bulk 3D perovskite layer, leading to a maximum PCE below 25%. This underscores the challenge of simultaneously achieving a high built-in electric field and a reduction in non-radiative recombination sites in the pursuit of enhanced cell performance.
Herein, we demonstrate ferroelectric-based heterojunctions (FBHJ), constructed by incorporating either Dion–Jacobson (DJ)- or Ruddlesden–Popper (RP)-phase 2D perovskites, synergistically decrease VOC and FF deficits in PSCs through coupled built-in field amplification and crystallization modulation. We experimentally verify the effects of FBHJ on optimizing nucleation rate, growth uniformity, dissolution-recrystallization dynamics, and defect suppression in films by in situ optical spectrometry techniques. These benefits demonstrate substantial enhancements in the built-in electric field and charge collection efficiency in devices. As a result, PSCs achieve an impressive PCE of 26.62% (certified 26.07%) with a VOC × FF product of 1.05 V, surpassing 90% of the SQ limits and representing a low energy loss among reported PSCs with PCEs exceeding 26%.
We engineered two distinct FBHJ architectures to validate the universality of our strategy: FAPbI3 integrated with DJ-phase ferroelectric perovskite (4-(aminomethyl)piperidinium)PbI4 (denoted as 4AMP-DJ), and FAPbI3 coupled with RP-phase ferroelectric (4,4-difluoropiperidinium)2PbI4 (denoted as DDFP-RP). Figure 1a illustrates the device configuration of the FBHJ solar cell using ferroelectric decoration, and Fig. 1b presents the molecular architectures of the DJ- and RP-phase ferroelectric perovskites reported in current research.
a The device structure of the inverted PSCs. b The packing structure of (4AMP)PbI4 and (DDFP)2PbI4 perovskites in their ferroelectric phases. c J–V curves and d statistic distribution of PCEs of the control and FBHJ PSCs. Error bars are the standard deviation of PCEs for 30 devices in each case. The lines in the middle of the box plots indicate the median values. e The stabilized power output curves of FBHJ PSCs. f EQE curves of the control and FBHJ PSCs. g The J–V curve of the champion FBHJ-based flexible PSCs. Illustrations provide specific device performance parameters. h The certified J–V curve of the champion FBHJ PSCs from the Fujian Metrology Institute (FIL) of the National Photovoltaic Industry Metrology Center (NPVM). The institutional logo @ 2025 Fujian Metrology Institute. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. i Plots of VOC × FF products for the state-of-the-art inverted PSCs with PCE over 26%, derived from Supplementary Table 7. j Operational stability of unencapsulated devices at the maximum power point (MPP) tracking with continuous one-sun illumination under N2 atmosphere at 45 °C.
Systematic device characterizations were conducted to validate the efficacy of FBHJ in overcoming the SQ efficiency limit. Incorporation of 4AMP-DJ at optimized concentrations induced remarkable performance enhancements, in which the PCE increased from 24.46% (control) to 26.62%, accompanied by substantial improvements in VOC from 1.16 V to 1.21 V (ΔVOC = +50 mV) and FF from 83.57% to 86.79% (ΔFF = +3.22%), while maintaining a stable short-circuit current density (JSC ≈ 25.4 mA cm-2) (Supplementary Fig. 1). Notably, the VOC enhancement exhibited concentration-dependent saturation behaviors. Further increasing the 4AMP-DJ concentration preserved a high VOC (1.21 V), while it triggered reductions in FF and JSC (Supplementary Fig. 2, Supplementary Table 1), suggesting compromised charge transport at an excessive ferroelectric content. This nonlinear response highlights the requirement of balance modulation between charge transport and built-in electric field, which will be systematically discussed in the following sections. The universality of FBHJ engineering was further confirmed as the DDFP-RP also achieved comparable performance metrics (VOC = 1.20 V, PCE = 26.18%) as depicted in Fig. 1c. The PCE statistics further validated the performance improvement in devices through ferroelectric doping (Fig. 1d, Supplementary Fig. 3 and Supplementary Table 2).
Steady-state power output measurements under maximum power point tracking (1.04 V bias) confirmed exceptional operational stability, with PCEs stabilizing at 26.31% (4AMP-DJ) and 26.01% (DDFP-RP) over 600 s of illumination (Fig. 1e). Spectral response analysis revealed near-unity external quantum efficiency (EQE) across 300–800 nm, yielding integrated JSC values of 25.01, 25.10, and 25.06 mA cm−2 for the control, 4AMP-DJ, and DDFP-RP devices, respectively (Fig. 1f). The minimal variation in JSC variation (<0.4%) corroborates that the efficiency gains are primarily originated from improvements in VOC and FF. To evaluate the compatibility of the FBHJ strategy in variations of device structures, we extended this approach to flexible devices, obtaining a champion PCE of 25.15% with a VOC of 1.19 V (Fig. 1g, Supplementary Fig. 4 and Supplementary Table 3). In addition, the 4AMP-DJ PSCs at an active area of 1.04 cm2 delivered a champion PCE of 25.45%, illustrating good scalability (Supplementary Fig. 5, Supplementary Table 4).
The champion device with an aperture area of 0.0718 cm2 achieved a certified PCE of 26.07% (Fig. 1h, Supplementary Fig. 6) from the Fujian Metrology Institute (FIL) of the National Photovoltaic Industry Metrology Center (NPVM). Crucially, the VOC × FF product of 1.053 V approaches 90.3% of the SQ theoretical limit for the 1.56 eV bandgap perovskite22,23, corresponding to a low energy loss of 0.35 eV with respect to the SQ limit of 0.29 eV, which represents a small reported value for inverted PSCs exceeding 26% efficiency (Fig. 1i, Supplementary Table 5)5,6,7,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41. This near-ideal VOC × FF product stems from low VOC deficit (0.35 eV) and FF deficit (3.41%) simultaneously. Moreover, the hysteresis index of PSCs was significantly mitigated through the ferroelectric doping (Supplementary Fig. 7, Supplementary Table 6).
The operational stability of PSCs was investigated under constant 100 mW cm−2 illumination in a nitrogen atmosphere42. FBHJ devices retained 85% initial PCE after 500 h of maximum power point tracking (MPPT), outperforming that of the control with 50% retention (Fig. 1j). The T80 lifetime extrapolation suggests over 700 h operational stability under 1-sun equivalent stress (Supplementary Fig. 8). This synergistic enhancement of efficiency and stability conclusively indicates a dual-function potential of the FBHJ strategy, simultaneously engineering built-in electric fields through ferroelectric polarization while passivating defect sites via improved perovskite crystallization.
To elucidate the optimization mechanism underlying the energy loss in FBHJ PSCs, we then explored the influences of ferroelectric doping on the ferroelectricity of perovskite films. (4AMP)PbI4 belongs to a typical 2D DJ-phase perovskite, in which PbI64 octahedral adopts a corner-shared model to form 2D inorganic perovskite frameworks, while 4AMP cations acting as interlayers are arranged in an alternating up-and-down orientation (Supplementary Fig. 9, Supplementary Note 1). The DDFP cation with asymmetrical structure and fluoridation substituent was chosen as the spacer ligand to construct the 2D perovskite ferroelectric (DFPD)2PbI4, featuring an RP configuration with infinite corner-sharing [PbI4]n2− layers separated by two DFPD-based spacer layers (Supplementary Fig. 10, Supplementary Note 2).
We then conducted the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) tests to determine the ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition behaviors of (4AMP)PbI4 and (DDFP)2PbI4. For (4AMP)PbI4, an endothermic peak was observed at 351 K in the heating run, accompanied by a corresponding exothermic peak detected at 348 K in the cooling run (Supplementary Fig. 11). The DSC curves of (DDFP)2PbI4 revealed an endothermic anomaly peak at 428 K during the heating cycle with an exothermic anomaly peak at 405 K (Supplementary Fig. 12a), indicating a reversible phase transition. Notably, the relative permittivity (ɛ′) of (DDFP)2PbI4 under the heating treatment exhibited an abnormal surge at 428 K, labeled as Curie temperature (TC), further confirming the paraelectric-ferroelectric phase transition (Supplementary Fig. 12b).
Piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) is a powerful tool for identifying ferroelectricity. As illustrated in Fig. 2a–c, the control film demonstrated a homogeneous phase without distinct ferroelectric domain walls, implying nonintrinsic ferroelectricity. By contrast, (4AMP)PbI4 and (DDFP)2PbI4 presented obvious domain structures along the out-of-plane direction, where domain walls with weak piezoelectric response separate domains with different orientations (Supplementary Figs. 13, 14)43. Critically, the observed ferroelectric domain structure is unrelated to the topography, confirming that the signal comes from piezoelectric responses with different orientation domains rather than morphology crosstalk. 4AMP-DJ and DDFP-RP FBHJ films exhibited a ferroelectric domain structure similar to the (4AMP)PbI4 and (DDFP)2PbI4, showing clear and well-defined domains (Fig. 2d–i). PFM analyses revealed that FBHJ films preserve ferroelectric domains within the 2D ferroelectric composites43. In addition, the FBHJ films also presented butterfly-shaped amplitude loops in response to variations in the electric field (Supplementary Fig. 15), further confirming the manifestation of ferroelectric behaviors in FBHJ films. Macroscopic P–E hysteresis loops of FBHJ film have been supplemented as Supplementary Fig. 16, revealing their ferroelectricity at the enlarged scale. By contrast, the intrinsic ferroelectricity was absent in the pristine FAPbI3 films.
Topography, amplitude, and phase images of a–c control, d–f 4AMP-DJ and g–i DDFP-RP films. Scalebar of 600 nm.
To elucidate the crystallization behavior of FBHJ perovskite, we conducted in situ spectroscopy characterizations during film formation (Fig. 3a, b). In situ photoluminescence (PL) spectrometry was applied to monitor the crystallization evolution behaviors of perovskite films during the spin-coating and annealing stages, especially for the top surface under an optical reflection mode44,45. The intensity evolution against time was plotted in Fig. 3c for the PL peak at 775 nm. During spin-coating, anti-solvent dripping triggers rapid perovskite nucleation, whereas no significant difference in PL intensity was observed among different films (Supplementary Fig. 17). However, distinct kinetics emerged during the annealing stage. Initially, residual solvent evaporation induced a rapid dissociation of nuclei at the liquid-air interface46,47, leading to a sharp decay in PL intensity within the first ca. 7 s. Subsequently, the dissolved crystal at the top surface began to recrystallize, which took ca. 16 s, 28 s, and 49 s for the PL intensity to reach the peak for the control, DDFP-RP, and 4AMP-DJ films, respectively. The extended recrystallization window suggested that FBHJ involves the 2D ferroelectric crystal seeds to regulate the growth behaviors of the intrinsic 3D component, thereby retarding the crystallization rate48. The prolonged growth duration in 4AMP-DJ FBHJ film was associated with the enhanced coordination affinity of diammonium spacer ligands and potential intermediate participation in the crystallization retardance49. Notably, FBHJ also suppressed defect-induced PL quenching, presenting more stable emission intensity over time.
a in situ PL and b in situ UV-vis spectra of perovskite films during the annealing process. c Evolution of PL intensity at 775 nm for different perovskite films during the annealing process. d Evolution of absorption intensity at 550 nm for different perovskite films during the annealing process. e, f LaMer model illustrating the correlation between nucleation/growth rate and concentration evolution of precursor solution in (e) the bulk and f the top surface for the perovskite films.
In situ UV-vis spectroscopy further revealed solvent-evaporation-driven bulk nucleation dynamics in a transmission mode. In the control film, the absorption intensity gradually increased and reached the edge of the bulk phase after an initial 15 s (Fig. 3d), coinciding with top-surface nuclei total dissolution46,50, followed by secondary crystallization reaching the absorption peak at ca. 23 s. Ferroelectric doping accelerated nucleation, shortening the appearance of the first absorption peak to ca. 7 s (DDFP-RP) and ca. 9 s (4AMP-DJ), while the secondary crystallization window terminated at ca. 15 s and 19 s. This acceleration stems from a Pb-rich environment induced by partial dissolution of ferroelectric perovskite in precursor solution, which promoted the mobile ion diffusion and reduced the perovskite nucleation barrier. Critically, in the FBHJ case, the nucleation termination in the bulk aligned well with surface recrystallization onset at the liquid-air interface, alleviating strain-induced defects via homogeneous growth.
In situ spectroscopic analysis revealed the FBHJ-modulated perovskite crystallization kinetics during thermal annealing, as rationalized by the principles of the LaMer model. In the bulk film, the nucleation process is initiated with solvent evaporation driving rapid dissolution of transient nuclei at the film surface (Fig. 3e), concomitant with bulk solution concentration surpassing the supersaturation threshold (Stage I). Intriguingly, the ferroelectric doping supported a Pb-rich environment in the FBHJ bulk, markedly enhancing perovskite nucleation rates compared to the control (Stage II). The high-polarity organic ligands, featuring strong coordination affinity with Pb-I octahedra framework, would induce the rapid formation of 2D seeds to template crystal growth of FAPbI348, thereby promoting structurally ordered recrystallization (Stage III). However, excessive dopant concentrations may push the precursor solution beyond its critical supersaturation limit (Cmax*), triggering uncontrolled nucleation that compromises size uniformity and film morphology.
At the liquid-air interface, solvent evaporation induces the dissolution of metastable nuclei while progressively elevating the solution concentration, with all film compositions exhibiting similar dissolution-recrystallization initiation thresholds (Fig. 3f). Upon depletion of these interfacial nuclei, a dynamic evolution was established between evaporative flux and bulk solution replenishment, which presented a down-up stage of PL intensity with the extended annealing time. Subsequent solvent depletion shifted the predominant phase transformation mechanism toward regular surface rearrangement. Critically, ferroelectric incorporation facilitates the precise regulation of growth kinetics throughout the FAPbI3 perovskite. The ferroelectric perovskite effectively serves as a multifunctional crystallization modulator by simultaneously lowering the nucleation energy barrier, prolonging the interfacial recrystallization timeframe, and homogenizing crystal growth dynamics across films. This synergistic regulation affords heterojunction films with exceptional crystalline quality and denser crystalline stacking, as key metrics for the optoelectronic performance of PSCs.
The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis demonstrated effective suppression of PbI2 residues in films upon ferroelectric incorporation, accompanied by a marginal increase in average grain size and improved spatial homogeneity (Fig. 4a). Cross-sectional SEM revealed vertically continuous grain structures spanning the entire ca. 835 nm-thick perovskite layer (Supplementary Fig. 18), suggesting optimized crystallization pathways conducive to unimpeded charge carrier transport. For the spatial distribution of ferroelectric perovskite in final FBHJ films, time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectroscopy (ToF-SIMS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) characterizations revealed that the 2D ferroelectric perovskites retained their inherent structure within resulting films, which distributed throughout the bulk film and dominantly enriched at the bottom interface (Fig. 4b, Supplementary Figs. 19, 20). Moreover, XRD patterns exhibited characteristic perovskite phase amplification (at 2θ = 14.2°) with 4AMP-DJ and DDFP-RP incorporation, corroborating the enhanced crystallinity observed in morphological studies. Note that the ferroelectric doping distinctly enhanced PL intensity and signal uniformity of perovskite films, indicative of suppressed non-radiative recombination process (Fig. 4c–e). Time-resolved PL spectra illustrated that the average carrier lifetime increased from 9.4 μs (control) to 12.8 and 17.7 μs for the DDFP-RP and 4AMP-DJ samples, respectively, representing one of the state-of-the-art results for the polycrystalline perovskite films (Fig. 4f)51. Furthermore, space charge limited current (SCLC) measurements quantified the trap density within perovskite films, showing the average value reduced from 5.88 ± 0.94 × 1015 cm−3 (control) to 2.70 ± 0.34 × 1015 and 1.45 ± 0.12 × 1015 cm−3 of the DDFP-RP and 4AMP-DJ cases, respectively (Fig. 4g, Supplementary Fig. 21). Consequently, ferroelectric incorporation effectively modulates the perovskite crystallization kinetics, facilitating enhanced crystalline quality and suppressed non-radiative recombination in films.
a Top-view SEM images for different perovskite films. Scalebar of 1 μm. b ToF-SIMS depth profiles of DDFP-RP film. c, d PL intensity in PL mapping for control c and 4AMP-DJ d films. Scalebar of 50 μm. e–g steady-state PL, Time-resolved PL, and trap density statistics of perovskite films. Error bars are the standard deviation of trap density derived from 5 samples for each case.
Surface potential distributions across the perovskite films were characterized using Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) (Fig. 5a). Compared with the control film (–55 mV), both the 4AMP-DJ and DDFP-RP FBHJ films showed lower contact potential difference (CPD) values of –212 mV and –142 mV, respectively (Fig. 5b). The statistics of CPD exhibited a more homogeneous distribution of surface potential in the FBHJ films (Fig. 5c), which is favored for interface contact and charge extraction. UV-vis absorption spectra maintained invariant band-edge characteristics (Tauc plot-derived Eg = 1.56 eV) across modified compositions (Supplementary Fig. 22). The energetic alignments extracted from UV-vis absorption and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) were plotted in Fig. 5d, e. Compared to the control film, the Femi level (EF) was downshifted from −4.40 (control) to −4.42 (DDFP-RP) and −4.44 eV (4AMP-DJ). The energetic gap between EF and valence band maximum (VBM) was shortened from 1.22 (control) to 1.15 (DDFP-RP) and 1.10 eV (4AMP-DJ), indicating the enhanced p-type character of FBHJ films52. Notably, the VBMs of FBHJ perovskites were slightly upshifted and aligned better with the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level of MeO-4PACz, with the energy offset reduced from 0.30 (control) to 0.25 (DDFP-RP) and 0.22 eV (4AMP-DJ), endowing the more matched energetic alignment at the anode interface. Moreover, the band bending at the junction interface could yield an additional electric field to strengthen the built-in potential, ensuring suppressed energy loss in devices (Supplementary Fig. 23, Supplementary Note 3). TA spectra further illustrated the accelerated carrier transport at the hole extraction interface in FBHJ cases, which verified the synergy of ferroelectric doping on crystallization modulation and interfacial optimization (Supplementary Fig. 24).
a KPFM image of perovskite films. Scalebar of 500 nm. b The line-scan CPD data for the perovskite films extracted from KPFM images. c The CPD distribution histograms of different perovskite films. d Valence band edges and cutoff regions of UPS spectra for the perovskite films. e Energy level alignment within complete devices. f The dependence of VOC on light intensity for PSCs. g Mott-Schottky plots of PSCs. h Schematic of ferroelectric perovskite doping on improving the built-in electric field (BEF) and defect passivation in FBHJ PSCs.
To further elucidate the charge recombination behavior in FBHJ cells, the dependence of VOC under varying light intensity (Plight) was studied. Based on the formula of53
the corresponding slopes were calculated to be 1.47kBT/q, 1.12kBT/q, and 1.21kBT/q for the control, 4AMP-DJ, and DDFP-RP PSCs, respectively (Fig. 5f). By quantifying the FF loss in PSCs, the ferroelectric doping collectively reduced the charge recombination and non-radiative recombination losses in devices (Supplementary Fig. 25, Supplementary Note 4). In transient photocurrent decay (TPC) measurements (Supplementary Fig. 26), the FBHJ devices exhibited a faster decay rate compared to the control, implying the improved charge transport behaviors attributable to a reduction in the trap-mediated recombination process. From the C–V measurements in Fig. 5g, the effect of ferroelectric doping on the corresponding built-in potential at the contact interface was estimated by the Mott-Schottky analysis54:
where C represents the capacitance of the depletion layer, N is the carrier density, A is the active area, Vbi is the built-in potential at equilibrium, and V is the applied voltage. The Vbi extracted from the intercept of 1/C2 = 0 was determined to be 1.12, 1.17, and 1.19 V for the control, DDFP-RP, and 4AMP-DJ devices, respectively. The higher built-in potential further confirmed the higher driving force for charge separation and transport, endowing the synergistic enhancements in VOC and FF in the FBHJ PSCs.
Overall, our observations indicate that FBHJ architecture features coupled crystallization optimization and built-in field amplification, as shown in Fig. 5h. Ferroelectric doping contributes to the improved energetic alignment at the hole-extraction interface. The reinforced built-in potential can support a stronger driving force for charge separation and extraction. Moreover, the ferroelectric actively participates in the nucleation and growth of FAPbI3 perovskite and subsequently aggregates at the buried interface in resulting films, achieving significant trap suppression, thereby contributing to the suppressed carrier capture by defects and the charge accumulation at the heterointerface. The synergistic effect of ferroelectric doping on crystallization modulation and internal electric field of perovskite film effectively decreases energy loss in PSCs. Furthermore, ferroelectric-based FBHJ films demonstrate the capacity to inhibit ionic migration under constant illumination and enhance the long-term operational stability of devices (Supplementary Fig. 27). To fully harness the performance potential of devices, further ferroelectric design for improved ferroelectricity, including dipole regulation, intermolecular interactions, and polarization properties, is imperative. Delicate crystallization control to balance the domain distribution and polarization direction within the ferroelectrics would assist in effectively reinforcing the built-in field in perovskite-ferroelectric heterojunctions and minimizing energy loss in PSCs.
In summary, we demonstrate an effective ferroelectric-based heterojunction strategy to minimize the energy loss of PSCs and reveal the underlying mechanisms. The results indicate that ferroelectric heterojunction facilitates the broadening of the built-in potential under spontaneous polarization and supports an enhanced driving force for carrier transport. Furthermore, the ferroelectrics can assist the crystallization process of FAPbI3, thus contributing to the shortened nucleation duration and prolonged recrystallization window for perovskite films. These benefits promote the growth balance across the films and optimize the crystalline quality, therefore endowing less non-radiative recombination loss in heterojunction films. Consequently, the FBHJ PSCs achieved a champion efficiency of 26.62% (certified 26.07%) with a VOC × FF value of 1.05 V, surpassing 90% of the SQ thermal limit. Our study deepens the understanding of the optimization effects of ferroelectric perovskite on charge transport and crystallization modulation, thus shedding light on the further development of high-efficiency and stable perovskite photovoltaics.
FAPbI3, MAPbBr3, (4AMP) PbI4 and (DDFP)2PbI4 single crystal powders were derived from self-synthesis, patterned indium tin oxide (ITO) glass, cesium iodide (CsI), lead(II) iodide (PbI2), and methylammonium chloride (MACl) were obtained from Advanced Election Technology Co., Ltd. Phenylethylammonium iodide (PEAI), C60, and [4-(3,6-Dimethoxy-9H-carbazol-9-yl)butyl]phosphonic Acid (MeO-4PACz) were obtained from Xi’an Solar Co., Ltd. Chlorobenzene (CB) (anhydrous, 99.8%), Ethanol (anhydrous, 99.8%) and isopropanol (IPA) (anhydrous, 99.5%) were purchased from Sino-pharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd. N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) (anhydrous, 99.8%) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) (anhydrous, ≥99.9%) were obtained from Sigma-Aldrich.
Devices were fabricated with a planar p-i-n structure of fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)/SAM/Perovskite/PEAI/C60/BCP/Ag. The FTO glass substrates (2.5 cm × 2.5 cm) underwent a cleaning process involving ultrasonication in a specialized cleaning concentrate (Hellmanex III) mixed with ultrapure water (v:v = 1 ~ 1.5:100) for 30 min, followed by three additional ultrasonication cycles in ultrapure water for 30 min each. Subsequently, the substrates were dried under a nitrogen flow and treated with UV-ozone for 15 min. The MeO-4PACz was dissolved in anhydrous ethanol at a concentration of 0.5 mg ml−1. The as-prepared solution was spin-coated on the glass/FTO substrates at 3000 rpm for 30 s in the N2-filled glovebox. After annealing at 100 °C on a hotplate for 10 min, the HTL-coated substrates were cooled to room temperature for subsequent fabrication.
The perovskite precursor (1.5 M) was prepared by mixing 1.5 M FAPbI3, 0.06 M MAPbBr3, 0.05 M CsI, and 10 mol% excess MACl in a solvent mixture of DMF and DMSO (volume ratio: 4:1). (4AMP) PbI4 and (DDFP)2PbI4 were incorporated into the precursor solutions at different concentrations (ranging from 0 to 5.0 mg ml−1). Subsequently, 100 μl of the perovskite precursor was spin-coated onto the SAM layers at 1000 rpm for 10 s and 4000 rpm for 30 s, with the addition of 200 μl chlorobenzene dripped onto the film at 10 s before the end of the procedure. The film was then transferred to the hot plate and annealed at 100 °C for 40 min. After cooling to room temperature, the perovskite film was spin-coated with PEAI dissolved in IPA (20 mM) at 4000 rpm for 30 s without further processing. Finally, 20 nm C60, 7 nm BCP, and 100 nm silver were thermally evaporated onto the perovskite films.
Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was performed with a differential scanning calorimeter (NETZSCH DSC 214 Polyma) under an N2 atmosphere. The temperature cycles during both the heating and cooling phases were set at a rate of 10 K min−1. Dielectric constants (ɛ’) were determined based on the variable-temperature dielectric permittivity, using a Tonghui TH2828 A impedance analyzer. PE hysteresis loops were recorded using a Sawyer−Tower circuit with Precision Premier II (Radiant Technologies, Inc.). Nanoscale polarization imaging and local switching spectroscopy were performed using resonant-enhanced piezoresponse force microscopy (MFP–3D, Asylum Research). Domain imaging and polarization switching studies were conducted using conductive Pt/Ir-coated silicon probes (EFM–50, Nanoworld). All PFM measurements were performed in the out-of-plane (vertical) mode (VPFM) to probe the vertical-aligned polarization component. To confirm the piezoresponse, a 2 V AC driving voltage was applied, measuring normal and shear responses at the second resonant peak of the cantilever-sample system to enhance sensitivity.
UV-visible absorption spectra were acquired on a PerkinElmer UV-Lambda 950 instrument. Steady-state photoluminescence (PL) was recorded with a PicoQuant FT-300 spectrometer. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies were performed using a DX-2700BH diffractometer (Dandong Haoyuan Instrument Co., Ltd.). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images were obtained using a Hitachi SU-8020 field-emission scanning electron microscope (Japan). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) images and Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM) images were obtained by a Bruker Dimension Icon instrument (USA). Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) was performed on a photoelectron spectrometer (ESCALAB Xi+, Thermo Fisher Scientific). In situ PL and UV-vis were tested by self-assembling equipment in our laboratory.
J–V characteristics of the solar cells were analyzed by solar simulator equipment (Enlitech, SS-F5) with an illumination intensity (AM 1.5 G, 100 mW·cm−2) calibrated via a reference silicon cell with a KG5 filter. The scan range was set from 1.4 V to −0.1 V with a 0.02 V bias step and a 20 ms delay time. The active area of the non-refractive mask is 0.072 cm2. The external quantum efficiency (EQE) was measured on a QE-R system (Enli Technology Co., Ltd.) using a 300-WXe lamp as the light source. Capacitance–voltage (CV) measurements were performed using an electrochemical workstation (Modulab XM, USA) with a frequency of 200 kHz and a scan voltage ranging from 0 to 1.6 V. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was measured in the dark using a ModuLab XM CHAS08 with a frequency range from 0.1 Hz to 100 MHz. The operational stability of the unencapsulated PSCs was evaluated by a multichannel stability test system operating in the MPP tracking mode. The light intensity of the xenon lamp chamber was calibrated to achieve the same JSC of PSCs as the values measured under the standard solar simulator (AM 1.5 G, 100 mW cm−2). During MPP tracking (N2 atmosphere, 45 ± 5 °C, equal to cell temperature), J–V characteristic curves of the devices were periodically monitored every 2 h.
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All data are available in the main text or the Supplementary Information. Additional information can be obtained from the corresponding authors upon request. Source data are provided with this paper.
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This work was supported by the Scientific Research Project of China Three Gorges Corporation (Grant No. 202303014, K.Z.), Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi (Program No. 2025CY-YBXM-170, K.Z.), National Natural Science Foundation of China (52402285, T.N.), National University Research Fund (GK202201005, K.Z.), 111 Project (B21005, S.L.), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (GK202503001, K.Z. and GK202304047, T.N.), Young Talent Fund of Xi’an Association for Science and Technology (959202413046, T.N.).
These authors contributed equally: Nan Wu, Haofei Ni.
Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, National Ministry of Education; Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices, Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China
Nan Wu, Tianqi Niu, Tinghuan Yang, Ru Qin, Lei Lang, Shuang Wang, Di Zhao, Chenqing Tian, Erxin Zhao, Chenxin Zhao & Kui Zhao
Institute for Science and Applications of Molecular Ferroelectrics, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Advanced Catalysis Materials, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China
Haofei Ni, Changfeng Wang & Yi Zhang
KAUST Solar Center (KSC), Physical and Engineering Division (PSE), King Abdullah; University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Xiaoming Chang
Key Laboratory of Photoelectric Conversion and Utilization of Solar Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, Liaoning, China
Shengzhong Frank Liu
Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Shengzhong Frank Liu
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K.Z. conceived and designed the study. K.Z. and T.N. supervised the project. N.W. conducted most of the experiments and performed the data analysis. H.N. and C.W. synthesized and characterized ferroelectric materials. T.Y. and X.C. optimized experimental recipes. R.Q. conducted in situ PL and in situ UV-vis measurements. L.L., D.Z., and C.Z. assisted with SEM testing. S.W. performed GIWAXS. C.T. and E.Z. carried out KPFM measurements. Y.Z. and C.W. helped with experimental design and manuscript preparation. All the authors discussed the results and commented on the paper.
Correspondence to Tianqi Niu, Yi Zhang or Kui Zhao.
The authors declare no competing interests.
Nature Communications thanks Jianhua Hao and the other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available.
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Wu, N., Ni, H., Niu, T. et al. High Open-Circuit Voltage–Fill factor product in perovskite solar cells enabled by ferroelectric heterojunction modulation. Nat Commun 17, 2897 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69391-3
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Solar ranch in Tennessee aims to prove grazing cattle under the panels is a farmland win-win – Lawrence Journal-World

May 9, 2026 – 5:36pm
A cow, back right, scratches on a support beam of a solar panel Tuesday, April 28, 2026, at a farm in Christiana, Tenn. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
CHRISTIANA, Tenn. (AP) — From a distance, the small solar farm in central Tennessee looks like others that now dot rural America, with row upon row of black panels absorbing the sun’s rays to generate electricity.
But beneath these panels is lush pasture instead of gravel, enjoyed by a small herd of cattle that spends its days munching grass and resting in the shade.
Silicon Ranch, which owns the 40-acre farm in Christiana, outside of Nashville, believes cattle-grazing is the next frontier in so-called agrivoltaics, which mostly has involved growing crops or grazing sheep beneath the panels.
The solar company debuted the project this week and will spend the next year working to demonstrate to farmers that much larger cattle also can thrive at solar sites. If successful, advocates say, that could jump-start new projects to meet the soaring electricity demand driven by rapidly expanding data centers — without contributing climate-warming carbon emissions — and help cattle producers hold onto their land and livelihoods.
“Solar is one of the most powerful tools we have for cutting emissions and … is cost-competitive with fossil fuels,” said Taylor Bacon, a doctoral student at Colorado State University who has studied ecological outcomes at solar grazing sites. “I think we’re starting to see enough research that, when you do it well, the land use can be more of an opportunity than a downside.”
Making room for cattle
Though there are far more cattle than sheep in the U.S., their size poses challenges at solar sites, where both expensive equipment and the animals, which can weigh more than half a ton, must be protected.
Solar panels often pivot to near-vertical angles to capture the sun’s rays, leaving little room underneath for cattle; simply raising the panels is cost-prohibitive because of the amount of steel required. So Silicon Ranch raised the panels a little but also developed software that workers activate to turn the panels close to horizontal when cattle are grazing, giving them room to wander, said Nick de Vries, the company’s chief technology officer.
Workers rotate the cattle — currently 10 cows and their calves — between paddocks every few days so panels on the ungrazed portion of the site operate normally, generating a supply of roughly 5 megawatts of electricity for Middle Tennessee Electric, a rural electric co-op.
The hope is that the technology eventually will be adopted more broadly, company officials said.
“We know it works,” said de Vries. “But you need to prove it to other people.”
What are the benefits for farmers?
For solar companies, agricultural land is generally easier to develop than other types of sites. But many farmers — and communities — will need to be convinced that solar grazing will benefit them because of past practices that destroyed topsoil and took land out of production permanently.
“For many agricultural stakeholders, it is offensive to see high-quality farmland getting graded and piled when that’s a farm family’s legacy,” said Ethan Winter, national smart solar director at American Farmland Trust.
But he sees potential for solar grazing partnerships to help farmers keep their land in production and earn extra income at a time when it’s increasingly difficult to earn money farming and ranching alone.
“Agriculture is in a really tough spot right now” including because of trade wars, climate extremes, increased costs and pressure to sell, Winter said. “So maybe this is our moment where we can be helping states meet their energy needs and do that in a way that’s providing new opportunities for farmers.”
Silicon Ranch this year will have almost 15,000 acres of pasture being grazed — mostly by sheep — since launching five years ago, and is working with ranchers, farmers, university researchers and others to adopt best-practices for keeping soils and animals healthy.
What they’re finding is that pasture beneath solar panels retains more moisture, making it more drought tolerant, said Anna Clare Monlezun, a rancher and rangeland ecosystem scientist who’s working on the Tennessee project. Grazing in the shade leaves animals less prone to heat stress, enabling them to gain more weight and drink less water.
“There are more win-wins than trade-offs,” she said.
Sheep already have proven to be a good fit for solar sites, with more than 130,000 acres grazed as of 2024, a number that certainly has grown, said Kevin Richardson, senior director of the American Solar Grazing Association.
But for cattle, the industry still has to overcome site-design challenges and be able to scale up operations while also developing appropriate economic incentives for ranchers, Richardson said.
“Once we have that, I think we’ll see more solar sites using cattle or multi-species grazing with sheep and cattle,” he said.
Farmers often earn about $1,000 an acre by leasing their land for solar, easily 10 times more than what they historically earned through traditional agriculture, said Winter, from the Farmland Trust. That can help them to diversify operations, pay down debt and buy more land.
“I think you’ll start to hear more interest from farmers who are up against a serious financial wall right now and looking for income diversification opportunities that keep land in production,” Winter said. “We need and want to grow America’s energy capacity but not at the expense of our best farmland or at the expense of agricultural livelihoods.”
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Contact between 2D and 3D perovskites reshapes crystal order, lifting efficiency to 26.25% – Tech Xplore

Contact between 2D and 3D perovskites reshapes crystal order, lifting efficiency to 26.25%  Tech Xplore
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Why the EU sees Chinese solar tech as a major security risk – DW.com

Europe’s solar boom is powered by Chinese technology. But experts warn Chinese-made tech could threaten the continent’s safety and even create blackouts. Now, Brussels is aiming to reduce its dependence.
The European Commission has moved to block EU funding for Chinese-made solar technology over fears it could pose a security threat to Europe’s power grid and even cause major blackouts
The decision, which was confirmed on May 4, reflects growing concern in Brussels that Europe’s dependence on Chinese green technology is making the bloc vulnerable to security threats.
The commission’s funding ban is focused on solar inverters, which are often described as the brain of a solar power system.
These solar inverters are the devices that convert solar energy into usable electricity. They are connected to the internet and can often be accessed remotely for maintenance and software updates. 
“All inverter companies, they do have something like a kill switch,” Christoph Podewils, secretary general of the European Solar Manufacturing Council, told DW. 
A kill switch and other remote connections are normally used for safety or grid stabilization. But cybersecurity experts warn that, in a worst case scenario, hackers or hostile state actors could exploit those remote connections to disrupt electricity supplies. 
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In 2024, 61% of all inverters imported into Europe came from China, according to Geneva-based research group Loom.
Huawei and Sungrow are the two inverter producers dominating not just European, but global markets.  
A handful of Chinese manufacturers have already provided hardware for more than 220 gigawatts of Europe’s installed solar capacity. 
“To put that in perspective, controlling roughly 10 gigawatts would already be sufficient to trigger major disruptions to Europe’s electricity grid,” Podewils said. 
There is no known case of Chinese-made inverters being used to shut down parts of a European grid.
But concerns intensified after Reuters reported in 2025 that US energy officials had discovered rogue communication devices inside some Chinese-made inverters.
“The threat is real,” said cybersecurity expert Swantje Westphal. “It’s not a made-up hypothesis.”
The inverter debate comes as Europe reassesses its wider dependence on Chinese clean technology imports.
According to Loom, China accounts for 98% of solar panels and 88% of lithium-ion batteries imported into Europe.
The organization warned that remote access functions in connected energy technologies could create potential vulnerabilities across power systems. 
Brussels has increasingly taken a tougher stance toward Chinese imports that are seen either as security risks or as threats to European industry.
In March, the European Commission presented its Industrial Accelerator Act, aimed at steering more funding toward European-made green technologies, including batteries and electric vehicles.
The Commission also presented a revisal of its Cybersecurity Act that will give Brussels greater authority to restrict Chinese companies from critical infrastructure such as communications or energy supply across European member states.
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Under the latest measures, EU funds managed directly by the Commission and institutions such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development can no longer be used to purchase Chinese-made solar inverters.
The restrictions do not apply to purchases made directly by EU member states, and existing Chinese inverters installed across Europe can remain in operation. 
“It’s a step in the right direction,” Westpfahl said. ”But we didn’t ban those Chinese inverters from our markets.”
Currently, 80% of Europe’s new solar systems rely on Chinese inverters, according to the European Solar Manufacturing Council.
If demand shifts away from Chinese suppliers, European manufacturers will have to plug a significant gap. But Podewils thinks that European suppliers are ready.  
“It is possible to grow production capacities within just a couple of months to the level needed to cover demand,” said Podewils. 
European-made inverters are expected to cost slightly more than Chinese alternatives — by roughly 2%, according to a European Commission official. But Podewils argues the added cost is justified.
“It’s like an insurance fee,” he said. 
Edited by: Tim Rooks

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Record French Solar Power Output Pushes Prices Below Zero – Bloomberg.com

Record French Solar Power Output Pushes Prices Below Zero  Bloomberg.com
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U.S. solar panel manufacturers need to learn to solder – pv magazine International

CEA’s 2026 manufacturing quality report finds that yield rates vary widely based on the age of solar module assembly facilities, with mature Chinese firms nearing 100% and U.S. outlier facilities ranging all the way down to 30%.
Image: pv magazine/AI generated
From pv magazine USA
Intertek CEA’s Global PV Manufacturing Quality Report 2026 suggests there is much work to be done to improve the quality of solar module manufacturing. The report states that more than 70% of factories were rated in the lowest two tiers — C or D — in 2025 factory audits, and none achieved an A+.

Source – Intertek CEA
One of the report’s central points is that most issues arise during factory ramp-up after construction, and again during capacity expansions. Solar panel re-work, a process in module manufacturing, is hiding these issues though. Typical re-work rates are around 10-15%, but outlier factories pushed far higher: an Indian facility hit 56% in 2024, and a U.S. facility reached 62% in 2025.
Overall, the U.S. has the highest critical issue rate of any surveyed country. While certain Chinese manufacturing facilities are yielding near 100%, some U.S. factories fall in the 30-60% yield range.
CEA explicitly noted:
U.S. capacity expansion is exposing early-stage execution risks.

Source – Intertek CEA
The number-one defect category is soldering — both within solar cells and between them. The trend is being driven by increasing busbar and ribbon counts, which shrink contact areas and make soldering more prone to defects. Electroluminescence (EL) imaging – a now-standard QA technique that uses an applied current to reveal internal cell defects invisible to the eye – is the primary tool catching these issues.
CEA notes that the ability to re-work modules and fix issues catches most problems before shipment. But stable average re-work rates can mask wide factory-level variability – meaning a fleet-wide number that looks fine may hide individual facilities running far above the norm.
The specific issues EL imaging reveals include cold soldering, grid breaks (gaps in the screen-printed metallization on the cell), oversoldering, and cell scratches. Cold soldering – when soldering temperature, time, or pressure are insufficient to fully bond the cell-to-ribbon connection – is a particular concern because the joint can look intact while the metal structure underneath is incomplete, leaving a weak connection that can fail in the field.

Source – Intertek CEA
Other issues exist both before and after EL scanning.
The first is the lay-up process, where the components of the module – front glass, encapsulant, cell strings, bussing ribbons, back encapsulant, and backsheet or rear glass – are stacked in order before lamination fuses them together. Common findings here include encapsulant misalignment, cell string spacing errors, ribbon misalignment, foreign material trapped in the stack, and cell handling damage.
The second is packaging and delivery. Damaged packing is by far the most common finding during container loading inspections, accounting for 47% of issues – pallet damage, torn fixing ties, and damaged outer wood shingling. Missing labels and incorrect fixing each account for another 19%. Factory location can compound the problem: bumpy roads leaving the facility can shift pallets in transit and damage modules before they ever leave the country.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
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Sun sets on plans for joint Rama, Orillia Power solar farm – OrilliaMatters.com

A massive solar project — a joint initiative between the Chippewas of Rama First Nation and the Orillia Power Generation Corporation — planned for Fairgrounds Road is not going forward.
The Gwanaajiwi Giizis Solar Limited Partnership (GGS-LP) has been advised that its proposed solar energy project was not selected through the Independent Electricity System Operator’s (IESO) LT2(e-1) procurement process.
The 24.5-megawatt project, planned for development on land at 1952 and 1992 Fairgrounds Rd., near Washago.
Construction had been anticipated to begin this summer, with the project reaching commercial operation in spring 2029.
This result does not change the broader direction behind the work, says a joint news release from Rama First Nation and Orillia Power.
“This is not the outcome we had hoped for, but it does not change our commitment to building a strong, sustainable future for Rama," said Rama Chief Ted Williams.
"Projects like this are about more than energy; they are about creating opportunities for our nation and being part of the transition to cleaner, more responsible development."
The proposed site remains a strong candidate for future solar development. Located on Class 5-7 agricultural land and situated along an existing transmission corridor, the land continues to offer strategic advantages for renewable energy projects, notes the release.
The partnership remains “confident” in the long-term potential of the site and the role it can play in future opportunities.
“We remain firmly committed to the partnership we have been fortunate to build with the Chippewas of Rama First Nation,” said Shaun Hinds, president and CEO of Orillia Power Generation.
“Our team will learn from this outcome and use those lessons to strengthen our proposals as we prepare for future opportunities.”
In the coming months, GGS-LP will take part in a debrief process with the IESO to “better understand the results of this procurement and to strengthen future submissions,” notes the media release.
Work is already underway to assess next steps and identify opportunities to re-engage in future procurement cycles.
The project team is also grateful for the strong support shown throughout the process, including from the Township of Ramara.
“While the project was not selected through this procurement process, our focus remains on the future,” reads a statement from GGS-LP.
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Readers sound off on solar power, high court bias and alternate side parking – New York Daily News

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Beacon, N.Y.: When I read Voicer Tom Mielczarek’s recent question, it resonated with me because while it’s true that the U.S. is a major oil producer and exporter, the oil we produce is sweet crude oil. Domestic refineries are designed for heavier crude oil. We export the domestic oil and import the heavy oil, and therein lies the problem.
Many of us are looking at the cost per gallon with increasing horror, worried about how much higher it will go. We feel helpless, even though the solution that ends this is right above us, collected by solar panels.
Transitioning our energy systems to renewables is the most American thing we can do. Oil and gas interests want us to be dependent on volatile international markets as they rake in more than $30 million every hour, which is coming straight from our pockets.
New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act originally demanded 70% renewable electricity by 2030 and 100% zero-emission electricity by 2040. Of course, oil and gas interests hate this because it hurts their bottom line. With Gov. Hochul dismantling the CLCPA, she’s endangering New Yorkers and also making life more expensive for us.
Unlike oil, sunlight is homegrown. Powering our homes with the sunshine overhead sounds like the most pro-American thing I can think of.
Christine Arroyo
Bronx: Some Voicers don’t seem to understand that just because oil comes from under America’s land or coastal waters, the oil does not belong to the U.S.A. Private international companies own it, and they don’t care about our country. Their interest is only in maximizing profit. Some people blamed Joe Biden for high gas prices, although he had nothing to do with it. Today, however, the highest gas prices in our history are a direct result of President Trump’s totally unnecessary war with Iran.
Randall Borra
Valley Stream, L.I.: As Americans are struggling with rising costs, aging infrastructure and underfunded public services, taxpayers should not be asked to finance a lavish ballroom for Trump or any political figure. Public funds are meant to serve the common good — repairing roads, supporting veterans, improving schools, strengthening public safety and protecting programs that millions of working families rely on. A grand ballroom is not a public necessity. It’s a luxury project to satisfy Trump’s enormous ego. Americans should agree on a basic principle: Taxpayers should not subsidize vanity projects for wealthy individuals. If a ballroom is truly important, private donors and personal wealth can fund it without placing the burden on citizens already paying enough in taxes and the high cost of gas. We still don’t know how the war with Iran is going to end. Lastly, did Mexico ever pay for the wall? I didn’t think so.
Vince Sgroi
Scarsdale, N.Y.: We’re paying $4.50 a gallon for gas and Trump is building a $400 million ballroom. He’s making Marie Antoinette look like a socialist.
John Kern
Portsmouth, N.H.: So, if we taxpayers are paying for the ballroom, and the White House belongs to us, does that mean I can have my wedding reception and other functions there — free, of course?
Elizabeth Smith
Plainview, L.I.: Rudy Giuliani may have been a great mayor of New York City for the 112 days beginning on the tragic morning of Sept. 11, 2001, but I will never forgive him for his Jan. 6, 2021 speech to the Capitol rioters-to-be. Shortly before Trump himself stoked the crowd’s anger by telling them, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” Giuliani told those MAGA fanatics, “Let’s have trial by combat!”
Richard Siegelman
North Bergen, N.J.: The Supreme Court has vacated the law that prohibited gerrymandering to create racially diverse districts in its Louisiana vs. Callais decision. That being the case, has it occurred to anyone that the gerrymandering, while deemed not in violation of election law, may actually be unconstitutional, as it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution by favoring one of the two major political parties — specifically, the Republican Party? If the Constitution is truly the law of the land, the gerrymandering must stop.
Irving A. Gelb
East Meadow, L.I.: During his confirmation hearing in 2005, Chief Justice John Roberts pledged to act as an umpire, stating that his job was to “call balls and strikes.” Considering the Supreme Court’s horrendous decisions in the Citizens United, Dobbs, Janus and Callais cases, maybe Roberts should be replaced by the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) System.
Richard Skibins
Brooklyn: Voicer Charles Tal claims that I offer “no proof” concerning the IDF’s atrocities, but I have done precisely that in previous letters. Give proof once, why give it again? With regard to proof, letters to the editor are not term papers. This forum doesn’t provide space for a citation and bibliography page with links to videos that prove my point. But Charles, I assure you that proof is there for people to see, provided they want to see. As far as antisemitism is concerned, Zionists constantly blur the line, but I must insist that Judaism is a religion and Zionism is an ideology. It is the old-fashioned, malignant ideology that I, and most of the world these days, find distressful. Distinctions matter, so stay on topic.
Nick Smith
Bronx: To Voicer Charles Tal: There are videos of IDF prison guards raping Palestinians. The Israeli government dropped charges against the rapists. You can shove your opinion.
W. Twirley
Brooklyn: Voicer Chris Lee conjures a hypothetically corrupt fire inspection system to oppose battery storage. I don’t buy it. We live with lithium-ion batteries all around us: in our laptops, cell phones, cars and e-bikes. Some lucky people even have home battery storage to back up their solar panels. Cell phones no longer spontaneously ignite, e-bike regulations are being tightened to address fire safety, and we’ve seen the same progress in large-scale battery storage design and regulation. Engineers and safety experts are solving problems in a new technology that gets us off expensive and polluting fossil fuels. I don’t buy trying to torpedo technologies and regulations that will save our money, health and climate. I also don’t buy how Hochul is currently trying to torpedo our climate law and keep us hooked on fossil fuels. Wind, solar and batteries are cheaper, cleaner and safer.
Ann Schaetzel
Brooklyn: Alternate side of the street parking is a big joke. I observed that Thursday morning when nobody moved their cars. When I asked one of the car owners why he didn’t move his for the street cleaner to do its job, he told me it’s cheaper to get a ticket than to put his car in a garage. The city is spending money for a service that’s not being performed.
Charlie Pisano
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True North photovoltaic plant – Iberdrola

True North photovoltaic plant  Iberdrola
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Solar grazing is a win-win approach for the environment and economy [letter] – LancasterOnline

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The May 2 LNP | LancasterOnline article “Solar vs. farmland: Lancaster County weighs sheep grazing as energy solution” reported on the West Lampeter Township zoning decision to block a 25-acre solar panel installation on sheep pasture. The act of grazing sheep under solar panels was determined to be a non-agricultural activity.
As a curious farmer, I have seen solar grazing operations in a variety of locations, including White Oak Pastures in Georgia and across the state line in Maryland. I would argue that solar grazing is one of the easiest environmental and economic win-wins for preserving farmland and producing energy.
Solar farms require mowing and maintenance to keep the grass down. Sheep require grass! And sheep also benefit from the shade of solar panels during hot months. Agrivoltaics, as this combination is called, isn’t opposed to farmland preservation; it supports it.
At a time when data centers will start taking over vast amounts of the county’s energy and farmland is under threat, why close off an avenue to locally grown energy, food and additional farm revenue to keep land from being developed?
If Lancaster County is to be resilient in the future, energy independence and food security will be critical to weathering the effects of climate change and world events, such as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and supply chain disruption. It seems clear to me that we can’t depend on global food and energy supplies, and that we should consider solutions closer to home. Why not achieve both?
Aidan Fife
Lancaster
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