Solar Now

Researchers in China have developed an acid-free method to recover silver wires from end-of-life aluminum back-surface-field solar cells using a molten mixture of sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide (NaOH-KOH).
The molten salt etches the cell’s silicon nitride (SiNx) passivation layer and weakens the bond between the silver and the SiNx, allowing the silver wires to detach and be recovered directly as metal, rather than being dissolved into silver ions and recovered later.
At 230 C for 150 seconds, the process recovered 94.34% of the silver and effectively removed the SiNx layer, the researchers said. Maximum silver recovery reached 97.11%.
Silicon substrate loss was limited to 2.62% at 230 C for 100 seconds. The researchers found that once the SiNx layer is removed, the exposed silicon is attacked by hydroxide ions in the molten salt, causing pitting and converting silicon into soluble sodium and potassium silicates.
The work builds on an earlier NaOH-KOH molten salt recycling approach reported in 2024. The researchers said existing molten salt methods avoid acids but do not effectively control silicon substrate loss, and that the new study clarifies the mechanisms behind both silver recovery and silicon loss.
Most silver recovery from end-of-life modules still relies on acid leaching with nitric acid and other strong acids, which converts silver into ions and generates nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and acidic wastewater, according to the researchers. They noted that silver accounts for less than 0.03% of the weight of an end-of-life module but nearly half of its total value, and that the first generation of commercial PV modules is now reaching the end of its 25- to 30-year life.
The work was carried out at laboratory scale.
The findings appear in “Sustainable recovery of silver wires from crystalline silicon solar cells,” which was recently published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
Researchers from Australia’s University of Newcastle, CSIRO Energy and PV Industries recently recovered an average of 93% of silver electrochemically from a simulated nitric acid leaching solution using stainless steel cathodes. Separately, researchers from the University of New South Wales, Gdansk University of Technology and the Polish Academy of Sciences found that silver can make up to 47% of a module’s recoverable value, though falling silver content in newer panels will lower future recycling revenue.
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300 MWp solar park: Algeria advances 3.2 GW renewable energy plan  AL Circle
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Energies Media
A massive solar facility in Germany shows that aggressive clean-energy expansion can coexist with local wildlife conservation.
Photovoltaics play a fundamental role in the nation’s green energy shift, especially in the digital and electric era.
Yet critics argue that large-scale projects displace grassland birds and harm sensitive agricultural ecosystems.
But long-term, advanced environmental monitoring in Hesse tells a different story.
How did modern technology, combined with traditional surveys, demonstrate the benefits of effective management?
Nationwide digitization and electrification are rapidly transforming Germany’s energy landscape.
Policy incentives and climate mandates are primary drivers of this shift.
By 2030, Germany is projected to reach over 14 million electric vehicles and six million heat pumps.
Thousands of data centers are also expected to expand by the end of the decade.
These technologies are central to eliminating nationwide fossil fuel reliance and modernizing infrastructure.
However, this expansive transition is also expected to surge national power demand from 500 TWh to 700 TWh by 2030.
At the same time, the nation is experiencing a major energy supply gap across its power grid.
This is because Germany completed its nuclear shutdown in 2023 and is phasing out electricity generated by coal.
To bridge this growing deficit sustainably, utility-scale green energy capacity must rapidly scale.
Solar power especially provides a quick, clean solution to rising consumption while progressing toward legally mandated 2045 net-zero targets.
Germany is actively seeking large-scale solar development opportunities due to its distinct advantages.
Yet the nation has faced significant opposition across local municipalities.
Critics and agricultural communities are frequent opponents of utility-scale projects due to environmental concerns.
One argument maintains that these massive ground-mounted installations disrupt open agricultural landscapes.
Others worry that these facilities displace ground-nesting grassland birds such as skylarks.
Conservationists are also worried about the degradation of sensitive local ecosystems.
As a result, extensive off-site compensation land is routinely demanded by municipal authorities.
To address persistent local biodiversity concerns, solar park developer and operator ENERPARC took action.
The company’s goal is to challenge assumptions regarding renewable energy and habitat disruption using direct empirical study.
A long-term ecological monitoring program was launched as a result, focusing on the Lauterbach solar park in Hesse.
This facility was constructed on former intensively farmed land, serving as an ideal real-world test site.
It turns out that solar panels have an unexpected beneficial effect on birds.
Baseline ecological surveys began in 2018 before the 136-acre solar farm’s construction commenced.
From 2022 onward, after the project was completed, annual field mapping tracked species recovery.
In 2025, advanced artificial intelligence monitoring was introduced alongside conventional field methods.
Acoustic sensors were placed throughout the facility to continuously record background sound.
The AI systems used sound triangulation to map active zones, identify species, analyze vocalizations, and pinpoint nesting territories. Prior to construction, active skylark territories were four.
This number increased to approximately 20 permanent territories.
The growth occurred as project developers eliminated:
Ground vegetation management also played a key role. It unlocked uncultivated open spaces, rich, pesticide-free foraging grounds, and reduced disturbance during nesting seasons.
Beyond the benefits to native skylarks, the site also created a vital feeding habitat for other endangered species.
These species include quails, wheatears, whinchats, and native lizards.
This advanced monitoring model provided municipal authorities with accurate data needed to accelerate clean energy growth.
The positive findings demonstrate that properly planned and managed solar parks can boost local biodiversity.
Ultimately, solar developers should implement targeted interventions that help protect native wildlife while maximizing energy output.
Anke Maree is a writer with a clear and engaging editorial style. Her work focuses on making complex topics accessible, informative, and relevant for readers across different areas of interest.
Anke Maree is a writer with a clear and engaging editorial style. Her work focuses on making complex topics accessible, informative, and relevant for readers across different areas of interest.
Anke Maree is a writer with a clear and engaging editorial style. Her work focuses on making complex topics accessible, informative, and relevant for readers across different areas of interest.

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India’s federal government has decided to expand its floating solar ambitions and is supporting that goal with investment and incentives, according to pv magazine. Deployed floating solar capacity in India stands at roughly 700 MW in 2026, and a new support mechanism approved by the country’s cabinet in July aims to add 5 GW over a five-year period.
The program is tied to the Pradhan Mantri Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana scheme, though the source text does not detail the mechanism’s specific terms. The cabinet approval in July establishes the policy basis for the targeted capacity expansion, while the current installed base of about 700 MW provides the starting point against which the 5 GW goal would be measured.
The source does not specify financing amounts, the start date of the five-year window, or the implementing agencies responsible for the program. It also does not indicate how much of the planned capacity has been allocated or contracted.
Interactive table based on the Store Companies dataset for this report.
Report Scope and Analytical Framing
Concise View of Market Direction
Market Size, Growth and Scenario Framing
Commercial and Technical Scope
How the Market Splits Into Decision-Relevant Buckets
Where Demand Comes From and How It Behaves
Supply Footprint and Value Capture
Trade Flows and External Dependence
Price Formation and Revenue Logic
Who Wins and Why
How the Domestic Market Works
Commercial Entry and Scaling Priorities
Where the Best Expansion Logic Sits
Leading Players and Strategic Archetypes
How the Report Was Built
Major integrated solar manufacturer
India's largest solar module manufacturer
Part of Adani Group, integrated manufacturing
Leading manufacturer, part of Tata Group
Major PV module and cell producer
Historical leader in solar manufacturing
Makes solar cells, modules, encapsulants
Module and cell manufacturer
Solar PV module manufacturer
Solar panel manufacturer and distributor
Manufactures solar modules and inverters
Solar panel manufacturer
Solar panel manufacturer
Solar panel manufacturer
Solar cell and module manufacturer
Major LED lighting products manufacturer
Leading electrical goods co, major LED player
Major manufacturer of LED lights and fixtures
Major player in LED lighting segment
LED lighting manufacturer
Manufactures LED displays and lighting
Indian subsidiary, major LED mfg in India
Manufactures LED lights and fixtures
Major Indian electrical brand, produces LEDs
LED lighting products manufacturer
Manufactures LED bulbs and lighting
Major player in consumer LED lighting
Leading LED lighting solutions provider
Manufactures LED lights under Finolex brand
Wires & cables major, also manufactures LEDs
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More than 300 more council homes in the Goole area are to be fitted with solar panels in a bid to cut tenants' energy bills and reduce carbon emissions.
As part of an investment programme by East Riding of Yorkshire Council during the 2026-27 financial year, solar panels, energy-efficient LED lighting and improved loft insulation will be installed.
Once the work is completed, around March 2027, more than 400 council homes in the town will have solar panels, almost a third of the council-owned properties in the area.
The solar panels will also allow tenants to use renewable electricity generated at their home, with surplus electricity able to be exported to the National Grid.
Michael Lee, council cabinet member for housing and infrastructure, said: "We're proud to invest in our council housing stock, to create warmer and more energy-efficient homes that help both tenants and the environment."
Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North.
Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices
Homes England and developer Muse plan to build 1,500 homes on the former university site.
The city council says the money will help make sure infrastructure is built to support 5,500 homes.
Figures show 408 homes were under construction at the end of June, the highest level since 2016.
The Committee for Housing is asking for an extra £795,000 to improve the situation for tenants.
Treated vegetable oil is being used as an alternative to kerosene to heat facilities used by crews.
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Ground-mounted solar installations occupied 2,798 hectares in Italy in 2025, up from 1,700 hectares in 2024, according to the new “Land Consumption, Urban Ecosystems and the State of the Territory” report by the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) and the National System for Environmental Protection (SNPA).
Annual additions have increased sharply over the past five years, from 75 hectares in 2021 to 263 hectares in 2022, 420 hectares in 2023, 1,700 hectares in 2024 and 2,798 hectares in 2025. The area occupied by new ground-mounted solar installations grew from 0.75 square kilometers to 28 square kilometers over that period.
Solar accounted for around 27% of the 10,243 hectares of land consumed in Italy in 2025, as total land consumption increased by 22.4% compared with 2024. After accounting for 746 hectares of restored land, net land consumption reached 9,497 hectares, the highest level since 2012.
Ground-mounted solar installations now occupy a total of 21,368 hectares, corresponding to around 12,570 MW of capacity. The southern region of Puglia has the largest installed area, at 4,764 hectares.
According to ISPRA, ground-mounted solar panels represent a significant share of reversible land consumption, unlike buildings and roads, which are classified as permanent land consumption. The report separately identifies 448.5 hectares of low-density solar installations, including many agrivoltaic projects, where modules cover less than half of the site area. These installations are not counted as consumed land.
In 2025, Lazio recorded 952 hectares of new ground-mounted solar installations out of 1,436 hectares of total land consumption, accounting for about two-thirds of the regional total. In Sicily, solar installations occupied 858.5 hectares out of 1,619 hectares. Together, the two regions accounted for almost 65% of the ground-mounted solar area added in Italy during the year.
They were followed by Piedmont, with 189 hectares; Puglia, with 145 hectares; and Sardinia, with 136 hectares.
The province of Viterbo recorded the largest annual increase in land consumption, at 969 hectares, more than twice the previous year’s figure. The municipalities with the largest increases were Tuscania, at 319 hectares, and Montalto di Castro, at 316 hectares, followed by Catania, at 198 hectares.
Excluding ground-mounted solar, the ranking changes, with Rome recording the largest increase at 74 hectares, followed by Foggia at 72 hectares, Cerignola at 53 hectares and Campagna at 51 hectares. Lazio also recorded Italy’s highest relative increase, equivalent to 1.01% of its existing artificial surface area.
The report states that, in municipalities covered by the European Union’s Nature Restoration Regulation, the loss of natural land in central and southern Italy and the islands is largely driven by large ground-mounted solar installations. In northern Italy, buildings, logistics facilities and construction sites are the main drivers.
Based on grid connection requests submitted to Italian transmission system operator Terna, projects totaling 10,263 MW with signed connection contracts could require more than 10,260 hectares of land over the next 18 to 24 months.
The estimate falls to around 9,750 hectares when 515 MW of advanced agrivoltaic projects funded under Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan are excluded. A further 54,365 MW of projects have already received environmental approval.
According to ISPRA, standalone battery energy storage systems (BESS) could also increase the amount of solar capacity that can be developed, with implications for land consumption. More than 9,600 MW of standalone storage has contracted grid connections, while around 76,000 MW has received connection approval.
Storage could reduce renewable energy curtailment and connection costs in areas where the grid is congested, potentially enabling additional solar development. The report does not provide an estimate of the land area that battery installations themselves would occupy.
The report also references Italian Constitutional Court ruling No. 127/2026, which upheld restrictions on ground-mounted solar installations in agricultural areas and described soil as a scarce resource.
ISPRA estimates that Italy has up to 1,116 square km of potentially usable rooftop space, which could accommodate between 140 GW and 193 GW of solar capacity without consuming additional land.
ISPRA also identifies the expansion of data centers, driven by demand for digital infrastructure and cloud services, as an emerging source of land consumption. Data center development accounted for an additional 13 hectares in 2025, mainly in Lombardy. In the Milan area, 39% of new projects were located on previously undeveloped land.
Wind power installations occupied 118 hectares in 2025. Of this area, 58% consisted of unpaved yards, 41% of unpaved roads and just over 1% of sealed surfaces associated with turbine foundations.
From pv magazine Italia
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pv magazine hosts its four-day virtual event on European solar and energy storage, exploring market opportunities, solar-plus-storage business cases, technical quality, and cybersecurity in the years ahead.
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China Exports 23.92 GW of PV Modules in September, Up 44% Month on Month  energynews.pro
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The Tías City Council calls on the residents of Mácher to a meeting at the Guardilama Mácher Sociocultural Center next Tuesday, November 3, at 7:00 PM, due to a new project processed by the Government of the Canary Islands for another photovoltaic plant installation in more than 70,000 m2 in the Mácher area.
The mayor of Tías, José Juan Cruz, insists that his government group, made up of PSOE and Podemos, rejects this photovoltaic plant and any similar installation that involves land occupation, “and we do not understand how the Government of the Canary Islands, through the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Energy, continues to accommodate these types of projects, whose processing was initiated this very month of October”.
José Juan Cruz Saavedra emphasizes that “we are committed to promoting energy saving and the use of renewable energies, but not in this way, but through self-consumption and the occupation of existing roofs, thus avoiding land occupation in the municipality and the visual and environmental impact of the project we are discussing”.
The mayor of Tías points out that the Directorate General of Energy of the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Energy of the Government of the Canary Islands has sent the City Council a request for a report regarding the “administrative authorization and declaration, in particular, of public utility of the installation called Photovoltaic Plant Tías II, of 4MW, in the municipality of Tías”.
The City Council has 30 days to submit this report of allegations, technical conditions, and impacts.
As will be recalled, the municipal council already rejected last year another project for the installation of 1,680 photovoltaic modules on rustic land in the municipality, a project that involves the occupation of 28,721 square meters of cadastral surface and whose announcement was published by the Directorate General of Energy of the Government of the Canary Islands in the Official State Gazette.
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FCW Team

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The TaiyangNews PV Price Index remained unchanged in Calendar Week 43.
Despite remaining unchanged since CW36, the polysilicon segment is still up in the mid-single digits month-on-month (MoM), reflecting the impact of the major price spike that week.
Wafer prices are down in the low single digits MoM.
Among cells, the Bifacial 210R TOPCon type is up 3.6% MoM, while the other two TOPCon types are down single digits.
Five module types have lost up to 1.2% of their value MoM, but remain in positive territory year-to-date (YtD).
The two solar glass variants have remained unchanged since CW17.
The largely flat trend seen in recent weeks continues. YtD, price declines across segments have now been limited to a maximum of 25.8%, while the module category remains positive overall.
The data refers to average product prices in China. The data was collected by Chinese market research firm Gessey PV Consulting.
Disclaimer: TaiyangNews does not guarantee reliability, accuracy or completeness of this price index’ content. TaiyangNews does not accept responsibility or liability for any errors in this work.
TaiyangNews 2024

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US Finds That India, Indonesia, Laos Unfairly Subsidized Solar  Bloomberg.com
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CONWAY — At the eighth hearing on BlueWave Solar’s proposed solar array on Roaring Brook Road, the Planning Board voted to grant the company a waiver for slopes that had sparked discussion before continuing the permitting process to a ninth hearing.
The proposed solar array would be a dual-use system, allowing landowners to continue using the site for farming, with animals able to graze under the panels. The initial application for the project on Ronald Boyden’s farmland described a 4.99-megawatt system with solar panels set 10 feet above the ground, along with a battery energy storage system, a 20-foot-wide gravel access road and a stormwater basin. However, after the company agreed to remove 20% of the panels, the latest designs show a 4.05-megawatt system.
The removed panels would have sat on slopes with grades above 18%. The town’s bylaw for commercial solar photovoltaic systems requires that the systems sit on slopes with grades of less than 15% while allowing the board to issue waivers for slopes up to 18% “based on site-specific parameters.” Before voting unanimously to grant the waiver, the Planning Board heard from town counsel Donna MacNicol.
MacNicol described the Dover Amendment, a section of Massachusetts General Law requiring that “no zoning ordinance or bylaw shall prohibit or unreasonably regulate the installation of solar energy systems or the building of structures that facilitate the collection of solar energy, except where necessary to protect the public health, safety or welfare.” MacNicol then explained several cases in Massachusetts where courts determined that municipalities’ special permit denials for solar projects did not hold up under the Dover Amendment.
With these cases in mind, MacNicol advised the board members to ask themselves whether the waiver would constitute a “reasonable regulation.” She suggested they focus on the percentage of the land in Conway that would be deemed acceptable based on the waiver’s slope restriction; whether the slope restriction, if they chose to deny the waiver, would combine with the other restrictions in the town’s bylaw to essentially create a “blanket prohibition” on solar development; and whether there was “site-specific evidence” that denying the waiver would be necessary to ensure public health, safety and welfare, such as documented concerns related to stormwater erosion.
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Planning Board member Jeff Lacy said the restriction for slope grades of 15% to 18% “envisions a different type of ground that you’re going to be putting [the solar array] on,” with boulders, ledge, trees and stumps that would require extensive work to be removed from the site, instead of farmland.
“That’s much more problematic when you dig the whole thing up so much just to get it acceptable for solar panels,” Lacy said, “but these lands are pretty much ready to go — they’re stable, they’re clear of vegetation, I don’t see any rocks out there to be removed, I don’t see trees to be plucked out. So it sounds like a good place to grant [the waiver].”
Planning Board member Phyllis Craine agreed with Lacy, adding that BlueWave Solar “has made significant efforts to make modifications to the project” that satisfied her initial concerns. Fellow member Cheryl Case said she has not heard or read anything to suggest the array would have a “catastrophic” impact on stormwater drainage or public health and safety.
At the last hearing, peer reviewer Chris Chamberland read a memorandum with information to help the Planning Board in its determination of whether to grant BlueWave Solar the slope waiver. He listed guidelines that state agencies have put forth regarding slopes for solar array sites. The Department of Energy Resources advises that the “site footprint” of a clean energy infrastructure facility sit on a slope below 15 degrees compared to the original slope, which comes to a grade of about 26.8%, according to Chamberland.
Given that these and other standards Chamberland mentioned are “far more lenient,” Planning Board Chair George Forcier said, “It’d be difficult to argue [the 15% to 18% slopes are] unreasonable and a damage to the health, safety and welfare of the town, and have that stand up to scrutiny.”
With the exception of Jennifer Mullins, who is a non-voting associate member of the Planning Board, each member voted to grant the waiver.
The board plans to discuss the site’s proposed battery energy storage system at the next hearing. BlueWave Solar’s Senior Director Steve McDonough said the company is currently deciding between two types of batteries for the system. Before the next hearing, McDonough said he plans to send Fire Chief Christopher Herrmann the two options, so he can weigh in on fire safety.
The next public hearing on the proposed solar array is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m. at Conway Town Hall.

Aalianna Marietta is the South County reporter. She is a graduate of UMass Amherst and was a journalism intern at the Recorder while in school. She can be reached at amarietta@recorder.com or 413-930-4081. More by Aalianna Marietta
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Aula Energy, the renewables dedicated offshoot of finance giant Macquarie Asset Management, has unveiled plans to build a $350 million (USD 242 million) battery energy storage system (BESS) at the site of the 330 MW Wellington North Solar Farm in the New South Wales (NSW) Orana region.
The proposal is for a 365 MW BESS with five hours of storage capacity that Aula said will enable excess power generated during peak production periods to be stored and dispatched when required, improving the overall efficiency of the PV plant while helping to strengthen grid reliability.
“The proposed modification will support the optimisation of the solar farm and network electricity generation,” the company said, adding that “battery storage is an essential part of Australia’s renewable energy transition.”
“Combining battery storage with solar farms helps overcome the intermittent nature of renewable energy by storing excess power when production is high and releasing it during peak demand. This ensures a steady supply of power at all times.”
The Wellington North Solar Farm, located about seven kilometres northeast of Wellington within NSW’s Central West Orana Renewable Energy Zone, has been fully operational since mid-2024, generating about 778,654 MWh of renewable electricity per year.
It is located alongside the 174 MW Wellington Solar Farm that commenced operations in late 2020.
Both the Wellington North and Wellington solar farms are owned and operated by Aula following an acquisition earlier this year.
Aula said the proposed BESS would be located within previously cleared land used for a laydown for the construction of the Wellington North Solar Farm.
The system would include approximately 288 battery containers, 96 storage inverters, 96 transformers, 96 power conversion systems, and a new 33 / 330 kV substation. The battery would make use of the existing 8.3 km 330 kV high voltage transmission line that connects the solar farm to the Wellington substation.
“By building on established infrastructure, the project is designed to strengthen the energy system while making better use of existing infrastructure,” Aula said.
The Australian-headquartered renewable energy business is targeting financial close in early 2027, subject to regulatory and commercial considerations.
Aula’s proposed battery is part of a growing move in the Australian utility-scale energy market with the standalone solar farm no longer the default project structure.
The Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO)  Connections Scorecard for the June quarter shows batteries are the dominant technology in the 75 GW development pipeline, representing 53% of capacity, while hybrid solar-plus-battery projects account for 18% of total capacity.
At the same time, the developers behind 2.4 GW of solar projects commenced or completed processes to add a BESS, reflecting the industry’s growing interest in combining renewable generation with flexible storage.
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(CNS): Premier André Ebanks has said that although he recently raised the idea of using liquefied natural gas (LNG) to reduce power bills, he would still prefer the Cayman Islands to convert to 100% renewable sources, such as solar. 
But he told the press last week that the government is looking at LNG because of frustrations, delays and challenges over rolling out both utility-scale and domestic solar. Since the country can’t seem to get switching to solar to happen, LNG could be a transition fuel to cut the cost of living, he said.
But while LNG may be cheaper than diesel, it also has numerous problems, including cost, supply chain volatility, and the investment required, which would tie Cayman to fossil fuels for two more decades.
Ebanks appears reluctant for the Grand Cayman to convert to LNG, but despite holding the reins of power, he admitted that he could not understand why it is taking so long to convert to solar. He also acknowledged that fuel prices are the main driver of Cayman’s cost-of-living crisis. 
Over the last few months, the premier has expressed his view that the government must bring down energy costs to help local families and businesses, but he is clearly concerned that there seems to be no quick way to do this.
He made it clear that he did not have an answer for why Cayman, which currently generates just 3% of its power from solar, has struggled to transition to renewables. The delay appears to stem from a combination of issues related to CUC’s ownership and control of the grid on Grand Cayman and ongoing clashes between the power company and the regulator.
There are also potential problems with the actual deal between government and CUC, and significant concerns that no administration has had the political will to force the hands of those involved.
To reach 100% renewables in less than 20 years, as called for in the National Energy Policy, investment in utility-scale solar is clearly needed. But the constant restrictions on domestic or rooftop solar appear to stem from CUC’s position that renewables are unstable and could threaten grid security unless rolled out slowly.
Part of the problem is that the information needed to understand the accuracy of CUC’s claims is contained in reports conducted by the power company, and those reports remain under wraps. An FOI request to the regulator, OfReg, for CUC’s solar reports was declined, and although the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) ordered its release on appeal, CUC fought the disclosure in court.
In June, the court ordered the OMB to rehear the appeal in relation to the FOI request for the reports, which CUC claims are commercially sensitive documents. That rehearing of the FOI appeal is understood to still be in process.
Meanwhile, the question of how much domestic solar destabilises CUC’s grid is up for debate. James Whittaker, the president of the Cayman Renewable Energy Association, has said many times that this is simply not the case. The government should support the adoption of solar power, and no one should be stopped from using rooftop solar panels.
“The idea that more solar is a safety issue for the grid doesn’t survive a look at the numbers,” Whittaker told CNS this week. He noted that the Cayman Islands generate around 3% of their electricity from renewables, whereas Kauai, an island with a grid smaller than Grand Cayman’s, runs at around 60%. South Australia produces more than 70% of its energy from wind and solar.
“They enable high rates of clean energy penetration with battery storage, which is now standard on both large solar plants and home solar systems and makes a grid more stable and resilient, not less. At 3%, how much solar the grid can safely take is not the problem. The problem is who decides whether it gets built.
“On Grand Cayman, almost every megawatt of solar runs through one company. It owns the grid; it is the only buyer of the power; it writes the technical rules for connecting; it sets and caps the rooftop solar programs; and it has information on how much solar the grid can carry, which the public has not seen.”
Whittaker believes that since one company holds “almost every lever” and renewables generate such a small percentage of energy, that company’s motives are clear. “The people being asked whether more solar is safe are the people who would have to compete with it,” he noted.
“The government knows how to proceed. Its own plan in 2022 was for government and its partners to be the majority owner of utility-scale renewable plants, with the utility paid to operate and maintain all of them.
“That model gets hundreds of megawatts built rapidly, puts the majority of the financial benefit with the public and local pension funds, and keeps the utility in a well-paid role without handing any single company control and ownership of the island’s clean energy for the next fifty-plus years.
“Had it gone ahead then, Grand Cayman would likely already be above 50% renewable today and largely insulated from the fuel shocks on everyone’s bill,” he claimed.
Whittaker pointed out that the best time to have done this was yesterday, but the next best time is today. However, the current situation means this won’t be happening tomorrow, next week, or even next year.
“Two decisions are needed: build utility-scale solar and storage at scale under a structure that doesn’t lock in a monopoly over the sun, and put solar on every rooftop and parking lot that can take it, with broad financing so ordinary households can access it too.
“Do those two things and Cayman is a world leader within five years. None of this is new. What has been missing is the decision, and waiting for a crisis to make it for us is not a plan,” Whittaker told CNS. He warned that the idea that LNG is a viable energy solution for Cayman is a trap and a waste of our resources.
“All it does is lock the country into a new fossil fuel for the next several decades and increase our dependence on a source of energy even more volatile than diesel,” he stated.
Back to article
Easy for him to say, he can afford it. Solar is expensive to install and the payback in savings is years. It is out of reach for most people and limited space such as roofs make it an insurance liability and unlikely to survive even a mild hurricane.
So Cuba and Pakistan can afford solar but Cayman can’t?
I mean, dear god, Jamaica has wind turbines.
This is all just proof that the Government is the primary obstruction (acting in collusion with the monopoly energy provider).
As opposed to the ‘cheap’ LNG option which requires years in advance hundred-million-dollar investments in storage facilities.
Modern solar panels can be securely attached to basically any surface and are often hurricane rated up to windspeeds equivalent to Cat 4-5s when installed correctly, they are also replaceable. Just like anything in a hurricane nothing is guaranteed but if your position is that we can’t adopt them because they may get damaged in a storm I expect that you live in a cave as houses are also susceptible to hurricane damage correct?
Just vote out Andre. he had his chance. miss us all with the BS and excuses. You only get one term in Cayman now. NO MORE MCKEEVA’s, its ONE term only to prove that you should get 2 or 3. ONE! im so sick of West Bayers ruining this island with their vote.
Cayman stand up and tell me im lying!
Andre isn’t the problem. It’s ONOV that gets the likes of Jay Ebanks and Isaac Rankine in.
It’s not easy when you’re tail is wagging you, not the the other way around is it Mr. Premier? It’s also not easy when you’re eye is on your next jaunt overseas to attend a much more critical financial affairs conference.
Maybe if you’d stop talking out both sides of your mouth and start by demanding CUC actually achieve tangible milestones towards Cayman’s renewable energy targets rather than complaining that’s it’s difficult and complicated. OfReg is not doing its job once again, what a surprise? Amend CUC’s licence if need be, CUC needs to comply absolutely.
Even a layperson can see it’s easier for CUC to let go the reins on solar than invest heavily into infrastructure for another fossil fuel. Besides how long are CUC’s current engines good for, 15 years maybe? Then what, more engines and we’ll still be paying for obsolete LNG infrastructure 30 years from now? You must be mad, the low pressure from altitude must have really gone to your head man!
You don’t know what you’re talking about. CUC attempted to get massive utility-scale solar installed, and OfReg, appointed by CIG blocked them.
Are you mentally subnormal? Does reality have any meaning to you?
Reality is you most likely have imbibed way too much CUC Koolaid.
Answer the question. Deal with the facts.
Did CUC apply for the installation of massive utility-scale solar? Yes or no?
Did OfReg block it? Yes or no?
Where CUC was forced to take OfReg to court and did OfReg capitulate because they were acting unlawfully (and the subtext of this is that there was a crusade by CIG against CUC)?
Truly, this is a third-world country with a significant number (not all) of third-world people who are easily manipulated. Your enemy is your politicians. They want to make CUC a bogeyman so they can whip up hatred like they do against expats generally. Please try to rub both of your brain cells together, and don’t fall for it quite so easily.
100% solar power is highly unlikely to be economically achievable in the near future. Around 75% would be a realistic target. Simply consider the quantity and cost of the battery storage required. The country will likely always require a fuel based reserve generation capability. Maybe one day when the cost of battery infrastructure is more realistic it can be achieved.
You know, it is quite easy to have GTP do the research for you, so you can comment with facts.
Off you go then and do 100% solar for your house for 100% of the time. That is, be disconnected from the CUC fuel power backup – which is allowed. That is what 100% solar means. See how economical it is just for your house. Now multiply that out for every residence and commercial property on the island.
I set out who is to blame under the LNG story last week: https://caymannewsservice.com/2026/10/premier-backing-methane-gas-as-solution-to-fuel-crisis/#comment-735508
In short, CUC behaves exactly as the monopoly CIG licensed it to be – they are doing nothing wrong. Blame OfReg and CIG. OfReg threw out CUC’s own 100MW solar plan, reversed itself only when CUC went to court, and forced OfReg to admit it lacks the engineering expertise to regulate the company it is meant to oversees. CIG wrote a National Energy Policy and left it to rot.
I would change one thing in my comment: my “kept it local” jibe was aimed at Michael Myles and the xenophobic hiring culture he champions, which keeps real overseas expertise out of jobs like this, and not at Sonji Myles. My apologies to Sonji.
Now André tells us he cannot understand why solar is taking so long. His excuse of a government appoints the regulator’s board, owns the energy policy, and has CUC’s grid licence coming up for renewal in April 2028. Yet the man holding every lever has no answer. The 10:35am commenter supplies one: Wayne Panton announced a public solar ownership model in 2022, and CIG never turned it into policy. Announce, subsidise, blame someone else, repeat.
A political system that rewards this level of singular incompetence will never deliver an effective solar power grid, and tinkering with OfReg won’t change it. Cayman needs complete electoral reform: https://caymannewsservice.com/2026/05/dubai-has-drone-strikes-cayman-has-beauty-queens-dubai-is-winning/
Wayne’s proclamation was never realistic. Government can barely deploy capital to core infrastructure under FFR – what made him think they had spare hundreds of millions sitting around for solar ownership stake and deployment?
As for local pension funds partnering government to supply supplemental funding – typically most would (should) look to avoid double risk exposure by having concentrated capital exposed to our geographical risks.
The government never turned it into a policy because it was a poorly-conceived idea to transplant into our context. The former Premier screwed us all over because he was convinced otherwise by certain parties and then destabilized the very entities he held the levers for by injecting all that uncertainty just when OfReg was finally starting to try to kickstart meaningful solar development.
CIG needed to give CUC advance warning in 2023 if they intended to revisit their license. Guess what..? They didn’t do that, so we are automatically locked in to the same license for another 20 years.
While the Cayman Islands benefits from abundant sunshine, relying on solar power for 100% of its electricity requirements is not realistically feasible under current technological and economic conditions. The fundamental challenge is that solar electricity generation is intermittent. Solar panels produce electricity only during daylight hours, and output can decline significantly during cloudy or stormy weather. Cayman requires a continuous, reliable electricity supply, particularly for essential services such as hospitals, water desalination, businesses and air conditioning.
A fully solar-powered system would require enormous battery storage capacity to provide electricity overnight and during extended periods of poor weather. Grand Cayman consumes approximately 2.2 gigawatt-hours of electricity daily. Providing sufficient storage for even three days of electricity consumption could require battery investments approaching US$2 billion, before accounting for solar installations, grid upgrades and other infrastructure. Furthermore, batteries would need to be recharged after extended periods of reduced solar generation, creating additional capacity requirements and costs.
Land availability presents another significant obstacle. Generating enough electricity to meet Cayman’s annual demand would require hundreds of megawatts of solar capacity, potentially occupying thousands of acres if installed primarily in ground-mounted solar farms. Given Cayman’s limited land area, high property values and competing residential, commercial and environmental priorities, constructing solar installations on this scale would be particularly challenging. Rooftop solar could reduce, but not eliminate, these constraints.
Finally, Cayman’s exposure to hurricanes makes exclusive reliance on solar especially problematic. Major storms can damage solar installations, disrupt transmission infrastructure and substantially reduce solar generation for several consecutive days. A system dependent entirely on solar and batteries would therefore face significant resilience risks. A more realistic approach would be to maximise solar generation while retaining complementary energy sources, substantial battery storage and dependable backup generation. Cayman could potentially achieve a very high proportion of renewable electricity, but pursuing 100% solar without alternative generation would involve disproportionate costs and unacceptable risks to electricity reliability.
You are entirely correct, but the morons downvoting you are too stupid to realise.
Further, the intellectually retarded local politicians struggle to plan beyond their packed lunch, and therefore they just say whatever they think will sound good for the next 12 to 24 hours.
André has no idea what he’s talking about. Fortunately for him, nor do his voters. Never mind, just free solar. He should promise free SUVs and free housing to everyone – perhaps about six months before the next election. Enough voters are stupid enough to vote for it.
No. I voted the original comment down because this does not actually have to be done on a utility scale. It can be done by individual property owners, at their own expense, in $100K increments. All that is needed is quick and efficient regulatory approvals.
Reduced import duties could be a great incentive.
There is zero import duty on residential solar systems, which has been the case for more than the past five years.
The National Energy Policy addresses all of those points. https://gov.ky/documents/35692/0/National+Energy+Policy+2024-2045_compressed.pdf/13330123-12b0-7663-7248-3bec69237410?t=1763404410542
You might disagree with their assumptions (as their document does with yours) re diesel costs saved vs expenses needed for batteries & panels, and the potential for distributed solar to reduce land need and disaster risk (a good lesson among others to learn from Puerto Rico), but at least they’ve thought of them too.
This headline is misleading. Who and where on earth did anyone suggest methane as an alternative energy source?
LNG as suggested is mostly methane.
especially when you look at the production process and the damage that methane could do to a fragile island environment over 20 years.
28@12:19pm -It could be if one harnesses the amount of BS coming out of our House of Parliament. Major methane source!
LNG is (mostly) methane. I agree an impolite headline, but it did get our attention didn’t it.
It’s actually beyond a joke now how F’d up this country is when it comes to this. Solar should be mandatory on every new build, and cheap as F to install on existing structures, due to the demand there would be if CUC stepped the F back. There should be hundreds of containers of panels coming in yearly (reducing the costs to buy). But they block it all. I am a CUC shareholder and I can’t stand the policies they have. All this on a low lying island too. SMH!
CUC needs to get with the program – instead of their top people jetting across the globe attending conference, gaining graduate degrees funded by the company, and feathering their own nests. I read about Board members and the company winning awards when they are basically incompetent and responsible for the financial strife of so many local people is criminal. The rich expats moving to this country can afford to pay $1500 a month for power, the rest of certainly cannot. The recent tragedy where a family’s power was cut off and they were using a generator is a prime example of why we all need solar – NOW not in 10 YEARS!
So, majority of the overseas companies registered here are chinese registrations? Shein and so many others operate from Cayman. Now, this solar idea, with majority of panels being made by china, even the minerals and mines are chinese cornered; This would really give cayman government a great relationship with communist china.
In addition to the risks cited by the premier (cost, supply chain volatility, and the investment required), there are other even more extraordinary risks, both to the environment and to anyone nearby, that come with an LNG facility. A very bad idea for Cayman.
https://www.gexcon.com/resources/blog/the-7-essential-hazards-in-lng-facilities/
DUH Hon. Premier! But you just showed how flimsy you are…again. Flip-Flops how unprepared your Government is.
It should be compulsory for every inch of every roof in Cayman to be covered with solar panels. They are now relatively cheap and make electricity for virtually nothing. It is a criminal that CUC and CIG drag their feet.
“Its own plan in 2022 was for government and its partners to be the majority owner of utility-scale renewable plants, with the utility paid to operate and maintain all of them.”
Does no one recall that the then-Premier Wayne Panton announced this at a conference in Miami alongside James Whittaker one week after the regulator started trying to procure utility-scale solar back in April 2022? And then his government never actually committed this to an official policy, but instead set back OfReg through indecision? Peter Gough, the interim CEO at OfReg at the time had to clarify that there was no actual policy directive from government.
It is a shame most of the related records would likely be exempted under FOI, as it would be illuminating to see who talked to who and why, four years later, progress is still stalled.
“Had it gone ahead then, Grand Cayman would likely already be above 50% renewable today and largely insulated from the fuel shocks on everyone’s bill,” he claimed.
Had OfReg gone ahead without the political interference at that time, the irony is that this probably would be true.
CUC does everything it can to make solar impractical and inefficient.
There is no negative regulatory disincentive to propel CUC away from it’s fruitful and profit-guaranteeed client relationship with SOL. There is no competition allowed to bust in, and shake things up. Any expansion in grid-scale solar has been previously executed at 4-5x cost and reinvoiced to consumers at a 30% margin. Ofreg seem to believe they are a client service desk that work for the licensed utility operators and not as a government regulator officiating quality, modernization, good value, and proper service, on behalf of the people of the Cayman Islands.
you lost me at “Since the country can’t seem to get switching to solar to happen”
The government controls the regulator which controls the solar billing structure and rates. Those rates are the reason for poor ROI and therefor zero adoption.
Have a backbone and implement net zero, or cost of solar pricing by law and it will tick up.
One of the biggest VPs of CUC who talks endlessly about how great CORE is, just build an enormous house across the street from me: not a single solar panel to be found.
So if it’s such a great deal…why do CUC staff and executives not use it???
i win i had ‘u-turn’ on my Cayman politics bingo card today
Whittaker, as usual, is right. The failings – on something so fundamental and key to the cost of living – appear frightening.
At the very least – start putting solar above large government car parks, and on rooftops of large government buildings. Install batteries – and then take whole buildings offline. Do it one at a time and do it now. That seems to fall within the existing legal framework and would start saving government, the Islands’ largest consumer of electricity, on its own bills.
The public would quickly be better off.
Private sector schools and warehouses can start doing the same. Anyone with a big roof and/or big car-park!
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Cayman News Service

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First Solar Inc. has inaugurated the first phase of its new PV module manufacturing facility in South Carolina, cutting the ribbon on the manufacturing floor Oct. 28.
Located in the small town of Gaffney near the Palmetto State’s northern border, the new facility will onshore final production processes of First Solar’s Series 6 Plus modules. The company’s international fleet with initiate manufacturing of those modules before bringing them to American soil to avoid further potential shipping tariffs or other FEOC concerns.
“Less than a year after we selected Gaffney, this facility is ready to produce American solar technology, built by South Carolinian workers,” says First Solar CEO Mark Widmar. “That pace reflects what is possible when sound policy, strong state and local partners, and a committed workforce align.
“Every module that leaves this facility is made without dependence on Chinese crystalline silicon supply chains, and it strengthens our ability to deliver the certainty our customers need as American electricity demand grows.”
The two-phase plant is expected to support a total of 700 jobs once at full operation, the company says. First Solar officials say that its staffing team has already filled about 500 of those positions.

Moving on to the next phase

The second phase of the manufacturing plant project will see completion by mid-2027, according to company representatives. In total, the two-phase endeavor has a price tag of about $330 million, and will double the manufacturing plant’s annual nameplate capacity to 3.4 GW.
The new facility “supports American energy dominance and affordability goals,” the company says. The upgrade came about in response to rising demand for domestically produced energy technology after the second Trump administration signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law in July 2025.
Government officials from both the state and federal level attended the ribbon cutting ceremony, including South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. The latter says First Solar’s module technology is “exceptional,” and that the company continues to win in the U.S. because it relies on its own proprietary technology.
“Thanks to First Solar’s investment, South Carolinians are building American energy technology in Gaffney, with nearly 700 good-paying jobs expected to support this critical work,” Gov. McMaster says. “This is another example of why South Carolina continues to be recognized as a manufacturing powerhouse and a leader in our nation’s energy future.”
By the end of 2026, First Solar officials expect to have invested more than $5 billion in American solar manufacturing and research and development infrastructure, since 2019. Additionally, the firm forecasts that it will have about 17 GW of U.S.-based module manufacturing capacity by 2027.


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NTPC Green Energy declares commercial operation of 95.6 MW solar project  scanx.trade
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Malaysia’s 200 MW Chereh Floating Solar Project Advances with Construction Launch and MYR 580 Million Funding  SolarQuarter
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For homes, Gen 4 brings 500 W performance to all-black panels in both dual-glass and mono-glass designs. For commercial and utility projects, the same performance upgrade extends across larger 60-, 66- and 72-cell formats.
Gen 4 reflects the growing maturity of back-contact technology. Over three generations, AIKO moved back contact from a premium niche into mainstream solar. With its fourth generation, the focus now shifts to maximising value for installers and customers on every roof.
What’s new in Gen 4?
In the new ABC 4.0 INFINITE Ultra cell, six process upgrades lift average production cell efficiency from 27.2% to 27.4%.
At the panel level, zero-gap cells, hidden rear connections (InvisiRibbon) and tighter string spacing cut non-generating area by about 20%, so 97% of the surface now produces power.
Every ABC INFINITE Ultra series format gains up to 20 W over the previous generation, at exactly the same size and weight. Against TOPCon panels of the same dimensions on the current market, that means up to 30 W more power per panel.
In the 54-cell size used on most Australian homes, where AIKO released the world’s first 500 W, 25% efficient white-backsheet panel under 2 m² in 2025, Gen 4 pushes further to 510 W and 25.5% efficiency.
AIKO Head of APAC Alex Hang said Australian households have had AIKO back-contact panels on their roofs for several years, and Australian installers have helped prove the technology in some of the toughest conditions in the world.
“The INFINITE Ultra series gives them more power from every roof, more ways to mount it, and the confidence that comes from technology built to last for decades,” Hang said.
“We never stop advancing, and we want Australia to be among the first to benefit.”
The INFINITE Ultra series also comes in a choice of larger formats to suit different projects. The 60-cell panel (1,954 × 1,134 mm) reaches 560 W, and the 72-cell panel (2,382 × 1,134 mm) reaches 700 W at 25.9% efficiency, the highest in the range.
Gen 4 also tackles back contact’s traditional weakness in rear-side generation, with the 66-cell bifacial panel now reaching up to 85% bifaciality and 670 W. This opens back contact to high-albedo sites, carports, ground-mounted systems and solar farms.
All-black 500 W: extreme power and aesthetics for Australia’s premium homes
For many owners of high-end homes, the look of solar has long been a reason to hold back. Visible gridlines, blue cell edges and uneven colour can clash with a carefully designed roof. And an all-black finish has historically come at the cost of performance, as older types of black panels typically run hotter and produce less power.
Gen 4 removes that trade-off, bringing 500 W and 25.0% efficiency to an all-black panel in the standard 1,762 × 1,134 mm size, with no visible gridlines and the same black colour between cells.
Homeowners are no longer forced to choose between a premium look and premium performance, and they can choose between two designs.
Z Series is the premium choice, with a uniform pure-black finish front and back. Its sharp look is paired with a stronger frame, enhanced reliability and dual-glass construction, which together support a 40-year product and power warranty, matching the life of a new roof. Z Series is already open for orders in Europe and is expected to be available in Australia in 2027.
Neostar Champion, part of the Gen 4 Neostar range, delivers the same 500 W all-black performance in a mono-glass design, backed by a 30-year product and power warranty.
Designed with installers in mind
As the industry races toward higher wattage, a common shortcut has been to simply make panels bigger or thinner. It produces an eye-catching number on the datasheet, but the cost falls on installers: heavier lifts, awkward non-standard sizes, and roof layouts and racking that must be reworked.
AIKO chose a different approach. The INFINITE Ultra series gains power from better technology rather than a bigger frame. Each panel keeps the same size and weight as the matching previous-generation panel, and the 54-cell panels stay under 2 m² and 25 kg.
Installers also get more ways to mount Gen 4, where approved in the installation manual: short-side or long-side clamping, with or without rails, and short-side or long-side insertion.
On the Z Series, an optimised structural design boosts the four-corner front-side mounting load from 1,600 Pa to 2,400 Pa. More watts per panel also means fewer panels, clamps and rails for the same system size, and AIKO’s local Australian team backs installers with training and technical support.
Value beyond wattage
With AIKO, customers don’t have to trade one benefit for another. Alongside higher output, the INFINITE Ultra series strengthens fire safety, reliability and long-term energy performance, addressing the operating conditions and asset-life considerations that matter to installers, EPCs and system owners. Features vary by model.
What it means for Australian homes
Australia’s rooftops are being asked to do more than ever. Around 42% of homes already have solar, and more than 500,000 home batteries have been installed under the Cheaper Home Batteries Program since July 2025.
As households add batteries, EVs and heat pumps, the question is no longer whether to go solar, but how much a roof can deliver: more energy from limited space, with a finish that complements the home, and the confidence that it will last for decades.
Gen 4 is built around those priorities. With up to 30 W more per panel than TOPCon panels of the same size, homeowners can fit around 6% more solar capacity on the same roof. More generation means bigger savings, more solar to charge the home battery and fewer grid purchases in the evening. It also gives households the capacity to keep adding, from an EV to a heat pump or pool, on the path to a fully electrified home.
What it means for businesses
The expansion of the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme to systems up to 1 MW is a rare opportunity to bring more Australian businesses into commercial solar. By lowering upfront costs and improving project feasibility, it opens the benefits of renewable energy to a much broader segment of the economy.
To make the most of it, businesses need to get the most from every square metre of roof. High-efficiency panels like AIKO’s ABC INFINITE Ultra series do exactly that, unlocking higher system capacity and, with it, greater STC value.
For small or complex sites, that extra capacity can be the difference between a token installation and a system large enough to meaningfully support the business’s energy demand. And with multiple formats to suit different buildings, including a high power-to-weight ratio for weight-constrained roofs, more businesses can find the right fit.
Never stop advancing: delivering more value with every generation
Gen 4 reflects AIKO’s commitment to making high-performance back-contact solar accessible to every rooftop. Across its first three generations, AIKO focused on overcoming the technology and manufacturing barriers that had kept back contact in a premium niche.
By making mass production commercially viable and bringing the technology to more accessible price points, it helped move back contact into the mainstream, helping more homes and businesses enjoy better performance and greater value from solar.
Gen 4 builds on that foundation by addressing a wider range of customer needs and project constraints. Its significance goes beyond a higher number on the datasheet: it brings together output, installation flexibility, reliability, safety and design, rather than asking customers to choose one or two strengths.
The ambition is not simply to make back contact more accessible, but to make it deliver more: greater productivity from every roof, stronger project economics and lasting value over the life of the asset.
AIKO ANZ Head Thomas Bywater said the expanded scheme is a rare opportunity to bring more Australian businesses into solar, but it shouldn’t be wasted on poorly matched systems or short-term thinking.
“For business owners, installing solar is never abstract. Behind every commercial project is a business trying to manage costs, protect jobs and build a more resilient future, and it needs a system that delivers real returns, not just an incentive claim,” Bywater said.
“With the right technology and the right design for each site, the incentive will do more than reduce the cost of solar. It will help Australian businesses invest with confidence.”
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The multi-site programme includes an 8.5MWp installation set to become the UK’s largest solar PV system on a single continuous roof.
Work on a major 21.5MWp solar PV programme has begun across four of beverage producer Refresco’s UK manufacturing facilities, marking one of the largest commercial and industrial solar deployments undertaken in the UK.
The investment supports Refresco’s efforts to reduce the environmental impact of its manufacturing operations, increase onsite renewable electricity generation, and strengthen the long-term resilience of its energy supply.
Refresco, Bridgwater site mobilisation
At the centre of the rollout is an 8.5MWp installation at Refresco’s Bridgwater facility, which is expected to become the UK’s largest solar PV system installed on a single continuous roof. The project will comprise more than 18,000 high-efficiency solar modules and is expected to generate approximately 7.5GWh of renewable electricity annually.
Once operational, the system is expected to supply around 17% of the site’s annual electricity demand, providing a significant source of renewable power directly at the point of use and reducing reliance on grid-supplied electricity.
Refresco appointed GB NRG to develop, design, engineer and deliver the four-site programme across its UK operations.
GB NRG also took the portfolio to market on Refresco’s behalf, selecting Zestec Renewable Energy to fund and manage the solar infrastructure over the long term.
The projects will be delivered through Zestec’s long-term Power Purchase Agreements backed by Octopus Energy Generation managed funds.
Installation of the flagship project is already well underway.
James Logan, Managing Director of Refresco UK, said: “Reducing the environmental impact of our manufacturing operations is an important part of Refresco’s long-term strategy, alongside maintaining the scale, efficiency and reliability our customers expect.
“This programme will enable us to generate more renewable electricity directly at our production facilities, reduce our reliance on grid-supplied electricity and strengthen the long-term resilience of our operations. By reducing emissions from our manufacturing activities, we can also support our customers in achieving their own sustainability objectives and addressing emissions within their supply chains.
“We are particularly excited by the scale of the flagship installation. We have worked closely with GB NRG to develop the programme and identify the right delivery and funding solution, and we are pleased to be moving forward with GB NRG and Zestec.”
Delivering an installation of this scale on a live 24/7 manufacturing facility presents significant engineering and operational challenges. GB NRG has worked closely with Refresco to develop a solution that maintains uninterrupted production, protects roof integrity and ensures the highest standards of health, safety and long-term system performance throughout construction.
The scale of the installation demonstrates the potential for major manufacturers and other large energy users to turn previously unused roof space into a significant source of onsite energy generation.
Refresco, Bridgwater installation of solar panel mounting rails
Jon Antoniou, Founder and CEO of GB NRG, said: “We are extremely proud to have been selected by Refresco to deliver what is a genuinely landmark solar programme.
“An 8.5MWp installation on a single roof is an exceptional project in its own right, and across the four sites we expect to deliver 21.5MWp of onsite solar generation.
“Being trusted to deliver the programme, following Refresco’s competitive process involving twelve solar providers, is a major endorsement of the GB NRG team and the expertise we have built over the past 16 years.”
Toby Smith, COO of Zestec Renewable Energy, added: “We are delighted to be partnering with Refresco and GB NRG on such a significant portfolio of commercial solar projects.
“Large-scale rooftop solar gives businesses such as Refresco the opportunity to make productive use of existing roof space, reduce reliance on grid electricity and make meaningful progress towards their sustainability objectives, without the need for upfront capital investment.
“This programme demonstrates what can be achieved by bringing together an ambitious end user, an experienced delivery partner, and long-term investment capital. As the funding and asset management partner, we look forward to supporting Refresco over the long term.”
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Phillipsburg’s Commercial Solar Panel Recycling Honored with NJ DEP State Recycling Award  TAPinto
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Solar Power World
By Michael Becker, Global Business Director, Energy Storage/Energy & Power, CSA | October 29, 2026
Access to plug-in solar is becoming increasingly available across North America. As more consumers explore technologies such as balcony solar and plug-in photovoltaic (PIPV) systems, these emerging solutions have the potential to make renewable energy more accessible and support broader participation in the energy transition. Solar remains one of the most accessible and promising renewable energy tools being added to the grid, and plug-in solar products may help expand that access to consumers who have traditionally faced economic barriers to participation.
As adoption grows, however, products designed to be convenient and accessible must still be treated as electrical products that interact with a building’s infrastructure. Product design, connectors, wiring, system integration and installation practices all play an important role in safety and performance. Expanding access and maintaining confidence in emerging technologies are complementary goals, and achieving both will require continued attention to the frameworks that support responsible deployment.
Clear safety standards, code-compliant installation practices and appropriate regulatory requirements will be essential to helping ensure that innovation can reach more consumers safely and responsibly. Solar-related issues are often associated not with the panels themselves, but with connectors, wiring and improper installation practices. A major misconception is that consumers can simply purchase a solar panel with a standard plug and connect it to a household outlet. Responsible deployment of PIPV systems depends on several complementary elements working together: products evaluated to appropriate safety standards, compliance with the National Electrical Code (NEC), qualified installation practices, and applicable state and local requirements.
No single element alone can provide the framework needed to support broad and responsible adoption.
An important emerging component of that framework is UL 3700, which is helping establish a product-safety benchmark specifically for plug-in photovoltaic systems. UL 3700 can provide manufacturers with a clearer benchmark for product development and evaluation, while giving regulators greater confidence as they consider how plug-in PV should be addressed within electrical codes and regulatory frameworks. Continued industry involvement in the development of UL 3700 will also be important as the standard evolves toward broader consensus and adoption. At the same time, UL 3700 is only one part of the overall approach. It does not replace NEC compliance, qualified installation practices or applicable state and local requirements that govern the deployment of electrical systems.
Emerging safety benchmarks are already moving from concept to practice. CSA has certified a microinverter to UL 3700, providing an early example of how the standard can be applied to products entering the market. The certification demonstrates how a consistent benchmark can be applied as new technologies enter the market, while helping support confidence among regulators, manufacturers and consumers as plug-in solar continues to develop.
The regulatory landscape for PIPV continues to evolve, with proposed changes to the NEC, state laws and local codes and ordinances aimed at facilitating the safe installation of these systems. As the industry works to establish appropriate requirements, keeping standards, codes and regulatory frameworks aligned with technological advancement will be critical to supporting the growth of PIPV products. Well-aligned requirements can help create a pathway for innovation while maintaining consistency in how emerging technologies are evaluated and deployed.
Technology itself continues to advance rapidly. Improvements in inverter technology are helping make solar more affordable while enabling greater integration of renewable energy into the grid. As inverters become more energy-dense and cost-effective, they can help lower the overall cost of PV systems and support broader adoption. New inverter capabilities can also provide valuable grid-support functions that help integrate more renewable resources and contribute to a more flexible and resilient electric grid. As these technologies evolve, standards, codes and regulatory requirements must continue evolving alongside them so that innovation and deployment can advance together.
Ultimately, greater accessibility brings greater responsibility. As plug-in solar technologies become easier for consumers to adopt, the safety frameworks that support them must keep pace with innovation. By developing appropriate product standards, maintaining NEC-compliant installation practices, utilizing qualified installers and advancing state and local requirements alongside technological progress, the industry can help expand access to renewable energy while maintaining the confidence of consumers, manufacturers, regulators installers and other stakeholders.
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Waaree Energies Ltd has reported a total order book of approximately INR 59,200 crore as of Sep. 30, 2026, with solar modules accounting for 89% of outstanding orders. The order book comprises solar modules, EPC–renewable, transmission and distribution (T&D)–renewable, and other businesses. EPC–renewable accounted for 6%, T&D–renewable for 4%, and other businesses for 1% of the total order book.
Waaree’s module order book reached 25.6 GW in Q2 FY2027, compared with 25.2 GW in the preceding quarter. However, the company flagged uncertainties related to Section 232 developments in the United States, stating that a significant portion of export orders had been deemed cancelled.
H1 FY2027 revenue rises 47.3%
Waaree Energies reported revenue of INR 15,449.5 crore for the first half of FY2027, up 47.3% year on year. H1 PAT was INR 1,645.5 crore, marginally down around 0.3% year on year, despite revenue growth of 47.3%.
For Q2 FY2027, revenue increased 23.9% year on year to INR 7,517.7 crore, compared with INR 6,065.6 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. PAT declined 14.2% year on year to INR 753.6 crore.
Solar module production in H1 FY 2027 reached 6.3 GW, compared with 4.9 GW in H1 FY2026. Q2 FY2027 module production stood at 3 GW.
Solar cell production rose to 1.9 GW in H1 FY2027 from 0.8 GW a year earlier. Quarterly cell production increased to 1.1 GW in Q2 FY2027, compared with 0.6 GW in Q2 FY2026, with capacity utilisation reported at 81%.
Retail constituted 37.2% of the revenue mix for H1 FY2027, up from 18.8% in the corresponding period last year. Retail accounted for 46.1% of the Q2 FY2027 revenue mix.
Waaree has PV module manufacturing capacity of 25.8 GW, including 1.6 GW in the United States, and solar cell manufacturing capacity of 5.4 GW.
Q2 FY 2027 highlights
The company’s board approved $37 million to expand the Meyer Burger facility in Arizona, United States, by an additional 0.6 GW. The expansion is expected to increase its total US capacity to 4.8 GW by March 2027. 
During the quarter, the company’s board of directors approved the Scheme of Amalgamation of subsidiary Indosolar Ltd with the company.
Waaree also commenced advanced automated battery energy storage system (BESS) container manufacturing at its facility in Rola, Gujarat, with an annual capacity of 5.15 GWh.
“We are particularly encouraged by the strong momentum in our retail business and domestic US manufacturing, which recorded revenue growth of 191% and 113%, respectively in H1FY 2027. These businesses are becoming important contributors to our growth trajectory,” said Jignesh Rathod, Whole Time Director & CEO, Waaree Energies Ltd. “As we continue to expand our capabilities and strengthen our presence across the clean energy value chain, we expect our battery energy storage system (BESS), transformers, inverters, EPC T&D and Green Hydrogen businesses to contribute to future growth.”
Rathod said, “As we will enter FY28, Waaree will be full ready to execute on capacities, namely, 29 GW of solar PV, 15.4 GW of solar cell, 5 GWh of BESS pack & container, 3.5 GWh battery cell manufacturing, 4GW of inverter, 20,000 MVA of transformers and a larger integrated EPC entity (projects + T&D).” 
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Plug-in solar access is expanding across North America as more consumers consider balcony solar and plug-in photovoltaic systems, according to an analysis by Michael Becker, Global Business Director for Energy Storage and Energy & Power at CSA, published by Solar Power World Online. These products could broaden participation in the energy transition for consumers who have historically faced economic barriers, the analysis states.
As adoption grows, the analysis stresses that convenient products still function as electrical products interacting with building infrastructure. Product design, connectors, wiring, system integration and installation practices all affect safety and performance, and expanding access while maintaining confidence in emerging technologies are described as complementary goals.
Clear safety standards, code-compliant installation and appropriate regulatory requirements are presented as essential to responsible deployment. Solar-related problems are often tied not to panels but to connectors, wiring and improper installation, according to the analysis, which identifies a common misconception that a panel with a standard plug can simply be connected to a household outlet.
Responsible deployment of plug-in photovoltaic systems depends on several elements working together: products evaluated to appropriate safety standards, compliance with the National Electrical Code, qualified installation practices, and applicable state and local requirements. No single element alone provides the needed framework, the analysis states.
UL 3700 is described as an emerging component of that framework, establishing a product-safety benchmark specifically for plug-in photovoltaic systems. It can give manufacturers a clearer benchmark for development and evaluation and give regulators greater confidence as they consider how plug-in PV fits within electrical codes and regulatory frameworks. Continued industry involvement is described as important as the standard evolves toward broader consensus, though UL 3700 does not replace NEC compliance, qualified installation practices or applicable state and local requirements.
CSA has certified a microinverter to UL 3700, an early example of applying the standard to products entering the market. The certification is presented as demonstrating how a consistent benchmark can support confidence among regulators, manufacturers and consumers.
The regulatory landscape continues to evolve, with proposed NEC changes, state laws and local codes and ordinances aimed at facilitating safe installation. Keeping standards, codes and regulatory frameworks aligned with technological advancement is described as critical to supporting growth.
Inverter technology is advancing, with improvements helping make solar more affordable and enabling greater integration of renewable energy into the grid. More energy-dense and cost-effective inverters can lower overall PV system costs and support broader adoption, while new capabilities can provide grid-support functions for a more flexible and resilient electric grid. Standards and requirements must evolve alongside these technologies, the analysis states.
Greater accessibility brings greater responsibility, according to the analysis. Developing appropriate product standards, maintaining NEC-compliant installation, using qualified installers and advancing state and local requirements alongside technological progress can help expand access to renewable energy while maintaining confidence among consumers, manufacturers, regulators and installers.
Interactive table based on the Store Companies dataset for this report.
This report provides an in-depth analysis of the Solar Panels market in the World, including market size, structure, key trends, and forecast. The study highlights demand drivers, supply constraints, and competitive dynamics across the value chain.
The analysis is designed for manufacturers, distributors, investors, and advisors who require a consistent, data-driven view of market dynamics and a transparent analytical definition of the product scope.
This report covers photovoltaic (PV) solar panels, which are devices that convert sunlight directly into electricity. It encompasses the global market for finished modules, including all major product technologies and form factors designed for a wide range of end-use applications.
The market data is classified and analyzed according to international trade codes, primarily under the Harmonized System (HS) headings for photovoltaic cells and electric generating sets. This ensures consistent tracking of trade flows for assembled solar modules and relevant apparatus across global markets.
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The analysis is built on a multi-source framework that combines official statistics, trade records, company disclosures, and expert validation. Data are standardized, reconciled, and cross-checked to ensure consistency across time series.
All data are normalized to a common product definition and mapped to a consistent set of codes. This ensures that comparisons across time are aligned and actionable.
Report Scope and Analytical Framing
Concise View of Market Direction
Market Size, Growth and Scenario Framing
Commercial and Technical Scope
How the Market Splits Into Decision-Relevant Buckets
Where Demand Comes From and How It Behaves
Supply Footprint, Trade and Value Capture
Trade Flows and External Dependence
Price Formation and Revenue Logic
Who Wins and Why
Where Growth and Supply Concentrate
Commercial Entry and Scaling Priorities
Where the Best Expansion Logic Sits
Leading Players and Strategic Archetypes
Detailed View of the Most Important National Markets
How the Report Was Built
World's largest solar wafer manufacturer
Consistently top module shipper globally
Major producer of cells and modules
Pioneer in module technology and Vertex series
Vertically integrated, strong in project pipeline
Largest US-based manufacturer, unique technology
Major investment in US manufacturing
Significant producer with heterojunction focus
World's largest solar cell producer
Maxeon manufactures SunPower's legacy technology
Pioneer in heterojunction technology
Part of GCL Group, large-scale manufacturer
Vertically integrated under Chint Group
Significant global shipments
Major Indian manufacturer with global presence
Part of Adani Group, large integrated capacity
Exited solar business in 2022 but legacy remains
Historic leader, now smaller scale
Largest US residential solar company
Former industry leader, still significant
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Harsh lessons from solar panel saga  University of Auckland
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Toyo Co. said US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has released shipments of solar cells made at its factory in Ethiopia after reviewing supply chain documentation that included polysilicon and wafer sourcing.
The Japanese manufacturer did not say how many shipments were released, when, or under which authority they had been held. In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Toyo said CBP issued detention notices on May 27 and May 28 for two cell shipments totaling about 0.094 MW, valued at $13,770, which CBP indicated were suspected of being associated with forced labor. Toyo has not said whether those are the shipments now released.
Toyo said it is pursuing certification under CBP’s Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program and has expanded the import compliance program that supports its US manufacturing operations in Humble, Texas. Chief Executive Officer Takahiko Onozuka said customers need confidence in where their solar products come from and that the company intends to provide it across its full supply chain.
The US Department of Commerce opened a country-wide circumvention inquiry on July 17 into solar cells and modules completed in Ethiopia using Chinese components. It followed a request filed in May by eight US manufacturers naming Toyo and Origin Solar Manufacturing. A preliminary determination is due within 150 days of the inquiry’s start, putting it in mid-December unless extended. Toyo has denied the allegations, saying its Ethiopian cells use polysilicon from the United States and Malaysia.
Toyo operates 4 GW of tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) cell capacity in Hawassa, Ethiopia, and completed an expansion of its Humble module plant to 2 GW in October. It plans a 1.5 GW heterojunction cell line at the Texas site, with pilot production targeted for the first quarter of 2028.
CBP has previously released detained solar imports after supply chain reviews, including cells bound for Qcells’ Georgia factories in 2025. Separately, Commerce in September finalized antidumping and countervailing duties on solar cells and modules from India, Indonesia and Laos, after manufacturers there became major suppliers to the US market following duties on Southeast Asian imports.
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Venerdì, 19 Novembre 2026
11:00  – 12:00 CET, Roma
pv magazine hosts its four-day virtual event on European solar and energy storage, exploring market opportunities, solar-plus-storage business cases, technical quality, and cybersecurity in the years ahead.
Thursday, October 29, 2026
11:00 am – 12:00 pm CEST, Berlin, Paris, Madrid
As a media partner of Genera 2026, pv magazine will organize and moderate a session in Spanish in Madrid, during International Electrification and Decarbonization Week.
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Masdar, Citaglobal Begin Construction Of RM580 Million Financed Floating Solar Project In Pahang  BusinessToday Malaysia
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First Solar has opened its new solar module facility in Gaffney, South Carolina, holding a celebration to inaugurate the first phase of production at what is slated to become a 3.4 GW plant. The event featured company executives, community leaders and politicians from several levels of government.
The company plans to use the facility to onshore the final production processes for Series 6 Plus thin-film modules initiated at its international facilities. First Solar says the investment was driven by rising domestic demand for U.S.-made energy equipment following recent federal trade policies and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law in July 2025.
The second phase of the $330 million plant is expected to be complete by mid-2027, bringing the facility’s capacity from 1.7 GW to 3.4 GW of modules featuring the company’s CuRe technology. First Solar says it has already filled 500 jobs at the facility and expects to bring on nearly 200 more as the facility reaches full production.
Guests at the inauguration included South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, U.S. Senator Darline Graham, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, South Carolina Senator Harvey Peeler, South Carolina Representatives Dennis Moss and Brian Lawson and Gaffney Mayor Lyman D. Dawkins III, who joined plant workers and First Solar CEO Mark Widmar in the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“Thanks to First Solar’s investment, South Carolinians are building American energy technology in Gaffney, with nearly 700 good-paying jobs expected to support this critical work,” said McMaster in a statement. “This is another example of why South Carolina continues to be recognized as a manufacturing powerhouse and a leader in our nation’s energy future.”
Widmar added his own thoughts about the new plant: “Less than a year after we selected Gaffney, this facility is ready to produce American solar technology, built by South Carolinian workers,” he said in a statement. “That pace reflects what is possible when sound policy, strong state and local partners, and a committed workforce align.”
U.S. and global production capacity
The Gaffney plant is First Solar’s sixth U.S. manufacturing facility, joining three existing plants in Ohio and single facilities in Alabama and Louisiana, alongside research and development centers in California and Ohio. The company also operates a distribution center in Duncan, South Carolina, and maintains a partnership with Inland Port Greer for shipments of its products.
During its second-quarter 2026 earnings call in July, company executives noted that relocating production equipment from Southeast Asia to support the South Carolina finishing operation leaves the company with roughly 1.8 GW of end-to-end, fully finished module capacity across Malaysia and Vietnam, while the remaining international Series 6 lines supply unfinished modules to the Gaffney plant. 
First Solar has said it expects its cumulative investment in U.S. manufacturing and R&D infrastructure since 2019 to exceed $5 billion by the end of 2026. By 2027, once the second phase of the Gaffney plant is complete, the company forecasts its total domestic module manufacturing capacity will reach approximately 17 GW.
Across its entire global fleet, First Solar forecasts total actual module production of 16.5 GW to 17.5 GW in 2026, rising to between 18.9 GW and 20.5 GW in 2027.
The company is scheduled to report its Q3 2026 financial results after the market closes on Oct. 29, 2026.
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JinkoSolar’s shares slipped 3.2% in the latest session, dragged down by a sector-wide selloff after Enphase Energy posted weaker-than-expected third-quarter 2026 results and a disappointing outlook for the closing quarter, according to media reports. The read-across from Enphase hit solar names broadly, and JinkoSolar was no exception.
On the corporate side, subsidiary Jinko ESS said Tuesday it is pushing ahead with a portfolio of standalone battery storage projects in Germany totaling 20 MWh. The package spans three sites earmarked for marketing electricity on the power market — two with 5 MWh of capacity each and a larger 10 MWh installation.
The storage drive extends beyond that initial batch. Media reports indicate Jinko ESS is also advancing a 135 MWh battery project in Germany, tied to a photovoltaic plant and structured to support a hybrid power purchase agreement.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying JinkoSolar?
Earlier, on October 22, Jinko ESS delivered lithium-ion battery storage systems for three German agri-photovoltaic projects, combining 20.06 MW of power with 66.33 MWh of storage capacity. Those installations bring farming, solar generation and storage together under one roof.
At the holding level, the renaming of JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. to Jinko Holdings Limited took effect on October 23, following shareholder approval at the general meeting on October 21. The American depositary shares continue to trade on the NYSE under the ticker JKS, with the CUSIP left untouched.
On the product front, JinkoSolar unveiled its all-black Tiger Neo 5.0 residential module — announced on October 17 — which delivers up to 510 Wp of output at an efficiency of 25.52%, according to company figures.
Jinko Holdings has slated the release of unaudited third-quarter 2026 results for October 30, with the figures due before US markets open. A conference call to discuss the numbers is set for 8:30 a.m. US Eastern time the same day.
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Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly inaugurated a 1.2-megawatt (MW) solar power plant at Nasr Petroleum Company in Suez, as the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (MoPMR) expands renewable energy use and improves energy efficiency across the petroleum sector, according to a statement by the Cabinet.
The project comprises 10 solar canopies installed in the company’s parking area, making use of available space to generate clean electricity and meet part of the facility’s power requirements.
According to Salah Mohamed, General Manager of Energy Efficiency at Nasr Petroleum Company, the plant is expected to reduce the company’s electricity consumption from the national grid by 2,628 megawatt-hours (MWh) annually.
Nasr Petroleum Chairman Rashad Nazim said the project supports efforts to improve operational efficiency, reduce reliance on conventional energy sources, and lower operating costs over the long term. It also aligns with the ministry’s strategy to expand solar power projects across petroleum and mining facilities and company administrative buildings.
Nazim added that the petroleum sector is implementing an integrated plan to improve energy efficiency and adopt lower-emission solutions. The plan includes expanding solar power generation, utilizing flare gas to generate electricity instead of burning it, and implementing energy-efficiency initiatives across operational sites.
From July 2024 to September 2026, the sector implemented 36 solar power projects across petroleum companies and facilities, with a combined capacity of 5 MW. These projects are expected to save approximately 680,000 liters of diesel and 14 million cubic feet (mcf) of natural gas annually. The sector is targeting an additional 51 solar projects in the coming period.
During the same period, the petroleum sector implemented 125 energy-conservation and efficiency projects and initiatives, which reduced carbon emissions by approximately 768,000 tons. A further 77 projects and initiatives are being prepared to build on these results, Nazim said.
ANasr Petroleum Company is a state-owned Egyptian oil company operating in the refining sector. Based in Suez, the company processes crude oil into petroleum products, contributing to Egypt’s domestic fuel supply.
Fatma Ahmed is a staff writer with six years’ experience in Journalism. She is working in the field of oil and gas for four years. She also worked in the field of economic journalism for 2 years. Fatma has a Bachelor Degree in Mass Communication.
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October 29, 2026. By News Bureau
Que: Dhash has grown from a PV junction-box manufacturer into a broader solar-component company covering junction boxes, connectors, cables and PV ribbons. How would you describe the company's evolution?
Ans: Dhash has evolved from a specialised PV junction box manufacturer into an integrated and backward-integrated solar component manufacturing company. Our journey has been guided by a clear objective: to develop reliable, technology-driven solar components in India that strengthen the rapidly expanding solar manufacturing ecosystem and contribute meaningfully to the vision of a self-reliant India (Aatmanirbhar Bharat).

Today, our portfolio spans PV junction boxes, connectors, solar cables, PV interconnect ribbons and busbars. Composite frames are also emerging as an important addition to our broader product offering.

The evolution is not just about adding products. It is about building manufacturing depth, technology capability and supply-chain integration. We are investing in in-house manufacturing and quality systems so that Dhash can become a dependable partner to module manufacturers in India and global markets.
Que: The government's localisation push has created many opportunities for Indian solar-component manufacturers. Do you think India's ancillary PV ecosystem is developing quickly enough to support the country's module and cell manufacturing plan
Ans: India's solar manufacturing ecosystem has made significant progress, but the ancillary ecosystem still needs to grow at a much faster pace.

Cell and module manufacturing capacity can scale rapidly only when the supporting ecosystem of junction boxes, connectors, cables, ribbons, frames, backsheets, glass and other components develops alongside it.

The localisation push has created the right environment for this transition. However, the next phase needs greater investment in technology, capacity, quality certification, R&D and supply-chain resilience.

India has the manufacturing capability and entrepreneurial ecosystem to build this base. The focus now should be on creating globally competitive component manufacturers rather than simply replacing imports with local production.
Que: What are the biggest gaps that still exist in India's domestic solar-component supply chain?
Ans: There are three broad areas that require attention.

First is technology and R&D. As module technologies become more sophisticated, components must evolve at the same pace. We need more investment in product engineering, testing and material science.

Second is scale. India's module and cell manufacturing ambitions require component manufacturers to operate at comparable levels of capacity, consistency and delivery reliability.

Third is raw-material localisation. While significant progress has been made, certain specialised materials, machinery and components still have import dependence. Developing these upstream capabilities will make the entire ecosystem more resilient.

At Dhash, we see this as both a challenge and an opportunity. Building a stronger domestic supply chain is central to our long-term strategy.
Que: As TOPCon, HJT and other high-efficiency technologies become more prominent, how are junction-box requirements changing?
Ans: Junction boxes are becoming increasingly important as module power and operating requirements continue to rise.

Higher-efficiency technologies such as TOPCon and HJT bring higher current levels and increasingly demanding electrical and thermal requirements. This places greater emphasis on current-carrying capability, thermal management, reliability, insulation performance and long-term field durability.

Our approach has been to develop junction-box solutions that are designed around the next generation of modules rather than simply adapting legacy products.

For example, our TRIO Pro 35A junction box has been developed for high-current applications, with a 35A rating, 1500V capability and IP68 protection, making it suitable for advanced module architectures. Additionally, with higher system voltage requirements in place, Dhash is ready with the next generation of Junction Box, popularly known as Trio Pro Max, rated at 35A and suitable to operate under the system voltage of up to 2000V DC.

The junction box is no longer a commodity accessory. It is an important electrical and reliability component of the module.
Que: Dhash expanded into PV interconnect ribbons with its LYNC range. It was launched with 6.5 GW of annual production capacity, with plans to scale to 25 GW. What is the current status of that expansion?
Ans: The LYNC expansion is progressing as part of Dhash's broader strategy to build a stronger PV component manufacturing platform.

We launched LYNC with 6.5 GW of annual production capacity, with a planned scale-up towards 25 GW. The expansion is being approached in phases, allowing us to align capacity additions with customer requirements, technology development and market demand.

Our objective is not simply to add capacity. We want LYNC to become a technologically capable and quality-focused Indian alternative for PV interconnect ribbons and busbars, serving both domestic and international module manufacturers.

As module technologies evolve, ribbon specifications are also changing. Therefore, our expansion strategy is being built around both volume and product development capability.
Que: Dhash has emphasised in-house manufacturing across its product portfolio. How much of your raw-material and component supply chain is currently localised?
Ans: Localisation is one of the fundamental pillars of Dhash's manufacturing strategy.

A significant portion of our manufacturing processes and critical component production is carried out in-house in India. This gives us better control over quality, consistency, product development and delivery timelines.

At Dhash, we do not view localisation as a one-time target, but as a continuous journey. While certain specialised raw materials and technologies still require global sourcing, the majority of the child components comprising our junction box bill of materials are manufactured in-house, reflecting our sustained commitment to backward integration over the past nine years since the company’s inception. We continue to progressively expand domestic manufacturing capabilities wherever technically and commercially viable, strengthening supply-chain resilience and advancing India’s solar manufacturing self-reliance.

Our long-term objective is to build an increasingly integrated Indian supply chain while maintaining the quality standards required by global customers.

Dhash’s Bhupendra Singh Rawat on Building India’s Solar Component Ecosystem

Kimbal Targets Australia and Southeast Asia for Global Expansion

Prassann Daphal, CEO, Recyclekaro, on Building India’s Critical Mineral Recycling Ecosystem

Evolving Climate Risks Are Reshaping RE Insurance: Amitabh Dewan, Policybazaar for Business

Power Asset Management is Shifting from Capacity to Performance: Kota Bhanu Prakash

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USD 650 Million Financing Terms Signed for 1 GW Qena Solar Project  CairoScene
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The Tiverton Planning Board will hold a public hearing Nov. 10 on a proposed 45-panel, 936-square-foot solar array at 575 Nanaquaket Road, with a possible vote that night.
Tiverton residents can attend the Nov. 10 hearing or email comments before the board possibly votes on the Nanaquaket Road solar plans.
Tiverton, R.I. — The Tiverton Planning Board will hold a public hearing Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 6:30 p.m. at Tiverton Town Hall on a proposed ground-mounted solar array at 575 Nanaquaket Road. The board could also vote that night, according to a notice the town posted Oct. 28.
The notice describes the project as an "Agricultural Accessory Ground Mount Solar Array" made up of 45 panels covering 936 square feet. The town lists the parcel as 29.204 acres, Plat 404, Lot 101, in the R-120 zoning district. The applicant is listed as Eva Longobardi of 575 Nanaquaket Road.
The agenda item is a combined review of the project's master plan and preliminary plan. The notice's action line reads: "Discussion and possible vote on the combined Master and Preliminary plans." A possible vote means the board may decide on Nov. 10, but it is not required to.
The town classifies the application as a "Major Land Development." Under Rhode Island's land development law, R.I. Gen. Laws § 45-23-39, major projects move through three stages: a master plan, which sets out the basic concept; a preliminary plan, with more detailed engineering; and a final plan.
The statute allows a planning board to combine stages once the town's administrative officer finds the requirements are met. It also requires a public hearing at the master-plan stage, or during the combined stage when stages are merged, which is why this item carries a hearing.
If the master plan is approved, the law describes later review steps for the project. None of those steps had been scheduled in the town's notice.
The notice also prints a review deadline: "95 Days = February 6, 2027." That is the date by which the board's time clock, as printed by the town, runs out.
Tiverton adopted its first solar ordinance in March 2018 and repealed it that November. The town's zoning rules now include a category for agricultural accessory ground-mounted solar, the label the notice uses for this project.
The notice says anyone who wishes to be heard should attend the hearing or file a written appearance on or before Nov. 10. Public comment may be emailed to [email protected], the address printed in the notice.
The application and plans are available for review at the Planning Office at Town Hall, 343 Highland Road, before the hearing. The notice lists Town Planner and Administrative Officer Christopher Spencer as the contact, at (401) 816-5631. People who need interpreter services should call the same number at least 72 hours before the meeting.
The town says Planning Board meetings are recorded and posted to YouTube, sometimes with a delay. The full hearing notice is posted on the town's website.
The hearing begins at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 10 at Tiverton Town Hall.
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A resident near Stafford Pond urged more well testing and said springs feed the pond from the PFAS-affected area. A state official said the pond hasn't been tested directly.

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Two seventh graders, Ocean Durden and David Song, ceremonially flipped the switch on more than 500 new solar panels at the Mount Vernon School in Sandy Springs during an Oct. 28 assembly.
As fifth graders, Durden and Song researched solar energy’s environmental and financial benefits for a fifth-grade project and presented their recommendation to school leadership. Their proposal sparked further exploration and ultimately led to a partnership with Cherry Street Energy to bring their idea to reality.

Mount Vernon partnered with Atlanta-based commercial solar power provider Cherry Street Energy to install solar panels on the rooftops of Mount Vernon’s Middle and Upper School buildings.
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Since August, more than 500 solar panels have been operating on the roofs of the middle and upper schools thanks to Durden and Song’s project, which began two years ago.
Cherry Street fully financed the project and will operate and maintain the two systems, covering associated maintenance costs, while selling the energy to Mount Vernon.
Andrew Quigley, an account executive with Cherry Street Energy, said the company’s unique business model allows it to act as an alternative to energy providers like Georgia Power. Other metro Atlanta educational institutions have partnered with Cherry Street, including the Davis Academy, Decatur City Schools, Atlanta International School, Holy Innocents’ Episcopal, and Woodward Academy.
Combined, the systems produce more than 300,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, providing more than 15% of the facilities’ energy demands. The estimated annual energy production is equivalent to the electricity needed to power 25 homes and will help avoid 200 metric tons of carbon emissions.
After the assembly, Durden and Song spoke with Rough Draft Atlanta about their project. Mount Vernon has its fifth graders complete an Impact Summit, where they demonstrate their critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills.
During their project, the duo met with the CEO of a Colorado-based solar panel manufacturer, the chief financial officer of Mount Vernon, and took a trip to Georgia Power headquarters. They thought it was over, but school leadership was inspired and pursued a local partnership.
Durden said he first discovered the renewable energy technology while driving past a solar farm in South Georgia. Similarly, Song said he learned that solar panels were sustainable after asking his parents about them when he was younger.
Song said he wants to know how much the solar panels will help communities save energy and reduce the need to burn fossil fuels.
Durden said other students interested in similar projects should know the project took two years and didn’t happen overnight.
“It may take time and patience,” he said. “Don’t always give up on a project.”
Courtney Stillwagon, chief financial and operations officer at Mount Vernon, said solar energy offers the school a meaningful return over time.
“Not just in dollars saved, but in the values we model for our students,” Stillwagon said. “When we invest in clean energy, we are also investing in the next generation of leaders.”
Michael Chanin, founder & CEO of Cherry Street Energy, said fifth graders at Mount Vernon saw a power plant where most people saw a school roof.
“Today, that roof produces electricity that Mount Vernon buys from Cherry Street Energy at a fixed price, without putting up its own capital,” Chanin said. “These students helped their school make a lasting decision about how it buys power.”
Kristy Lundstrom, Head of School and CEO of Mount Vernon said Ocean and David started with a question, did the research, and made a case for change.
“Their idea moved beyond the classroom to become a lasting investment in our school and our future,” Lundstrom said. “That’s the power of giving students the agency to act on what matters to them and create positive change for others.”
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Hayden Sumlin is a staff writer for Rough Draft Atlanta, covering Sandy Springs, Fulton County, Norcross, and real estate news. More by Hayden Sumlin

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Shares of Enphase Energy (ENPH), the major US microinverter and energy storage equipment maker, were hammered on Wednesday, closing down $4.77, or 16.03%, at $24.99. The key blow to investor confidence was not the prior quarter’s results themselves but the company’s fourth-quarter guidance, which came in far below Wall Street estimates — effectively an admission that US residential solar demand shows no sign of recovering in the near term.
Enphase reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of $293.3 million, below the market estimate of $303.9 million and down about 28.5% from $410.4 million a year earlier. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.41, also short of the $0.51 analysts expected and well below $0.90 a year earlier. Quarterly shipments totaled about 1.42 million IQ microinverters, while battery storage system shipments reached 129.9 megawatt-hours.
What truly triggered the selloff was the fourth-quarter outlook. The company forecast revenue of $225 million to $255 million, and at the $240 million midpoint, the shortfall versus the roughly $300 million consensus exceeds 20%. Management also warned that fourth-quarter global channel sell-through would fall another roughly 10% sequentially, and said it plans to deliberately ship about $20 million less to distributors to bring inventory down before the seasonally slow first quarter of next year.
Tax Credit Exit Drains Cash-Purchase Market
CEO Badri Kothandaraman attributed the headwinds on the earnings call to “higher interest rates and the expiration of the federal 25D tax credit.” The 25D credit, a US federal tax incentive for homeowners who buy residential solar systems with cash or loans, expired on December 31, 2025. He said plainly that the policy removed “a substantial portion of the cash and loan market,” leaving third-party ownership arrangements such as leases as one of the few remaining options for homeowners in a high-rate environment.
The data confirm the structural blow. Third-quarter US revenue was $233.5 million, down 33% year over year, and the company’s quarterly report pointed directly to the 25D expiration as the main cause. US residential solar end-market sales plunged 35% from a year earlier, while global channel sell-through rose only about 1% sequentially, far below the 10% originally expected. In Europe, revenue fell 11% sequentially and end-market sales dropped 12%, with France particularly weak, reflecting both seasonal factors and softening demand.
The CEO conceded on the conference call: “We are not seeing any meaningful recovery in US demand.” Management also expects distributors to remain cautious through the end of 2027.
The interest-rate environment is another constraint. The Federal Reserve raised rates by a quarter point on September 16 to a range of 3.75% to 4%, and the US 10-year Treasury yield reached 4.99% on October 27, 0.8 percentage points higher than at the start of the year, markedly increasing the repayment burden on households that finance solar installations. The market broadly expects the Federal Reserve to hold steady at this meeting, but expectations for another rate hike in December remain high.
Cash Flow Turns Negative; JPMorgan Cuts Price Target
Earnings quality also raised eyebrows among institutional investors. Third-quarter operating cash flow was only about $100,000, and free cash flow was negative $11.37 million. Cash and marketable securities totaled $931.8 million at quarter-end, which remains ample. In addition, a $26.5 million investment impairment dented adjusted earnings per share by about $0.14.
JPMorgan analyst Mark Strouse noted that Enphase’s fourth-quarter guidance came in far below consensus, reflecting continued weakness in US residential demand, and cut his price target to $29 from $35 while maintaining a Neutral rating. He also said the weakening in Europe is a negative signal for peer SolarEdge as well.
AI Data Centers and Commercial Storage: Betting on the Next Growth Wave
Facing a residential market winter, Enphase is pinning its growth hopes on storage and commercial markets. The company expects residential battery shipments to grow 50% from 450 megawatt-hours in 2026 to 675 megawatt-hours in 2027, with the next-generation IQ Battery G5 slated for volume ramp in the first quarter of 2027. About 3 million US households that already have solar installed, along with roughly 500,000 customers in the Netherlands who have solar panels only, are seen as potential battery attach opportunities.
In the commercial market, US commercial solar permits rose 13% in the first nine months of the year. The company targets commercial battery sales of 100 megawatt-hours and commercial revenue of more than $100 million in 2027, far above roughly $30 million in 2026.
The most closely watched initiative is the AI data center power conversion business. Enphase’s IQ SST solid-state transformer has engaged more than 50 potential customers, including a hyperscale cloud provider and a global AI computing company. Pilot programs are scheduled for 2027, with commercial shipments not until 2028, and management sees the business contributing $1 billion in annual revenue by 2030. Still, that front is far from harvest and will be hard-pressed to offset the bleeding in the residential business in the near term.
Enphase holds about a 50% share of the US residential solar inverter market but only 15% to 20% of the residential battery market. Whether its transformation succeeds will be key to whether the stock can stem its decline.
Note: Revenue and earnings per share figures in the table are adjusted numbers; fourth-quarter guidance ranges are as published by the company.
The news and data on this website are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice or an offer to buy or sell. Information is sourced from exchanges and public sources, and may be delayed, interrupted, or updated. While we strive for accuracy, we do not guarantee timeliness, correctness, or completeness. Content may include external links for which we are not responsible. By using this site, you agree that we and our partners are not liable for any losses. Investment carries full responsibility; please carefully assess risks and consult professionals. If there are errors in the content, please contact us for correction.

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Smarter Weather Inputs Cut Day-Ahead Solar Power Forecast Errors in Half
Photovoltaic power is notoriously hard to schedule a day in advance. The sun may be predictable in principle, but clouds, haze, and shifting weather patterns turn solar output into a moving target, and the numerical weather prediction (NWP) data that grid operators rely on are often too coarse to describe conditions at a single power station. A new study published in Results in Engineering tackles this problem from the input side, proposing a two-stage framework that first corrects the weather forecasts themselves and only then predicts how much electricity a solar plant will deliver the next day.
The research team, led by Jian-Hong Zhu of the study’s affiliation network alongside co-authors including Jun Zhang and Chenghong Gu, tested their approach on data from a 20 MW photovoltaic station in Hebei Province, China. The dataset spans 30 June 2018 to 12 June 2019 at a 15-minute sampling interval, producing 96 data points per day and more than 32,900 entries in total. The station uses a fixed south-facing array tilted at 31 degrees with polycrystalline silicon modules, a typical utility-scale fixed-tilt configuration equipped with instruments measuring both global and diffuse irradiance.
The scale mismatch at the heart of the problem is striking. Standard NWP products describe weather averaged over grid cells measured in kilometers, while a megawatt-scale solar plant occupies a footprint far smaller than a single forecast grid square. In the sampled week used for illustration, the mean absolute deviations between NWP values and on-site measurements reached 161.26 W/m² for global horizontal irradiance, 1.79 °C for temperature, and 3.28 m/s for wind speed. Wind speed was systematically overestimated, partly because forecast grids cannot resolve the local terrain and surface roughness that shape the wind field at the station.
The first stage of the proposed framework, called VMD-CNN-BiGRU-AM, does not correct the raw weather variables directly. Instead, it computes the error sequence between each NWP variable and the corresponding measured value, then applies variational mode decomposition (VMD) to break that error sequence into several intrinsic mode functions with distinct frequency characteristics. Each component is modeled separately by a hybrid neural network: a convolutional layer extracts local temporal fluctuation features, a bidirectional gated recurrent unit captures temporal dependencies within the historical window, and an attention mechanism weights the most informative time steps. The predicted components are summed back together, and the reconstructed error is added to the original NWP value to yield corrected irradiance, temperature, and wind speed.
A key design choice is that the correction runs in a rolling manner without peeking at the forecast day. For the first time point of the target day, the model uses the latest six historical error values, corresponding to 1.5 hours of information at the 15-minute resolution. For subsequent points, previously predicted errors are fed back into the input window, so all 96 daily points can be generated using only information available before the forecasting day. Normalization parameters come exclusively from training data, and no measurements from the target day enter the procedure, avoiding future information leakage.
The corrected weather variables then feed a second-stage forecasting model, BOCNN-LSTM, which combines a convolutional feature extractor, two stacked LSTM layers, and Bayesian optimization to automatically tune the number of hidden units, the learning rate, and the L2 regularization coefficient. The authors are careful to note that this stage applies well-established components rather than claiming a new forecasting mechanism; its role is to map corrected meteorological inputs and historical power output to a day-ahead power forecast. The framework produces deterministic point forecasts only, without prediction intervals or probabilistic distributions.
The correction stage delivered substantial improvements on its own terms. Compared with raw NWP data, the complete VMD-CNN-BiGRU-AM model reduced mean absolute error and root-mean-square error by 71.3 percent and 74.5 percent for irradiance, 84.2 percent and 82.0 percent for temperature, and 89.2 percent and 87.5 percent for wind speed. Ablation experiments showed that VMD contributed the largest share of the gain: removing it increased irradiance correction errors by roughly 63 to 68 percent, while removing the CNN or attention modules produced smaller but consistent degradations. The bidirectional recurrent unit was retained in all variants as the common temporal backbone, so its individual contribution was not separately quantified.
Downstream, the effect on power forecasting was equally clear. When forecasts built on CNN-BiGRU-AM-corrected inputs were compared with those built on the full VMD-corrected inputs across four one-month seasonal samples, average normalized RMSE fell from 0.1619 to 0.0759 per unit and MAE from 0.1173 to 0.0580 per unit, reductions of about 53.1 and 50.6 percent. The correlation coefficient rose from 0.9327 to 0.9823, the accuracy rate climbed from 83.81 to 92.41 percent, and the qualification rate, the share of intervals where error stayed within an acceptable band, rose from 88.76 to 99.44 percent. For the 20 MW station, the average normalized bias of 0.0201 per unit corresponds to roughly 0.402 MW of systematic underprediction, a directional tendency the authors flag as relevant to day-ahead scheduling and balancing decisions.
Against selected baselines trained and tested under identical conditions, including support vector regression, LSTM, Transformer-LSTM, and TCN-ECANet-GRU, the proposed framework achieved the lowest errors on the four randomly selected seasonal test days, with RMSE values ranging from 0.0236 to 0.0468 per unit. The added computational cost of the correction stage was modest in absolute terms: the full VMD-based correction averaged about 26.76 seconds per run versus 7.61 seconds without VMD on the study hardware, though the authors stress this covers only the correction stage, not total training or deployment time.
The authors are explicit about the limits of their evidence. Validation rests on roughly one year of data from a single station, with four one-month samples rather than continuous rolling-origin evaluation, so seasonal transitions, rare weather events, and interannual variability remain untested. The benchmark set excludes newer architectures such as PatchTST and TimesNet, and no strictly controlled comparison against an architecturally matched single-stage end-to-end model has yet been performed. Future work, the team writes, will extend the framework toward probabilistic forecasting through quantile, ensemble, or conformal prediction methods, and toward multi-year, multi-site validation to establish whether the gains reported here generalize beyond one plant and one year.
Subject of Research: A two-stage deep learning framework combining NWP error correction with Bayesian-optimized forecasting for day-ahead photovoltaic power prediction.
Article Title: Day-ahead BO CNN-LSTM PV prediction based on input of NWP forecasting reconstruction by VMD and CNN-BiGRU-AM network
Article References: Zhu, J.-H., Zhang, J., Tang, J., Zhang, X., Zhang, Q., Luo, K., Ge, Y., & Gu, C. (2026). Day-ahead BOCNN-LSTM PV prediction based on input of NWP forecasting reconstruction by VMD and CNN-BiGRU-AM network. Results in Engineering, 32, Article 113747. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2026.113747
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1016/j.rineng.2026.113747
Keywords: photovoltaic power forecasting, numerical weather prediction, variational mode decomposition, CNN-LSTM, Bayesian optimization, attention mechanism, NWP bias correction, day-ahead scheduling, renewable energy, deep learning, solar power, error correction
News Source: Faith Mcneil. (October 29, 2026). Smarter Weather Inputs Cut Day-Ahead Solar Power Forecast Errors in Half. Scienmag.
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China’s exports of solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and batteries will help the world to avoid 450 million tonnes of planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions, according to the analysis by the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
The avoided emissions are equivalent to 2% of the world’s annual emissions outside China, which dominates clean energy supply chains from electric vehicles to lithium batteries.
China is the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide overall, but the US is the biggest per capita emitter and also the biggest historical producer of greenhouse gases. Brazil is a top-10 emitter.
China’s clean technology exports are helping the world to avoid emissions especially in the Global South, where they are decarbonising fossil-heavy grids, the analysis found.
The impact of those exports is growing — avoided emissions are up from 370 million tonnes of CO2 last year, more than the UK emitted from fossil fuel consumption.
The bulk of the avoided emissions came from countries in the Global South, as they have increased imports from China and cleaned up dirty power grids, the analysis found. Many are in sunny regions with rich potential for solar power, by far the biggest source of avoided emissions among China’s exports.
The climate savings outweighed the carbon dioxide emitted in manufacturing the solar panels, turbines and other equipment, the report said, estimating it took around six months for clean tech imports to “pay back” the manufacturing emissions.
The amount of avoided emissions over the lifetime of the equipment exported from China in 2026, which in the case of wind and solar farms can be used for decades, is forecast at 8,400 million tonnes of CO2 — as much as the US and India together emit in a year from fossil fuels, the report said.
Despite global concerns about China’s industrial overcapacity and its impact on manufacturers in other countries, the analysis found that China’s clean tech exports have, in the aggregate, created new markets rather than displacing existing producers.
However, the surge in green exports drove down per-unit prices and cut into the revenues of incumbent producers.
China has labeled clean tech tariffs the new problem for climate action and vowed to push back against them at COP31.
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Solar Power World
By Billy Ludt | October 29, 2026
DTE Energy’s 132-MW Fish Creek Solar Park near Sheridan, Michigan, is now operational. The $268 million development was fully funded by customers who voluntarily participate in DTE’s MIGreenPower program. The solar park can generate enough energy to power approximately 30,000 homes.
“Our customers expect us to keep the lights on and keep bills as affordable as possible, and bringing new generation like Fish Creek online is part of how we deliver on that commitment,” said Matt Paul, president and COO of DTE Electric. “Fish Creek adds more Michigan-made energy to our system while supporting local jobs, generating new tax revenue and delivering lasting benefits for the communities that helped make this project possible.”
Fish Creek will generate tax revenue, supporting regional infrastructure, such as schools, first responders, road maintenance and veteran and senior citizen services. The solar park also created hundreds of local jobs during construction and will provide participating landowners with supplemental income.
In addition, Bushnell and Evergreen townships each received $330,000 through Michigan’s Renewables Ready Communities Award, a grant available to local governments that host large-scale renewable energy projects. The townships plan to invest the funding in town hall and fire station renovations, along with other community improvements.
Fish Creek is part of DTE’s broader plan to meet Michigan’s growing energy needs with a mix of resources. DTE currently has 20 wind parks and 37 solar parks across Michigan, which together generate enough clean energy to power nearly 1 million homes. DTE’s 2026 Integrated Resource Plan includes an additional 15 GW of renewable energy by 2042.
News item from DTE Energy
Billy Ludt is managing editor of Solar Power World and currently covers topics on mounting, inverters, installation and operations.

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Toyo Co. Announces Cbp Release Of Ethiopia-Produced Solar Cell Shipments  TradingView
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Planned $950 million HJT facility is expected to add 4 GW of annual solar cell manufacturing capacity and create more than 700 local jobs
HOUSTON, Oct. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — SEG Solar (“SEG”), a leading global vertically integrated solar manufacturer, today announced that it has signed a land agreement for a planned $950 million, 4 GW heterojunction (HJT) solar cell plant at its Tomball Industrial Campus in the greater Houston area.
The facility is expected to create more than 700 local jobs and is planned to come online in two 2 GW phases, targeted for 2028 and 2029. It would make the SEG Tomball Industrial Campus one of the only U.S. manufacturing locations where HJT cells, modules, and key components are made in one place.

The facility will be located adjacent to SEG’s existing 4 GW Tomball #1 module manufacturing facility and its 4.6 GW Tomball #2 module manufacturing facility currently under construction. Once completed, the HJT cell facility will bring solar cell, module and key component manufacturing together at SEG’s Tomball campus, alongside warehousing, an R&D center, a certified testing laboratory, and planned EVA and junction box production lines.
SEG’s Texas-made modules, built with U.S.-produced HJT cells, will help developers and asset owners meet domestic content requirements while improving project economics. They will also provide something increasingly valuable in today’s market: a dependable source of U.S.-manufactured supply.
Jim Wood, chief executive officer of SEG Solar, said “Bringing HJT cell manufacturing to the U.S. will give customers a more domestic supply chain with clearer sourcing and a single company standing behind the product. As the only U.S. company dedicated to integrated domestic vertical manufacturing, SEG will continue to strengthen our U.S. operations and innovation.  American-made cells, American-made modules, one company accountable.”
About SEG Solar
Founded in 2021, SEG is a leading vertically integrated PV manufacturer headquartered in Houston, Texas, U.S., and is dedicated to delivering reliable and cost-effective solar modules to the utility, commercial, and residential markets. By the end of 2025, SEG had shipped over 7.5 GW of solar modules worldwide and reached a module production capacity of 6.5 GW.
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SEG Solar ("SEG"), uno de los principales fabricantes estadounidenses de módulos solares, anunció hoy sus planes para construir su tercera planta de…
SEG Solar (« SEG »), l'un des principaux fabricants américains de modules solaires, a annoncé aujourd'hui son intention de développer son troisième…
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Sydney-based SMA Australia, a subsidiary of German solar and battery inverter manufacturer SMA Solar Technology AG, has unveiled a new grid-forming solution at All Energy in Melbourne, which tackles the challenges of securing grid connections and attracting investment.
The solution enables renewable generation to actively support electricity system stability through services including synthetic inertia, fast frequency response and voltage support.
Its DC-coupled architecture can capture solar energy otherwise lost through inverter clipping and storing it for dispatch during periods of higher electricity demand or more favourable market conditions.
It combines power conversion technology, intelligent plant controls and engineering support, helping reduce system integration complexity and the challenge of coordinating equipment and control systems from multiple suppliers.
It also incorporates advanced silicon carbide semiconductor technology, enabling DC-side conversion efficiencies of up to 99.%.
SMA Australia Managing Director John Alexander, who will address All Energy on Wednesday 28 October in a presentation titled ‘From megawatts to megabankable: How grid stability is reshaping renewable energy finance’, said the next phase of Australia’s energy transition won’t be measured by how many projects are announced but by how many actually connect to the grid, perform reliably and deliver a return.
“Grid stability is no longer just an engineering issue. It goes directly to investment confidence and long-term project value,” Alexander said.
“Developers and investors need confidence that their assets can perform reliably today and adapt to the needs of tomorrow’s electricity system. That means designing for Australia’s unique grid conditions, managing risk from the outset and preparing for evolving grid requirements and future market opportunities.”
Alexander said Australia has some of the most demanding grid connection requirements in the world and developers need more than technology that performs well in isolation.
“They need integrated solutions designed for Australian conditions, backed by local engineering expertise and long-term support,” Alexander said.
Medium voltage power station
Also on display at All Energy, SMA will showcase its 40-foot Medium Voltage Power Station (MVPS) 6400–10000 range.
Its integrated architecture, featuring redundant inverter technology, is designed to improve plant availability and support reliable operation of large-scale renewable energy projects.
Other power infrastructure solutions for artificial intelligence (AI) and hyperscale data centres displayed at the SMA Australia exhibit include GridAssist, GridLink AC and the planned GridLink DC architecture.
Key SMA Australia projects include Origin Energy’s 300 MW / 650 MWh Mortlake Battery in Victoria (116 SMA Sunny Central Storage inverters) and FRV Australia’s 100 MW / 200 MWh Terang Battery in south-west Victoria (38 SMA inverters
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A group of Chinese scientists have developed a molecular locking strategy for organic solar cells.
The team’s strategy involves using a vacuum-deposited indium chloride (InClx) interlayer to stabilize the interface between the electrode and the hole-transport layer in organic solar cells.
The interlayer works by triggering ligand exchange, forming a robust, multidentate indium-oxygen-phosphorus (In-O-P) coordination network capable of densely and uniformly anchoring self-assembled monolayers (SAMs).
The scientists’ work is presented in the research paper Chloride-mediated SAM locking via ligand-exchange reaction enables 18.8% active-area efficiency and stable organic solar modules, available in the journal Joule.
The paper explains that while organic solar cells have reached impressive laboratory efficiencies, the difficulty in forming dense and stable SAM contacts on indium tin oxide surfaces is holding the technology back from forming commercially-viable modules. It adds that the In-O-P coordination network “increases the binding energy and promotes near-ideal monolayer coverage, even on large-area substrates with excellent batch-to-batch reproducibility”.
The research team developed small-scale organic solar cells featuring the molecular locking strategy that achieved a power conversion efficiency of 20.4%.
Professor Liu Quan, corresponding author of the study, added the team then scaled the technique to modules with an aperture area of 15.6 square centimeters. These larger-area devices achieved an active-area power conversion efficiency of 18.8%, which Liu said is a record.
Additional findings from the research paper reveal the devices retain more than 85% of their initial efficiency after 2,000 hours of maximum power point tracking under continuous operation at 25 C.
“Our approach provides a generalizable interfacial platform that overcomes the efficiency-stability-scalability trilemma,” the research paper concludes.
The research team consisted of scientists from the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the key program of the Ningbo Public Welfare Research Plan.
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pv magazine hosts its four-day virtual event on European solar and energy storage, exploring market opportunities, solar-plus-storage business cases, technical quality, and cybersecurity in the years ahead.
Thursday, October 29, 2026
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As a media partner of Genera 2026, pv magazine will organize and moderate a session in Spanish in Madrid, during International Electrification and Decarbonization Week.
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Missed pv magazine USA Week 2026?
Catch up on three days of expert discussions on U.S. solar manufacturing, distributed energy, and solar-plus-storage.
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Greenvolt Group, through its subsidiary Greenvolt Next, has signed an agreement with Carrefour Property to develop solar photovoltaic installations across parking areas at up to 120 retail locations in France, with a combined estimated capacity of 25 MWp.
The project involves the installation of approximately 45,000 solar panels and forms part of Carrefour’s strategy to increase renewable electricity consumption across its commercial properties.
The agreement follows a national tender launched by Carrefour Property to select a partner responsible for developing, financing, constructing, operating and maintaining the solar carport installations.
The systems will be deployed primarily at retail locations in central France, with designs adapted to the technical and operational requirements of each site.
Greenvolt Next will oversee the development of the photovoltaic installations under an integrated model covering initial technical assessments, financing, construction and subsequent operation.
The company will adapt each installation to the specific conditions of the retail sites, considering parking layouts, underground infrastructure, grid connection requirements and permitting procedures.
Construction activities will also need to remain compatible with normal store operations and customer access.
The objective is to generate renewable electricity for local consumption at Carrefour’s retail facilities, reducing dependence on external electricity supplies and supporting the decarbonization of its property portfolio.
Although Greenvolt has not disclosed an annual electricity generation estimate in MWh, the company expects the installations to cover a significant share of electricity consumption at the participating stores.
Under the agreement, Greenvolt Next will assume responsibility for financing, technical studies, project development, construction, operation and maintenance of the photovoltaic systems.
The arrangement will allow Carrefour to integrate renewable electricity generation into its retail properties without directly managing every technical and operational stage of the projects.
For Greenvolt, the agreement represents an expansion of its distributed generation business serving commercial and industrial customers.
João Manso Neto, CEO of Greenvolt Group, highlighted the company’s experience developing similar projects for major European retail operators.
Meanwhile, Evan Linker, Carrefour’s Global Energy Director, emphasized that the partnership would accelerate the integration of photovoltaic generation across the group’s French property portfolio while helping improve long-term energy cost predictability.
The solar carport deployment supports Carrefour Group’s ambition to achieve 100% renewable electricity consumption globally by the end of 2030.
Installing photovoltaic structures over parking areas will allow the retailer to use existing commercial spaces for electricity generation without requiring additional land exclusively dedicated to solar development.
These installations also combine renewable power generation with the continued use of parking facilities.
For Greenvolt Next, the agreement strengthens its presence in France’s distributed generation market and expands its portfolio of photovoltaic solutions for large electricity consumers.
The 25 MWp capacity and up to 120 retail locations represent the planned scope of the agreement, rather than installations already built or operational. Greenvolt has not disclosed a detailed construction schedule or a definitive commissioning date for the full portfolio.
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The Autumn issue of 2026 is available now! The new issue begins with a regional report on Asia Pacific, looking at the region’s transition from building capacity to building systems. The issue also explores topics such as offshore wind foundations, solar maintenance, training the new workforce, inspection & maintenance, and more! With insights from experts such as Everllence, BW Ideol, EM&I, Watson Farley & Williams, and many more, make sure to check out this issue now.
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OnPath Energy has achieved financial close on the Common Farm solar park in South Yorkshire, the UK, which is its first co-located solar energy and battery storage project.
A leading UK renewables developer, OnPath Energy, has achieved financial close on the Common Farm solar park in South Yorkshire, which is its first co-located solar energy and battery storage project.
OnPath Energy is currently building the 49 MW solar and 50 MW two-hour battery energy storage system (BESS) close to the Todwick Road Industrial Estate in Dinnington, to the east of Sheffield, which will be able to generate enough homegrown electricity to meet the average annual requirements of up to 18 800 family homes.
The project has a subsidy free, long-term route-to-market contract with a global technology company for the solar asset and a third-party optimisation agreement to support the BESS.
NatWest provided project financing for the combined asset, with the long-term agreement including a term loan and other ancillary facilities to support the project throughout its construction and operational life.
Construction work on the Common Farm co-located solar and BESS, is set to be completed by mid-2027.
Local consultation work is continuing around how the annual community benefits package of around £50 000, which could equate to around £2 000 000 through the project’s lifetime, can best be used to build community value by supporting local community and environmental priorities.
Infrastructure consultancy, AECOM, is acting as lead consultant for the project, with specialist engineering contractor, Grupotec, delivering the required design, engineering, procurement, and construction work, as well as operational maintenance and management work, once green electricity generation begins.
Burges Salmon provided legal advice to OnPath Energy on the deal, with AECOM providing technical advice.
Oliver Hartley, Finance Director at OnPath Energy, commented: “While there are currently few co-located sites across the UK, especially at this scale, it makes technical and operational sense to place solar and battery technologies in the same location and allows for efficient use to be made of the available grid connections. Reaching financial close on our first co-located solar and battery site demonstrates the confidence that all parties have in the project’s commercial potential, the effectiveness of the different technologies we’re utilising, and the strength of our relationships with our lenders, advisors, and suppliers.”
Hartley added: “Work is progressing well on the Common Farm solar and BESS park, which we’ve been able to deliver thanks in part to our revolving credit facility, enabling us to deliver our project plans with maximum efficiency. Delivering this project will further enhance OnPath Energy’s contribution towards reducing the UK’s dependence on imported fossil fuels and strengthening its energy security while also delivering a wide range of direct environmental, economic, and community benefits to the local area.”
Kristofer Gibson, Director, Infrastructure & Project Finance, NatWest, commented: “We are pleased to support OnPath Energy on this bilateral financing of Common Farm solar park, OnPath’s first UK solar and BESS co-location project. The project reflects NatWest’s ongoing commitment to financing the infrastructure required for UK’s energy transition, while further strengthening our longstanding relationship with OnPath Energy.”
For more news and technical articles from the global renewable industry, read the latest issue of Energy Global magazine.
The Autumn issue of 2026 is available now! The new issue begins with a regional report on Asia Pacific, looking at the region’s transition from building capacity to building systems. The issue also explores topics such as offshore wind foundations, solar maintenance, training the new workforce, inspection & maintenance, and more! With insights from experts such as Everllence, BW Ideol, EM&I, Watson Farley & Williams, and many more, make sure to check out this issue now.

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Scatec Secures $217 Million Financing For 569 MW Solar And 100 MWh BESS Project In Egypt  SolarQuarter
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Avaada Group has unveiled a 745 Wp domestic content requirement (DCR) N-type TOPCon solar module at Renewable Energy India (REI) Expo 2026, held from October 22 to 24 at India Expo Mart in Greater Noida. The module was unveiled by Heeralal Nagar, Rajasthan’s Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Energy.
The glass-to-glass module delivers up to 745 Wp at an efficiency of 23.98%. It uses a 132 half-cell configuration and an 18-busbar architecture, designed to improve power density and energy generation.
Manufacturing base
Avaada has 6 GW of solar cell manufacturing capacity, of which 3 GW is operational, while an additional 3 GW line is at an advanced stage of commissioning. It also has 8.5 GW of operational module manufacturing capacity.
At the exhibition, the company showed N-type TOPCon glass-to-glass modules rated at up to 640 Wp with efficiencies of up to 23.7%, alongside G12R and G12 DCR modules rated at up to 745 Wp. According to the company, the modules offer low light-induced degradation, low-light performance, favourable temperature coefficients and bifacial energy generation.
Rooftop and storage
Avaada also showcased ready-to-install rooftop solar kits for residential, agricultural and commercial consumers. The kits combine solar inverters, electrical protection systems, earthing equipment and connectors to simplify installation.
The company presented Avaada HALO, an integrated battery energy storage system (BESS) that combines a hybrid inverter, lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery technology and monitoring through the Avaada mobile application. The modular system supports up to four stacked units and delivers up to 10 kW of continuous power. During outages, it can provide up to 11.5 kW with solar support, subject to operating conditions.
Pavilion
The pavilion received visits from John Swinney, First Minister of Scotland, and Ravi Kishan, Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur and actor. It featured an interactive clean-energy quiz titled Energy Unplugged – Discover What You Know and a virtual reality experience showcasing the company’s solar manufacturing operations.
Management view
Heeralal Nagar said: “India’s clean-energy transition is being supported by advances in solar technology, energy storage and decentralised power solutions. It is encouraging to see companies such as Avaada Group bring advanced solar modules, rooftop solar solutions and storage technologies to the market.” He added that such innovations could support renewable energy adoption and strengthen energy security.
Vineet Mittal, Chairman, Avaada Group, said: “India should not just be one of the world’s largest consumers of solar technology. India must become one of the world’s leading creators and manufacturers of solar technology.” He added that the 745 Wp DCR TOPCon module reflected the company’s ambition to manufacture globally competitive solar products in India.
Mittal also said: “Our vision goes beyond manufacturing solar panels. We want to enable every home, business and industry to generate, store and intelligently use clean energy.” He said the company was building an integrated energy ecosystem spanning solar cells, modules, rooftop systems and battery storage.
Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited (SEIL) recorded its highest-ever quarterly order intake of Rs 915 crore in the first quarter ended June 30, 2026, supported by strong demand from established businesses and emerging segments such as data centres and semiconductors. Revenue for Q1 FY27 stood at Rs 651 crore, up 4.8% year-on-year (YoY) and 10.4% from…
Read More Schneider Electric Infrastructure posts record Rs 915 crore Q1 orders
NLC India Limited has announced a Rs 1.25 trillion investment plan to increase its power generation capacity from 6.7 GW to 20 GW by 2030. The expansion will span across renewable energy, thermal power, and mining. Out of the total capital outlay, Rs 650 billion is earmarked for renewable energy and green initiatives. This includes…
Read More NLC to invest Rs 1.25 trillion to triple power capacity
Suzlon Energy Limited has won its first wind energy order from the ArcelorMittal Group, securing a 248.85 MW project in Gujarat. The order takes Suzlon’s cumulative contribution to green steel projects to around 1,156 MW. On 28th January 2026, Suzlon informed the stock exchanges that it had received an order from ArcelorMittal through the group’s…
Read More Suzlon secures 248.85 MW wind order from ArcelorMittal in Gujarat
The Ministry of Power has revised its Standard Bidding Documents (SBDs) for Inter-State Transmission Services. Announced on June 5, 2025, the amendment now permits bidders to submit Insurance Surety Bonds (ISBs) and Payment on Order Instruments (POIs) instead of relying solely on traditional bank guarantees. The revised bid security norms expand the definition of a…
Read More Power Ministry allows ISBs and POIs for transmission bid security
China’s clean energy investments in 2024 totalled 6.8 trillion yuan ($940 billion), approaching the $1.12 trillion global investment in fossil fuels, according to a new analysis by UK-based Carbon Brief. Despite a slowdown in growth from 40% in 2023 to 7% in 2024, Reuters reports that China’s clean energy sector remains a key economic driver….
Read More China’s clean energy investment reaches $940bn in 2024
The National Committee on Transmission (NCT), in its 22nd meeting on August 23, 2024, recommended the tariff-based competitive bidding (TBCB) route for four interstate transmission system (ISTS) schemes, with a total project outlay exceeding Rs 100 billion. These projects are aimed at strengthening India’s power transmission infrastructure, particularly for renewable energy zones and green hydrogen…
Read More NCT approves TBCB route for Rs 100 billion interstate transmission projects
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Botswana’s Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) has opened a tender for the development of floating PV systems to be located at dams belonging to the state-owned water and wastewater utility.
Available details explain the tender begins with an expression of interest phase, with eligible and qualified companies, joint ventures and consortia invited to submit bids. 
Successful bidders will be responsible for the design, development and operation of the floating PV plants.
Full tender details are available to download on WUC’s website. The deadline to submit expressions of interest, which must be delivered by post, is November 19.
WUC tendered a feasibility study for floating solar on its dams in 2024. At the time, it held site visits to its Gaborone and Bokaa dams, Lotsane dam and Letsibogo and Dikgatlhong dams, all located within the eastern part of the country. The Dikgatlhong and Gaborone dams are the two largest in Botswana.
The Africa Solar Industry Association (AFSIA) has tracked 190.5 MW of operational solar in Botswana, according to figures available in its project database.
Earlier this year, a groundbreaking ceremony took place for a 500 MW solar project, the largest of its kind under development in the country, to be paired with 500 MWh of battery energy storage.
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pv magazine hosts its four-day virtual event on European solar and energy storage, exploring market opportunities, solar-plus-storage business cases, technical quality, and cybersecurity in the years ahead.
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