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Hold power accountable. Uncover solutions. Uplift and empower the community.

I have served the same Detroit community since 1990.
When I first arrived, this was a neighborhood filled with working families. Many earned their living through Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, and the businesses that supported them. Block clubs were active, recreation centers were busy, and churches brought neighbors together. There was a shared belief that if people worked hard and looked out for one another, the community would continue moving forward.
Over the years, that foundation began to shift.
Manufacturing jobs disappeared. Major businesses left. Supermarkets closed their doors. Families moved away in search of opportunity. As those supports disappeared, the church found itself responding to growing needs, from food insecurity to health care challenges and the daily struggles of families trying to stay afloat.
Through it all, the church stayed.
Today, I see another burden placing pressure on Detroit families: rising energy costs.
For many people, utility bills have become a source of stress and uncertainty. Seniors on fixed incomes are stretching every dollar, while working parents balance energy costs alongside rent, groceries, transportation, and medical expenses. Families are making difficult decisions about what can wait until next month.
These are not abstract policy debates. They are everyday realities. That is why I believe energy costs are more than a utility issue. It is a community issue. When families spend more of their income simply trying to keep the lights on, every other need becomes harder to meet. The effects ripple outward, impacting household stability, health, and economic opportunity.
As people of faith, we are called to pay attention when our neighbors are struggling. Scripture teaches that humanity was entrusted with stewardship over creation. We are called to care for ourselves, one another, care for our communities, and care for what we leave behind. We are our brother’s keeper.
In Detroit, that stewardship includes confronting realities that many families face every day. Communities already burdened by economic hardship often experience higher rates of asthma, respiratory illness, and other health challenges. We cannot separate the well-being of our neighbors from the environment in which they live, work, and raise their families.
Stewardship also requires action.
At our church, we decided that caring for our community meant finding practical ways to reduce costs, improve resilience, and prepare for the future. Over the years, we installed solar panels, battery backup systems, electric vehicle charging stations, energy-efficient upgrades, air quality monitoring equipment, and other improvements that help us use energy more wisely.
We did not make these investments because they were fashionable. We made them because they helped us advocate for a healthier environment and better serve people. These improvements have strengthened our ability to operate during outages, reduced waste, lowered our energy bills, and created opportunities to educate others about solutions that can benefit their own homes, businesses, and organizations.
Most importantly, they taught us that cleaner and more affordable energy solutions are not ideas for the future. They are already helping communities today and showing what renewal can look like in Detroit’s neighborhoods when people have access to the tools they need to rebuild and move forward. The question is whether more families and communities will have the opportunity to benefit from them as well.
That is why I am encouraged by efforts to expand access to practical energy solutions, whether through community solar, energy-efficiency improvements, or other approaches that help families lower costs. No single policy will solve every challenge facing Detroit, but we should be willing to explore every tool that helps people keep more money in their pockets while strengthening our communities.
This is not about politics. It is about fairness and community transformation. It is about trust. And it is about ensuring that energy decisions reflect the needs of the people who live with the consequences every day.
I believe in hope. But hope is not passive.
Hope requires action. It requires leaders who listen, communities that work together, and a shared commitment to building a future that is healthier, safer, and more affordable than the one we inherited.
Detroit has always been a city of resilience. Time and again, we have shown up for one another when it mattered most. As Hebrews 10:23-24 reminds us, “Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm … Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.”
The decisions we make about energy today will shape the lives of future generations. Let us make those decisions with wisdom, compassion, and a commitment to ensuring that every family has the opportunity not merely to get by, but to thrive.
A longtime Detroit grower argues the city needs dedicated funding and a grace period to help community farms meet regulations without losing the spaces that fed neighborhoods through crisis.
Tribal Nations across Michigan and the Midwest are pooling knowledge and resources to build their own energy systems, even after federal Solar for All funding was cut, says MTERA executive director Daniel Wiggins Jr.
Noojimo’waning, a Detroit Land Back project, returns five city lots to Anishinaabe stewardship for ecological restoration and cultural healing. The site honors the area’s role as a sacred stopping place in Indigenous prophecy.
Rev. Dr. Calvin Glass is the senior pastor of Lord of Lords Ministries in Detroit. Lord of Lords became the first Black church in Detroit to go solar through Michigan Interfaith Power & Light’s Positive Energy program in 2023, and has earned numerous recognitions for energy savings and leadership.
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by Rev. Dr. Calvin Glass, Planet Detroit
October 26, 2026

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Luis Reyes
Oct 26, at 3:00pm ET
Airports are pretty fussy neighbors. You can’t put up anything tall near the end of a runway, and if you want to build something shiny next to one, you’d better explain why it won’t dazzle a pilot on the way in. But hey, the tradeoff is plane spotting.
But a solar farm right behind the runways of New Zealand’s second-busiest airport was always going to be a bit complicated. Christchurch Airport went ahead and hosted one anyway. It’s called Kōwhai Park, and it’s now the biggest solar farm on the country’s South Island.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon officially opened it on October 15, but the farm’s actually been running for a couple of months. It went live in August, and The Press (Christchurch’s daily paper) reports it’s been gradually sending more electricity into the national grid ever since. I haven’t seen a figure for what it’s producing right now, just that the number’s been going up.
Getting the power out took some doing. It meant burying a high-voltage cable, and according to Ventia, the contractor that built the grid connection, the underground cable work had to happen late at night, when no aircraft were operating. Each night, the crew dug a stretch of trench, laid ducting in it, and filled it back in before the airport got going again in the morning.
Ducting’s basically a run of pipe that goes into the ground first. The cable gets pulled through it later. Kalim Guthrie, who’s managing the job for Ventia, said the crew had to stay on schedule because “the disruption to the airport would be huge otherwise.”
Frankly, that sounds like a pretty miserable way to lay cable. It’s the same logic that has highway crews repaving at 2 a.m., just with jets instead of rush-hour traffic.
And it’s a very different approach from the one used in Paris, where a tunnel boring machine spent 19 months grinding under two runways at the city’s main airport while planes kept landing overhead. The contractor’s write-up doesn’t say how many nights all that took, or exactly which parts of the route ran close enough to the airfield to need the night shift.
The farm’s own electrical system works at 33,000 volts. According to Ventia, a substation on Pound Road steps that up to 66,000 volts and sends it through the buried cable to a second substation on Grays Road, which drops it to 33,000 volts again. That second one’s where the airport and Orion, the company that runs the local power lines, will eventually hook in.
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So why double the voltage just to cut it in half again? Pushing the same amount of power at a higher voltage means less current flowing through the wire. Less current means less energy wasted as heat along the way, and long-distance power lines run at very high voltages for exactly that reason.
Keeping the farm right next to the airport also helps reduce losses. The airport’s FAQ argues that generating electricity beside the airfield wastes far less than generating it far away and shipping it in.
The run used about 10.5 miles of cable laid in roughly 2.8 miles of trench, according to Ventia, which also designed and built both substations. I’d guess that’s mostly because high-voltage lines like this usually run as three separate cables, one for each phase, but the company doesn’t break it down.
The solar farm covers 568 acres on the west side of the airfield, and the airport says it has around 300,000 panels. Environment Canterbury, the regional council, owns part of that land and leases it to the airport. Technically, Kōwhai Park is the name of a 988-acre energy park the airport has set aside, and the solar farm is just its first phase.
You’ll see two capacity figures for it, 150 megawatts and 168 megawatts, and they’re both right. Solar panels make direct current, while the grid runs on alternating current, so everything has to pass through inverters first.
The 168 is what the panels are rated for, and the 150 is the most the farm can actually send out at once. Over a full year, the airport expects the farm to make 275 gigawatt-hours, which it says is about what 36,000 homes use in a year.
It’s a fair question. It’s even in the airport’s FAQ, so people are wondering along with us. The airport says solar panels are built to soak up light rather than bounce it back, and before construction started, it said it was running technical studies and talking to aviation groups to confirm the project was safe.
It makes a fair bit of sense if you think about it. A solar panel that bounced a lot of sunlight back at the sky would be a fairly lousy solar panel.
But I couldn’t find those studies published anywhere. The FAQ also lists airports with solar arrays nearby, including three in the US: Denver, San Francisco, and San Diego. We’ve covered a couple of European examples too, like Frankfurt’s upright panels along a runway and the raised panels beside Berlin’s airport, where corn is banned underneath because it attracts birds.
Synlait, a New Zealand dairy company, will buy 25% of Kōwhai Park’s electricity to run its Dunsandel and Dairyworks sites, and the airport is buying power from the farm as well. Both deals are long-term power purchase agreements.
That’s basically a contract to buy a set share of a plant’s output for years at a time, so the owners know someone’s paying for what they generate. So the airport gets power from a farm right next to its runways, and the farm gets a customer that isn’t going anywhere.
Contact Energy, one of New Zealand’s big power companies, owns the farm 50/50 with international solar developer Lightsource bp. The airport values it at NZ$273 million, or around $160 million. At the peak of construction, 235 people were working on it.
The airport itself is publicly owned. Christchurch’s city council holds 75% of it through a holding company, and the national government owns the other 25%, according to New Zealand’s Treasury. Contact chief executive Mike Fuge said in the airport’s October 15 opening announcement that Kōwhai Park is the company’s first finished solar farm, and that it already has approval for two more with Lightsource bp, in Taranaki and Northland.
What do you think?
Olivia Richman · Oct 14, 2026
Olivia Richman · Oct 22, 2026
Luis Reyes · Oct 12, 2026
Luis Reyes · Oct 25, 2026
Luis Reyes · Oct 25, 2026
Luis Reyes · Oct 12, 2026
Chema Bonilla Díaz · Oct 26, 2026
Olivia Richman · Oct 26, 2026
Luis Reyes · Oct 26, 2026
Olivia Richman · Oct 26, 2026
Luis Reyes · Oct 26, 2026
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Workers install rooftop photovoltaic solar arrays on the Capitol Hill Campus in Providence in 2017. (Photo courtesy of Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources)
A pair of solar carports, a battery storage system and an electric vehicle charging station will increase the renewable energy capacity of Rhode Island’s Capitol Hill campus to 1 megawatt in total, the state Office of Energy Resources announced Monday.
The $9.3 million project is funded through a $4.5 million federal earmark and will be matched with state funds through revenue from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, said Robert Beadle, a spokesperson for the energy department.
The state has also secured an immediate federal tax credit deduction equal to 5% of the project costs, with the promise of additional federal tax credits equal to between 30% and 40% of total costs in tax year 2028.
“By leveraging federal funding and tax credits, we’re bringing innovative solar, battery storage and electric vehicle charging technologies to state facilities while making smart investments in Rhode Island’s energy future,” Gov. Dan McKee said in a statement.
Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2027. The parking lot solar panels, battery storage and charging station must be operational by the end of the year to secure the federal tax credits administered through the Internal Revenue Service.  Once complete, the projects, together with existing rooftop solar panels on state buildings, will provide enough solar-powered electricity to power roughly 190 homes per year while helping meet state decarbonization mandates.
“This is a forward-looking project that is both economically and environmentally responsible,” said U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, who secured the $4.5 million federal earmark.
The projects also advance the state’s Lead by Example program, which aims to spur private investments in renewable energy infrastructure by starting with solar panels, battery storage, and charging stations on state and municipal-owned buildings and public schools. Since the 2015 executive order establishing the state-led program, the Office of Energy Resources has invested more than $48 million into 185 projects, said Chris Kearns, the state’s acting energy commissioner.
Kearns hailed the upcoming projects for the parking lots of the Rhode Island Department of Administration and Department of Health as among the largest to date.  The work will also help to reduce energy costs, Kearn said in a statement.
There are already 900 rooftop solar panel on Smith Hill buildings, including on the departments of transportation, health and administration buildings, as well as energy-efficient lighting upgrades at the State House and Department of Transportation buildings. 
Rising energy bills remain a top concern among residents, despite seasonal bill credits meant to offset the seasonal spike in electricity prices. Two of the three gubernatorial candidates, independent Ken Block and Republican Aaron Guckian, have called for delaying the deadlines for state climate change mandates to reduce costs for customers, a move which Gov. Dan McKee tried unsuccessfully to incorporate in the state’s fiscal 2027 budget. 
Democrat Helena Buonanno Foulkes, who defeated McKee in the Sept. 9 primary, has insisted the state should “lean in” to renewables as a more stable and cost-effective energy solution, without changing decarbonization deadlines in state law. 
The new Capitol Hill project is expected to save $3.3 million in avoided energy costs, reducing carbon emissions by 12,700 metric tons over the lifetime of the project, according to state analysis. 
Since 2021, state agencies have produced or purchased credits to offset 100% of electricity needs across state facilities.
Retail electricity suppliers must purchase or produce 38% of total electricity needs statewide this year under the state’s Renewable Energy Standard law, which sets a 2033 deadline for zero-net electricity emissions. 
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by Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
October 26, 2026
by Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
October 26, 2026
A pair of solar carports, a battery storage system and an electric vehicle charging station will increase the renewable energy capacity of Rhode Island’s Capitol Hill campus to 1 megawatt in total, the state Office of Energy Resources announced Monday.
The $9.3 million project is funded through a $4.5 million federal earmark and will be matched with state funds through revenue from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, said Robert Beadle, a spokesperson for the energy department.
The state has also secured an immediate federal tax credit deduction equal to 5% of the project costs, with the promise of additional federal tax credits equal to between 30% and 40% of total costs in tax year 2028.
“By leveraging federal funding and tax credits, we’re bringing innovative solar, battery storage and electric vehicle charging technologies to state facilities while making smart investments in Rhode Island’s energy future,” Gov. Dan McKee said in a statement.
Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2027. The parking lot solar panels, battery storage and charging station must be operational by the end of the year to secure the federal tax credits administered through the Internal Revenue Service.  Once complete, the projects, together with existing rooftop solar panels on state buildings, will provide enough solar-powered electricity to power roughly 190 homes per year while helping meet state decarbonization mandates.
“This is a forward-looking project that is both economically and environmentally responsible,” said U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, who secured the $4.5 million federal earmark.
The projects also advance the state’s Lead by Example program, which aims to spur private investments in renewable energy infrastructure by starting with solar panels, battery storage, and charging stations on state and municipal-owned buildings and public schools. Since the 2015 executive order establishing the state-led program, the Office of Energy Resources has invested more than $48 million into 185 projects, said Chris Kearns, the state’s acting energy commissioner.
Kearns hailed the upcoming projects for the parking lots of the Rhode Island Department of Administration and Department of Health as among the largest to date.  The work will also help to reduce energy costs, Kearn said in a statement.
There are already 900 rooftop solar panel on Smith Hill buildings, including on the departments of transportation, health and administration buildings, as well as energy-efficient lighting upgrades at the State House and Department of Transportation buildings. 
Rising energy bills remain a top concern among residents, despite seasonal bill credits meant to offset the seasonal spike in electricity prices. Two of the three gubernatorial candidates, independent Ken Block and Republican Aaron Guckian, have called for delaying the deadlines for state climate change mandates to reduce costs for customers, a move which Gov. Dan McKee tried unsuccessfully to incorporate in the state’s fiscal 2027 budget. 
Democrat Helena Buonanno Foulkes, who defeated McKee in the Sept. 9 primary, has insisted the state should “lean in” to renewables as a more stable and cost-effective energy solution, without changing decarbonization deadlines in state law. 
The new Capitol Hill project is expected to save $3.3 million in avoided energy costs, reducing carbon emissions by 12,700 metric tons over the lifetime of the project, according to state analysis. 
Since 2021, state agencies have produced or purchased credits to offset 100% of electricity needs across state facilities.
Retail electricity suppliers must purchase or produce 38% of total electricity needs statewide this year under the state’s Renewable Energy Standard law, which sets a 2033 deadline for zero-net electricity emissions. 
Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com.
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. AP and Getty images may not be republished. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of any other photos and graphics.
Nancy Lavin is senior reporter covering state politics, energy and environmental issues for the Rhode Island Current.
Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
© Rhode Island Current, 2026
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The Rhode Island Current is an independent, nonprofit news outlet focused on state government and the impact of public policy decisions in the Ocean State. Readers can expect relentless reporting with the context needed to understand key issues affecting the lives of Rhode Islanders.
We’re part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. (See full republishing guidelines.)
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Attention-enhanced YOLOv8s advances photovoltaic defect detection
An attention-enhanced version of the YOLOv8s computer-vision model achieved a precision of 93.2%, an F1-score of 92.7% and a mean average precision at an intersection-over-union threshold of 0.5, or [email protected], of 93.5% in a dataset-based evaluation for detecting defects in photovoltaic modules. The framework, named AMA-YOLOv8s, produced incremental improvements over the YOLOv8s baseline while maintaining comparable real-time inference speed.
Defect detection is an important part of maintaining the reliability and energy efficiency of photovoltaic systems. The study notes that existing deep-learning inspection methods can miss defects, localize small defects imprecisely and lose robustness when defect scales or background conditions vary. To address these challenges, the researchers developed AMA-YOLOv8s specifically for photovoltaic defect detection rather than as a general-purpose modification of the object detector.
The architecture adds three components to YOLOv8s: an Adaptive Bottleneck Attention Mechanism, a Multi-scale Adaptive Fusion Module and an Adaptive Pooling Fusion Module. The first was designed to strengthen representations of defect-related features and suppress irrelevant background information. The two fusion modules were designed to strengthen feature integration across scales, with the aim of improving detection for small and irregular defects. Together, these elements form the attention-and-fusion design that distinguishes AMA-YOLOv8s from the baseline model.
For training and evaluation, the researchers constructed a photovoltaic defect dataset by combining publicly available images, field-collected samples and data augmentation. On the resulting current evaluation dataset, AMA-YOLOv8s improved detection measurements relative to YOLOv8s, although the researchers characterized the gains as incremental rather than transformative. Its overall performance was also competitive with the other evaluated detectors.
That comparison comes with qualifications. Recent lightweight YOLO variants retained advantages in some individual metrics and in computational complexity, meaning AMA-YOLOv8s was not uniformly superior across every measure. The reported evidence comes from evaluation of the constructed dataset; it does not establish performance in a live photovoltaic facility or demonstrate downstream effects on power generation, equipment failures or costs. The supported conclusion is therefore focused: in its reported experimental evaluation, the coordinated attention and multi-scale feature-fusion design improved measured photovoltaic defect detection over the YOLOv8s baseline while retaining comparable real-time inference performance.
Subject of Research: Experimental evaluation of an attention-enhanced YOLOv8s model for detecting defects in photovoltaic modules.
Article Title: Adaptive multi-scale YOLOv8s framework for defect detection in photovoltaic facilities
Article References: Zuo, X., Dai, Y., Zhuang, Y., Chen, J., Almutairi, A. D., & Zhou, Y. (2026). Adaptive multi-scale YOLOv8s framework for defect detection in photovoltaic facilities. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-76816-y
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-76816-y
Keywords: photovoltaic defects, YOLOv8s, computer vision, defect detection, attention mechanisms, multi-scale fusion, solar modules, object detection, Adaptive, multi-scale, framework, defect
News Source: Blake Davidson. (October 26, 2026). Attention-enhanced YOLOv8s advances photovoltaic defect detection. Scienmag.
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Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly witnessed the signing of three agreements related to the financing and implementation of the Dandara Solar Project in Nag Hammadi, Qena Governorate, with a total investment of approximately $650 million.
The project will have a total capacity of 1,000 MW of solar power and 200 MWh of battery storage, and is being developed through co‑operation between Norway’s Scatec and a consortium comprising the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the African Development Bank. The agreements also included the project’s connection to the national electricity grid and the National Bank of Egypt’s participation in the project company.
The project will be implemented in two phases. The first phase includes a 500 MW solar power plant and 100 MWh of battery storage capacity, while the second phase will add another 500 MW of solar generation and 100 MWh of storage capacity.
According to the government, the project is expected to provide around one-third of the electricity needs of Egypt Aluminium Company, helping reduce carbon emissions associated with aluminium production and enhancing the competitiveness of Egyptian products in global markets amid increasing environmental requirements.
The agreements represent a significant step towards completing financing and implementation arrangements for one of Egypt’s largest renewable energy projects dedicated to serving the industrial sector. The project also reflects co‑operation between the Egyptian government, international financial institutions, Scatec, and national banks to support the transition to clean energy, reduce emissions, and strengthen the competitiveness of Egyptian industry and exports.
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© 2025 THE COOL DOWN COMPANY. All Rights Reserved. Do not sell or share my personal information. Reach us at hello@thecooldown.com.
“This year has been brutal with the amount of high winds and tornados for the Chicago area.”
Photo Credit: iStock
A homeowner in the Chicago suburbs with an Enphase solar setup noticed the area’s extreme weather and raised a question that many grid-tied solar owners eventually face. They wondered what would keep the lights on when the grid goes down.
In a Reddit thread, the homeowner asked whether a sunlight-only backup option or a meter-mounted generator connection such as GenerLink could provide emergency power.
“This year has been brutal with the amount of high winds and tornados for the Chicago area and am starting to worry about potential future outages,” they added as context.
Replies were especially critical of sunlight-only backup. 
One commenter who said they had installed one before warned: “Don’t do sunlight backup. That’s a fairy tale idea.” They said it only works in daytime conditions and that production can fall off sharply when clouds move over the panels.
Much of the discussion turned instead to batteries, especially the FranklinWH aPower 2 and Tesla Powerwall 3. Battery storage was presented as the better way to keep solar useful during a blackout. One battery owner shared that their setup works for “both whole home backup” and lets them “arbitrage my kWh cost.” 
Homeowners comparing prices and installation options can start with EnergySage, which has teamed up with electrification brand Qmerit to help homeowners get the best price on home battery storage solutions.
The overall takeaway from commenters was that dependable backup is available, but it comes at a cost. One FranklinWH owner noted their system uses an automatic transfer switch “to isolate the house,” offers “a lot of options,” and is “not cheap by any means.”
With energy prices through the roof, there’s never been a better time to go solar — and EasyHome can help you find the best prices from the best installers in your area.
EasyHome takes the guesswork and headaches out of energy upgrades by showing you estimated savings from a network of vetted local partners. To get started, just enter your ZIP and share a few details about your home — seeing your estimate is really that easy.
Some commenters said certain Enphase owners would first need an IQ System Controller before adding backup capability. They described it as the equipment that separates the home from the grid so a generator or battery can supply power, and one estimated the hardware alone at “over a grand,” with installation adding more.
The replies also included a range of cost examples. One commenter said FranklinWH’s 15-kilowatt-hour aPower 2 batteries run about $7,400 each in material costs. Others asserted that the Tesla Powerwall 3 can also pair with Enphase solar and keep rooftop panels producing during an outage, while a generator is usually cheaper but “will not allow your panels to produce when the power is out.”
For someone retrofitting backup into an existing Enphase system, commenters suggested asking installers about battery storage, system controllers, and whether an array using IQ7 or IQ8 microinverters can support backup operation. That approach is closer to whole-home coverage than sunlight-only backup.
FranklinWH was also described as one of the more complete setups because its aGate can coordinate the grid, solar, batteries, and a generator. 
Not every option discussed was a whole-home solution. For lighter backup needs, commenters mentioned a generator connected to a critical-loads panel, a small generator paired with portable battery storage for essentials such as a fridge, TV, and internet, or even an EV inverter that could keep refrigerators and a sump pump running for a few days.
For people who don’t need whole-home coverage, Pila offers another battery option, and its plug-and-play batteries are priced at a fraction of what a whole-home backup system would cost.
Questions about blackout protection for grid-tied solar usually come down to the same questions surrounding batteries, generators, and what actually works when the grid goes down.
• Reddit users said they don’t even notice outages after adding whole-home battery backup.
• More homeowners are ditching their aging backup generators for solar paired with batteries.
• Installers said families are opting for these next-gen models instead of old generators.
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Jakson Solar plans to invest up to ₹5,000 crore to build 3 gigawatts (GW) each of solar cell and solar ingot-wafer manufacturing capacity, expanding beyond module production as India works to deepen its domestic renewable-energy supply chain.
Managing Director Ivan Saha said the company aims to commission its 3 GW solar cell manufacturing capacity by December 2027. The planned ingot and wafer facilities are targeted for completion by the third quarter of financial year 2028, according to the company executive, who was speaking on the sidelines of the Renewable Energy India Expo.
The proposed facilities will primarily serve the merchant market, Saha said. Jakson Solar has already secured equipment procurement tie-ups for the manufacturing expansion, indicating that the company has begun preparing for the next stages of capacity creation.
The investment would extend Jakson Solar’s existing presence in the photovoltaic manufacturing chain. The company currently operates a 1.2 GW solar module-making plant, but the new plan would add upstream production of cells, ingots and wafers. These components are important stages in the manufacture of solar modules and are central to efforts to reduce reliance on imported inputs.
Saha said developing a domestic manufacturing ecosystem across the solar chain was necessary to avoid potential supply shocks. The proposed expansion comes as India is seeking to build greater control over the equipment and materials needed for its solar-energy programme.
India has already mandated the use of domestically manufactured solar modules and cells in specified parts of the renewable-energy market. The government has also laid out a framework to extend local-content requirements to solar ingots and wafers from June 1, 2028. The policy direction is intended to deepen domestic manufacturing and reduce import dependence on China.
The timing of Jakson Solar’s proposed upstream capacity broadly aligns with that policy transition. The company expects its solar cell capacity to be operational several months before the planned local-content framework for ingots and wafers takes effect, while its ingot-wafer facilities are targeted for commissioning in the third quarter of financial year 2028.
The expansion also comes against the backdrop of India’s longer-term clean-energy commitments. The country is counting on solar power to help achieve its target of reaching net-zero emissions by 2070, increasing the importance of manufacturing capacity alongside the development of solar-generation projects.
The company has not disclosed in the supplied announcement the locations of the proposed facilities, the investment split between the three manufacturing segments, or the number of jobs expected to be created. Its stated next milestones are the commissioning of 3 GW of cell capacity by December 2027 and the planned completion of 3 GW of ingot-wafer capacity in the third quarter of financial year 2028.

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Simulated and Real: Tin Perovskite Solar Cell Hits 10.76% After Model-Guided Redesign
Tin-based perovskite solar cells have long promised to deliver lead-free photovoltaics without sacrificing performance, but their fragile chemistry has kept them trailing their lead-based rivals. Now a research team has linked computer prediction and laboratory reality directly: by systematically optimizing every layer of a cesium tin iodide (CsSnI3) solar cell with the SCAPS-1D device simulator and then fabricating the optimized architecture in the lab, the researchers pushed their experimental device to a champion power conversion efficiency of 10.76 percent, up from 8.98 percent for an unoptimized counterpart built with the same materials and environment. The work demonstrates that careful parameter selection guided by numerical modelling can translate into measurable gains in real devices, even when the theoretical ceiling remains far out of reach.
The story begins with the absorber itself. CsSnI3 is a narrow-band-gap tin halide perovskite with a band gap of roughly 1.31 eV, which allows it to absorb a wider swath of the visible spectrum than most lead-based or germanium-based perovskites. That property makes it especially attractive for tandem solar cells, where a narrow-gap top cell paired with a silicon bottom cell can exceed the single-junction Shockley-Queisser limit. But tin carries a notorious weakness: Sn2+ oxidizes to the more stable Sn4+ state when exposed to air, breaking down the perovskite structure. Since the first CsSnI3 solar cell was reported in 2012 with an efficiency of about 0.9 percent, researchers have fought oxidation with additives, encapsulation, and interface engineering, gradually lifting efficiencies past 10 percent in inverted and interface-engineered devices.
In the new study, the team simulated an n-i-p architecture of FTO/SnO2/CsSnI3/Spiro-OMeTAD/Au using SCAPS-1D, a one-dimensional drift-diffusion simulator developed at Ghent University that solves Poisson’s equation and the carrier continuity equations under illumination. The simulation ran at 300 K under AM 1.5G light of 1000 W/m2, with all defects modelled as neutral Gaussian traps of characteristic energy 0.1 eV and capture cross-sections of 10−15 cm2. The researchers then swept one parameter at a time in a fixed sequence: absorber thickness, absorber defect density, Spiro-OMeTAD acceptor concentration and thickness, and SnO2 donor concentration and thickness. The authors acknowledge that this sequential approach cannot capture interactions between parameters, so a full multidimensional global sensitivity analysis was beyond the scope of the work.
The absorber thickness sweep revealed a clear saturation point. As the CsSnI3 layer thickened from 0.01 nm toward 1000 nm, the simulated efficiency climbed rapidly as the cell absorbed more photons and generated more carriers, boosting the short-circuit current density. But around 500 nm the gains flattened because light absorption was essentially complete, while carriers generated farther from the selective interfaces had longer distances to travel before collection, increasing transport and recombination losses. The fill factor initially rose slightly with thickness, then dipped before settling at a relatively constant value. The team identified 500 nm as the optimum absorber thickness within the investigated range.
Defect density proved to be the absorber’s most punishing parameter. When the team raised the CsSnI3 defect density from 1013 to 1018 cm−3, performance held steady up to 1014 cm−3, but from 1015 cm−3 onward the numbers collapsed. At the maximum density of 1018 cm−3, the simulated efficiency and fill factor had plunged to 3.09 percent and 39.42 percent, with the short-circuit current falling to 12.40 mA/cm2 and the open-circuit voltage dropping at a high, constant rate to 0.63 V. The mechanism is classic Shockley-Read-Hall recombination: more traps shorten the diffusion length, which according to the relation LD = Dτ decreases with carrier lifetime, so carriers recombine before they can be collected. The open-circuit voltage, being highly sensitive to trap density, degraded first and fastest. The optimized defect density was set at 1014 cm−3.
The transport layers told a more nuanced story. In the Spiro-OMeTAD hole-transport layer, raising the acceptor concentration improved the open-circuit voltage, an effect the researchers explain using the assumption given by Koster and colleagues, while the short-circuit current deteriorated slightly, which they attribute to impurity scattering centres slowing hole transfer. Performance saturated at an acceptor density of 1.38 × 1018 cm−3, and remarkably, the simulated results were almost independent of Spiro-OMeTAD thickness, likely because heavy doping reduces the layer’s resistance enough to make its dimension nearly irrelevant. The SnO2 electron-transport layer was far more thickness-sensitive. Donor concentration saturated around 2.6 × 1016 cm−3, yielding a simulated efficiency of 27.71 percent, but pushing SnO2 beyond 80 nm degraded efficiency rapidly, bottoming out at 14.03 percent at 400 nm as the increased transport distance hampered carrier collection. Roughly 80 nm was identified as the optimum SnO2 thickness.
Combining all optimized values produced a simulated device with a theoretical efficiency of 28.84 percent, up from 27.17 percent for the unoptimized model, driven by a roughly 10 percent jump in short-circuit current density to 33.31 mA/cm2 while the open-circuit voltage and fill factor slipped about 1 percent to 1.05 V and 82 percent. The simulated external quantum efficiency reached 99 percent across the 400 to 700 nm visible range, with an absorption onset at 950 nm. The energy band diagram showed a positive conduction band offset of 0.27 eV at the SnO2-CsSnI3 interface and a positive valence band offset of 0.309 eV at the absorber-Spiro-OMeTAD interface. The latter exceeds the 0.2 eV threshold above which valence band offsets theoretically prevent good performance, yet the model still delivered excellent outputs, suggesting the barrier is not as prohibitive as the guideline implies in this configuration.
Then came the experimental test. The team fabricated devices using the optimized thickness parameters, dissolving CsI and SnI2 in anhydrous DMF:DMSO with SnF2 added as a reducing additive to suppress Sn2+ oxidation, spin-coating the precursor inside a nitrogen glovebox, and depositing doped Spiro-OMeTAD followed by a thermally evaporated 100 nm gold electrode. X-ray diffraction confirmed the signature orthorhombic CsSnI3 phase with no impurity peaks of Cs2SnI6, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of the deconvoluted Sn-3d peaks, positioned at 494.01 and 485.60 eV, detected no Sn2+ oxidation, indicating the black orthorhombic phase remained intact. The ultraviolet-visible absorption onset at 938 nm corresponded to a band gap of about 1.32 eV, matching the simulation input. Field-emission electron microscopy, however, revealed a rough, nanowire-like film riddled with nanoscale pinholes, which the researchers identify as the primary source of performance loss in CsSnI3 devices.
The fabricated optimized device achieved a champion efficiency of 10.76 percent with a short-circuit current density of 18.90 mA/cm2, an open-circuit voltage of 0.73 V, and a fill factor of 78 percent, compared with 8.98 percent, 17.60 mA/cm2, 0.74 V, and 69 percent for the unoptimized control. The fill factor improvement was the pivotal gain, attributed to better absorber film quality at the optimized thickness, and across 15 to 20 identically fabricated optimized cells the average efficiency was 9.85 percent. The experimental quantum efficiency showed a similar absorption pattern to the simulation up to 950 nm but reached only 55 to 65 percent in the visible region, and the integrated current density of 18.13 mA/cm2 deviated just 4.1 percent from the J-V measurement, confirming internal consistency.
The chasm between the simulated 28.84 percent and the measured 10.76 percent is the study’s most honest finding. SCAPS-1D relies on spatially averaged material and interface parameters and cannot explicitly replicate fabrication-induced contact losses, pinholes, spatially variable defect distributions, local thickness fluctuations, nonuniform composition, or three-dimensional film morphology. For CsSnI3, where Sn2+ oxidation, defect formation, and film morphology dominate device behavior, these limitations bite especially hard. The researchers point to bulk and interfacial defect states, charge transport losses, series and shunt resistances, and energy-level misalignment as the practical factors standing between the idealized model and the laboratory device. Further optimization of film quality, defect passivation, transport-layer interfaces, and fabrication conditions will be necessary to approach the theoretical performance, but the study establishes a direct, quantified link between computational parameter optimization and experimental device development for lead-free tin perovskite photovoltaics.
Subject of Research: SCAPS-1D-guided optimization and experimental fabrication of a lead-free CsSnI3 perovskite solar cell
Article Title: SCAPS-1D-guided optimization and experimental realization of a CsSnI₃-based perovskite solar cell
Article References: Dehingia, A., & Gogoi, H. P. (2026). SCAPS-1D-guided optimization and experimental realization of a CsSnI₃-based perovskite solar cell. Results in Optics, 25, Article 101193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rio.2026.101193
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1016/j.rio.2026.101193
Keywords: perovskite solar cell, CsSnI3, lead-free photovoltaics, SCAPS-1D, tin oxidation, device simulation, SnO2 electron transport layer, Spiro-OMeTAD, power conversion efficiency, tandem solar cells, defect density, thin-film solar cells
News Source: Denise Maddox. (October 26, 2026). Simulated and Real: Tin Perovskite Solar Cell Hits 10.76% After Model-Guided Redesign. Scienmag.
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Fort Bend County is seeking to attract a proposed Tesla solar panel manufacturing facility valued at $10 billion, according to the Houston Chronicle. The county has assembled an incentives package that would run for three decades, the publication reported.
Tesla, which is headquartered in Austin, has not formally decided where the plant will be built. Under the proposed terms, the company would pay county property taxes tied to structures and buildings, while taxes on machinery would be waived. Fort Bend County would also waive inventory taxes during the first ten years, with the abatement dropping to 90 percent after that decade.
The county director of economic development told the publication that the agreement would be extended by another five years if the facility employs more workers than currently projected under the incentives package. The project has also received additional benefits from Lamar Consolidated Independent School District, according to the report.
A Tesla site selection advisor previously told the Houston Chronicle that the competition to host the solar manufacturing plant had been narrowed to two locations, one in Texas and another in a different state.
Tesla is part of an expanding network of companies associated with Elon Musk that has been growing across Texas. In 2026, SpaceX and Tesla are building a $55 billion semiconductor manufacturing plant called Terafab in Grimes County, and xAI subleased space at the Seaholm Power Plant on the Colorado River in Austin earlier this year.
Musk’s companies have acquired land in Bastrop, and Tesla signed a 500,000-square-foot industrial lease elsewhere in Austin. Musk has also floated the idea of a Boring Company hyperloop tunnel connecting Austin and San Antonio.
Musk, described as the world’s richest person and first trillionaire, has an incorporated city called Starbase near Brownsville and South Padre Island that is used for rocket tests. He is reportedly building another town, Snailbrook, in Bastrop County for employees moving to the area.
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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.
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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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World's largest solar wafer manufacturer
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U.S. clean energy project cancellations have outpaced new investment announcements by $8.2 billion since the beginning of 2025, even as solar manufacturing and utility-scale power projects continue to attract major commitments, according to updated figures from E2.
The environmental business group’s Clean Economy Works tracker records $78.4 billion in newly announced manufacturing and generation investments since January 2025, compared with $86.6 billion in investment tied to canceled, closed or downsized projects. The deficit underscores an uneven development environment in which ambitious new plans coexist with significant project withdrawals.
The latest update covers utility-scale generation and storage activity through July 31, 2026, and manufacturing activity through August 31, 2026. The two categories are updated on different schedules because they rely on different sources, E2 said.
New utility-scale projects move forward
On the electricity supply side, E2 identified 16 newly announced generation and storage projects representing an estimated $5 billion in investment and 3.2 GW of planned capacity. Developers also canceled or indefinitely postponed four projects totaling an estimated $641 million and 408 MW.
That leaves a positive balance for the newly tracked generation and storage projects, despite continued cancellations. If completed, the additions would expand the pipeline of large-scale clean energy infrastructure at a time when the U.S. power sector faces rising demand and developers are navigating changes to federal clean energy incentives.
The 3.2 GW figure covers multiple clean energy technologies, not solar alone. The tracker encompasses utility-scale solar, wind, energy storage, and hybrid projects, making it a broader indicator of development activity relevant to solar and battery developers than a measure of new photovoltaic capacity.
E2 overhauled its generation tracking methodology in 2026. It now draws on U.S. Energy Information Administration generator inventory data analyzed by Atlas Public Policy and covers projects of at least 10 MW. The organization estimates project investments using technology- and capacity-based cost assumptions rather than relying solely on announced dollar amounts. E2 also applied the change to historical data to improve comparability.
Tesla drives manufacturing totals
Manufacturing numbers show an even more concentrated pattern. E2 tracked nine newly announced clean energy manufacturing projects across six states, representing $10.6 billion in planned investment and approximately 15,300 prospective jobs.
One project accounted for nearly all of the investment: Tesla’s proposed solar manufacturing facility in Texas, valued at $9.9 billion in E2’s figures. That is approximately 93% of the manufacturing total. Without the Tesla project, the other eight announcements total $711 million.
The size of the Texas proposal makes it an outsized factor in national manufacturing figures. Public filings connected to Tesla’s proposed vertically integrated factory in Fort Bend County point to plans involving ingot, wafer, cell, and module manufacturing. If realized, the project could significantly broaden domestic solar manufacturing, but planned investment is not the same as an operating factory.
The manufacturing update also includes one project cancellation and one downsizing, which together eliminated $181 million in planned investment and affected 178 jobs. Those setbacks were smaller than the newly announced manufacturing commitments in this update, but the sector’s overall results remain vulnerable to changes in a handful of very large projects.
For solar companies, the figures highlight two developments unfolding at once. New domestic manufacturing proposals could strengthen upstream supply chains, while aborted investments and uncertainty over future project execution complicate planning for developers and equipment suppliers.
E2’s broader tracking also reflects a policy environment transformed by federal changes to renewable energy tax credits and other incentives. The group has previously linked rising project cancellations to policy uncertainty, although the latest totals alone do not establish why individual projects were canceled or reduced.
The $8.2 billion gap is a comparison of tracked announcements and withdrawn investment, not a measure of actual capital spent or lost. It also does not mean all newly announced projects will reach construction or operation.
E2 publishes project-level information, technology breakdowns, and state and congressional district data through its Clean Economy Works tracker.
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GIRARD — Girard city leaders celebrated a new 2-megawatt solar production facility last week at a ribbon cutton held Oct. 19.

The facility began producing energy in August. It’s estimated to supply around 15% of the city’s annual electricity needs, according to the Hometown Girard newspaper.
Located in the city’s industrial park, the solar farm features 5,200 panels across 29 rows. The panels are mounted on a tracking system that adjusts their angle throughout the day.

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Construction automation company Xpanner announced the commercial launch of the X1 Piling R6, a fully automated pile driving machine engineered to accelerate civil installation timelines on utility-scale solar and battery energy storage system construction sites. 
The system pairs Xpanner’s field-proven automation hardware and software stack with an Everstar R6 crawler base machine to automate pile positioning, travel, alignment, hammering, and depth control in a single execution cycle. 
Conventional pile driving typically requires a two-person crew operating alongside separate surveying, marking, and site preparation teams. The X1 folds those manual steps into an automated workflow executed via remote control. Operators upload a pile schedule and coordinate file, guide the machine to the start of a row, and initiate operation with a single command. 
High-precision dual-antenna GNSS receivers with Real-Time Kinematic support deliver centimeter-level positioning and orientation accuracy. Controlled by an onboard industrial controller operating on a real-time operating system, the system automatically navigates the crawler to each target location, aligns the mast, and drives piles to specified elevation and plumb tolerances without requiring personnel near the mast. 
The underlying stack builds on Xpanner’s PD10 platform, which has been deployed across more than 67 U.S. job sites by major engineering, procurement, and construction contractors. Integrated on the Everstar R6 carrier, the X1 achieves a 45% faster cycle time compared to the previous generation, according to the company. 
Machine specs and hydraulic capacity 
Powered by a 130 horsepower engine operating at a maximum hydraulic pressure of 2,900 psi and a flow rate of 31.7 gallons per minute, the crawler features a high-frequency hydraulic hammer delivering up to 929 foot-pounds of impact energy. The hammer utilizes a 3.35-inch borer pole with three energy settings to adjust for varying soil resistance and geotechnical conditions. 
To eliminate unnecessary machine movement on site, the carrier features fine-positioning capabilities. The guide rail slides 11.8 inches fore and aft, 19.7 inches laterally, and offers 180 degrees of upper-body rotation. The mast adjusts 10 degrees forward and backward, with a side tilt range from 7 degrees left to 64 degrees right, allowing operators to achieve target placement from a single setup position. 
The system accommodates pile lengths up to 23 feet with a maximum driving depth of 15.7 feet. Because the hammer lowers near ground level and the guide rail plants vertically into the dirt during operation, the unit can drive piles flush to grade without adapters, handling standard tracker piles, short motor piles, and lower-profile BESS foundation piles on the same carrier chassis. Optional mast configurations support down-the-hole drilling, auger drilling (2.6 to 13.8 inches in diameter), and ground screwing. 
“Solar and BESS builders are racing to bring new power online for the grid and for AI data centers, and they can’t find enough skilled crews to keep up,” said Henri Lee, co-founder and CEO of Xpanner. “X1 lets one operator drive every pile plumb with a single touch, keeps people away from the mast, and logs each pile as it goes in.” 
Field controller hardware and cloud telemetry 
On-site machine interaction relies on a 10.1-inch, sunlight-readable touch display built to handle extreme job site conditions, weather, and heavy vibration. The system is designed to operate reliably across extreme temperatures ranging from -40°F to 185°F. 
The hardware connects to Xpanner Connect, a web-based project management dashboard that logs spatial coordinates, driving depth, and plumb status for each driven pile in real time. The live site map eliminates manual end-of-day reporting, offering remote fleet visibility into machine state, cycle metrics, and site progress. 
The X1 Piling R6 is commercially available starting October 26, 2026, through an Automation-as-a-Service subscription model that bundles the crawler chassis, automation hardware, cloud software, site validation, and direct on-site support.
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BESS already reducing curtailment in Chile, says ACERA; in-construction projects to triple capacity  Energy-Storage.News
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The battery storage system has a power output of 3.7 megawatts, which it can sustain for just over an hour. The photovoltaic system, commissioned in December 2025, comprises 11,132 solar modules and has a capacity of more than 5 megawatts (MWp). Connecting the battery to the new PV system allows the electricity generated to be used even when the sun is not shining. The new photovoltaic system can cover up to 45 percent of BVB's electricity needs at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK.
Carsten Cramer, Chairman of the Management Board of Borussia Dortmund: "SIGNAL IDUNA PARK is not only our iconic home, but also a central element of our comprehensive decarbonisation strategy. Together with RWE, we are completing a forward-looking energy concept with this battery storage system, enabling us to make even better use of our solar power. We are delighted that our stadium will continue to stand for greater resource efficiency and innovation."
Dr Markus Krebber, CEO of RWE AG: "With the commissioning of the battery storage system, the combined photovoltaic and battery system at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK is now fully operational. Connecting the two systems allows the solar power generated on site to be used even more flexibly—even when the sun is not shining. Through this project, the experts at BVB and RWE have brought our partnership to life and filled it with energy. A strong foundation for further joint developments."
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

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Effective power management begins at the power source. For solar panels, it sounds simple enough: Just point the panels to enable them to capture the maximum possible number of impinging photons and use mechanical solar tracking if feasible. In “open” settings where the sky is in full or nearly full view, this isn’t too hard to do, in principle.
It’s a very different and more challenging story in dense urban settings where nearby buildings, shadows, reflections from glass and buildings, and other nearby realities have a direct impact on the light path. This is especially true for smaller, fixed panels that are used for small charging stations, signage, kiosks, and similar localized (not grid-connected) situations. That simple plan to “point it at the sun’s maximum” is often not the best solution in a real-world setting.
As a result, various tools are available to assist in assessing the actual intended setting and achieving maximum solar collection there. Assessing the illumination (irradiance) of a panel is typically performed using a 3D model, but those fail to capture small nearby structures that impact the path and net irradiance.
Therefore, along with improving the efficiency of the solar panel itself (hard to do), power conversion and management electronics, and overall power path, it makes sense to also improve the up-front energy capture.
Recognizing the need, a research team in the Engineering School at Columbia University (New York) has devised a system where a single spherical photo at a given target site can be used to determine the year-round optimal orientation and angling of the panel. Their approach takes into account the sun’s angle, nearby shading, diffuse light from a partially visible sky, the reflection off windows, and even the façade of buildings—all characteristics of the so-called “urban canyon.” Researchers claimed their system can boost solar capture from 10% to as high as 30%—certainly not a trivial amount—and, even better, it’s a cost-free improvement.
The technology uses shadows and lines in the image to find the orientation of the camera, then segments the image to determine how various elements in the frame will contribute to overall power generation (Figure 1).
Standard methods can produce large errors because they fail to account for variations in the brightness of a section of sky visible to a panel throughout the day and year, as well as light reflected off surrounding buildings. The team found that these reflections account for roughly 12% of a panel’s total annual energy, on average.
Their research showed that a single spherical image can be used to find the best fixed orientation of a panel. The basic insight behind the new method is that a photograph taken from a panel’s location encodes an enormous amount of information. Shadows in the image reveal the direction of the sun, and straight lines in the architecture indicate the direction of gravity.
This information is used to find the image’s orientation with respect to the planet. A segmentation algorithm reveals the portion of the sky that is visible to the panel, and the appearance of buildings around the panel provides cues related to the spatial layout of the buildings and the materials of which they are made (Figure 2). 
From there, the laptop-based system forecasts how the sun will move through that visible sky across the day and year, estimates how much light will bounce off surrounding buildings onto the panel, and draws on historical weather data to extend the forecast across cloudy and overcast conditions, not just clear days (Figure 3). 
The team used a physically based renderer to simulate the scene irradiance as a function of the sun’s position. Figure 4(a) shows the simulated scene irradiance at one such location over the course of a day. Even though there are many objects casting shadows and producing reflections within the canyon, the scene irradiance varies smoothly with time.
Based on those observations, researchers developed a neural network to predict the scene irradiance of a panel from a single image. The network contains a vision transformer backbone and a multilayer perceptron (MLP) head that outputs the scene irradiance for any sun position (Figure 5).
A common rule of thumb states that the best fixed orientation of a panel is pointing toward the equator with a zenith angle equal to the panel’s latitude. This assumes the panel has a clear view of the sky, which is rarely the case in urban settings. Instead, researchers showed that a single spherical image taken near an existing panel can be used to identify the best fixed panel orientation, which may differ substantially from the above rule of thumb. They also validated their approach using actual irradiance measurements in urban canyons.
The team’s work is detailed in a lengthy (23 pages!) but highly readable paper with the short, direct, and enticing title “Forecasting solar energy using a single image” published in Solar Energy. It covers the problem, solution concept, alternatives, situation analysis, discussion of 3D geometries, urban canyon realities, optical considerations, and much more. While that formal posting is behind a paywall, an open version is posted at arXiv [a free, open-access, non-profit repository that hosts scholarly research papers (known as preprints) before they undergo formal peer review and publication in a scientific journal].
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Bill Schweber is an electronics engineer who has written three textbooks on electronic communications systems, as well as hundreds of technical articles, opinion columns, and product features. In past roles, he worked as a technical website manager for multiple EE Times sites and as both Executive Editor and Analog Editor at EDN. At Analog Devices, he was in marketing communications; as a result, he has been on both sides of the technical PR function, presenting company products, stories, and messages to the media and also as the recipient of these. Prior to the marcom role at Analog, Bill was Associate Editor of its respected technical journal, and also worked in its product marketing and applications engineering groups. Before those roles, he was at Instron Corp., doing hands-on analog- and power-circuit design and systems integration for materials-testing machine controls. He has a BSEE from Columbia University and an MSEE from the University of Massachusetts, is a Registered Professional Engineer, and holds an Advanced Class amateur radio license. He has also planned, written, and presented online courses on a variety of engineering topics, including MOSFET basics, ADC selection, and driving LEDs.
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Sunergise buys Infratec from WEL Networks to add utility-scale solar and batteries  EVs & Beyond
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RWE and Borussia Dortmund officially commissioned the new battery storage system at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK today during the Bundesliga home match against Eintracht Frankfurt. This marks the completion of the two partners’ joint energy concept for the stadium. Following the installation of the photovoltaic system on the roof of the BVB FanWelt and the completion of the world’s most powerful photovoltaic system on a stadium roof, the battery storage system has also become operational.

RWE and Borussia Dortmund officially commissioned the new battery storage system at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK during the Bundesliga home match

Photo: Carsten Cramer, Chairman of the Management Board of BVB (left), with Markus Krebber, CEO of RWE AG (Source: image rights: BVB)
The battery storage system has a capacity of 3.7 megawatts and can supply this output for just over an hour. The photovoltaic system, which was commissioned in December 2025, comprises 11,132 solar modules and has a capacity of more than 5 megawatts (MWp). By linking the battery to the new PV system, the electricity generated can be used even when the sun is not shining. With the new photovoltaic system, BVB can meet up to 45 per cent of SIGNAL IDUNA PARK’s electricity requirements.
Dr Markus Krebber, Chief Executive of RWE AG: 'With the commissioning of the battery storage system, the entire system comprising the photovoltaic plant and the battery at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK is now fully operational. Linking the two systems makes it possible to use the solar power generated on site even more flexibly, even when the sun isn’t shining. The experts from BVB and RWE have breathed life and energy into our partnership through this project. It provides a solid foundation for further joint developments.'
Carsten Cramer, Chairman of the Executive Board of Borussia Dortmund: 'SIGNAL IDUNA PARK is not only our iconic home, but also a central element of our holistic decarbonisation strategy. With the battery storage system, we are collaborating with RWE to complete a forward-looking energy concept that makes our solar power even more usable. We are delighted that our stadium will thus continue to stand for resource-efficient and innovative action in the future.'
As a 'Premium Partner' and a key part of the 'BVB Empowers' initiative, RWE will continue to support BVB in optimising the energy management of SIGNAL IDUNA PARK as part of the six-year partnership. The aim is to further increase the stadium’s contribution to security of supply, energy efficiency, and decarbonisation.
Further information on the project can be found at: www.rwe.com/bvb
Original announcement link
Source: RWE

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Home » O’Mara: Still seeking answers and accountability on siting of solar panels
A Weekly COLUMN by NY State Senator Tom O’Mara,
New York State’s approach to siting solar energy projects on agricultural land, particularly prime upstate farmland, remains a top concern for many of us.
I recently joined several Senate Republican colleagues and a panel of stakeholders in Syracuse for yet another effort to highlight what many communities are facing. It remains a concern – many see it as a crisis – that’s gaining widespread momentum in communities regionally and statewide, yet it’s still not getting the attention it demands.
It’s a concern that’s been raised, repeatedly, by the Senate and Assembly Republican Conferences over the past few years in legislative committee meetings, public hearings, and during floor debates.
Earlier this year, for example, I joined Senate colleagues in a letter to the state’s Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission (ORES) requesting comprehensive information on wind, solar, battery energy storage, and other renewable energy projects “currently under review, pending approval, or anticipated for approval…particularly those with the potential to affect protected lands, environmentally sensitive areas, and regulated agricultural resources across New York State.”
Our letter to ORES in April read, in part, “We welcome this opportunity to follow up on a recent request from our colleagues in the Assembly Republican conference, as well as on behalf of residents, local governments, and environmental stakeholders throughout the regions we represent and across the state, to raise similar concerns regarding project approvals that appear to conflict with established environmental standards, particularly in relation to the siting of solar facilities on productive farmland and development near sensitive wildlife habitats… Given the breadth of ORES authority, including its ability to supersede determinations made by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) as well as local zoning and land-use laws, it is essential that its actions reflect a high standard of transparency, consistency, and adherence to established environmental protections and home rule doctrines.”
What should be a big red flag to everyone is the solar industry’s opposition to environmental stewardship for proper reclamation and recycling of worn-out panels. In 2018, when I was still Chairman of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, the Senate unanimously passed my legislation, called the “Solar Panel Collection Act,” which would have required the industry to set up a program for recycling waste panels, similar to what we did very successfully with paint stewardship and soon-to-be carpet stewardship. The industry balked in 2018, the Assembly didn’t pass it, and since the Democrats took a majority in the Senate my bill, while still pending (S1502), hasn’t ever again seen the light of day (Read more: https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/articles/2018/thomas-f-omara/senate-unanimously-approves-omaras-solar-panel-collection-act).
Governor Hochul and Albany Democrats have given ORES broad authority over the siting of wind, solar, and other renewable energy projects. This authority includes the power to overrule local decision-making, which has raised alarms among local residents, local governments, and local environmental stakeholders, particularly in rural, upstate New York regions where many of these projects are being sited. It’s critically important that ORES is fully accountable and transparent, and that its actions remain fully in line with strict environmental standards, sensitive to local concerns, and don’t put at risk prime agricultural land and other natural resources.
ORES was created under the “Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act” (CLCPA), approved by Democrats in 2019, to oversee the review and approval of renewable energy projects statewide. In 2024, Governor Hochul and the Democrat-led Legislature enacted a new law known as the “Renewable Action through Project Interconnection and Deployment (RAPID) Act” authorizing ORES to effectively steamroll the siting permit review process over objections of local governments and their land use and zoning laws. The stated goal of the RAPID Act was to “balance transparency with environmental protection and the need for fast decision making, while continuing to be responsive to community feedback.” Late last year, ORES issued revised regulations “for the environmental review, permitting, and siting of major renewable energy facilities and major electric transmission facilities.”
When the RAPID Act was first approved, Senate and Assembly Republicans voiced our opposition that the new, fast-tracked, state-dictated process would overrule local zoning, unreasonably expand eminent domain, jeopardize natural resources and farmland, and undermine local control and the will of local residents and communities. Those concerns have been shared by many local leaders and continue to be raised throughout the state, particularly over the loss of prime agricultural land to solar developers.
That was the purpose of our recent roundtable: to continue giving voice to these concerns.
In April, our letter to Governor Hochul concluded this way, “Let us be clear: this request is not intended to oppose energy development. New York State must continue to advance innovation and diversify its energy portfolio responsibly. However, these efforts must not come at the expense of the very natural and agricultural resources that our environmental laws are designed to protect, or at the will of the citizens who will live next door to these projects. Ensuring that renewable energy development proceeds in a manner consistent with environmental stewardship, transparency, and public trust is of paramount importance.”
We continue trying to make headway in forcing renewed accountability and transparency from ORES, a state agency whose actions are viewed with increasing alarm and suspicion.
We will continue to seek answers, accountability, local control, and transparency.
Rev. Robert F Stern, 75, Wellsville
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The Elements of Innovation Discovered
Metal Tech News – October 26, 2026
At more than 150 million ounces per year, solar panel manufacturing accounts for nearly 20% of annual silver consumption.
RZOLV’s water-based leaching solution recovered 99.9% of the silver from an end-of-life solar panel concentrate.
With more than 150 million ounces of silver going into the production of solar panels each year, a high-value recycling opportunity is emerging as the early generations of these converters of sunlight into clean electricity reach the end of their useful lives. With recent lab testing indicating that its water-based leaching solution can extract nearly 100% of the silver from solar-panel concentrate, RZOLV Technologies Inc. is positioning itself to seize that circular opportunity.
“Silver is a key source of value in solar recycling, and our goal is to recover it as a saleable product through an integrated clean-technology process,” said RZOLV President and CEO Duane Nelson.
According to the Washington, DC-based Silver Institute, roughly 186.6 million oz of silver went into solar panels during 2025. At the $40/oz average price that year, that comes to roughly $7.5 billion. While high silver prices have compelled solar manufacturers to use less of the precious metal and substitute copper when possible, it is forecast that more than 151 million oz will go into solar panels this year. At an estimated average silver price of roughly $73/oz for 2026, that represents more than $11 billion worth of silver.
Depending on their age and design, solar panels can contain between 150 and 600 grams (4.8 to 19.3 oz) of silver per metric ton – concentrations comparable to mid- to high-grade ore being extracted at modern mines.
And the volume of this potential aboveground silver resource is expected to grow enormously over the coming decades.
According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, annual global end-of-life solar-panel volumes are forecast to exceed 3 million metric tons by 2035 and surge past 25 million tons by 2050.
This growing stream of silver, copper, and other valuable materials contained in retired solar panels offers an increasingly compelling opportunity for recyclers capable of recovering these metals economically.
RZOLV believes its proprietary non-cyanide leaching solution could offer an efficient and more eco-friendly method of extracting the precious metal value from photovoltaic panels.
One potential advantage of recycling silver from solar panels is that mechanical separation can concentrate the silver-bearing material into a small fraction of the original panel mass before chemical processing.
According to RZOLV, mechanical processing can produce approximately 40 kilograms of silver-bearing cell dust from each metric ton of solar panels. This concentrate, representing just 4% of the original panel mass, could allow subsequent hydrometallurgical processing to focus on the silver-rich material rather than the entire panel.
Recent laboratory testing indicates that RZOLV’s water-based leaching solution is particularly effective at extracting silver from concentrated solar panel material.
RZOLV’s water-based leaching solution recovered 99.9% of the silver from an end-of-life solar panel concentrate.
Based on independent assays of the feed and washed residue conducted by ALS, RZOLV calculated that its solution extracted 99.99% of the silver contained in the tested solar-panel concentrate after 24 hours.
Subsequent electrowinning testing, which uses an electric current to recover dissolved metals from solution, recovered 99.85% of the silver out of solution over five hours.
Together, these results indicate the potential to extract nearly all the silver from concentrated solar-panel material and recover it through an integrated hydrometallurgical process.
“Achieving 99.9% silver extraction from the solar panel concentrate tested, is an encouraging milestone,” Nelson said.
While the results demonstrate near-complete silver extraction and removal from solution, RZOLV has yet to confirm the overall recovery of refined, saleable silver. That will require weighing and assaying the recovered metal, reconciling the silver mass balance, and accounting for any refining losses.
Of potential significance to the economics of the process is that only 10% of RZOLV’s proprietary reagent was consumed during testing.
The company says this low consumption rate indicates that approximately 90% of the reagent could remain available for reuse in subsequent leaching cycles, supporting the development of a closed-circuit platform designed to lower reagent costs and reduce waste.
Combining this potentially reusable leaching solution with mechanical separation that reduces the amount of material requiring chemical processing could be key to establishing an economical method of recycling silver from retired solar panels.
With the encouraging lab-scale results in hand, RZOLV is engaging with potential process partners to scale up its technology alongside the rapidly expanding end-of-life solar-panel market.
“We are currently in discussions with several manufacturers, recyclers, technology providers and refiners to help build a global circular supply chain – recovering silver from end-of-life solar panels and returning it to manufacturing,” Nelson said.
Shane Lasley is the founder and publisher of Metal Tech News, where he covers the minerals, metals, and materials that make modern technology possible.
A journalist with nearly two decades of experience covering mining and mineral development, Lasley has expanded his reporting beyond where metals come from to explore what makes them valuable — the unique properties that allow elements such as lithium, rare earths, graphite, gallium, germanium, copper and dozens of others to enable advances in energy, transportation, electronics, aerospace, defense, and emerging technologies.
His reporting follows the entire materials story, from mineral discovery and mine development through processing, supply chains, materials science, and the technologies that ultimately put those resources to work.
Lasley has a particular interest in critical minerals and the increasingly interconnected relationship between mineral resources, technological innovation, energy security, global supply chains, and geopolitics. Through Metal Tech News, he seeks to give readers a deeper understanding of the materials behind innovation and why securing their supply matters.

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Several people hold signs outside the Red Wing Public Library protesting a proposed solar farm near Red Wing on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. Submitted photo

Several people hold signs outside the Red Wing Public Library protesting a proposed solar farm near Red Wing on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. Submitted photo
Some of the people behind the proposed 2,000-acre solar farm west of Red Wing hosted a public informational session at the city’s library on Wednesday. 
Outside the library, there were a small group of protesters holding signs that read “Stop Solar Fields.”
The massive solar farm hasn’t become reality yet, but some residents who live near the site, in Welch Township in the area of the intersection of Highway 61 and Highway 316, are concerned. 
One of those residents is Mari Mellick, who technically has a Hastings address. Mellick and others handed out informational fliers of their own at the library. 
“My husband and I live on 5 acres and our property could potentially be surrounded by solar panels,” Mellick said. “We’re just one of several other families on our road that could be surrounded.”
Mellick said she and her husband found out about the plan for the solar farm several weeks ago. Later, they met with the local landowner and representatives from Adapture Renewables, the company behind the plans. 
Adapture is based in Oakland, California. 
Mellick said she still feels like she doesn’t have much information about the project. 
“This is all happening very quickly,” Mellick said. “We have lots of questions about the potential impact to wildlife, taking prime agricultural land out of production, and the fact that the panels would line Highway 61 and Highway 316. These are scenic roads by the Mississippi River, and what would the impacts be, culturally?” 
According to Adapture, the project would be a 300-megawatt utility-scale solar development. 
The company says close to 400 construction jobs will be created by building the solar project, and it could generate tens of millions in local tax revenues over the course of the life of the farm. 
Matt Boerger, a project development specialist with the company, said Adapture was pleased with the turnout from the informational open house on Wednesday. 
“The project is in the early stages of development,” Boerger said. “Our current focus is to complete due diligence studies to advance the project design. We will continue to engage with neighbors and local stakeholders to provide information, solicit feedback, and answer questions.”
Boerger said the company’s hope is to start construction in 2028 and have the farm operational sometime in 2030. 
“We’re excited to invest in the community, and bring a significant source of clean energy to Goodhue County,” Boerger said. 
Messages to Nick Ries, owner of the land where the solar farm would go, were not returned before this story went to press. 
Like Mellick, Hastings resident Jaci Tuin attended Wednesday’s session. Tuin said she lives about 10 minutes from the land where the farm would go, but that her mother, 79-year-old Kay McGrath, lives in a home much closer to the site. 
McGrath went to Wednesday’s meeting as well. 
“She’s sad and disappointed, and she feels like tonight gave her no answers,” Tuin said. “She’s lived there since 1973 and she grew up across from Highway 316, so this area is all she’s known. She wants to live out her remaining years in her home, but now she might be completely surrounded by solar panels.” 
Goodhue County Commissioner Linda Flanders said she’s aware of the plans for the farm, but said the county will have no say in the final outcome. 
The project will eventually need to come before the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. The company says it expects to put in a formal application next year. 
A commission spokeswoman said Wednesday an application has yet to come before the body. 
“There is no application before the commission, so we do not have any information on the project,” said commission communications director Cori Rude-Young in an email. 
For now, residents in the area of the proposed farm seem to have more questions than answers. 
“This has all just been very overwhelming,” Tuin said. “At this point, we don’t even know where the power generated from this solar farm would go. Would it be local? There are a lot of unanswered questions.”
 
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Suburban Houston county greenlit 30-year tax break package to secure high-stakes green energy project
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Fort Bend County is trying to put its best foot forward to entice Tesla’s new $10 billion solar panel manufacturing facility. 
Tesla, based out of Austin, has not formally determined where they’re going to build the facility. 
The incentives package for Tesla spans three decades, according to the Houston Chronicle. It would require Tesla to pay county property taxes associated with structures and buildings, but have all of its taxes associated with machinery waived. Additionally, Fort Bend County would waive inventory taxes for the first ten years of the deal, reducing the abatement to 90 percent after a decade. 
The Fort Bend County director of economic development told the publication the deal will be extended another five years if the facility employs more workers than it’s currently set to under the incentives package. 
The project has received additional benefits from Lamar Consolidated Independent School District, according to the publication. Previously, a Tesla site selection advisor told the Houston Chronicle that the race to land the solar manufacturing plant has been narrowed down to two locations, one in Texas, another in a different state. 
Musk’s interconnected web of futuristic companies has been rapidly expanding across Texas for years, but hit some key milestones in 2026. In Grimes County, SpaceX and Tesla are building a massive $55 billion semiconductor manufacturing plant they’re calling Terafab, and XAI subleased space in Austin’ Seaholm Power Plant on the Colorado River earlier this year. 
Musks’ companies have snapped up land in Bastrop and Tesla inked a 500,000-square-foot industrial lease elsewhere in Austin. He’s also teased one of his Boring Company hyperloop tunnels from Austin to San Antonio. 
The world’s richest man and first trillionaire also has the incorporated city called Starbase, near Brownsville and South Padre Island, that he uses for rocket tests. Musk is reportedly building another town, Snailbrook, in Bastrop County for his employees that are moving to the area. 
— Hunter Cooke
All rights reserved © 2026 The Real Deal is a registered Trademark of Korangy Publishing Inc.

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Lithium removal extends perovskite solar cell lifespan to advance commercialization efforts  Tech Xplore
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KP Group launches waterless solar panel cleaning robot at REI Expo 2026  Manufacturing Today India
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KP Group’s KPI Green OMS has launched the SR 2000 V3.0, a waterless robotic solar panel cleaning system designed for single-axis tracker and fixed-tilt solar power plants, at the Renewable Energy India (REI) Expo 2026 in Greater Noida. The robot aims to improve solar plant efficiency while reducing water consumption and maintenance requirements.
Designed to address dust accumulation on solar modules, particularly in dry and remote locations, the SR 2000 V3.0 uses a UV-resistant polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) brush operating at 130 rpm. According to the company, the system achieves a cleaning efficiency of 99.5 per cent while maintaining noise levels below 60 dB.
The robot is designed for single-axis solar trackers, featuring a ±25-degree body twist and 20 mm module undulation tolerance to accommodate tracker movement. Its four-wheel-drive system enables it to climb slopes of 25–30 degrees and operate on terrain slopes of up to 10 degrees. The system is also compatible with fixed-tilt solar installations.
The SR 2000 V3.0 can clean up to 3,600 modules or cover approximately 6,000 metres on a single charge, operating at a cleaning speed of 18–20 metres per minute. It uses a 24 V lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery with self-charging capability and a recharge time of approximately six hours.
For remote monitoring and control, the robot supports LoRa, LoRaWAN and 4G connectivity through Modbus RTU/TCP communication protocols.
Engineered for challenging operating environments, the robot features IP65 protection and C5 corrosion resistance. It can operate in temperatures ranging from −20°C to 60°C and withstand winds of up to 15 m/s during operation. When docked with its mechanical locking system engaged, it can withstand wind speeds of up to 55 m/s.
Measuring 2,700 mm × 450 mm × 350 mm and weighing 45 kg, the robot has a stated design life of 20 years. The company also reports ISO, BIS and UL certifications and compatibility with tracker systems from NEXTracker, GameChange Solar and Arctech, among others.
Faruk G Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, KP Group, said, “Solar capacity is growing rapidly across India, and keeping plants performing at their best over decades matters as much as building them. Dust is a constant challenge, and water is not always available where plants are located. With the SR 2000 V3.0, we have built a waterless, intelligent robot designed specifically for trackers, helping plant owners keep modules clean, protect generation, and reduce the effort of routine upkeep. Launching it at REI Expo 2026 reflects our commitment to practical, reliable technology for India’s renewable energy sector.”
The launch strengthens KP Group’s solar operations and maintenance portfolio, with a focus on automated cleaning, water conservation and long-term performance of utility-scale solar installations.
KP Group’s KPI Green OMS has launched the SR 2000 V3.0, a waterless robotic solar panel cleaning system designed for single-axis tracker and fixed-tilt solar power plants, at the Renewable Energy India (REI) Expo 2026 in Greater Noida. The robot aims to improve solar plant efficiency while reducing water consumption and maintenance requirements.Designed to address dust accumulation on solar modules, particularly in dry and remote locations, the SR 2000 V3.0 uses a UV-resistant polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) brush operating at 130 rpm. According to the company, the system achieves a cleaning efficiency of 99.5 per cent while maintaining noise levels below 60 dB.The robot is designed for single-axis solar trackers, featuring a ±25-degree body twist and 20 mm module undulation tolerance to accommodate tracker movement. Its four-wheel-drive system enables it to climb slopes of 25–30 degrees and operate on terrain slopes of up to 10 degrees. The system is also compatible with fixed-tilt solar installations.The SR 2000 V3.0 can clean up to 3,600 modules or cover approximately 6,000 metres on a single charge, operating at a cleaning speed of 18–20 metres per minute. It uses a 24 V lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery with self-charging capability and a recharge time of approximately six hours.For remote monitoring and control, the robot supports LoRa, LoRaWAN and 4G connectivity through Modbus RTU/TCP communication protocols.Engineered for challenging operating environments, the robot features IP65 protection and C5 corrosion resistance. It can operate in temperatures ranging from −20°C to 60°C and withstand winds of up to 15 m/s during operation. When docked with its mechanical locking system engaged, it can withstand wind speeds of up to 55 m/s.Measuring 2,700 mm × 450 mm × 350 mm and weighing 45 kg, the robot has a stated design life of 20 years. The company also reports ISO, BIS and UL certifications and compatibility with tracker systems from NEXTracker, GameChange Solar and Arctech, among others.Faruk G Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, KP Group, said, Solar capacity is growing rapidly across India, and keeping plants performing at their best over decades matters as much as building them. Dust is a constant challenge, and water is not always available where plants are located. With the SR 2000 V3.0, we have built a waterless, intelligent robot designed specifically for trackers, helping plant owners keep modules clean, protect generation, and reduce the effort of routine upkeep. Launching it at REI Expo 2026 reflects our commitment to practical, reliable technology for India’s renewable energy sector.The launch strengthens KP Group’s solar operations and maintenance portfolio, with a focus on automated cleaning, water conservation and long-term performance of utility-scale solar installations.
Vedanta Oil and Gas has secured two offshore blocks in the Krishna Godavari (KG) Basin under the Government of India’s Discovered Small Field (DSF) IV bidding round, strengthening its exploration and production portfolio along India’s east coast.The newly awarded assets include the shallow water block KG/OSDSF/G1/2025 and the deepwater block KG/DWDSF/GD10/2025. The acquisition forms part of Vedanta’s strategy to expand its offshore operations and explore India’s untapped hydrocarbon resources through advanced technologies and efficient project execution.The blocks were awarded at a contract si..
Hindustan Zinc’s Sakhi Microenterprise initiative has recorded a 43 per cent year-on-year increase in collective income, rising from Rs 2.3 million in FY26 to Rs 3.28 million, according to the company. The initiative, operated through Sakhi Utpadan Samiti, currently engages 426 women in income-generating activities across multiple production units.The programme aims to promote financial independence by helping rural women develop entrepreneurial skills and establish sustainable livelihoods. One of its beneficiaries, Manju Devi, who previously depended on seasonal agricultural work, now operate..
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Solar Power World
By Briggs & Stratton | October 26, 2026
It’s no secret that Puerto Rico has an energy problem. An aging electrical grid and frequent hurricane activity have left the island with an unreliable power supply. Frequent and prolonged blackouts have led many Puerto Ricans to turn to solar energy. Ricardo Fonseca, owner of Ingenious Solution Services, has been installing solar and battery storage systems for more than 20 years in Puerto Rico. He has seen his business grow by helping homeowners and businesses become more energy resilient.
“Our business began by offering services to the pharmaceutical industry in the area of ​​validations,” Fonseca said. “Later, demand grew for services such as electricity, plumbing, refrigeration, appliances, and thermal studies. After Hurricane Maria, our electrical system collapsed and a huge demand for photovoltaic systems began.”
Over the years, Fonseca has installed all types and brands of battery systems. Most recently, Fonseca installed a unique solar system with Briggs & Stratton SimplePHI 6.6 batteries for a two-unit apartment building in Bayamón, in northern Puerto Rico.
“The area’s electrical system suffers from frequent outages, and for that reason alone, the photovoltaic system was installed. Since the structure occupies the entire plot, it was impossible to install a generator,” Fonseca said. “The client was already familiar with our company, having previously hired us to install a 30 kW three-phase backup system with 46 kW of batteries for his business.”
For the apartment building in Bayamon, what appears to be a triple battery system is actually three independent systems powering three different locations. Each of the two apartments has a SimpliPHI 6.6 triple battery system. Additionally, a SimpliPHI 6.6 battery powers the four electric gates that control access to the building’s parking area and lighting in the common areas. It’s an ingenious design that not only looks good but also makes efficient use of space.
“The systems operate independently, they don’t communicate with each other, and there are no backup generators,” Fonseca said. “Each apartment has eighteen 550-W solar panels with 19.8 kWh of Briggs & Stratton batteries. The building operated in self-consumption mode for five months after installing the three systems, as we were waiting for electrical approval from Luma Energy.”
Each electrical system in an apartment places a considerable load on the system, as it supports an air conditioner, a heater, a stove, lights and all the other electrical components that a typical home has.
“The system works wonderfully,” Fonseca said. “They’ve never run out of electricity. If there’s plenty of sun, the batteries charge in 75 minutes with the panels. If there isn’t as much sun, it takes a maximum of 150 minutes. With the meters installed and the electrical certification, they’ll be able to start exporting energy to the grid.”
Fonseca has worked with Briggs & Stratton for more than eight years and has completed approximately a dozen installations with the company’s SimpliPHI 6.6 battery.
“SimpliPHI batteries are reliable, long-lasting, and fast-charging. I’ve never had any problems with them,” he said. “They’re smaller than Tesla batteries, so they take up less space, they’re lighter and easier to handle. Best of all, they’re easy to install, and now that the new controller can be connected from either side, it’s even more convenient.”
Fonseca isn’t the only one who notices the advantages of Briggs & Stratton. Recently, a customer who runs three air conditioners at night commented that he hasn’t had to use a backup generator because the SimpliPHI batteries handle the entire load.
“The only battery systems I install are from Briggs & Stratton,” Fonseca said. “I frequently receive calls about other products that aren’t working, reporting malfunctions, so I’ve seen all the problems other battery and inverter manufacturers have: they don’t last more than a few years and fail in various ways. Thanks to my reputation and the experienced team I’ve built, I plan to expand my business to other areas of Puerto Rico, from Mayagüez to Fajardo and possibly to the central part of the island, in Naranjito and Aibonito.”
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Insolation Energy Limited, operating as INA Solar, has signed a five-year partnership with US-based Caelux Corporation to commercialise 3 GW of advanced solar modules using perovskite-based Energy Producing Glass and N-Type TOPCon technology. The companies aim to develop Hybrid-Tandem solar modules with efficiencies of up to 29% by 2028. The agreement covers technology validation, manufacturing readiness and regulatory approvals. INA Solar currently has 5.5 GW of annual solar module manufacturing capacity in Jaipur and is developing additional solar cell and aluminium frame manufacturing facilities in Madhya Pradesh.
Representative image
Insolation Energy Limited, which operates under the INA Solar brand, has entered into a five-year strategic partnership with US-based Caelux Corporation to commercialise 3 GW of advanced solar modules combining Caelux’s Energy Producing Glass technology with INA Solar’s N-Type TOPCon manufacturing platform. The collaboration aims to develop high-efficiency solar modules, with commercial production targeting module efficiency of up to 29% by 2028. 
The planned Hybrid-Tandem solar modules will combine TOPCon solar cells with a perovskite-based glass layer designed to generate additional electricity. According to the companies, the technology is intended to increase power density, improve energy generation and reduce the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE). The partnership will cover technology validation, manufacturing readiness and applicable regulatory approvals, including requirements under the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM). 
Manish Gupta, chairman of Insolation Energy, said the collaboration would combine perovskite technology with the company’s TOPCon manufacturing capabilities to develop high-efficiency solar modules and support India’s renewable energy ambitions. 
Vikas Jain, managing director of Insolation Energy, said the agreement supported the company’s focus on developing an integrated solar manufacturing ecosystem through innovation and advanced technology. 
Scott Graybeal, chief executive officer of Caelux Corporation, said the partnership was intended to bring next-generation solar technology into commercial production at scale in India. He added that the agreement would take Caelux’s global contracted volume with solar module manufacturers beyond 25 GW. 
Vish Iyer, managing director for India and West Asia at Caelux, said combining Energy Producing Glass with TOPCon technology could bring high-power-density solar modules to the Indian market. 
INA Solar currently operates three solar module manufacturing facilities in Jaipur, Rajasthan, with a combined annual capacity of 5.5 GW. The company is also developing a 4.5 GW TOPCon solar cell manufacturing facility and an aluminium frame manufacturing facility with a capacity of 18,000 metric tonnes per annum in Narmadapuram, Madhya Pradesh. 
Its product portfolio includes TOPCon and Mono PERC solar modules ranging from 500 Wp to 635 Wp, along with engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services. The company also has an independent power producer (IPP) portfolio of approximately 400 MW. 
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Jaipur, Insolation Energy is listed on the NSE and BSE. According to the supplied company information, it operates across more than 250 districts, serves over 40,000 customers and has a network of more than 1,000 channel partners. 
Caelux Corporation is headquartered in Baldwin Park, California, and specialises in perovskite solar technology. Its Energy Producing Glass technology is designed to turn the upper glass layer of a solar module into an additional power-generating layer, with the aim of increasing power density and improving the economics of solar projects. 
The partnership adds another proposed application of perovskite technology to India’s solar manufacturing sector. Its progress will depend on technology validation, manufacturing readiness and the required regulatory approvals, including ALMM compliance. The target of achieving module efficiency of up to 29% by 2028 remains a commercial objective rather than a confirmed production outcome. The agreement also comes as INA Solar develops additional manufacturing capacity, including a 4.5 GW solar cell facility. Actual production timelines and the commercial performance of the new modules will be important developments to track. 
Source PTI
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India Needs $220 Billion To Hit 500 GW Clean Energy Goal By 2030; Keen To Attract FDI: MNRE Secretary  NDTV Profit
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By CiberCuba Editorial Team
Monday, October 26, 2026 – 11:56
The first 1,000 photovoltaic kits intended for coffee-producing families in eastern Cuba are already in the region, as part of a BioCubaCafé program that plans to distribute 2,000 units with partial funding from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The beneficiaries must pay half of the cost through their income from coffee sales.
BioCubaCafé, a Cuban-Italian joint venture, announced this Monday that it received the first half of the planned solar systems, intended to provide lighting, ventilation, and charging for small electronic devices in rural homes affected by prolonged power outages.
The entity presented the initiative as an alternative for coffee-producing mountainous areas, where the challenges of the national electrical system limit domestic and productive activities.
The kits operate with a 12-volt photovoltaic panel in direct current and do not require an inverter, a feature that, according to their developers, helps reduce costs and simplify installation.
Each unit is equipped with a distribution box that can power five bulbs and has two USB ports for charging cell phones and other small devices.
It also features a fan with its own lamp and battery, which can be recharged via USB ports, as well as a battery designed to store energy for use during the night.
The package includes 20 meters of cable, a clamp, a screwdriver with a voltage tester, and a roll of electrical tape.
BioCubaCafé assured that the families themselves can set up the system without specialized technical assistance and that the system is designed to operate safely.
The company also indicated that some components may vary in brand or appearance depending on the batch, although it claims that their technical specifications will be maintained.
One of the central aspects of the program is its funding structure. The stated cost of each kit is 360 dollars, but the producer will only pay 180 dollars, thanks to the financial contribution provided by the FAO.
According to BioCubaCafé, a comparable system is marketed in the Cuban market for approximately $1,300.
The announced payment mechanism does not require the coffee grower to deliver the 180 dollars in cash immediately. Instead, the amount will be covered by a portion of the income received from the sale of their production.
For the 2026-2027 harvest, BioCubaCafé ensures that it pays 0.60 dollars per can of premium arabica coffee and 0.30 dollars per can of robusta of the same classification, through monthly transfers to the producer’s personal card.
With those rates, the cost of a kit is equivalent to the purchase of 300 cans of Arabica coffee or 600 cans of Robusta, provided they meet the established quality standards.
The company did not specify what percentage of each monthly settlement will be allocated to the team, how much time the producer will have to pay it, nor what the conditions would be in the event of a harvest lower than expected.
It did not specify the number of families that have already been assigned a kit nor did it provide a complete delivery schedule. For now, what is confirmed by the publication is the arrival of the first 1,000 kits in eastern Cuba.
Regarding the selection of beneficiaries, BioCubaCafé announced that priority will be given to coffee growers who exceeded the production commitments of the previous harvest.
The company described this criterion as a way to acknowledge the performance of producers and encourage greater results in the current campaign.
In this way, access to the systems will not depend solely on each family’s electricity needs, but also on their production history, at least in the first stage announced.
The program is part of other measures aimed at supporting the coffee harvest for 2026-2027 in eastern Cuba, a region that also experienced the effects of Hurricane Melissa in October 2025.
Among the mentioned actions are payments in foreign currency, tripartite contracts between producers, the Agroforestry Group, and BioCubaCafé, the supply of food, technological packages, and the provision of fuel, lubricants, and bags for collection.
The new system arrives at a time when other entities related to coffee have also announced changes in their compensation mechanisms.
Less than a week ago, the Eladio Machín Coffee Processing Company in Cienfuegos, announced it would pay its harvest workers in foreign currency, although it did not specify the currency, the amounts, or when the payments would start.
These initiatives reflect a growing use of compensation mechanisms linked to foreign currencies in certain productive activities, although the modalities and conditions are not necessarily similar among companies.
The initiative aimed at coffee growers is not the first solar energy access program announced in Cuba during 2026.
In February, the authorities in Camagüey reported on the distribution of solar panels to 180 workers in the education sector.
The program included equipment for teachers’ housing, with payment options through bank credits, but it faced criticism from citizens who questioned the number of beneficiaries and the selection criteria.
That same month it was revealed that the solar modules intended for certain Heroes and Heroines of Labor had a price of 75,200 Cuban pesos, despite being presented as part of a state program for labor incentives.
Furthermore, in March, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero announced that the Government would complete the installation of more than 10,250 photovoltaic systems for teachers, doctors, and Heroes of Labor, in addition to 5,000 modules for isolated communities and priority centers.
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A former part-time staffer in the city of Richmond’s Office of Sustainability filled out a form explaining he also worked for a private company that partnered with that office on a project to put solar panels on dozens of city buildings. 
But the form was never reviewed or signed by any supervisor, according to Mayor Danny Avula’s administration. 
The sustainability office drafted a memo in June explaining how the perceived conflict of interest was handled once discovered. The memo claims the city’s HR director and a high-ranking administrator were alerted to the situation around April 30. However, the Avula administration redacted part of that memo and is now questioning the document’s accuracy.
The controversy surrounding the solar proposal — which the City Council voted down late last month — has revealed a hole in the city’s conflict of interest procedures, one that apparently allowed a disclosure form to go unnoticed until the dual employment became an optics problem for a high-priority project.
The appearance of a potential conflict wasn’t what derailed the proposed solar deal, but it’s one of several unresolved issues that officials are now looking into to better understand how the project was handled.
City policies require employees to disclose any outside jobs in writing and avoid conflicts with their official duties.
The Avula administration said Thursday that the outside employment form for former clean energy specialist Andre Eanes was put in his personnel file shortly after he was hired in January, without the necessary signatures to make it a valid document. 
Eanes disclosed he was also employed as a technical consultant for Staunton-based Secure Solar Futures, the company the sustainability office negotiated a solar deal with this year. Because the city piggybacked off an existing contract between Secure Solar Futures and Prince William County Public Schools, there was no competitive bidding.
The outside employment form, which the city released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, was only signed by Eanes. Three other sections that were supposed to include signoffs by a supervisor, department head and the director of human resources were left blank.
Though Eanes seemingly did the correct thing by alerting the city to his other job in writing, Avula indicated City Hall mishandled the situation.
“My administration continues to support the goal of increasing the use of renewable energy, reducing long-term energy costs and saving taxpayer dollars, and advancing our commitment to a more sustainable and resilient built environment,” the mayor said in a statement Thursday evening. “In the course of working towards that goal, some of our internal processes and systems, like those related to outside employment disclosures and addressing personnel matters, did not work the way I expect them to.”  
The mayor said that, as of Nov. 1, his administration would enact a new review process for outside employment forms instead of having them handled through an “automated onboarding workflow.” The administration said it could not answer questions about whether it’s been standard city practice for outside employment disclosures to be filed away in the HR office with minimal review or tracking.
The Avula administration had been pressing the Council to approve the solar deal quickly so the city could capture the benefits of federal tax credits before they expire. 
The Council was asked to sign off on a 25-year deal involving solar installations on 39 city rooftops. Secure Solar Futures would have installed and owned the equipment, with the city purchasing the solar energy at a lower rate than what it pays Dominion Energy. Over the life of the proposed power purchase agreement (PPA), proponents said, the city could have saved around $20 million in electricity costs.
Some city officials raised concerns the proposed contract created too much legal and financial risk. It was those reservations that led the Council to reject the proposal in a 5-4 vote, before the possible conflict of interest with the low-level sustainability staffer came to light.
The mayor’s office was trying to get the Council to reconsider that vote and salvage the solar project. But after Avula learned of the Eanes situation, he said he would stop pursuing the project and ask Chief Administrative Officer Odie Donald II to look into the matter.
The administration has not yet completed its review, but the legal deadline just arrived for City Hall to respond to an initial wave of FOIA requests.
Eanes and Secure Solar Futures CEO Tony Smith have both said the dual employment was approved by HR. The documents point to a more muddled situation.
City officials told The Richmonder there are no records of any written communication between the sustainability office and HR regarding outside employment for Eanes from a three-month period in the spring when the city was starting to work with Secure Solar Futures. They also said there are no records showing the sustainability office approved the outside employment.
However, the city released dozens of documents in response to a broader FOIA request filed by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Those records include a sustainability office memo dated June 4 written to document how the perceived conflict of interest was handled.
The June 4 memo, marked “confidential,” is styled as a communication from Sustainability Office Director Laura Thomas to HR Director Trinija Martin.
“It is intended as a contemporaneous record for accountability and any subsequent inquiry,” the memo says.
The memo says a “remediation plan” was agreed to by Thomas, Martin and Sharon Ebert, the city’s deputy chief administrative officer for economic and community development. The memo says the sustainability office told Ebert and Martin about the situation after it was discovered, and scheduled a meeting with the HR director to discuss it.
Contradicting that timeline, the Avula administration said neither Ebert nor Martin were aware of the memo until “October 2026.”
“The accuracy of the document is under review,” the mayor’s office said.
The disputed memo was signed by Dawn Oleksy, the sustainability office’s energy program manager who supervised Eanes.
The memo says Oleksy “was not aware of the appearance of a potential conflict of interest.”
“It was determined that this was an innocent oversight of Ms. Oleksy as she was unaware of his outside employment,” the memo says. “No information was intentionally withheld and any recognition of Mr. Eane’s former employment and relationship status with Secure Solar Futures (SSF) was deemed irrelevant due to the nature of Mr. Eane’s part-time, temporary, entry-level status at the city of Richmond.”
The memo goes on to say there was “no evidence of improper transmission of documents, materials, knowledge or other matters to the external vendor.”
The document outlines steps taken to address the issue, including restrictions on work assignments and preservation of project documents. City officials redacted two of the five bullet points listed in the remediation plan, saying they were exempt from disclosure under FOIA as protected “personnel information.”
A March email shows Eanes coordinated a phone introduction between Oleksy and Secure Solar Futures CEO Tony Smith.
“I’m glad I was able to introduce you two over the phone earlier – thanks Tony for
sharing your insight on the municipal projects SSF has worked on and helping clear up some questions that Dawn had,” Eanes wrote in the March 11 email. “I know she and many others at the city are excited to fast-track as many municipal solar projects in the near future as are feasible.”
From his city email address, Eanes asked Secure Solar Futures to send over contract materials for projects done in other localities, saying they “would provide incredible insight for the City of Richmond’s own procurement and development processes.”
Smith asked if the two sides could “start sharing data” and take a “maximum teaming approach” to the upcoming procurement and contract negotiations.
In an interview, Eanes said the sustainability office was aware he knew people at Secure Solar Futures and was already exploring a procurement process with the company regardless of his introduction.
Other emails show Eanes passing project documents back and forth between his two employers. On several occasions, he emailed documents from his city email account to his Secure Solar Futures email account. One of those documents was titled “PPA Site Approvals.” In another exchange, he shared a document titled “DPU Questions” with Maggie Davison, the solar company’s chief operating officer.
On Aug. 19 — after the sustainability office memo said the remediation plan was enacted —  Eanes sent a file to Secure Solar Futures from his city account with the heading “roof warranty folder.”
It’s not clear if sharing those documents violated any rules.
“The developer didn’t get any information that they wouldn’t have already gotten from the city,” Eanes said.
On the outside employment form, Eanes checked a box saying his work with Secure Solar Futures wouldn’t create a conflict of interest with his city position. 
The supervisor portion of the form includes a certification that the city’s rules were explained to the employee. Because that section was left unsigned, it’s unclear if anyone did that with Eanes.
The Avula administration declined to answer several specific questions. Asked whether HR and Ebert were informed about the situation as outlined in the memo and whether the information ever made its way to the mayor’s office, Avula spokesperson Mira Signer reiterated that the entire matter is still under review.
“There are still important questions, including what you’ve raised, and it’s important to allow the administration the time needed to fully understand what occurred,” Signer said.
Other records related to the solar project show the effort was halted around the time the sustainability office memo says the outside employment issue was discovered.
Backers of the solar project were initially pushing to have it approved by June 30, a significantly tighter deadline than the Sept. 30 date the Council was later given.
According to a project timeline, the city’s procurement department told Ebert and Thomas last spring that, with all the “outstanding issues left to resolve,” it wouldn’t be possible to execute the deal contracts by the end of June.
“Project was officially paused until further notice,” the May 1 entry on the timeline says.
The next entry, on May 28, showed there’d been a change of heart.
“Mayor asked the team to ‘get to yes’ on Solar PPA,” the timeline says, adding that Avula aide Sarah Carpenter would now “quarterback” the proposal from the mayor’s office.
Donald, Avula’s appointed CAO, told the Council he was comfortable with the project presented to the body for approval. However, emails from over the summer show he felt speed shouldn’t be the driving factor.
“I’d caution everyone from letting the time crunch determine our risk tolerance or ultimate path forward,” Donald wrote in a June 29 email to Avula and his inner circle.
As officials pressed ahead with trying to get the proposal introduced to the Council in September, a dispute over how the solar panels would be insured caused another holdup. The mayor’s office seemed taken aback by the resistance, saying in several emails they were under the impression the insurance issue had already been worked out. 
According to a June 5 email, city Risk Manager Donnell Stewart said the city’s insurance carrier “will add the panels to the city’s coverage,” but asked for more documents to be provided.
City Attorney Laura Drewry refused to let the Avula administration introduce the legislation at the Council’s Sept. 14 meeting. She said she needed written confirmation that the city’s insurance carrier would insure the solar panels as the contract promised. 
Because she didn’t have satisfactory proof of that, Drewry wrote in a Sept. 14 email to the mayor and CAO, she was pulling the project from the list of legislation to be introduced at the Council meeting that night.
Drewry made clear her opposition was broader than legal technicalities. Even if the insurance arrangements were deemed legal, she wrote, it was her office’s advice that it was an “irresponsible allocation of risk.”
“Taxpayers should not be asked to insure a private company’s equipment or to use the city’s own insurance to protect the company, the system owner, and their unnamed investors,” Drewry wrote.
Under the proposed contract, Secure Solar Futures would have covered extra costs associated with adding the solar equipment to the city’s property insurance. But some officials stressed the city could still be on the hook if anything happened to one of the buildings that had the company’s solar panels on the roof.
During the back-and-forth, the mayor’s team pointed to a Sept. 10 email from the city’s insurance broker, Aon, that said adding the solar equipment to the city’s insurance “is not uncommon for this type of arrangement.” Though Aon indicated it didn’t have any major outstanding concerns, the broker specified it wasn’t giving official legal advice.
In an email on Sept. 13, Stewart, the risk manager, said his office “is not an obstacle to finalizing the agreement.” His role, he said, was to highlight possible risks so leadership “can make an informed decision.”
The eleventh-hour holdup over insurance was a factor in the project’s downfall. Delaying introduction of the deal gave the Council only a week to publicly review it, without enough time to consider amendments.
Contact Reporter Graham Moomaw at gmoomaw@richmonder.org
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Masen’s Noor PV Multisites programme has reached prequalification stage in the latest development of Morocco’s renewable energy rollout.
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Monday, October 26, 2026 by Charlotte Gomez
The initial shipment of 1,000 solar kits aimed at coffee-growing families in eastern Cuba has arrived, part of a BioCubaCafé program that plans to distribute 2,000 units with partial funding from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Recipients are expected to cover half of the cost through income from coffee sales.
On Monday, BioCubaCafé announced it had received the first batch of solar systems intended to provide lighting, ventilation, and power for small electronic devices in rural homes affected by frequent power outages.
The initiative is presented as a solution for coffee-producing mountainous areas, where the national electrical grid’s deficiencies hinder both household and agricultural activities.
The kits operate with a 12-volt direct current photovoltaic panel, eliminating the need for an inverter. This feature is said to lower costs and make installation simpler.
Each kit includes a distribution box capable of powering five light bulbs and features two USB ports for charging cell phones and other small devices.
A fan with an integrated lamp and battery, rechargeable via USB, is also part of the kit, along with a battery to store energy for nighttime use.
Additional components include 20 meters of cable, a clamp, a screwdriver with a voltage tester, and a roll of electrical tape.
A key aspect of the program is its funding mechanism. Each kit is priced at $360, but thanks to FAO’s financial contribution, producers will only pay $180.
BioCubaCafé notes that a similar system sells for roughly $1,300 in the Cuban market.
Farmers won’t need to pay the $180 upfront. Instead, the cost will be deducted from a portion of the earnings from their coffee production.
For the 2026-2027 harvest, BioCubaCafé offers $0.60 per can of premium Arabica coffee and $0.30 for robusta, with monthly payments made to the producer’s personal card.
These rates mean a kit costs the equivalent of 300 cans of Arabica or 600 cans of robusta, provided they meet quality standards.
Details on the percentage of each monthly payment allocated to the kit, the repayment period, or contingencies for smaller harvests were not specified.
The company also didn’t clarify how many families are assigned a kit or provide a complete delivery schedule. The confirmed information is the arrival of the first 1,000 kits in eastern Cuba.
In selecting beneficiaries, BioCubaCafé stated that priority will be given to farmers who exceeded their production commitments in the previous harvest.
This selection criterion aims to reward high-performing producers and encourage better results in the current campaign.
Thus, access to the systems will not only depend on the family’s electricity needs but also on their production history, at least in the initial phase.
The program is part of broader efforts to support the 2026-2027 coffee harvest in eastern Cuba, a region also impacted by Hurricane Melissa in October 2025.
Other measures include payments in foreign currency, tripartite contracts between producers, the Agroforestry Group, and BioCubaCafé, as well as the supply of food, technological packages, and resources like fuel and sacks for collection.
Concurrent with this initiative, other coffee-related entities have also announced changes in their payment methods.
Recently, the Eladio Machín Coffee Processing Company in Cienfuegos stated it would pay harvest workers in foreign currency, without specifying the currency, amounts, or start date.
These initiatives highlight a growing trend of linking remuneration to foreign currencies in certain production activities, albeit with varying conditions and methods among companies.
The initiative for coffee growers is not the first solar energy program announced in Cuba in 2026.
In February, Camagüey authorities reported the distribution of solar panels to 180 educational sector workers.
This program provided equipment for teachers’ homes, with payment facilitated through bank credits, though it drew criticism for the number of recipients and selection criteria.
That same month, it was revealed that solar modules for select Heroes of Labor were priced at 75,200 Cuban pesos, despite being part of a state labor incentive program.
Additionally, in March, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero announced the government would complete the installation of over 10,250 photovoltaic systems for teachers, doctors, and Heroes of Labor, along with 5,000 modules for isolated communities and priority centers.
The primary aim is to provide coffee-growing families with reliable energy sources to mitigate the impacts of frequent power outages, supporting both domestic and agricultural activities.
Each kit costs $360, with farmers paying $180 thanks to funding support from the FAO. Payments are deducted from the coffee sales income.
Priority is given to coffee growers who exceeded their production commitments in the previous harvest as a reward and incentive for better performance.
© CubaHeadlines 2026

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KP Group’s KPI Green OMS Pvt. Ltd. has launched the SR 2000 V3.0, a waterless solar panel cleaning robot that achieves a cleaning efficiency of 99.5% and is designed for one-panel-in-portrait (1P) tracker and fixed-tilt solar plants. The company unveiled the machine at the Renewable Energy India Expo (REI Expo) 2026 in Greater Noida.
The product targets a common operational problem. Dust accumulating on modules can erode a solar plant’s output, and water-based cleaning is often difficult in the dry, remote locations where many large plants are built. 
The SR 2000 V3.0 cleans without water, using an ultraviolet (UV)-resistant polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) brush that runs at 130 rpm while operating below 60 dB.
Tracker design
The robot is built primarily for single-axis trackers. Its ±25° body twist and 20 mm module undulation tolerance allow it to follow the table as the tracker moves, while four-wheel drive lets it handle climbs of 25° to 30° and terrain slopes of up to 10°. It is also suitable for fixed-tilt plants. The machine is compatible with trackers from NEXTracker, GameChange Solar and Arctech, among others.
Operating capacity
On a single charge, the SR 2000 V3.0 cleans up to 3,600 modules in one run, covering up to 6,000 metres at a speed of 18–20 metres per minute. It runs on a self-charging 24 V lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery that takes about six hours to recharge. Operators can connect to the robot over Long Range (LoRa), LoRa Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) or 4G using the Modbus Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) / Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) protocol.
Site durability
For harsh site conditions, the robot is sealed to Ingress Protection (IP) rating IP65 and rated C5 for corrosion resistance. It operates between −20 °C and 60 °C and works in winds of up to 15 m/s. When docked with its mechanical locking engaged, it withstands winds of up to 55 m/s. The robot measures 2,700 mm x 450 mm x 350 mm, weighs 45 kg and has a design life of 20 years. It carries certifications from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and Underwriters Laboratories (UL).
Commenting on the launch, Dr. Faruk G. Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, KP Group, said: “Solar capacity is growing rapidly across India, and keeping plants performing at their best over decades matters as much as building them. Dust is a constant challenge, and water is not always available where plants are located. With the SR 2000 V3.0, we have built a waterless, intelligent robot designed specifically for trackers, helping plant owners keep modules clean, protect generation, and reduce the effort of routine upkeep. Launching it at REI Expo 2026 reflects our commitment to practical, reliable technology for India’s renewable energy sector.”
China has unveiled plans to develop space-based solar stations, aiming to collect energy unaffected by weather or night cycles. The project involves installing a 1 km-wide solar array in geostationary orbit, 36,000 km above Earth. Senior scientist Long Lehao compared the initiative to the Three Gorges Dam in orbit, highlighting its potential to generate yearly…
Read More China announces plan for space-based solar power generation
Tata Power Renewable Energy Limited (TPREL), a subsidiary of Tata Power, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bank of Baroda to provide financing solutions for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and commercial and industrial (C&I) customers adopting solar energy. Under the agreement, Bank of Baroda will extend loans for projects up to…
Read More Tata Power and Bank of Baroda sign MoU to finance solar projects
KEC International Limited has announced new orders worth Rs 1,402 crore across its transmission and distribution (T&D), civil, and cables and conductors businesses. In T&D, the company received a 765 kV transmission line order from a private developer in India, along with tower, hardware, and pole supply contracts in the Americas. The cables and conductors…
Read More KEC International secures Rs 1,402 crore orders across businesses
Vikran Engineering Limited has signed a Share Purchase Agreement to acquire a 49% equity stake in NOPL Solar Projects Private Limited for Rs 4.9 crore, expanding its footprint in the renewable energy segment. NOPL Solar Projects is involved in the development, operation, and maintenance of solar power assets and is linked to a 969 MW…
Read More Vikran Engineering acquires 49% stake in NOPL Solar Projects
Neuron Energy has commissioned a containerised battery energy storage system (BESS) manufacturing facility in Talegaon, Maharashtra, marking its entry into the grid-scale energy storage segment. The facility spans seven acres and has been developed with an investment of Rs 100 crore. It is designed as a fully automated, robotic production unit with an annual manufacturing…
Read More Neuron Energy commissions 5 GWh BESS plant in Maharashtra
Waaree Energies Limited has commissioned a 950 MW solar module manufacturing line at its plant in Degam, Chikli taluka, Navsari district, Gujarat. The facility began operations on 30 September 2025. In September 2025, the company also added four subsidiaries under Waaree Forever Energies Private Limited, including Waaree Forever Energies Three Private Limited incorporated on 24…
Read More Waaree Energies starts 950 MW solar module line in Gujarat
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OB Rag
Serving OB, the Peninsula and San Diego Beaches
By Jacob Aere / kpbs / October 22, 2026
San Diego County and developers of a solar and battery storage project in East County are facing a lawsuit alleging the project’s environmental review was insufficient.
The suit was filed in San Diego Superior Court last week. It focuses on the Starlight Solar project near the town of Boulevard. The county Board of Supervisors approved a major use permit for the development for last month.
The 588-acre project, which includes a solar farm and a 868 megawatt-hour battery energy storage system, has faced community pushback.
The suit, filed Oct. 15 by a group calling itself the Back Country Community Alliance for Responsible Development, was brought under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
“This is CEQA action brought under the California Environmental Quality Act. And what we’re alleging is that the Environmental Impact Report that was prepared and certified by the county was inadequate,” said Jamie Hall, the group’s attorney.
The lawsuit seeks to suspend all activity on the project “pending full compliance with CEQA and with the requirements of law.”
A major concern the suit raises is the potential for lithium-battery fires.
“My client doesn’t believe the county adequately analyzed those impacts, they didn’t analyze the evacuation routes sufficiently, they didn’t assess whether there was enough water for this particular project,” Hall said.
Boulevard residents previously told KPBS they are concerned about the proximity of the battery storage containers to homes and a school.
Fires producing toxic gas have broken out at battery storage facilities in Otay Mesa and Escondido in recent years.
“We don’t think we’ll have a fire and if we do we have enough safeguards in place,” said Jim Whalen, the Starlight Solar project’s land use consultant.
Whalen went on to say that the lawsuit lacks merit. “I don’t think the lawsuit has any merit, number one. We will be addressing the allegations going forward. We’re going to try and see if we can settle,” he said.
He pointed out that projects like Starlight Solar help meet state and county green-energy mandates.
“The county has to approve renewable energy projects at scale, that’s a given. ‘Where do they go,’ is the only question. We think we’ve done the best job fitting a large project into an area with the least number of people being affected,” Whalen said.
A county spokesperson would not comment, citing the pending litigation.
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The new process could significantly extend the lifespan of perovskite solar cells.
A new catalytic process developed by South Korean researchers could extend the lifespan of perovskite solar cells by preserving 95 percent of their initial efficiency after 1,000 hours of testing.
The technology was invented by a group of scientists at the Daejeon-based Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER). The effort was led by SeJin Ahn, PhD, a faculty member and principal researcher at the institute. The team also collaborated with a group led by Dong-Seok Kim, PhD, at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST).
For the initiative, the cells were tested at temperatures of 185 degrees Fahrenheit (85 degrees Celsius) and 85 percent relative humidity. Still, even after 1,000 hours of exposure to extreme heat and humidity, they retained 95 percent of their initial power conversion efficiency.
According to the team, the new process could help perovskite solar cells compete with traditional silicon panels. “By solving the chronic lifetime issue, it will become an important milestone toward the commercialization of perovskite and tandem solar cells,” Ahn emphasized.
Perovskite solar cells are thin-film photovoltaic devices, which rely on perovskite materials to convert sunlight into electricity. They have attracted a great deal of attention in recent years because of their high energy conversion efficiency and potential for a low-cost manufacturing.
They are also cheap, easy to produce, and lightweight, which makes them suitable for flexible solar panels. But their lifespan is limited ranging from two to 10 years, compared with 25 to 30 years for silicon panels. They are also particularly vulnerable to heat and moisture, which can accelerate their degradation.
This reduces their long-term reliability, especially in hot and humid climates. The problem stems from lithium salts and additives in the hole transport layer. While these substances improve the cells’ efficiency, they also accelerate degradation.
In hot and humid conditions, the additives can evaporate, leaving tiny gaps in the thin film that reduce performance. At the same time, lithium ions can move freely inside the cell, and cause further damage and shortening its lifespan. Until now, researchers have struggled to eliminate these substances without compromising the cells’ ability to convert sunlight into electricity.
To tackle the issue, the KIER team’s new catalytic process called the post-catalytic reaction filtering extraction process. The method removes harmful lithium ions and eliminates the need for additives while maintaining high power conversion efficiency.
The technology uses a nickel oxide (NiOx) catalyst. It attracts and removes lithium ions from the solution used to create the hole transport layer. When added to the solution, the nickel oxide powder undergoes a reaction that changes its surface properties, thus allowing it to attract lithium ions.
The reaction separates lithium ions from the salt without chemical additives. The released ions then attach to the nickel oxide particles. The researchers then use a physical filtration process to remove the powder from the solution. Because the nickel oxide particles are relatively large, they become trapped in the filter, and remove the attached lithium ions with them.
This results in a purified solution free of additives, residual lithium, and catalyst, which can be used to produce a defect-free hole transport layer. The catalyst is then removed. To evaluate the technology, the team tested solar cells made with the new process and compared them with conventional cells.
As outlined, the technology greatly preserve the cells’ performance. However, the new cells also achieved 25.24 percent efficiency, which is slightly higher than the 25.21 percent of conventional cells made with additives. According to the team, this findings could improve tandem solar cells.
“This work is significant in that it breaks away from the conventional framework for perovskite fabrication and presents a new process that catalytically induces only the necessary reactions and then filters out the root-cause substances,” Ahn concluded in a press release.
The study has been published in the journal Advanced Science.

Based in Skopje, North Macedonia. Her work has appeared in Daily Mail, Mirror, Daily Star, Yahoo, NationalWorld, Newsweek, Press Gazette and others. She covers stories on batteries, wind energy, sustainable shipping and new discoveries. When she's not chasing the next big science story, she's traveling, exploring new cultures, or enjoying good food with even better wine.
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The battery storage system has a capacity of 3.7 megawatts and can deliver this output over a period of just over an hour. The photovoltaic system, which went into operation in December 2025, comprises 11,132 solar modules and has a capacity of more than 5 megawatts (MWp). By coupling the battery with the new PV system, the generated electricity can be used even when the sun isn't shining. With the new photovoltaic system, BVB can cover up to 45 percent of SIGNAL IDUNA PARK's electricity needs.
Carsten Cramer, Chairman of the Executive Board of Borussia Dortmund: "SIGNAL IDUNA PARK is not only our iconic home but also a central element of our comprehensive decarbonization strategy. With the battery storage system, we are working together with RWE to complete a forward-looking energy concept that makes our solar power even more usable. We are pleased that our stadium will continue to stand for resource-efficient and innovative practices in the future."
Dr. Markus Krebber, CEO of RWE AG: "With the commissioning of the battery storage system, the entire system—comprising the photovoltaic system and the battery—at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK is now fully operational. The integration of both systems allows us to use the solar power generated on-site even more flexibly—even when the sun isn't shining. The experts from BVB and RWE have breathed life and energy into our partnership through this project. This provides a solid foundation for further joint developments."
As a Premium Partner and an important part of the "BVB Empowers" initiative, RWE will continue to support BVB in optimizing energy management at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK as part of this six-year partnership. The goal is to further increase the stadium's contribution to energy security, energy efficiency, and decarbonization.

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Utility-scale solar accounted for 46% of Italy’s new PV capacity in the first nine months of 2026, says Italia Solare  
Italy added 1,953 MWh of battery storage capacity during the period, including 1,486 MWh associated with solar PV systems 
Industry associations are also urging the government to extend renewable energy community incentives to 2030 to accelerate project development 
Italy added 4.83 GW of solar PV capacity in the first nine months of 2026, driven by utility-scale and commercial and industrial (C&I) installations, while the residential segment contracted during H1 on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, according to Italia Solare.  
At the end of September 2026, Italy’s cumulative installed solar PV capacity reached 48.35 GW. 
Battery energy storage, on the other hand, continued to grow particularly alongside solar PV systems, says the industry association. 
The 9M new additions include 2.24 GW of solar PV capacity in the utility-scale segment, 1.7 GW in C&I, and 897 MW in the residential segment, representing 46%, 35%, and 19% of the total capacity installed, respectively. 
According to Terna’s official figures, Italia Solare says Italy’s utility-scale segment expanded by 858 MW (2025: 457 MW) in Q3 2026, with 394 MW from plants between 1 MW and 10 MW; another 464 MW came from facilities over 10 MW. 
The C&I segment added 543 MW (2025: 500 MW), and residential additions stood at 341 MW (2025: 312 MW). Growing interest in these segments shows that solar PV helps businesses reduce exposure to energy price fluctuations while enabling families to lower their electricity bills. 
Italia Solare President Paolo Rocco Viscontini welcomed growth in the utility-scale segment but called for continued support for the distributed generation segment and self-consumption. 
Most new installations during 9M 2026 were in Sicily (686 MW), followed by Lombardy (644 MW) and Piedmont (498 MW). 
The battery energy storage segment also grew considerably, with total capacity reaching 8,338 MW/19,983 MWh at the end of the reporting period. Of this, 12,552 MWh is associated with solar PV systems, and 7,368 MWh with standalone solar. The remainder was installed alongside thermoelectric plants and wind power plants. 
During Q3 2026, solar and storage installations grew by 252 MW/480 MWh and 31,039 systems. Compared with Q3 2025, connected capacity fell from 417 MWh, while the number of installations dropped from 32,697. Between January and September 2026, Italy’s battery energy storage additions totaled 1,953 MWh, including 1,486 MWh with solar PV systems and 467 MW standalone capacity. 
Fabio Zanellini, Coordinator of the Storage Working Group at ITALIA SOLARE, said that changes in the volume and composition of solar installations highlight the growing importance of energy storage in integrating renewable energy. He stressed the need for regulatory changes to recognize the value of storage in providing flexibility and remove restrictions related to system size and grid connection voltage levels.    
Italia Solare, along with other energy associations, has called for renewable energy community (REC) incentives to be extended from the current deadline of December 31, 2027 to December 31, 2030, or until Italy achieves its 5 GW incentivized capacity target, whichever comes first. This scheme offers support for renewable energy plants of up to 1 MW for a 20-year period.  
As of August 31, 2026, Italy had installed 523.6 MW of capacity, representing only 10% of the 5 GW target, they claim. To be able to achieve the target, they are calling for streamlined administrative processes and greater participation from small and medium enterprises (SMEs). 
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Solar Panels Are Now Wedding Gifts in Nigeria  Yahoo Finance
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For the latest news and features from Malaysia and the rest of the world.

SINGAPORE: Malaysia is prepared to assist Singapore in facilitating the implementation of a 300-megawatt (MW) renewable energy supply project involving floating solar photovoltaic systems at the Linggiu Dam in Johor, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof.
He said the matter was discussed during a bilateral meeting with Singapore’s Minister for Energy and Trade and Industry (Energy and Industry) Dr Tan See Leng on the sidelines of Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) 2026 on Monday.
Fadillah, who is also Minister of Energy Transition and Water Transformation, said the hour-long meeting also discussed efforts to strengthen cooperation between Malaysia and Singapore in the area of energy supply.
“There are several projects that they want to develop, and we have more or less agreed to assist and facilitate them, including an additional 300MW through a floating solar photovoltaic system at Linggiu Dam.”
Also present at the bilateral meeting was Malaysian High Commissioner to Singapore Datin Paduka Anizan Siti Hajjar Adnin.
Last August, Singapore’s Energy Market Authority (EMA) granted conditional approval to Sembcorp Utilities Pte Ltd for a 300MW renewable energy import project from Peninsular Malaysia to Singapore.
Meanwhile, Fadillah said Malaysia and Singapore had also agreed to proceed with an electricity subsea interconnector project between the two countries following the Joint Development Agreement signed in October 2025 between Singapore Energy Interconnections, SP PowerAssets and Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB).
“The second interconnector study has been completed, so we will look at how we can implement it,” he said.
Earlier, in his keynote address themed “Interconnecting Energy Systems to Power the Future”, Fadillah stressed that energy security was a strategic necessity in addressing geopolitical uncertainties, supply chain disruptions and rising electricity demand driven by economic growth, data centres and artificial intelligence (AI).
He highlighted the role of technology and financing as drivers of energy system transformation, noting that AI had the potential to enhance demand forecasting capabilities, optimise grid operations and facilitate the integration of renewable energy.
Fadillah also held meetings with international energy industry leaders, including the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Siemens Energy, ACWA Power, Electricité de France (EDF), Gentari and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
Among the matters discussed were strengthening clean energy industry supply chains, including turbine manufacturing and human capital development, as well as the role of governments in facilitating investment and promoting the adoption of the latest technologies in the clean energy sector.
The Deputy Prime Minister then witnessed the exchange of memoranda of understanding (MoUs) between the Energy Commission of Malaysia and EMA, as well as an MoU involving Ditrolic Energy, International Finance Corporation (IFC), DBS and Maybank to strengthen cooperation in the energy sector.
He also witnessed the presentation of conditional approval marking progress on the Vietnam-Malaysia-Singapore electricity interconnection project, involving cooperation between Sembcorp Utilities Pte Ltd and PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PTSC), Petronas and TNB.
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In Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions, where a civil war has dragged on for 10 years, abundant sunshine has become a source of hope and opportunity for hundreds of young internally displaced people, and a lifeline for the next generation.
The fighting has choked off job opportunities for youth and worsened the collapse of basic public services. Rural communities here face acute electricity shortages and have very limited access to quality health care. Mothers often give birth in the dark, and their children risk missing vital vaccines because clinics lack reliable power to provide lighting or appropriate cold storage for vaccines.
To address these threats to newborn survival across local health centers, Cameroonian clean-energy company Solar Bright Future, a subsidiary of local NGO Action for Advancing Sustainable Development (CAASDEV), set out to equip maternity wards with solar power in crisis-affected facilities through a program that trains young people displaced by the conflict.
The company installs solar power systems for maternity lighting and solar-powered vaccine cold-chain systems for safe vaccine preservation, with temperature monitoring. Their systems can also support equipment such as echography or ultrasound machines and sterilization devices, depending on system capacity.
Ndze Noel Lifogha, chief executive of Solar Bright Future, said in an interview with Mongabay that the initiative grew out of a tragedy at a clinic without electricity in Northwest several years ago. A woman displaced by the war reportedly lost her newborn twins after a kerosene lamp in the clinic sparked a fire that killed one of the infants on the spot. The second baby survived the flames but died days later, after being discharged from the clinic, according to Lifogha. The baby was especially vulnerable because it had not been vaccinated, as the health facility lacked electricity to refrigerate vaccines.
“Based on that experience, we had to think about how to address this challenge of energy poverty,” he said. “So we came up with the idea of solar energy, which would allow us to train young people in solar skills in order to provide essential services in maternity wards.”
Lifogha added: “Our approach is therefore an integrated solution that responds to the challenges of energy poverty, youth unemployment, climate change and maternal healthcare in conflict-affected communities in Cameroon’s Northwest region.”
Over the past three years, the company has trained at least 300 internally displaced men and women between 18 and 35 years old from Northwest to install and maintain solar power systems. Solar Bright Future has already brought solar power to 164 health facilities. That comprises 41 clinics equipped with lighting systems and 123 fitted with solar units dedicated to powering vaccine cold chains.
According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which supports solar initiatives in crisis-affected Cameroonian communities, more than 1,200 health facilities in the areas served by the project still face severe electricity shortages. Many operate without dependable power or still rely on fuel generators and kerosene lamps.
The UNDP is working closely with the Cameroonian government to provide sustainable solutions to the energy deficit facing health centers across the conflict-affected regions.
Mathieu Ciowela, resident representative of the UNDP in Cameroon said, “We prioritize facilities that are not connected to the electrical grid or whose power supply is very unstable, that serve rural and remote communities, that provide essential maternal and child health services, and that have critical needs for reliable lighting or power supply for the vaccine cold chain.”
Youths who complete Solar Bright’s three-month training program, during which they support the health care facilities, receive certificates recognized by Cameroon’s Ministry of Vocational Training. In addition to helping improve health care for children in conflict zones, they gain direct access to the job market and earn an income to support themselves.
“At least 60% of our graduates have already found a job, whether formal or informal,” Lifogha said. “The solar sector is an area where, as soon as you acquire the necessary knowledge, you jump right in. People need energy; then it is just a matter of negotiating, landing contracts, and starting to earn money right after graduating.”
Kudus Sony Kangimi, a 31-year-old former security guard who took part in the program, told Mongabay that being part of this initiative transformed his life.
“From guarding gates to leading green solutions that bring light and cleanliness to my community, I have found purpose,” he said. “It proves that despite the war, we youth can move from vulnerability to leadership and bring real hope, care, and sustainable change to our community,” Kangimi said.
Lifogha said 20% of graduates have started their own businesses, providing energy services to their communities.
For its work strengthening infant health care in maternity wards across Northwest through solar power, Solar Bright Future was selected as a finalist for the “Heroes of Tomorrow: U.N. SDG Action Awards” in the “Resilience” category. The competition is a special initiative of the U.N. secretary-general hosted by the UNDP. Winners will be announced Oct. 29.
Banner image: Internally displaced persons installing solar panels at a health center in northwestern Cameroon as part of the “Solar Bright Future” program. Image courtesy of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Action Campaign, an initiative of the UNDP.
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As the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant in the Brazilian Amazon marks 10 years of operation, it faces a contentious environmental license renewal. At the heart of the debate are urgent calls to revise the dam’s discharge into the Xingu River. But by holding back up to 70% of the river flow, water scarcity is pushing […]
© 2026 Copyright Conservation news. Mongabay is a U.S.-based non-profit conservation and environmental science news platform. Our EIN or tax ID is 45-3714703.
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Solar power play: Sunergise snaps up Infratec  BusinessDesk
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The savings were overtaken by higher transmission and distribution costs.
Photo Credit: iStock
Throughout the past five years, increases in solar power and battery storage in Texas and California have coincided with steep declines in wholesale electricity prices.
Monthly utility bills didn’t fall with those market prices, though, because the cost of getting electricity to homes continued to climb.
As Solar Power World reported, a study by the Solar Energy Industries Association found average summer wholesale electricity prices in 2026 were far below 2021 levels, down 42% in Texas and 51% in California. The analysis used inflation-adjusted 2026 dollars and compared June-to-August prices across Texas’s ERCOT grid and California’s CAISO market.
In the Lone Star State, average summer power prices fell from $54.97 per megawatt-hour to $31.77 even as demand climbed 30%. In the Golden State, prices dropped from $77.54/MWh to $38.32 while electricity demand rose 2.5%.
The trade group also reported major growth in both states over that span, with solar generation up 421% in Texas and 90% in California and battery storage expanding by over 26 times in Texas and nearly seven times in California.
Even when delivery costs push household bills higher, going solar can still be one of the best ways to save money at home. Solar leases can deliver hundreds of dollars in monthly savings with no upfront costs, and EasyHome lets readers check savings from vetted local installers for free.
Compared with the same summer period in 2021, the trade group estimated solar and storage produced $3.6 billion in savings for Texas and about $2.5 billion for California from June through August.
Residential customers did benefit on the generation side, according to the trade group, with generation costs down 4% in Texas and 10% in California over the five-year stretch. But those savings were overtaken by higher transmission and distribution costs, which helps explain why overall household electricity bills rose.
With energy prices through the roof, there’s never been a better time to go solar — and EasyHome can help you find the best prices from the best installers in your area.
EasyHome takes the guesswork and headaches out of energy upgrades by showing you estimated savings from a network of vetted local partners. To get started, just enter your ZIP and share a few details about your home — seeing your estimate is really that easy.
The findings indicate that added solar and battery capacity can reduce bulk power prices for both the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and California Independent System Operator, even while grid upgrades and delivery infrastructure continue to put separate cost pressure on households.
In both states, more solar and storage went hand in hand with lower wholesale electricity prices.
When utility delivery fees rise faster than generation costs fall, behind-the-meter power becomes more important. Producing some of your own electricity can help protect your budget from charges that are otherwise largely outside your control.
That’s where EasyHome can help. Its free explorer tool lets you compare nearby solar options, and it also helps you explore backup battery storage. Pairing solar with a battery can maximize savings and keep your home powered when the grid goes down.
EnergySage is another avenue, letting you compare competitive bids from local installers without sharing your contact information unless you choose to work with one.
“As the midterm elections approach, delivering affordable, reliable power is a priority that transcends party lines, and Texas and California are proof that the growth of solar and storage is driving down prices,” SEIA CEO Tim Pawlenty said.
Solar and storage trends are playing out in the country’s most populous states and elsewhere.
• In Texas, batteries and solar help ERCOT keep prices low during brutal summer demand.
• In California, rooftop solar turns into relief for low-income homes as power bills climb.
• For homeowners nationwide, solar rebates lower energy costs as electricity prices keep climbing.
• Across the U.S., rooftop solar helps households as utility-driven power costs rise.
• American households are hurting from massive rate hikes, and solar offers some protection.
Get TCD’s free newsletters for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here.
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Jakson Solar plans to invest up to ₹5,000 crore to build 3 gigawatts (GW) each of solar cell and solar ingot-wafer manufacturing capacity, expanding beyond module production as India works to deepen its domestic renewable-energy supply chain.
Managing Director Ivan Saha said the company aims to commission its 3 GW solar cell manufacturing capacity by December 2027. The planned ingot and wafer facilities are targeted for completion by the third quarter of financial year 2028, according to the company executive, who was speaking on the sidelines of the Renewable Energy India Expo.
The proposed facilities will primarily serve the merchant market, Saha said. Jakson Solar has already secured equipment procurement tie-ups for the manufacturing expansion, indicating that the company has begun preparing for the next stages of capacity creation.
The investment would extend Jakson Solar’s existing presence in the photovoltaic manufacturing chain. The company currently operates a 1.2 GW solar module-making plant, but the new plan would add upstream production of cells, ingots and wafers. These components are important stages in the manufacture of solar modules and are central to efforts to reduce reliance on imported inputs.
Saha said developing a domestic manufacturing ecosystem across the solar chain was necessary to avoid potential supply shocks. The proposed expansion comes as India is seeking to build greater control over the equipment and materials needed for its solar-energy programme.
India has already mandated the use of domestically manufactured solar modules and cells in specified parts of the renewable-energy market. The government has also laid out a framework to extend local-content requirements to solar ingots and wafers from June 1, 2028. The policy direction is intended to deepen domestic manufacturing and reduce import dependence on China.
The timing of Jakson Solar’s proposed upstream capacity broadly aligns with that policy transition. The company expects its solar cell capacity to be operational several months before the planned local-content framework for ingots and wafers takes effect, while its ingot-wafer facilities are targeted for commissioning in the third quarter of financial year 2028.
The expansion also comes against the backdrop of India’s longer-term clean-energy commitments. The country is counting on solar power to help achieve its target of reaching net-zero emissions by 2070, increasing the importance of manufacturing capacity alongside the development of solar-generation projects.
The company has not disclosed in the supplied announcement the locations of the proposed facilities, the investment split between the three manufacturing segments, or the number of jobs expected to be created. Its stated next milestones are the commissioning of 3 GW of cell capacity by December 2027 and the planned completion of 3 GW of ingot-wafer capacity in the third quarter of financial year 2028.

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ARRAY and Aeeris bring automated hail stow to Australian solar PV plants  PV Tech
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Support for a new UK-backed renewable energy initiative designed to help humanitarian agencies replace expensive diesel generators with solar and battery power and free up valuable resources for frontline services is being announced by the international ZE-Gen initiative ahead of the 2026 Global Off-Grid Solar Forum and Expo in Kigali, Rwanda (27-29 October).
The ‘Zero’ project, backed by the UK Government’s Ayrton Fund via seed-funding from the Transforming Energy Access platform through the ZE-Gen initiative, is piloting a renewable energy utility model with UN agencies in Chad that that is cutting energy costs by at least 25 percent, reducing emissions and creating a blueprint for wider adoption across humanitarian operations.
Diesel generators remain widely used across humanitarian operations, including offices, water and sanitation facilities, accommodation and camp infrastructure. Humanitarian agencies are estimated to spend more than $100 million each year on generator fuel, leaving them exposed to volatile prices, fragile supply chains, high maintenance costs and avoidable emissions.
The pilot in Chad is testing an energy-as-a-service model in which humanitarian agencies pay an agreed tariff for only the electricity they use, rather than financing, procuring and maintaining the actual renewable energy systems themselves. The first system is operating at a UN agency’s country office in N’Djamena and is projected to reduce generator runtime by 73-85 percent. A second site is currently under development. Together, the first two sites are expected to save around $1 million over ten years.
The ZE-Gen project is delivered by the Access to Energy Institute (A2EI), with support from the Global Platform for Action.  Zero combines solar and battery systems with smart metering and digital monitoring to improve energy planning, performance and investment readiness. A2EI finances, builds and operates the systems through trusted local partners, while GPA supports engagement and partnerships with humanitarian and UN agencies.
The project aims to prove that humanitarian organisations can gain access to more reliable and affordable renewable electricity without taking on the upfront cost, specialist procurement or long-term maintenance responsibilities that can hold back renewable energy projects in humanitarian settings.
It will also generate open evidence that can help humanitarian agencies, investors and funders understand the economics and performance of renewable energy in difficult operating environments, developing an investable project pipeline and the potential to deploy additional systems by early 2027. Potential countries identified in the project material include Chad, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Nigeria.
“Humanitarian agencies need reliable power to deliver water, healthcare, protection and other essential support, but many remain dependent on expensive diesel generators – costing millions of dollars in polluting fuel” said Lily Beadle, ZE-Gen Programme Director at the Carbon Trust. “At the Carbon Trust, we work with partners to identify and scale practical solutions to complex energy challenges. ZERO is a strong example of that approach, testing a model that could help humanitarian agencies access cleaner, more affordable power without taking on major upfront costs. ZE-Gen has backed the first phase of ZERO with funding from Ayrton Fund via Transforming Energy Access because the model has the potential to move beyond individual solar installations and create a route to wider, commercially sustainable change. Every pound spent on generator fuel is money that cannot be used elsewhere in the humanitarian response. We are now looking for funders and investment partners that can help ZE-Gen take ZERO to more humanitarian sites and support other high-potential solutions that can replace fossil fuel generators at scale.”
For additional information:
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A Lake County zoning board approved a 49-acre solar farm with 13,000 panels in unincorporated Mundelein on land bordering Hawthorn Woods and Long Grove after officials from both villages and residents spoke against it.
The Lake County Zoning Board of Appeals approved a conditional use permit for the commercial solar energy system on October 7 following a public hearing at Knights Banquets in Lake Zurich.
The meeting agenda called for the board to go into closed session to deliberate after hearing the evidence.
The vote count was not immediately available because the minutes of the meeting have not been finalized.
Mundelein Real Estate Investments LLC owns the property, about 49 acres made up of four parcels in the 20500 and 20600 blocks of West Indian Creek Road in unincorporated Mundelein, according to county records.
Lake County Solar 3 LLC, which has held an option to buy the property since June 2024, is the co-applicant and New Leaf Energy, a Lowell, Massachusetts, company, is representing both in the application filed August 11.
The application describes a community solar facility of around five megawatts with 13,075 First Solar panels mounted on trackers that tilt to follow the sun across 35 fenced acres of the property.
The application does not include battery storage.
The property is farmland zoned for estate homes, with Long Grove to the north across the railroad tracks and Hawthorn Woods to the south across Indian Creek Road, according to a county staff report.
Hawthorn Woods’ long-range plan calls for single-family homes on the land and the county’s plan calls for homes on 1- to 3-acre lots, the report said.
Lake County Assistant Planning and Zoning Manager Frank Olson recommended approval in the report, finding the project met county requirements for fencing, height, setbacks and a plan to remove the equipment when it is no longer used.
The system would be surrounded by an eight-foot fence and the panels would not exceed 20 feet in height, Olson said.
“Further, per the statute, conditional use permit applications shall be approved if found to be in compliance with the statutory standards,” Olson said in the report.
Olson said state law bars counties from adopting zoning rules that keep commercial solar facilities out of any district that allows agriculture and the county’s code allows agriculture in every zoning district, which means a solar facility is allowed on the estate-zoned land.
The zoning board’s decision on commercial solar permits is final and does not go to the Lake County Board and its review of those permits “does not involve discretionary judgment,” according to the county’s website.
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources concluded that adverse effects on protected resources near the site are unlikely and recommended pollinator-friendly ground cover, a six-inch gap under the fence for wildlife and clearing trees only between November 1 and March 31, Olson said.
The property has wetlands in parts of its north and southwest sides but no floodplain, the report said.
The project still needs a county site development permit and building permits. Any effects on wetlands would be reviewed by the Lake County Stormwater Management Commission, the report said.
New Leaf Energy estimated it would cost $488,254 to remove the system, according to a cost estimate in the application.
The owner must guarantee 10% of that cost by the first anniversary of the system’s operation, 50% by the sixth and the full amount by the 11th under an agreement with the Illinois Department of Agriculture.
Lake County Board member Jessica Vealitzek, whose district includes the property, said earlier this month that state law limits what the county can do with projects like this one.
“The statute that governs commercial solar in unincorporated areas essentially prevents counties from saying no if the project checks all the boxes in the statute,” Vealitzek said.
“The ZBA does have discretion with landscaping and buffering; this is an area residents can influence,” Vealitzek said.
“There is no credible evidence that passive solar fields create negative health consequences for humans or wildlife; claims otherwise are unfounded,” Vealitzek said.
A resident who attended the hearing said that Hawthorn Woods officials spoke against the project for about an hour and Long Grove officials for about a half-hour and that about 25 residents objected.
Concerns raised at the hearing included the project’s closeness to homes, possible contamination of private wells, stormwater runoff and flooding along Indian Creek, noise from the inverters, the landscaping plan and who would pay to remove the equipment, the resident said.
Another attendee said that no one other than the solar company spoke in favor of the project.
Long Grove Village President Bill Jacob said at a recent village board meeting that the vote was unanimous.
Jacob, who lives in a subdivision on the other side of the railroad tracks from the property, said the land had always been planned for homes in Hawthorn Woods’ comprehensive plan under a boundary agreement between the two villages.
Jacob said the village’s attorney would bring back options the village might pursue to lessen the project’s impact and that he did not know whether the village could stop it.
Long Grove opposed a developer’s plan, first brought to the village at the end of 2024, to install a solar system on up to 30 acres of a 90-acre parcel on Gilmer Road across from the Kildeer Countryside school campus, Jacob previously said.
Jacob said the developer filed a lawsuit to disconnect that property from Long Grove “with the assumption that the county would approve the project” and later voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit.
Jacob called the episode “a stark warning of how seemingly well-intended state and county green energy mandates can easily collide with our village’s intentional, generational zoning plans designed to protect our pastoral community.”
An application to build a solar farm on around 38 acres in the 25400 block of North Fairfield Road near Hawthorn Woods also drew opposition from the village and residents in 2024.
Then-state Sen. Dan McConchie said in April 2024 that the application had been withdrawn.
The Hawthorn Woods Village Board approved an agreement on July 27 with Lake County Solar 3 LLC setting requirements for the company’s use of village roads, according to meeting minutes.
Residents in community Facebook groups and on Nextdoor have objected since the hearing to the project’s closeness to homes and its possible effects on property values, wells, stormwater and wildlife, as well as the loss of farmland.
Others said the solar farm would be a quiet neighbor and would keep a data center or other development off the land.
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Insolation Energy Ltd (INA Solar), through its subsidiary Insolation Green Energy, has entered into a five-year strategic partnership with US-based Caelux Corp. to commercialise 3 GW of advanced solar modules integrating Caelux’s energy-producing glass technology with INA Solar’s n-type TOPCon platform. The collaboration aims to develop high-efficiency hybrid-tandem solar modules, with commercial production targeting module efficiencies of up to 29% by 2028.
The technology combines TOPCon solar cells with a Perovskite-based power-generating glass layer designed to boost energy generation, increase energy density and reduce the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE).
INA Solar and Caelux will work together on technology validation, manufacturing readiness and applicable regulatory approvals, including ALMM requirements
Manish Gupta, Chairman, Insolation Energy Ltd, said this collaboration marks an important milestone for INA Solar. “By combining advanced Perovskite technology with our TOPCon manufacturing capabilities, we aim to accelerate the development of high-efficiency solar modules and contribute to India’s renewable energy ambitions,” said Gupta.
Vikas Jain, managing director of Insolation Energy Ltd, added, “The partnership strengthens our focus on building an integrated solar manufacturing ecosystem. We remain committed to innovation, advanced technology and delivering high-performance solar solutions.”
Scott Graybeal, CEO, Caelux Corp., said the partnership with INA Solar is an important step towards bringing next-generation solar technology into commercial production at scale in India. With this agreement, Caelux’s global contracted volume with module manufacturers exceeds 25 GW.
Vish Iyer, Managing Director, India & West Asia, Caelux, said, “Integrating Energy Producing Glass with TOPCon technology represents a significant step towards the Indian market benefiting from ultra-high power density solar modules.”
INA Solar currently operates three solar module manufacturing facilities in Jaipur, Rajasthan, with a combined annual capacity of 5.5 GW. The company is also developing a 4.5 GW TOPCon solar cell manufacturing facility and an 18,000 MTA aluminium frame manufacturing facility in Narmadapuram, Madhya Pradesh. Its product portfolio includes TOPCon and Mono PERC modules ranging from 500 Wp to 635 Wp, along with EPC services. The company also has an Independent Power Producer (IPP) portfolio of approximately 400 MW.
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Jaipur, Rajasthan, Insolation Energy Limited is listed on the NSE and BSE. The company has a presence across more than 250 districts, serves over 40,000 customers and works with a network of 1,000+ channel partners.
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Masdar to acquire 550MW solar PV project from Lightsource bp in Greece  PV Tech
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