Solar Now

Ireland’s solar sector is preparing for a significant test under the country’s sixth Renewable Electricity Support Scheme auction (RESS 6), which introduces new EU-driven criteria alongside the traditional focus on price.
“We expect solar to compete strongly in RESS 6,” Leanne Donovan, Policy Manager, Solar Ireland, told pv magazine, as Ireland’s solar industry prepares for the government-run sixth renewable energy auction (RESS 6) process.
RESS 6 is the first Irish auction to incorporate the European Union’s Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) rules around pricing. Since December 2025, Article 26 of the NZIA requires Member States to apply non-price criteria in renewable energy auctions to boost competitiveness while also promoting the integration of renewable resources into national grids.
Under Ireland’s interpretation of these rules, price accounts for 85% of the overall score, with the remainder allocated non-price criteria.
RESS 6 will have separate technology pots for solar and onshore wind which allows both a fairer chance to compete, said Donovan. In RESS 5, around 853 MW of solar was successful compared with 219 MW of onshore wind.
“Solar’s previous performance gives us confidence, but it is still too early to predict the outcome of RESS 6. This will depend on the capacity available within the solar pot, the number of qualifying projects, bid prices, financing conditions and whether the wider grid and regulatory framework will support project delivery. Ultimately, success should be judged not only by the capacity awarded, but by whether those projects can be financed, connected, and built,” Donovan said.
Solar has performed very well in previous auctions, securing the largest volume of successful capacity in each one to date. However, as with any new system, the market needs time to adjust and Donovan believes it is to early to predict the outcome of RESS 6. “Cost competitiveness will remain the dominant factor,” she said.
Solar capacity will remain at 11% despite a proposal to change it to 14%. Donovan said Solar Ireland welcomes this. “The 14% proposal was based on a high-output scenario intended to represent the technical capability of solar plants. However, we believed the auction should use an assumption that more closely reflects actual operating experience in Ireland. Using a realistic capacity factor provides a clearer and more credible basis for developers preparing their projects and avoids calculations being based on an expectation of annual output that may not be achieved in practice.”
Non-price criteria
Outside of the 85% price weighting, RESS 6 allocates 10% to energy system integration and 5% to system resilience.
The 10% energy system integration score will allocate up to 2.5% for projects incorporating a secondary technology and 7.5% for battery storage.
According to Donovan, the government needs to act fast to ensure Ireland’s regulatory policy lines up with the new RESS 6 rules.
“An auction incentive can only work if the wider electricity market and regulatory framework allow developers to deliver and operate those projects effectively.” Donovan added that the utility regulator’s decision to enable the sharing of Maximum Export Capacity is a good start, but it needs to be implemented quickly. Plus, it is currently limited to co-located projects where the different technologies are separately registered and operate independently, with a single legal entity behind the connection point.
Further reforms are needed to facilitate integrated hybrid units and energy sharing behind the connection point, including allowing batteries to store renewable electricity that would otherwise be wasted.
“Ireland needs arrangements that accommodate multiple legal entities behind one connection point, alongside clear rules covering charging, metering, settlement, dispatch, grid-code compliance and access to system services and other storage revenues. Until those reforms are in place, developers may be incentivized through RESS 6 to commit to capabilities that the wider system does not yet fully support,” said Donovan, warning that “Closing that gap will be essential if the new criteria are to translate into deliverable projects and genuine system benefits.”
The qualification window is open to interested parties until August 27, and final qualification decisions will be announced on Oct. 21.
Before qualification, applicants are required to submit a RESS 6 qualification declaration, a Bid Bond Submission Form and a Bid Bond Application Return Form. Following the final qualification decisions, applicants deemed qualified must submit a financial questionnaire to the government. Applicants are also obliged to submit a resilience declaration declaring their RESS 6 project complies with the minimum resilience requirements.
Full details can be found in EirGrid’s information pack here. The final RESS 6 auction results will be announced on 2 Dec., with awardees to be notified on 10 Dec. The auction submission window will open on 29 Oct. through to 5 Nov. and provisional results will be announced on 18 Nov.

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Our special edition for Intersolar South America 2026 is here!
Discover the latest insights into the Brazilian solar market – in Portuguese.
Entries open in seven categories: Modules, Inverters, BoS, BESS, Manufacturing, Sustainability, Projects.
April 01 – August 31, 2026
A two-day conference in Austin, Texas, bringing together leaders in US solar manufacturing, equipment specification, and factory execution.
Saudi Arabia is accelerating its clean energy transition—join the SunRise Arabia Clean Energy Conference 2026 in Riyadh to explore how solar PV and energy storage are powering its digital economy.
Thursday, August 27, 2026
5:30 am – 6:30 am CEST, Berlin, Paris, Madrid
pv magazine USA hosts its third multi-day virtual event on advancing U.S. solar and energy storage markets, covering financing, supply chains, and distributed energy’s role in grid resilience.
Thursday, October 7, 2026
11:00 am – 12:30 pm CEST, Berlin, Paris, Madrid

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DC-coupled solar-plus-storage projects can reduce the time needed for grid connection approval by “up to six months” compared with AC-coupled designs, according to panellists speaking at the Battery Asset Management Summit Australia 2026 in Sydney today (26 August).
Speaking on the panel “Hybrid Solar-Plus-Storage in Australia: Navigating Design, Operations, and Economic Optimisation” on day two of the event, Alistair Gibson, senior key account executive for utility BESS, hybrid and PV at Sungrow Australia, said the connection process for DC-coupled projects is simpler because the solar and battery components are assessed as a single integrated system rather than separately.
“The process for grid connection with DC-coupled projects is much simpler. What that really leads to is a reduction in the time of the Generator Performance Standards (GPS) or the connection process, by up to six months,” Gibson said.
Gibson noted that DC-coupling also reduces capital costs by requiring fewer inverters, since only a PV inverter is needed rather than separate PV and battery inverters.
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He adds that some suppliers, including Sungrow, now integrate DC-DC converters directly into battery containers, eliminating the need to purchase converters separately and further reducing balance-of-plant costs.
Toby Roberts, country director for developer and independent power producer (IPP) Elements Green in Australia, described the underlying distinction in simpler terms.
“DC basically are connected behind the meter before connecting into the grid,” he said, contrasting that with his own project, which uses four separate AC connection points across dual 275kV transmission lines.
Roberts added that the choice between AC and DC coupling is largely irreversible once made.
“It’s very much an early decision-making process in the design and development of a project. You can either do both, but it’s expensive, and it’s effectively a complete redo.”
Jack Han, strategic market expansion and transaction at Tesla, said the right architecture depends on how a developer intends to monetise the asset.
“It really depends on what you’re trying to do revenue-wise. AC-coupled might be a bit more flexible for you,” Han said, noting that DC-coupled projects typically use grid-following rather than grid-forming inverters, meaning developers may still face system strength charges depending on configuration.
Gibson added that some original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), including Sungrow, now offer grid-forming capability on DC-coupled systems as well, which he emphasised “changes the game in terms of making sure those system strength charges can be avoided even with a DC-coupled scenario.”
The panellists said battery storage warranty terms have lengthened to align more closely with solar asset lifespans. Han said that Tesla now offers a 25-year design life on its battery storage systems.
“I think we’ve essentially approached parity,” he said, though he cautions that developers need to assess whether individual components, and the companies backing them, are likely to still exist over that timeframe.
Gibson said the shift from 20-year to 25-year warranty terms has become a bankability requirement in the Australian market.
“It was initially 20 years that was the requirement for warranties and performance guarantees. Now it’s 25 years, and that’s becoming a bankability requirement as well,” he said.
Simon Franklin, country director for EDP Renewables Australia, said the extended warranty terms matter less for revenue modelling than for financing structure.
“This extension from say 20 years to 25 years is not necessarily hugely important for our financial model,” he said.
“But it can be important from a banking perspective if you can amortise that debt over a 25-year life. That helps you leverage ratios.”
On retrofitting battery storage systems to existing solar PV power plants, Evonne Bennett, chief operating officer at Aula Energy, believes land availability, connection agreements and the age of existing inverter technology all shape whether a project is a viable retrofit candidate.
“It really is a myriad of choices,” Bennett said.
“How quickly can you get this hybrid or retrofit to final investment decision (FID), bankability, and then it is actually built?” becomes a central question as existing power purchase agreements expire and merchant risk exposure grows.
Gibson added that older inverter technology can force developers back through the full grid connection approval process.
“If it’s an old technology, the question is when you actually go in to have a look from the Generator Performance Standards perspective, you actually may lead to potentially having to restart, redo the whole GPS process altogether,” he said.
Panellists highlighted that the growing demand from data centre operators is changing how hybrid projects are structured and sold.
Bennett said data centre load is emerging as a source of demand that could offset falling midday prices as more solar and battery storage capacity enters the market.
“There’s less arbitrage, but that’s also paired with the energy transition and wanting firm products to replace those baseload coals,” she said.
Franklin believes some counterparties are pushing hybrid projects toward fixed-output contracts that do not reflect how the underlying assets are best operated.
“A lot of the gentailers at the moment are really forcing projects to go to firm products. You’re kind of having to guarantee your output, which is really sort of concerning as a project owner because you expose yourself to a short position risk,” he said.
Roberts adds that educating offtakers on how to extract value from a hybrid asset, rather than forcing it into a flat-load structure, “has been probably one of the biggest challenges for us.”
Franklin also points to a practical constraint on hybrid contracting connection capacity that often prevents a project from generating and discharging simultaneously at full output.
Describing a New South Wales project with a 500MW connection shared between a 450MW battery and 450MW of solar, he said: “We clearly cannot generate both at the same time. I cannot fully sell both assets, or I risk a position where I cannot meet that settlement.”
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KERC Revises Solar Feed-In Tariffs For Distributed Solar Photovoltaic And SPV Projects In Karnataka  SolarQuarter
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The weekly average electricity price increased across most major European markets last week as TTF gas futures prices reached their highest level since January 2023, according to analysis by AleaSoft Energy Forecasting.
The Spanish consultancy recorded an increase in the weekly average electricity price across the British, Belgian, Dutch, French, German and Nordic markets last week, while the average price fell in the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese markets.
Weekly averages stood above €110 ($128.35)/MWh across all analyzed markets. The Italian market had the highest weekly average, of €168.31/MWh, followed by the British market, at €163.97/MWh. The Nordic market had the lowest average of the week, at €111.76/MWh.
AleaSoft attributes the upward trend in electricity prices last week to TTF gas futures prices reaching a weekly maximum settlement of €65.86/MWh, for the highest price recorded since Jan. 23, 2023.
The consultancy says European gas reserves exceeded 60% of their capacity in mid‑August, but remained below the average for that time of year over the last five years. 
“This level of reserves, together with the uncertainty over liquefied natural gas supply because of the tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, favored the upward trend of TTF gas futures during the week,” AleaSoft explained.
Solar energy production fell across France, Germany, Portugal and Spain last week but this was offset in Portugal and Spain due to an increase in wind energy production, AleaSoft adds.
The consultancy is expecting this week to bring a downturn in the weekly average electricity price across most markets, with solar energy production expected to rebound against the previous week in Germany and Italy.
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Our special edition for Intersolar South America 2026 is here!
Discover the latest insights into the Brazilian solar market – in Portuguese.
Entries open in seven categories: Modules, Inverters, BoS, BESS, Manufacturing, Sustainability, Projects.
April 01 – August 31, 2026
A two-day conference in Austin, Texas, bringing together leaders in US solar manufacturing, equipment specification, and factory execution.
Saudi Arabia is accelerating its clean energy transition—join the SunRise Arabia Clean Energy Conference 2026 in Riyadh to explore how solar PV and energy storage are powering its digital economy.
Thursday, August 27, 2026
5:30 am – 6:30 am CEST, Berlin, Paris, Madrid
pv magazine USA hosts its third multi-day virtual event on advancing U.S. solar and energy storage markets, covering financing, supply chains, and distributed energy’s role in grid resilience.
Thursday, October 7, 2026
11:00 am – 12:30 pm CEST, Berlin, Paris, Madrid

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Rompetrol Rafinare is continuing its investments aimed at increasing energy efficiency and reducing the carbon footprint of the Vega Ploiești refinery through the development of a 4.8 MW photovoltaic power plant, coupled with an energy storage system of approximately 9 MWh.
The new photovoltaic facility is expected to generate more than 6,200 MWh of renewable electricity annually, with the entire volume intended for the refinery’s own consumption. The integrated storage system will enable more flexible management of the electricity produced and help optimize its use according to the refinery’s consumption profile and operational requirements.
According to Rompetrol Rafinare, the project is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 3,800 tonnes of CO₂ annually, supporting the improvement of the energy and environmental performance of the Vega industrial platform.
The photovoltaic project is scheduled for completion by the end of 2028.
The investment is part of the ongoing modernization and efficiency program at the Vega refinery, which has contributed to higher yields and more efficient technological processes. Among the projects implemented is the modernization of the Vacuum Distillation Unit, which increased its yield from approximately 60% to almost 90%.
Vega is currently the only refinery in Romania producing bitumen and n-hexane. Its operational development continues to be supported by investments in modernization, technological upgrades and process optimization.
The new renewable energy project is expected to further strengthen the refinery’s energy efficiency while contributing to the gradual reduction of its environmental footprint.
Since 2004, ‘The Diplomat – Bucharest’ aims to bring a fair and balanced analysis and comprehensive coverage of the political and business scene in Romania.
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Energy efficiency tech group acquires LED lighting and solar PV brands  Insider Media Ltd
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North America-based IPP Invenergy has secured $215 million in tax equity from clean energy capital platform Crux for its 240 MW Pleasant Prairie Solar Energy Center in Franklin County, Ohio. The project is under construction and is expected to begin commercial operations in 2027. Crux Capital Securities structured the investment through a Crux-managed vehicle, designed to monetize federal investment tax credits. Separately, Invenergy and Grant County Public Utility District (Grant PUD) have broken ground on the 120 MW Quincy Solar Energy Center near Moses Lake, Washington. The project marks Grant PUD’s first solar project in Grant County and Invenergy’s first solar project in Washington to reach construction. It is expected to begin operations in late 2027. 
Aggreko, the UK-based mobile, modular power solutions company, has publicly filed a Form F-1 registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed initial public offering (IPO) of its ordinary shares. The company plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the proposed ticker AGKO. The company has not disclosed the number of shares, offering price range, or timing, saying the offering remains subject to market conditions. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and BofA Securities are serving as joint lead bookrunning managers, with several other banks acting as bookrunners and co-managers. The registration statement has been filed but is not yet effective, said Aggreko. 
US renewable energy projects developer Swift Current Energy has closed a $750 million corporate credit facility to support its energy development activities across the country. The three-year, dual-tranche facility includes an option to increase the credit capacity by another $250 million, bringing the potential total to $1 billion. Swift says the facility will provide it with cash and letter-of-credit capacity as it develops, commercializes, owns, and operates large-scale energy projects. Since 2016, it claims to have commercialized 5 GW of clean energy projects, owns and operates more than 1 GW, and has more than 10 GW under development. Crédit Agricole CIB, ING Capital, and Truist Securities were among the lead arrangers for the financing, with Crédit Agricole CIB and ING Capital also serving as green loan structuring agents. 
Coreshell Technologies, a California-based battery technology company developing lithium-ion batteries with metallurgical silicon (MGS) anodes, has been selected by the US Department of Energy (DOE) for a $50 million award. The funding, provided under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will support the expansion of Coreshell’s manufacturing facilities and the development of a US gigafactory for lithium-ion batteries using MGS anodes instead of graphite. Coreshell and project partner AM Batteries plan to establish about 2 GWh of electrode manufacturing capacity and 1.5 GWh of cell assembly capacity. AM Batteries will provide its dry-electrode coating technology for cathode production. The project aims to reduce US dependence on imported graphite and other foreign battery supply chains for electric vehicle (EV) and defense applications. It also offers a path to energy storage that isn’t ‘hostage’ to a foreign supply chain, said Coreshell CEO and Co-Founder Jonathan Tan. 
Solar PV manufacturer Qcells is expanding its alliance with tech giant Microsoft to explore ways to add new energy capacity alongside the technology company’s growing AI infrastructure. Under a proposed ‘bring-your-own-capacity’ (BYOC) model, Qcells would develop and build new energy resources that could supply Microsoft directly or the local utility serving nearby communities. Microsoft would fund the power needed for its operations, aiming to match new data center demand with additional energy resources. The companies are also exploring virtual power plants (VPPs) that would aggregate residential and commercial batteries to provide electricity to the grid during periods of peak demand. Qcells said it plans to prioritize participation from income-qualified households. The expanded collaboration builds on an existing relationship that began in 2023 with a 2.5 GW solar module and EPC agreement and was expanded to 12 GW in 2024 (see Qcells Bags 12 GW Order For US-Made Solar PV Modules). 
38 Degrees North (38DN), a US renewable energy platform focused on community solar and distributed generation, has secured a new debt facility from energy and infrastructure investor EIG. The financing will support 38DN’s development pipeline and near-term acquisitions, and can expand as new opportunities arise. The company said the new debt brings its total growth capital raised to more than $300 million. Founded in 2015, 38DN has more than 100 projects and 500 MW under construction or in operation. It also has an advanced pipeline of more than 250 MW expected to enter construction over the next 24 months. 
Aspen Power, a US distributed energy platform, has secured a tax capital commitment covering investment tax credits (ITCs) from its 2026-2027 community solar portfolio. The portfolio includes up to 30 projects across multiple states. The transaction was structured through a partnership between US clean energy tax credit marketplace Basis Climate and clean energy infrastructure investment firm Excelsior Energy Capital. The partnership was formed to deploy up to $150 million in minority equity into distributed solar and battery storage projects. Aspen will own and operate the projects over the long term. The ITCs are committed for transfer under Section 6418 of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), allowing Aspen to monetize the credits generated by the projects. 
US solar company Lightstar Renewables says it has been selected for eight conditional awards under New Jersey’s inaugural Dual-Use Solar Energy Pilot Program. The awards cover about 27.3 MW of planned solar capacity across Monmouth, Salem, Warren, and Cumberland counties. Lightstar was one of only three developers selected in the first solicitation under which the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities conditionally approved 16 projects totaling 52.06 MW statewide. Lightstar said the selected projects include farming activities involving crops such as soybeans, hay, grains, vegetables, and fruits, as well as livestock grazing. The awards remain conditional, with projects required to meet the program’s requirements before moving forward.  
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Tigo Energy and Ingeteam Certify Compatibility Across Solar Technology Products  Yahoo Finance
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This month’s good climate news: Wins for the Amazon Rainforest & DIY solar panels  AOL.com
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Brazil-based Fortlev Solar has presented Aquafort, a floating PV system developed for reservoirs, lakes, ponds and dams, at Intersolar South America 2026, held from Aug. 25 to 27 at Expo Center Norte in São Paulo.
The modular polyethylene structure uses central and walkway floats to support PV modules while providing access for maintenance crews during inspections and servicing.
The company said the system can withstand waves of up to 1 meter and wind speeds of up to 45 m/s. It said the system enables the use of water surfaces for power generation without foundations and offers resistance to corrosion and solar radiation.
The floating structures are made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and are available in different configurations for module support, intermediate connections and maintenance access. The system includes four main float types – P01, P02, P03 and P04 – along with plastic fasteners, load diffusers, and front and rear module supports. The P04 float is designed to provide maintenance access within the floating array.
Aquafort is compatible with M10 and M12 module formats. The product datasheet specifies M10 modules with widths of around 1.13 meters and lengths ranging from 1.72 meters to 2.28 meters, while M12 modules are approximately 1.30 meters wide and between 1.75 meters and 2.38 meters long. Fortlev Solar said the module format must be selected during the plant layout stage because it directly affects the design of the flotation, anchoring and structural systems.
The individual floats have structural load capacities ranging from 100 kg to 120 kg, depending on the model, and specified tensile capacities ranging from 800 kg to 1,200 kg. The company estimates that an Aquafort installation requires around 7,500 square meters of water surface per MWp of installed PV capacity.
The system uses dedicated walkway and intermediate floats to provide access through the array, while plastic bolts connect adjoining float elements. Load diffusers are installed at specific points in the system, including along the sides of the array and in front of module-support floats.
Fortlev Solar lists a 25-year service life and a 10-year manufacturing warranty for the floats.
“The system is part of the company’s strategy to expand its proprietary product portfolio to accommodate a wider range of project configurations,” Fortlev Solar President Vladimir Soares told pv magazine.
The portfolio on display at the trade fair also includes Condufort, a corrugated conduit designed to protect cables in PV projects and other electrical installations. The company said the product is intended to improve protection against external elements and reduce the risk of technical failures.

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Our special edition for Intersolar South America 2026 is here!
Discover the latest insights into the Brazilian solar market – in Portuguese.
Entries open in seven categories: Modules, Inverters, BoS, BESS, Manufacturing, Sustainability, Projects.
April 01 – August 31, 2026
A two-day conference in Austin, Texas, bringing together leaders in US solar manufacturing, equipment specification, and factory execution.
Saudi Arabia is accelerating its clean energy transition—join the SunRise Arabia Clean Energy Conference 2026 in Riyadh to explore how solar PV and energy storage are powering its digital economy.
Thursday, August 27, 2026
5:30 am – 6:30 am CEST, Berlin, Paris, Madrid
pv magazine USA hosts its third multi-day virtual event on advancing U.S. solar and energy storage markets, covering financing, supply chains, and distributed energy’s role in grid resilience.
Thursday, October 7, 2026
11:00 am – 12:30 pm CEST, Berlin, Paris, Madrid

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The Environment Ministry plans to abolish subsidies for solar panels under its financial aid program for facilitating the introduction of photovoltaic power generation systems, sources have said.
Behind the move are falling prices of solar panels. Subsidies will not be paid for solar panels to be newly purchased in fiscal 2027 and beyond while installation costs will remain eligible for the aid in principle, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Subsidies will also continue to be available for projects that are under way.
The ministry plans to shift its focus to the promotion of next-generation perovskite solar cells, key materials for which can be sourced domestically, as a part of efforts to strengthen industrial competitiveness. It is expected to request ¥28 billion in related funds under the government’s budget for fiscal 2027, which starts next April, roughly four times the amount under the fiscal 2026 budget.
Currently, the ministry provides businesses that install solar power generation equipment at places such as parking lots and farmland with subsidies at fixed amounts or at certain rates to help them cover purchase, installation and labor costs.
But many of the public comments sought for a review of the support program said that benefits of the aid for solar panels to domestic industries are limited.
China controls over 80% of the global market for conventional solar panels, and Japan relies on imports for most of its procurement for domestic supply.
Prices of conventional panels have fallen about 50% from their peak level due to mass production around the world.
Meanwhile, Japan ranks second in the world in the production of iodine, a key material for perovskite solar cells.
The government hopes that power generation by perovskite solar cells in 2040 will reach 20 gigawatts, equivalent to the output by 40 nuclear reactors.
As problems have been reported from many large-scale solar power projects, the ministry aims to promote renewable energy-based power generation systems that do not cause environmental damage, are less vulnerable to natural disasters and can better coexist with local communities.
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Energies Media
A truckload of retired solar panels arrives at an industrial lot in west Texas.
The paperwork says recycling. The destination is licensed and the labels are correct.
What happens after that is now the subject of an argument, and it is a loud one.
One side says almost nothing about this is recycling at all.
The other side says the people making that claim never came to look.
Both are worth taking seriously, and only one of them can be right.
A working panel is a sealed object. The thin lines of lead solder joining its cells and the semiconductor layers inside sit under laminated glass, and rain never reaches them.
That is why state regulators have found panels in service release essentially nothing into the soil beneath them.
The chemistry changes the moment the glass breaks.
Shredding undoes the lamination, and studies of crushed panel material have measured lead leaching at close to double the regulatory limit under standard test conditions.
Panels using cadmium telluride released a large share of their cadmium within a month under simulated landfill conditions.
So the same object is benign and hazardous depending only on whether it is whole. Which puts every argument about panel waste where it belongs, not on the roof but on the tipping floor.
The document at the center of this is a white paper, published in August by a research firm in Los Angeles and written by one analyst.
Its central line is quotable and blunt. Almost none of what the United States calls solar recycling, it says, is closed loop recovery.
Around 90 percent of discarded American panels go straight to landfill, it argues, because that is the cheaper exit. Most of the remainder, it alleges, moves through a shred and export chain that ends at smelters in South Korea rather than at any domestic recovery line.
The number it leans on is a target rather than a shipment record.
A Korean smelting group is aiming at 120,000 tons a year of this material by the end of the decade, which is more than ten times what Korea itself is expected to generate. The paper’s reasoning is that the gap has to be filled from somewhere, and the somewhere is the United States.
The firm behind it disclosed a consulting relationship with the one company its report rated favorably. That does not make the findings wrong. It does mean the paper is not a neutral survey of a market, and readers were not told.
Two of the recyclers it characterizes have pushed back publicly, and their objection is procedural rather than defensive.
They say the author visited no facility and interviewed nobody, and built the case on sources they describe as dated or uncorroborated.
Independent trade coverage carried both the claims and the rebuttals, and treated the document as an allegation rather than a finding.
That distinction is the whole story. An accusation of this size against named companies either survives a site visit or it does not, and nobody has done the site visit.
Strip the argument away and a real problem is still sitting there. The United States is heading for roughly one million tons of retired panels by 2030 and something near ten million by 2050.
Federal rules have not caught up. Panels can be landfilled as ordinary trash in most states, and the promised move to put them in a streamlined hazardous category is not expected to become a final rule before 2027.
States are moving on their own. One will bar panels from unlined landfills from December, another has paired a landfill ban with reporting duties and now requires new lease agreements to cover decommissioning.
Europe went the other way years ago and made producers pay for collection and recycling of every panel they sell. The United States has no equivalent. The result is a patchwork, and material moves through the cheapest hole in it.
Closed loop recovery of a panel is not a technical mystery. Glass can be remelted, aluminum frames are straightforwardly recyclable, and the silver in the contacts is worth real money.
The obstacle is arithmetic. Responsible disposal has never been built into the original price of a panel, so the cheapest exit stays a landfill and a shredder.
A certification deadline early next year gives recyclers holding legitimate contracts a reason to care, though pressure on standards does not rewrite the underlying economics.
What would rewrite them is producers carrying the cost of disposal from the day of sale, which is one thing both sides of this argument would probably accept.
The panels going up today reach the end of their lives in the 2040s. Whoever turns out to be right about the shredders, that wave is coming either way.
Hugo is an engineer with strong technical expertise. Multilingual from an early age, his writing combines technical clarity with a strong interest in science and energy.
Hugo is an engineer with strong technical expertise. Multilingual from an early age, his writing combines technical clarity with a strong interest in science and energy.
Hugo is an engineer with strong technical expertise. Multilingual from an early age, his writing combines technical clarity with a strong interest in science and energy.

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Agrovoltaics Market Size, Share & Trends Report, 2026-2033  Grand View Research
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OCCTO has awarded 38.2 MW of solar capacity across all eight bids submitted in the 29th auction 
The successful bids had a weighted average price of JPY 8.89/kWh 
OCCTO has set the auction volume for the 30th solar power bidding round at 91 MW 
Japan has awarded 38.2 MW of solar capacity in its 29th solar power bidding round, with all eight submitted bids selected, according to results published by the Organization for Cross-regional Coordination of Transmission Operators (OCCTO). 
The latest, 29th auction, was specifically open to feed-in-premium (FIP) solar projects with a capacity of 250 kW or more. 
It offered significantly more capacity than the volume ultimately bid. OCCTO had offered 115.4 MW, with a maximum supply price of JPY 9.60/kWh. A total of 13 business plans were submitted for eligibility review. Twelve applications were cleared to participate, while eight bids were ultimately submitted, covering 38.2 MW of capacity. All eight bids were successful. 
The weighted average successful bid price was JPY 8.89/kWh. Successful bids ranged from as low as JPY 5.30/kWh to as high as JPY 9.48/kWh. AC12 LLC secured the largest project, with 29.9 MW at JPY 9.48/kWh. Winning prices rose significantly in the latest round (see Japan Allocates Over 89 MW in 28th Solar PV Auction). 
Other successful projects ranged from 400 kW to about 2 MW, according to the results announced by OCCTO. 
The agency has now set the auction volume for the 30th solar power bidding round, the third auction of fiscal 2026, at 91 MW. It explained that the capacity was set because total bids in the 29th auction were below 91 MW, in line with the applicable bidding rules. 
TaiyangNews 2024

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A quiet agricultural revolution is reshaping American solar farms as thousands of sheep transform sun-soaked acreage into dual-use land that generates both clean energy and wool.
By Brendan Brown
Published August 25, 2026 · How we edit
Nobody actually knew how many sheep were working America’s solar farms. There were anecdotes, a trade association, a scattering of local news stories about flocks moving into panel rows from New York to Texas. But when the American Solar Grazing Association and the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory set out to run the first proper national census, their working assumption was that they were measuring a niche.
The count came back, and the niche turned out to be an industry. As of October 2024, 113,050 sheep were grazing 129,261 acres across 506 solar sites in 30 states. The census report’s own summary put it flatly: the scale of solar grazing in the U.S. is much larger than previously understood, and growing fast. Only a few years earlier, around 2021, the accepted industry estimate for the entire practice had been in the neighborhood of 15,000 acres. The pasture had grown nearly ninefold while nobody was counting.
A solar farm is a field with a job, and the field keeps trying to be a field. Grass grows, shades the low edge of the panels, cuts output, and in a dry summer becomes fuel lying under millions of dollars of equipment. The traditional fix is mowing crews threading machines through tight rows, plus herbicide, forever.
Sheep do the same work by appetite. They fit under the panels, graze the spots mowers cannot reach, work in any weather, and leave fertilizer behind. Unlike goats, they do not climb the arrays or chew the wiring, and unlike cattle they neither tower over the rows nor lean on the racking. The census found flocks working every kind of installation: giant utility-scale plants, small community arrays, fixed-tilt and sun-tracking systems alike. Altogether, the sites being grazed represent an estimated 18 to 26 gigawatts of generating capacity, which means somewhere between 7 and 11 percent of all installed American solar is now maintained, at least in part, by livestock.
Beyond the headline numbers, the census sketched the shape of a young industry. The South dominates, with more sheep and more grazed acres than the Midwest, Northeast or West, a ranking driven substantially by the enormous solar build-out in Texas; the other regions host similar numbers of sites, just smaller ones. Most solar graziers, 87 percent, were shepherds before they were solar contractors, ranchers who added panel country to their operations rather than newcomers chasing a trend. About a third are women, a high share by the standards of American agriculture.
The graziers also told the census what makes the work hard, and the answers were unglamorous and specific: site design, water access and fencing top the list. A solar farm laid out with grazing in mind, with gates a flock can move through, water points, and forage worth eating, is an easy contract. One designed purely by electrical engineers can be a daily fight.
The ninefold expansion has a simple engine: both sides profit. For solar operators, grazing contracts generally undercut mowing crews while eliminating fuel, emissions, and the complaints that come with machinery noise in rural counties. For sheep producers, the panels amount to leased pasture they could never afford to buy, often with shade that real Texas or Georgia rangeland lacks, plus a service fee on top of the lamb.
There is a quieter agricultural story underneath. The American sheep industry has been shrinking for decades, and grazing land keeps disappearing under development, including under solar farms themselves. Solar grazing hands some of that land back. The same census effort feeds an NREL public database mapping grazed sites, and researchers studying the practice in the Northeast have begun documenting improvements in soil health on grazed sites compared with mowed ones, an early sign the arrangement may be more than a cost hack.
The report’s authors are candid that their numbers are already out of date in the most encouraging way. The census ran its surveys through late 2024, American solar construction has not slowed since, and every large new project in sheep country is a potential contract. Industry groups now talk about solar grazing as the leading form of agrivoltaics, the umbrella term for making land produce food and power at once, well ahead of crop-growing experiments and pollinator plantings.
Which gives the 113,050 figure the feel of a baseline rather than a peak. The first time anyone counted the sheep under America’s solar panels, there turned out to be a small city’s population of them, quietly mowing an area twice the size of Washington, D.C. The next census will almost certainly find the flock has grown again, for the oldest reason in agriculture: there is grass, and someone has to eat it.
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An aerial drone photo taken on Aug. 19, 2026 shows a photovoltaic power project in Taizhou, east China’s Jiangsu Province. The overall installed capacity of photovoltaic power-generating facilities in Jiangsu has exceeded 100-gigawatt mark to reach 100.08 gigawatts by the end of July 2026, according to the State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Company. (Photo by Tang Dehong/Xinhua)

An aerial drone photo taken on Aug. 19, 2026 shows a photovoltaic power project in Taizhou, east China’s Jiangsu Province. The overall installed capacity of photovoltaic power-generating facilities in Jiangsu has exceeded 100-gigawatt mark to reach 100.08 gigawatts by the end of July 2026, according to the State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Company. (Photo by Tang Dehong/Xinhua)

Maintenance workers patrol a photovoltaic-aquaculture farm in Yangzhou, east China’s Jiangsu Province, Aug. 19, 2026. The overall installed capacity of photovoltaic power-generating facilities in Jiangsu has exceeded 100-gigawatt mark to reach 100.08 gigawatts by the end of July 2026, according to the State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Company. (Photo by Ren Fei/Xinhua)

An aerial drone photo taken on Aug. 19, 2026 shows maintenance workers patrolling an aquaculture-photovoltaic hybrid project in Yangzhou, east China’s Jiangsu Province. The overall installed capacity of photovoltaic power-generating facilities in Jiangsu has exceeded 100-gigawatt mark to reach 100.08 gigawatts by the end of July 2026, according to the State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Company. (Photo by Ren Fei/Xinhua)

An aerial drone photo taken on Aug. 19, 2026 shows an aquaculture-photovoltaic hybrid project in Yangzhou, east China’s Jiangsu Province. The overall installed capacity of photovoltaic power-generating facilities in Jiangsu has exceeded 100-gigawatt mark to reach 100.08 gigawatts by the end of July 2026, according to the State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Company. (Photo by Ren Fei/Xinhua)

An aerial drone photo taken on Aug. 19, 2026 shows a photovoltaic power project in Taizhou, east China’s Jiangsu Province. The overall installed capacity of photovoltaic power-generating facilities in Jiangsu has exceeded 100-gigawatt mark to reach 100.08 gigawatts by the end of July 2026, according to the State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Company. (Photo by Tang Dehong/Xinhua)

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Technology
A Chinese automotive glass company has unveiled a glass roof with solar panels to increase range on sunny days, available for all makes and models.
Solar panels are a good solution for maintaining the charge in electric cars , although their development and installation pose a challenge for the industry. At least, until now. A Chinese company has managed to develop a glass roof model made up of several solar panels that help charge the battery . With this patent, they can manufacture glass roofs with solar panels that can be used by all brands.
The company Fuyao Group has designed this glass sunroof. It is the largest supplier of glass for brands like Ford, General Motors, Subaru, Tesla, and the VW Group. It’s not a start-up that presents a novelty, but an established company that It offers a technological solution its customers.


To achieve this, they’ve added solar cells directly to automotive glass and released photos showing a car with a glass roof featuring solar cells that cover the entire top of the vehicle and part of the rear window. This glass roof is manufactured at the company’s facilities in Yangxia and Hefei. These two plants can produce up to three million units per year , and this production may increase throughout the year.
What’s important in this case isn’t the production capacity of these plants, but rather the interest shown by different brands in this technology . Initially, there’s talk that the company is collaborating with BYD to supply this solar roof as an option for the Han and Tang models , although this hasn’t been confirmed yet.

The Chinese company isn’t alone in this innovation, as Nissan also unveiled a Nissan Ariya with a similar roof . In this case, the solar panels provide enough energy to travel an additional 23 kilometers on a sunny day. If the vehicle is in motion, on an 80-kilometer journey that takes about two hours, it can generate enough energy to travel an additional 3 kilometers.
Hyundai launches its first car with solar roof charging system
Hyundai launches its first car with a solar-powered charging system. It’s the 2020 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, and it will soon arrive in the United States. Hyundai launches its first car with a solar-powered charging system. This new feature comes after its launch in Korea, but the 2020 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid will arrive very soon […]
Although it may seem insignificant, it’s important to remember that average journeys are usually only a few kilometers a day , and this can be very helpful in daily life, making visits to the charging station much less necessary.
However, the energy provided by this system is not enough to fill the battery , but rather to gain a few kilometers a day to move around freely and without needing to rush to the charger.
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Solar Power World
By Kelly Pickerel | August 24, 2026
The U.S. solar industry is still determining the effects of the Sec. 232 tariffs on polysilicon and its derivatives. Besides a handful of manufacturers that very obviously benefit if certain imported and domestic silicon solar products are priced higher, few industry players have expressed positive feelings to Solar Power World on the situation.
Credit: SEG Solar
“It’s definitely a negative,” said Jim Wood, CEO of SEG Solar, a module assembler with two Texas factories and a third under construction. “Panels are going to be more expensive. I’m currently quoting at much higher prices than a [month] ago.”
The Trump administration placed a general 15% tariff on imported silicon wafers, cells and finished panels and set minimum import prices on polysilicon and its derivatives under Sec. 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, effective Dec. 4, 2026. Imported products can have Sec. 232 tariffs if the government determines they are a threat to national security. The general hope is that if imported products have a set floor price and an additional tariff, domestic manufacturing should rise to meet demand of a product.
The problem, many panel manufacturers say, is that they also must pay a higher cost on the upstream components necessary to make the solar panels the domestic industry desperately needs. This pushes the price of domestic panels higher, which may make them more expensive than foreign panels at the minimum import price (38¢/W).
“It’s a negative for U.S. module makers without domestic cells,” Wood said. “I think it actually makes it harder to compete against imported modules. It feels like a no-win situation for the folks that already have invested in module factories in the United States.”
Manufacturing incentives in recent policies were advantageous for starting solar panel factories in the United States, with the industry ballooning in just five years from megawatts of manufacturing capacity to over 70 GW of panel making ability annually. What has been harder to jumpstart is manufacturing upstream components: silicon ingots, wafers and cells. A few cell manufacturers are starting up, but the country could maybe count on just 4 GW of cells being made at home today. Everything else must be imported.
ES Foundry, one of the independent cell manufacturers operating in the United States today, is only seeing downsides to the Sec. 232 tariffs too.
ES Foundry in South Carolina. Credit: Solar Power World
“It’s not so great for us,” said Alex Zhu, CEO of ES Foundry, which operates a 3-GW cell factory in South Carolina. “We are a smaller player. The economics have really pushed toward integrated facilities. If this [policy framework] doesn’t change too much, then we have to be integrated to be profitable.”
According to Zhu’s calculations: with wafers’ $100/kg minimum import price, he believes the PERC wafers he imports to make cells come to about 15¢/W plus another 2¢ for the general 15% tariff. His total cost to buy a wafer is 17¢/W while the minimum import price on a finished cell is 22¢/W.
“Basically, we only have 5¢ as our margin, and 5¢ is not enough to sell in the United States,” he said. Even including the 4¢/W manufacturing tax incentive (45X) cell companies can receive, 9¢ cannot cover ES Foundry’s costs to make product, Zhu said.
But what could make sense is if a company is integrated and produces its own cells for its own modules. At least then the final panel is only competing with the 38¢/W minimum import price and accessing the higher 7¢/W 45X credit.
“A module company covers cost and has an additional 7¢ as their profit. A cell company is negative — 9¢ cannot cover my cost and I’m losing money,” Zhu said. “I have to increase my cell price, and if I do that, then that will cause a domestic-content module price to increase further.
“In my view, it incentivizes us to consider going to the module level because if I only sell a cell, I lose money. If I sell both the cell and module, I’m making money,” Zhu continued.
SEG Solar’s second factory in the distance with the under-construction third factory in the foreground.
There’s also the question of if the government will offer domestic manufacturers some aid if they stick with the market. President Donald Trump said companies willing to invest in “building, expanding or refurbishing facilities” could be incentivized in some way — maybe a tariff break or more production tax credits. Zhu said there are still a lot of things in the air.
“If you invest in the United States, [will the government] relieve some of the tariff payment? We already made the investments, will we qualify? Or is the incentive only for additional investment and we get punished? There are many things we don’t know,” he said.
SEG Solar is also wondering about the potential incentive program. Wood said the company is planning to build a cell factory in the United States, but it feels even more important now.
“Hopefully there will be more clarity on how to negotiate with Commerce. Hopefully there are carveouts that are helpful,” he said. “We have three factories and a fourth on the way for cells. I can’t imagine anything more American than three guys starting a panel company, and we’re competing with the big guys.”
For project developers trying to secure module supply, the Sec. 232 tariff is just another task on their list, said Arevon CEO Justin Johnson.
“It’s definitely a negative overall, there’s no doubt about it, because it increases the price for modules,” he said. “This is just the latest issue we’ve dealt with on the panel side. This goes on every year, whether it’s Sec. 301 tariffs or AD/CVD.”
Arevon has gigawatts of solar projects operating across the country, with each in the multi-hundred-megawatt-range. Adequate solar panel supply is imperative to the company, and Johnson said Arevon already contracts with thin-film panel company First Solar and other domestic producers to ensure supply.
“[Using] a U.S. manufacturer is a hedge for us that you always have supply lined up,” he said. “The project economics aren’t as good on paper because of the price, but you’re hedging your risk a little bit.”
For the most part, domestic modules were being bought before these Sec. 232 tariffs, regardless of cost. Wood said that SEG Solar is sold out through next year, and Zhu said the same about ES Foundry cells. In certain cases, buying a slightly more expensive American panel was more beneficial than waiting for cheaper imports to arrive in the United States, Johnson said.
Seth Adams, senior VP of EPC at Standard Solar, said the distributed generation project developer has also already been balancing domestic content economics with project energization timelines, and he believes the Sec. 232 tariffs will push people to think beyond price.
“I think with everything that’s evolving now, everyone’s procurement strategy is changing a bit more — less about cost, less about speed and really just what’s the long-term bankability and overall project economics vs. just that first cost perspective,” he said.
While everyone is still sorting out the details of the Sec. 232 tariffs on polysilicon and its derivatives, the effect won’t be felt for six months in the commercial market, Adams said, and maybe not for two years for utility-scale projects, Johnson said.
“Projects that are going to be operational two years from now, we already had supply. It’s been warehoused because of [safe harbor rules] over the years,” Johnson said. “We had some bids we were working on for projects that are 2029 CODs that are stalled right now. It’s probably going to be a couple months before we figure it out, to let the dust settle on this.”
Kelly Pickerel has more than 15 years of experience reporting on the U.S. solar industry and is currently editor in chief of Solar Power World. Email Kelly.

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The US National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) has verified that TOPCon modules from Chinese manufacturer Runergy achieve a conversion efficiency of 25.9%. These panels are part of the company’s TOPCon 3.0 lineup, its third-generation TOPCon offering introduced at Intersolar Europe in June. At that event, Runergy reported a maximum cell conversion efficiency of 26.9%, which is marginally above the NLR-verified figure, though the firm emphasized that the module-level efficiency still stands as a benchmark for all non-HBC crystalline-silicon modules.
Runergy also noted that the standard-format, mass-produced version of this series would deliver a power output ranging from 660W to 670W, thereby exceeding the thresholds set by the Chinese government during the summer. Beginning next year, TOPCon modules must meet a conversion efficiency of 23.2% and a minimum rated power of 630W to be eligible for sale. The company credits the strong performance of its latest modules to a multi-cut circuit architecture designed to reduce internal power losses.
Tao Longzhong, Runergy’s general manager and PV R&D laboratory director, stated that this achievement is not merely a new TOPCon module world record. He stressed that the module is produced using cells and processes from pilot lines ready for mass production, demonstrating that high efficiency and commercial scalability are compatible.
The focus on rapidly deployable modules is notable given that solar installations in China surged in July. Data from China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) shows that over 14GW of new solar PV capacity was added in July, representing a 28% year-on-year increase. Yet the longer-term outlook remains uncertain, as the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA) projects annual capacity additions to decline from 315GW last year to between 180GW and 240GW this year, as the sector seeks to curb expansion in response to persistently low prices. NEA figures indicate that China added 86.2GW of new capacity in the first seven months of 2026, a trajectory that would place year-end additions below even the CPIA’s more conservative forecast.
Interactive table based on the Store Companies dataset for this report.
This report provides a comprehensive view of the solar cells and light-emitting diodes industry in China, tracking demand, supply, and trade flows across the national value chain. It explains how demand across key channels and end-use segments shapes consumption patterns, while also mapping the role of input availability, production efficiency, and regulatory standards on supply.
Beyond headline metrics, the study benchmarks prices, margins, and trade routes so you can see where value is created and how it moves between domestic suppliers and international partners. The analysis is designed to support strategic planning, market entry, portfolio prioritization, and risk management in the solar cells and light-emitting diodes landscape in China.
The report combines market sizing with trade intelligence and price analytics for China. It covers both historical performance and the forward outlook to 2035, allowing you to compare cycles, structural shifts, and policy impacts.
This report provides a consistent view of market size, trade balance, prices, and per-capita indicators for China. The profile highlights demand structure and trade position, enabling benchmarking against regional and global peers.
The analysis is built on a multi-source framework that combines official statistics, trade records, company disclosures, and expert validation. Data are standardized, reconciled, and cross-checked to ensure consistency across time series.
All data are normalized to a common product definition and mapped to a consistent set of codes. This ensures that comparisons across time are aligned and actionable.
The forecast horizon extends to 2035 and is based on a structured model that links solar cells and light-emitting diodes demand and supply to macroeconomic indicators, trade patterns, and sector-specific drivers. The model captures both cyclical and structural factors and reflects known policy and technology shifts in China.
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This report is designed for manufacturers, distributors, importers, wholesalers, investors, and advisors who need a clear, data-driven picture of solar cells and light-emitting diodes dynamics in China.
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Aug 24 (Reuters) – Tesla has stopped selling premium solar roof tiles on its website, nearly ​a decade after CEO Elon ‌Musk launched the product as a more attractive alternative to panels.
• Tesla’s solar roof url now redirects to a ‌solar ​panels offering.
• Discontinuation ⁠of the product ⁠was first reported by Electrek last week.
• Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
• ​Musk unveiled the roof tiles in 2016 as Tesla sought ⁠to acquire SolarCity, ⁠the solar installer run ​by his cousins.
• The company in ​2021 had targeted 1,000 installations per ‌week, but industry estimates said the actual figure was far less.
• Tesla’s solar strategy has shifted ⁠to traditional panels, which it produces at its factory in Buffalo, New York, and ⁠began ‌delivering to residential customers ⁠this year.
• Musk still ​has ‌big ambitions in solar. Tesla ​filed plans ⁠in Texas this month for a $10.1 billion solar-cell factory outside Houston that would create 9,712 permanent jobs.
(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by ​Mark Porter)
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That support had not initially reached some East L.A. residents living only blocks from the warehouse.
Photo Credit: iStock
After the Lineage warehouse fire left the area with foul air and drove many families to keep air purifiers and air conditioning running for long stretches, hundreds of East Los Angeles households are in line for help with swollen power bills.
Boyle Heights Beat reported that the one-time $200 credits were secured after residents pushed for aid and Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis pressed for relief to be extended beyond Boyle Heights.
According to Boyle Heights Beat, as cited by LAist, Lineage contributed $26,600 so that 133 Southern California Edison customers in unincorporated East Los Angeles can receive automatic $200 credits on their bills.
That support had not initially reached some East L.A. residents living only blocks from the warehouse, even though Lineage had already earmarked $50,000 for 218 Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customers in Boyle Heights.
Want to go solar but not sure who to trust? EnergySage has your back with free and transparent quotes from fully vetted providers in your area.
To get started, just answer a few questions about your home — no phone number required. Within a day or two, EnergySage will email you the best options for your needs, and their expert advisers can help you compare quotes and pick a winner.
In a statement to Boyle Heights Beat, Solis criticized the uneven distribution of aid after the June 17 fire, saying East Los Angeles residents “deserved the same level of support through Southern California Edison.”
For households hit with bigger electric bills, the credit can cover part of the extra cost of keeping indoor air safer and homes more livable. People who want a longer-term way to lower energy costs may also look to solar, and EnergySage can help people get free installation estimates and compare quotes.
The East L.A. relief was limited to customers inside a Zone 2 area that runs from Indiana Street to Hicks Avenue and from Union Pacific Avenue to the 5 Freeway, even as odor and air-quality complaints spread beyond that stretch.
Lineage said the assistance would expand west to Herbert Avenue and cover hundreds of additional East L.A. households. The outlet also reported that the company has not finalized the exact amount of support and that some Southern California Edison customers are still waiting for the credits to show up.
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To get started, just answer a few questions about your home — no phone number required. Within a day or two, EnergySage will email you the best local options for your needs, and their expert advisers can help you compare quotes and pick a winner.
The immediate response is utility-bill relief funded by the warehouse owner and automatically applied to eligible accounts. That approach lets residents avoid extra paperwork while dealing with the lingering effects of the fire.
Energy savings tools can also help households cut costs far beyond a one-time credit. EnergySage offers free services for comparing solar options, and with EnergySage’s help, the average person can save up to $10,000 on solar purchases and installations. Readers can also use EnergySage’s solar map, which shows the average cost of a home solar panel system on a state-by-state basis and details solar panel incentives in each state, helping shoppers get the best price for rooftop solar panels and access available incentives.
Adding battery storage to a solar setup is one of the best ways to protect your home during outages, save money on energy, and go off grid. Homeowners interested in backup power can explore EnergySage for information about home battery storage options, including competitive installation estimates.
The dispute over who receives relief has also shown how costly disaster recovery can become for nearby families. As Solis said in her statement to Boyle Heights Beat, “Lineage has a responsibility to provide fair and equitable support to everyone affected by this disaster, including delivering the remaining $25,000 in utility assistance that was allocated for East Los Angeles residents.”
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Solar panels maker Avaada Electro files updated DRHP for Rs 7,600-crore IPO  Moneycontrol.com
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Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph..
Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
Updated: August 25, 2026 @ 11:10 pm
Rick Elnicki standing in front of a solar panel with the 22-acre pond in the background. (All photos by Morgan Earl.) 
The blue containers are the filtration system that the pond water runs through before it goes out to the field.
Subsurface irrigation feeds water directly to the plants’ root system. Meaning, the soil surface is dry most of the time.

Rick Elnicki standing in front of a solar panel with the 22-acre pond in the background. (All photos by Morgan Earl.) 
In the 1980s, when Rick Elnicki started farming Northeast of Frontenac, Kansas, he had hopes of irrigating. Unfortunately, those plans fell through. He was left farming dryland until 1993, when he eventually sold out and started Cameo Grain. “The reason I got into the grain business was because farming was so tough. If it doesn’t rain, you don’t grow a crop, and it was very hard. You’d have years that you’d go through and invest a lot of money,” said Elnicki. Little did he know, 33 years later, he’d finally get the opportunity to irrigate. FARM TALK recently visited Elnicki’s operation, where he explained how he went from farming dryland to using solar energy to power his subsurface drip irrigation system.
Elnicki has been interested in irrigating since 1980. “I always thought in the back of my mind that someday I’m going to irrigate, and then I can go out there during a drought, and I’ll have a lush crop,” he said. The opportunity came 12 years ago when his son purchased farm land with a 22-acre pond, Northeast of Frontenac, Kansas as well. The pond eliminated the need to dig a well, which is a costly endeavor. They just had to figure out how they were going to get enough water in the pond to irrigate 113 acres throughout the growing season. With a lot of preparation and dirt work, they were able to build waterways directly to the pond to collect runoff water. Once that was done, it was a matter of figuring out how he could pump water out of the pond and what kind of irrigation system to use.
The blue containers are the filtration system that the pond water runs through before it goes out to the field.
About seven years ago, he started to research NutraDrip Irrigation and reached out. He attended a few informal meetings and watched videos of how the system worked. He decided to utilize the subsurface drip system. This type of irrigation directly waters the crops’ root system, making it a more efficient method. The company didn’t have a sales representative in the area at the time, so when Travis Rokey later moved to the area, they were ready to start the process. The only thing left to figure out was how to pump the water out of the pond.
Subsurface irrigation feeds water directly to the plants’ root system. Meaning, the soil surface is dry most of the time.
Elnicki noticed how much input cost other farmers were putting into their irrigation practices. The cost of fuel and oil needed to keep the generators and sometimes tractors running to pump water adds up quickly. He wanted to go in a direction that would cut down on costs in the long run. That’s when he decided to integrate solar panels into his operation. He applied for a USDA grant program that helped fund half of the initial cost and got started. He worked with Daniel Zywietz from SEK Solar to get the panels working and pumping water out of the pond. Elnicki has two panels on the property, one facing east and one facing west. That way, as the sun rises and falls, he can collect as much energy as possible. He also has a battery station that houses twelve batteries. “By having batteries, you can start earlier in the morning. Then in the afternoon, after the batteries are depleted, you start generating more energy than the pump uses so it fills the batteries back up”, said Elnicki. He added that the batteries allow him to pump more water either in the morning or at night.
This will be the first year of irrigating using the solar-powered energy on his soybean crop. Elnicki said,  “It sounds like a lot, 13 million (gallons of water), but on 113 acres, that’s only 4 inches down where it does the most good, in the root zone.” When asked about future plans, he said: “We probably will eventually add some more batteries just so we’ll be able to run a little longer, or we could add more acres.”
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Adelaide-headquartered solar and electrical construction company Solmech has delivered a hybrid retrofit at the 4.1 MW Warnertown Solar Farm in South Australia, replacing six of the site’s Sungrow PV inverters with hybrid alternatives, each paired with a 200k Wh Powerkeeper battery unit, adding a total of 1.2 MWh of new storage capacity.
Located about 215 kilometres north of South Australian capital Adelaide, the Warnertown Solar Farm was built in 2001 and initially comprised a 2.5 MW ground-mounted PV system. A 1.6 MW second stage was added in 2023.
With the asset owner looking to maximise the value of the existing infrastructure, Solmech teamed with Chinese PV inverter and energy storage technology manufacturer Sungrow to add battery energy storage at the site.
Previously operating with 30 Sungrow SG110CX PV inverters, the facility was upgraded with six of the PV inverters replaced with SH110CX hybrid inverters, each paired with a 200 kWh Sungrow Powerkeeper battery.
Sungrow said integrating energy storage directly on the DC side avoids the need for transformer modifications, reduces project complexity, and significantly lowers investment costs, enabling faster deployment and stronger commercial returns.
“South Australia’s strict grid compliance rules often require lengthy approvals and transformer upgrades when adding AC-coupled batteries,” the company said. “Sungrow’s DC-coupled hybrid solution helps minimise these challenges and supports a smooth integration.”
Sungrow said the upgraded system has been designed to maximise the value of the solar farm, allowing it to operate more intelligently within South Australia’s dynamic wholesale electricity market.
“Battery storage can capture surplus solar generation and discharge energy when it is more valuable, helping the asset respond more effectively to changing generation conditions and electricity market signals,” the company said.
Solmech co-founder Newman Mundy said the upgrade had been seamless from installation through commissioning with the existing inverters simply swapped out for the new hybrid technology, while the design ensured the new equipment fitted within the existing shelter and required virtually no civil modifications
“The retrofit was really straightforward,” he said. “We simply replaced the existing inverters with hybrid units and added the PowerKeeper batteries. The compact design made installation fast and efficient.”
Sungrow technical support engineer Rock Liu said the Warnertown project demonstrates the company’s ability to tailor its storage solution to site-specific constraints including available grid capacity, transformer limits and site layout.
“Every site comes with different constraints, whether it’s available grid capacity, transformer limits or site layout. This upgrade shows we can tailor PowerKeeper to fit within those constraints and still deliver strong benefits for the owner,” he said.
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Argentina’s solar industry has had to adapt since the RenovAR renewable energy public procurement program was shuttered in 2025. Reliance on large, centralized tenders has been replaced with private sector contracts. RenovAR launched in 2016 and ran four successful tenders, adding new clean capacity into Argentina’s wholesale electricity market and renewable energy futures market (known …
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German research institute Fraunhofer ISE has developed what it described as “industry-ready” semi-transparent PV modules with a conversion efficiency of up to 9.26%.
Developed in tandem with researchers from the University of Freiburg, the institute developed modules measuring 14.5 centimetres by 14.5 centimetres with an average transparency of 43.2%.
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These use organic solar cells, which use carbon-based materials such as polymers instead of crystalline silicon to convert light into electricity, and this follows considerable innovation in the organic cell sector. Last year, researchers at the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) claimed a record 26.4% conversion efficiency in a perovskite-organic tandem solar cell.
More than 100 of these cells make up each module, and consist of three components: a back electrode that reflects near-infrared light, an absorber layer made of organic semiconductors and a top electrode made of the polymer PEDOT:PSS, a blend of two polymers, PEDOT and PSS.
Fraunhofer ISE noted that modules with a transparency of over 50% could be used “in place of window glad in building facades or greenhouses,” and Dr Uli Würfel, head of the Organic and Perovskite Photovoltaics Department at Fraunhofer ISE, expressed optimism about the future of the modules.
“Scaling up to larger areas is one of the major challenges in organic photovoltaics,” said Würfel. “The fact that we have now, for the first time, successfully and with virtually no loss applied all the layers of the solar cells using the slot-die process is a major breakthrough for us.”
The research organisation also noted that the manufacturing process uses sputtering and slot-die coating methods, which it says are “industrially proven and highly scalable to large module areas”, which could address the scaling challenge identified by Würfel. Sputtering is a thin film creation process that is used to deposit the back electrode onto a glass substrate in the organic solar cell; meanwhile, slot-die coating is a technique for thin film deposition that was used to apply the PEDOT:PSS polymer.
“As part of the project, we have already produced the first flexible, organic PV modules that retain 100% of their original efficiency after 1,274 bending cycles over a rod with a diameter of 15 millimetres,” added Dr Mathias List, research associate for organic and perovskite photovoltaics at Fraunhofer ISE.
The news follows Fraunhofer ISE’s research into coloured films for PV modules that can imitate roof tiles or building facades, which could allow for greater control over the aesthetic appearance of modules.

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After decades of stalled federal action, a permanent disposal site still has not been created.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
The San Onofre nuclear plant has been shut down for years, but one of its biggest dangers is still sitting on the coast. Roughly 3.6 million pounds of spent nuclear fuel remain stored at the site in temporary canisters near the shoreline, raising fresh calls for a regional safety plan while the federal government continues to delay a long-term solution.
In a community opinion piece for Voice of OC, Orange County resident Sarah Mosko said the lack of a permanent federal repository for commercial spent fuel has effectively turned San Onofre into a nuclear waste site.
She said about 3.6 million pounds of highly radioactive waste remain at the facility south of San Clemente in 123 temporary storage canisters. According to Mosko, those canisters were not built for indefinite use and are vulnerable to corrosion and cracking in salty coastal air.
Mosko also said each canister holds cesium-137 equal to roughly one-third of the amount released in the 2011 Fukushima disaster. She argued that the site’s position next to the Pacific Ocean and Interstate 5 adds concerns about flooding, earthquakes, tsunamis, sea-level rise, and security threats.
Nuclear power can generate vast totals of low-carbon electricity and help support grid reliability, which is why some experts see it as part of a cleaner energy mix. Still, San Onofre’s remaining waste presents one of the industry’s most difficult tradeoffs: how to manage dangerous material that must be isolated for extremely long periods.
To show why she sees the issue as urgent, Mosko pointed to the chemical plant scare in Garden Grove as an example of how industrial accidents can suddenly disrupt whole communities. In her view, a failure involving radioactive waste could leave even longer-lasting harm to air, water, public health, and infrastructure.
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The design of San Onofre’s storage setup is central to the debate. Mosko wrote that the waste is held in 5/8-inch steel canisters that sit out in the open at the retired plant on a vulnerable stretch of coastline.
The risks extend beyond the plant itself. A serious contamination event could affect nearby neighborhoods, a major transportation corridor, coastal ecosystems, and regional economic activity. Even without an accident, uncertainty over the waste’s future can weigh on public trust.
After decades of stalled federal action, a permanent disposal site still has not been created. Until Washington does that, local and state leaders may be left trying to reduce the risks where the waste already sits.
Mosko wrote that efforts on a safer interim plan have involved Irvine Mayor Larry Agran, Chief Policy Advisor Scotty Hong, residents, community groups, lawmakers, researchers, and Southern California Edison. She also cited work by Dr. David Richardson, associate dean for research at UC Irvine, and postdoctoral researchers studying the issue.
One proposal under discussion would relocate the canisters, after decommissioning, to higher ground at the adjacent domes site in a fortified above-ground storage facility. Mosko said that approach would aim to improve monitoring, reduce corrosion risks, and better protect the waste from flooding, earthquakes, fire, and security threats.
The proposal also includes a “hot cell,” which Mosko described as a shielded facility for inspecting canisters and repackaging waste if necessary. She pointed to countries including Switzerland and Germany as examples of places using above-ground storage systems designed for inspection and hazard protection.
The San Onofre nuclear waste is in the form of ceramic pellets rather than a liquid like many envision from television and movies, though liquid-form nuclear waste does exist, primarily from weapons development, and there is wastewater used for cooling that needs to be handled carefully since it contains radioactive isotopes. Depending on how the water was used, it may be released slowly or mixed into other materials — like cements, polymers, or resins — to solidify it from being released back into the environment. 
In the San Onofre case, public concern has already been visible. In May and June, banners hung over Interstate 5 near the site reading “Nuclear Waste Forever Deadly” and “3 Million Pounds of Radioactivity … Next Exit.”
A permanent federal solution could still be years away. Until then, Southern California’s focus is on how to store the waste already at San Onofre as safely as possible.
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Transparent solar panels built to replace window glasses without blocking out light  Yahoo Tech
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Homebuyer pays to transfer solar access, gets bounced between companies, and is left in limbo  Yahoo
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Tuesday, August 25, 2026 86° Today’s Paper
By Paul Bernstein
Today • Updated 9:46 p.m.
Paul Bernstein
JAMM AQUINO / 2025
HI Power Solar worker Kaipo Enos-Ho performs a solar panel installation at a Hawaii Kai home on July 11, 2025.
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Hurricane Lala knocked out electricity to hundreds of thousands of people in Hawaii. Although power was restored relatively quickly in some areas, the most severely damaged communities could remain without electricity for weeks or even months. It could have been much worse.
Lala’s eye passed about 40 miles from Hawaii island, devastating Ka‘u. Fortunately, most of the rest of the state was spared serious damage. The storm passed about 75 miles from Oahu, for example. Nevertheless, Lala exposed a fundamental vulnerability of Hawaii’s centralized electrical system.
The major cause of the outages was damage to transmission infrastructure, including downed lines. That is consistent with research by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which studied 18 hurricanes and found that hurricane-related outages are caused largely by damage to transmission systems.
The difference between centralized and distributed electricity is important. A centralized system may have a chain extending for miles:
Power plant, to transmission lines, to substations, to distribution lines, to home.
Damage to a relatively small number of transmission or distribution components can disconnect enormous numbers of customers. Some transmission lines also run through mountainous terrain, making repairs particularly difficult.
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A distributed system works differently. A rooftop solar system for a single-family home, for example, has a much shorter chain:
Solar panels, to battery/inverter, to home.
Damage to one rooftop system affects only that home, rather than disconnecting thousands of others.
When properly designed, solar-plus-storage systems can continue supplying electricity when the centralized grid fails. NREL concludes that resilient on-site solar and storage can minimize widespread outage impacts when systems are securely installed, designed to withstand high winds, equipped with batteries and capable of “islanding.”
Islanding prevents a rooftop system from sending electricity onto the larger grid when that grid goes down, protecting utility workers from electrocution. At the same time, it allows the system to continue supplying electricity to the home. Increasingly, rooftop systems are being paired with batteries, making this capability practical.
Based on available information, there is no indication that Lala broadly destroyed or rendered Hawaii’s rooftop solar systems useless. Some individual systems undoubtedly may have been damaged, but the storm appears to have demonstrated the vulnerability of the centralized grid rather than the fundamental vulnerability of rooftop solar.
About half of Hawaii’s single-family homes now have rooftop solar. New systems are increasingly paired with batteries, allowing households to use solar energy after sunset and providing backup power when the grid fails.
Hawaii should build on this distributed energy resource. Unfortunately, the state is moving in the opposite direction. In 2026, the state Legislature passed a bill limiting funding for a tax-credit program for rooftop solar, thereby limiting the number of systems that can qualify. The governor commendably issued an executive order allowing the limit to be exceeded in 2026. But that is only a temporary reprieve. The limit takes full effect in 2027, and the bill eliminates the tax credit entirely in 2030.
Ten years ago, Hawaii adopted a goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. Now the state is backsliding from that goal. Rooftop solar should be encouraged, not discouraged. Substantial tax credits should again be available to everyone who installs it.
Lala was a warning. Hawaii cannot eliminate hurricanes, but it can reduce their consequences. A stronger electrical system isn’t simply one with stronger centralized infrastructure. It is one in which hundreds of thousands of small generators and batteries can keep people powered when the grid goes down.
Paul Bernstein is with the Citizens’ Climate Lobby and Carbon Cashback Hawai‘i.
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One of the largest solar canopies and storage systems in California officially opened Tuesday at the Ventura County Government Center.
The parking lot at the Ventura County Government Center now has a 5.8-megawatt solar array. In addition to providing power, it gives much-appreciated shade to cars parked in the lot.
“We have people who are doing jury duty, going to court, paying traffic tickets. And so hopefully people will see this change and this improvement and will be proud of what their county government is doing,” said Dr Sevet Johnson, Ventura County’s Executive Officer.
Johnson added that the new solar energy canopy and storage will save money and cut emissions.
“Doing this, we’ll save a million a year for the next 20 years, so it’s about $21 million in savings in energy costs. It’s like taking thousands of cars off the road every year. And so when people see the county doing something to modernize our energy infrastructure for the future and have this modern energy, I really hope that’ll be a catalyst.”

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The Vatican is advancing plans to establish a €100 million ($117 million) agrivoltaic energy installation designed to achieve complete operational energy self-sufficiency.
Located on a 450-hectare extraterritorial property in Santa Maria di Galeria, northwest of Rome, the facility will combine large-scale solar power generation with active agricultural farming. With an expected capacity of 80 to 90 megawatts (MW), the project will rank among the largest dual-use solar and agriculture installations in Italy once completed.
The Santa Maria di Galeria installation will deploy elevated solar photovoltaic racks mounted above the ground. This structural height allows heavy agricultural machinery to cultivate crops directly beneath the arrays. Beyond land efficiency, the solar panels create a microclimate that offers ambient shade, mitigating soil moisture evaporation during peak heat waves and protecting crops from severe localized weather. The dual-use setup maintains existing agricultural yields—focusing primarily on low-profile forage crops, wheat, and indigenous vegetation—while simultaneously outputting utility-scale clean electricity.
The generated 80–90 MW will first fulfil the baseline energy demand of Vatican Radio’s global broadcasting apparatus. The surplus power will be routed through dedicated high-voltage transmission lines across municipal Rome to meet the total power requirements of Vatican City itself, alongside affiliated Holy See institutions, including the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital. Integrated BESS will capture daytime generation spikes to ensure uninterrupted power delivery through the night. Excess electricity generated during peak production cycles will be fed directly into Italy’s national energy grid, turning the Holy See into a net exporter of clean power.
• Total Project Valuation: €100 million / ~$117 million
• Target Power Capacity: 80 MW to 90 MW peak output
• Site Footprint: 450 hectares at Santa Maria di Galeria, Rome
• Estimated Execution Timeline: 18 to 24 months for permitting and construction
• Operational Scope: Powers Vatican City (108 acres), Vatican Radio transmission centers, and affiliated entities like Bambino Gesù Hospital
• Annual Carbon Reduction: Offsets approximately 40,000 to 50,000 metric tons of CO2 annually by replacing grid electricity
• Funding & Investment Model: Financed directly through Vatican Treasury capital allocation alongside green investment structures, avoiding reliance on Italian national solar subsidies
• Storage Integration: Outfitted with BESS to buffer power intermittency and provide overnight electricity
The initiative operationalizes the papal apostolic letter Fratello Sole (Brother Sun), which called for transitioning the Holy See to a net-zero emission model. Vatican City, the world’s smallest independent nation covering 108 acres with fewer than 900 residents, possesses limited room for utility-scale infrastructure. Consequently, the Holy See is leveraging its extraterritorial site at Santa Maria di Galeria, which has housed Vatican Radio’s primary shortwave transmission equipment since the 1950s.
Progress accelerated following Italy’s ratification of a key bilateral treaty governing administrative and infrastructural development at the site. A joint Italian-Vatican commission convened earlier this month to initiate regulatory alignment and project staging. Because the installation operates as an extraterritorial asset of a foreign sovereign state, the project will proceed without relying on Italian national residential or commercial solar subsidies.
• Pope Francis (Apostolic Letter Fratello Sole):
“We need to make a transition towards a sustainable development model that reduces greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, setting a goal of climate neutrality. Humanity has the technological means necessary to face this environmental transformation.”
• Joint Italian-Vatican Commission Strategic Briefing:
“Combining agricultural production with high-yield photovoltaic systems allows us to respect the ecological integrity of the land while securing total energy independence for the Holy See’s operations.”
Upon completion, the project establishes a high-visibility framework for sovereign decarbonization. By converting 450 hectares of land into a dual-purpose agricultural and power-generation hub, the Vatican demonstrates how small sovereign states can overcome spatial limitations to achieve 100% renewable self-sufficiency. Beyond its operational benefits, the $117 million facility serves as a practical execution of global climate governance standards, aligning religious institutions with broader international net-zero mandates.
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Should Solar Panel Recycling Be Mandated?  RAND
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FOND DU LAC (NBC 26) — 240 new solar panels now sit atop the roof of the Fond du Lac Public Library, helping generate about a quarter of the library’s daily electricity.
Library director Rachel Fuller says the project has been in the works for years.
“The project went out to bid in 2024,” Fuller said. “Installation began in 2025 and we launched in August of 2026.”
Fuller says the process has been a collaboration with the city of Fond du Lac and individual donors.
The project itself will produce a size-able amount of electricity which will power 25 percent of the library’s daily electric needs.
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“The panels will produce around 400 kilowatt hours per day,” Fuller said. “However we are very pleased that the solar panels having been doing better than that.”
For comparison, the average U.S household uses around 30 kilowatt-hours per day, according to the U.S Energy Information Administration.
Ian Stepleton also works for the library and says the net savings per year compared to paying for electricity is around $22,000 per year.
“This gives us a chance to save money,” Stepleton said. “Which means we can spend more on things that people really want to be able to use. Like borrowing books, using our databases, and being able to stream movies.”
Derek Juniatis lives in Fond du Lac and says he is happy to see the city and the library invest in something that he says will continue to give back.
“I think it’s sweet that they have solar panel here,” Juniatis said. “Using the renewable energy that we have.”
Most library-goers say they are interested in seeing what new offerings or resources will be available with the money that is being saved with the solar panels.
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Welink Energy Portugal 2 UK Limited, the UK-based company that controls the Solara4 photovoltaic plant in Alcoutim, southern Portugal, has entered administration after lower-than-expected generation, depressed wholesale electricity prices, and technical issues affected the project’s revenue and cash flow.
The special-purpose vehicle, owned by British renewable energy developer Welink Energy, entered administration on 11 June 2026, according to a document filed with the UK’s official Companies House register.
The 220 MW facility has been operational since 2021 and was Portugal’s largest solar plant when it entered operation.
According to a report cited by Portuguese media, Solara4 has consistently generated less electricity than initially forecast. The difficulties have coincided with a significant expansion of solar capacity across the Iberian electricity market, contributing to lower wholesale power prices during periods of high solar generation and putting further pressure on the project’s revenues.
Solara4 was developed as one of Portugal’s first large-scale solar projects without a guaranteed regulated tariff, leaving its business model more exposed to wholesale electricity market conditions. The project consists of 661,500 solar modules spread across approximately 320 hectares of non-contiguous land. Its original design envisaged annual electricity generation of around 382 GWh.
In addition to market pressures, technical issues and fires have resulted in periods of downtime and higher maintenance costs. The plant is also involved in a legal dispute with China Triumph International Engineering (CTIEC), which was responsible for its construction. In proceedings before the High Court last July, CTIEC claimed £17.2 million (€20 million) from the WeLink group over outstanding debts related to solar projects.
The project also has exposure of around €64 million involving Investec and Kommunalkredit Austria, which have been identified as its principal creditors.
The insolvency proceedings do not necessarily mean that the plant will cease operations. The stated objective is to improve the asset’s operational performance and prepare it for a potential sale to new investors.
Management of the project has shifted from Welink Investments to Exus. Exus, together with Enertis, is expected to assess the investment required to restore and increase the plant’s electricity generation.
The project’s future could also include hybridization with wind generation and battery energy storage. The wind component, however, remains subject to a decision by the Portuguese Environment Agency.
Solara4’s insolvency has also prompted debate over the conditions under which large-scale solar projects were developed in Portugal.
Some social media users have linked the case to Portugal’s 2019 solar auctions, which produced record-low bids, including a price of €14.76/MWh. However, that comparison does not directly apply to Solara4, which was developed as a merchant project rather than under a subsidized or guaranteed tariff.
João Galamba, Portugal’s former secretary of state for energy, has rejected the connection with the auctions. In a social media post, he instead pointed to delays in the project’s administrative procedures, saying that a licensing process had started in 2023.

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Beacon Fen Energy Park has secured planning approval through the UK government’s nationally significant infrastructure project (NSIP) pipeline, paving the way for construction at one of the largest co-located solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) assets in the country.
The project developed by Low Carbon is planned as a 400 MW solar plant sharing a grid connection with a BESS rated for 600 MW power output. Construction is expected to begin at the transmission connected project in 2027 according to the project website. pv magazine understands full commissioning is viewed as likely to take place in the early 2030s.
Located on the east of Sleaford, England, Beacon Fen Energy Park has a grid connection in excess of its planned installed solar capacity, with a higher power output from the co-located BESS asset.
Gird operator NESO‘ transmission entry capacity (TEC) register records a 600 MW connection for the Beacon Fen Energy Park project at the Bicker Fen 400 kV substation, as well as a 400 MW connection for the Heckington Fen Solar Park, a nearby co-located solar and storage project approved by the UK government in January 2025.
The project will connect to the same substation at the Viking Link, the world’s longest onshore and subsea HVDC interconnector stretching 765 km from the United Kingdom to Denmark.
In a press release, Mike Rutgers, managing director of UK development, described securing a development consent order as a “landmark moment” for Low Carbon and noted it was the first major energy structure taken under the new secretary of state.
Planning approval for Beacon Fen was granted by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) secretary of state, Miatta Fahnbulleh. Energy generating projects in England with capacity greater than 100 MW are assessed by the UK Planning Inspectorate before the final approval decision is made by central government.
Fahnbulleh’s predecessor markedly increased the pace of large-scale solar planning approvals since the last UK general election in July 2024, and the approval of another major co-located project following a change in Prime Minister in July 2026 suggests continued support for utility-scale solar deployment at the top of DESNZ.
Solar Energy UK CEO Chris Hewett told pv magazine in June that the industry association did not expect a change of approach on grid-scale solar approvals from the government, which had largely stalled before 2024. The UK government now has until Sept. 10 to decide on its next major solar project approval, the 840 MW Botley West Solar Farm.
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TUBAS, August 25, 2026 (WAFA) – Colonists on Tuesday evening damaged solar panels in the Al-Tha’la area east of the town of Tammun, south of Tubas, cutting off electricity to three Palestinian families.
Mutaz Basharat, an official monitoring colonization activities in the Tubas Governorate, said that colonists damaged the solar panels supplying electricity to three families living in the area, leaving them without electricity.
T.R.
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TEHRAN, Aug. 25 (MNA) – President Masoud Pezeshkian has pledged full support for investors and domestic manufacturers of solar panels, saying there will be no restrictions on backing investment in that field.
He made the remarks on Tuesday during a ceremony to inaugurate two solar power plants with a combined capacity of 95 megawatts in Tehran Province.
Pezeshkian thanked domestic and foreign engineers and contractors involved in solar panel projects, saying that the measures taken to expand the use of clean and renewable energy could be further developed and will hit new records high.
He said the administration expects to generate 30,000 megawatts of electricity from clean and renewable sources within the next two years.
The president further said electricity supplies to industrial units should never be cut off, emphasizing the importance of reliable power for production.
MNA
کپی شد
© 2017 Mehr News Agency. All rights reserved

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Flex2Future, a Norwegian technology company developing floating offshore energy systems that combine wind, wave and solar power on a single platform, has wrapped up an extensive model testing campaign in Norway, putting its floating wave, wind, and solar energy platform concept through simulated offshore conditions ahead of plans for a full-scale demonstration before the decade ends.

Flex2Future completed an extensive model test campaign in April 2026 at facilities operated by SINTEF Ocean, part of the Norwegian independent research organisation SINTEF, in Trondheim, Norway. The tests were carried out on a 1:25 scale model across two complementary campaigns.
The Norwegian firm explains that the complete module, including a fully modelled mooring system, was tested in the Ocean Basin under combined waves, current, and wind to characterise the structure’s dynamic behaviour.
In addition, a representative corner section was tested in the Towing Tank across a range of wave conditions to study the concept’s wave energy conversion. The testing program verified movements, survivability, and energy production in line with numerical models.
The company emphasized: “The campaign provides valuable measurement data that will be used to validate and calibrate Flex2Future’s numerical models, laying a solid foundation for continued development toward full scale.”

According to SINTEF, the project was initiated to support the development of offshore renewable energy concepts capable of producing electricity from multiple energy sources at the same time to support the green transition.
As the concept combines wave energy converters, a floating wind turbine, and solar panels into one floating offshore platform, the system aims to increase energy production while reducing the cost per produced kWh.
SINTEF elaborated: “The project is highly relevant because there is a growing need for stable and sustainable energy production to support the green transition and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The project addresses several technical challenges related to floating offshore structures. The platform must withstand large waves, strong winds, and harsh sea conditions while maintaining stable operation and efficient power production.
“Another challenge is understanding how the combined system behaves dynamically in realistic offshore conditions and how energy can efficiently be extracted from the wave energy converters. Numerical simulations alone are not sufficient to predict all hydrodynamic effects and structural responses.”
The scale model tests were performed in the Ocean Basin and Towing Tank laboratories in Trondheim using realistic wave, wind, and current conditions. Hybrid testing combined physical models with real-time numerical models and motor-controlled systems to reproduce realistic offshore loads and power take-off behaviour.

The Norwegian research organization underlines that measurements from sensors, cameras, wave probes, and force transducers were used to validate numerical models and evaluate system performance, motions, mooring loads, and power production capabilities.
At full scale, each module measures 136 × 136 meters and is designed for an average output of around 8 MW, based on Flex2Future’s data. The company is seeking approval to place its S1 pilot offshore Eigerøy as part of its plans to bring the technology to the ocean before 2030.
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Share this article Flex2Future, a Norwegian technology company developing floating offshore energy systems that combine wind, wave and solar power on a single platform, has wrapped up an extensive model testing campaign in Norway, putting its floating wave, wind, and solar energy platform concept through simulated offshore conditions ahead of plans for a full-scale demonstration […]

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Machine Learning Narrows Half a Million Perovskites to 38 Solar Candidates  AZoM
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Albert Einstein won his sole Nobel Prize for his 1905 paper explaining the photoelectric effect, thus making quantum theory real. The effect had been known since 1839, but was entirely mysterious back then. It took quite a while for Einstein’s science to turn into technology in light meters (1932), cameras (1969), digital telescopes (1969), and solar cells (patented in 1946, demonstrated in 1954), but more than a century later, here we are at the third terawatt of solar power. Now, we need at least 11 TW of renewable power to catch up with current demand, and we will need more as we wipe out poverty and oppression, and pass Net Zero on our way to going sufficiently Carbon Negative to start cooling the planet. And we still won’t be done at that point. It appears that we can reach 8 TW by 2030, and catch up with ourselves a few years after that. I’m 80 years old this year, so I have a decent actuarial chance of still being with you then. Perhaps we will find someone to take over this work, too.
It took nearly 7 decades, after invention of the silicon solar cell in 1954, for the world to install 1 terawatt of solar capacity, enough to power entire USAAfter passing that milestone in 2022, world added its second terawatt in 2024 and its third in 2026e360.yale.edu/digest/three…
The First Green Terawatt Was the Hardest
March 12, 2019
This story is about wind and solar combined. Today’s story is about 3 TW of solar ALONE.
The MSM won’t tell you, but last year the world reached one terawatt of renewable energy capacity. I only just now found out while searching for something else. I checked, and it hasn’t been in any Daily Kos Diary either.
We need something like 16 TW worldwide. More for EVs and economic growth in the poorest countries, less with improved efficiency and conservation, and so on.
As the hook to 3 Ways to Invest in a Renewable Energy Future (out of date on details), The Motley Fool investment site stated:
According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), global capacity for solar and wind power generation has exceeded 1 terawatt. And it won’t be long before we celebrate the next terawatt. BNEF estimates that the second terawatt of generating capacity will be installed in 2023 at a cost 46% lower than the first.
Date in 2027 not yet set
The initiative grew from frustration with the annual United Nations climate summits or Cops, where all agreements must be unanimous, and the main fossil fuel producing and fossil fuel dependent countries repeatedly block progress.
Ireland has been announced as co-host for next year’s sequel to the world’s first Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels.
Announcement comes as 60 countries agree landmark move to phase out oil, gas and coal.
The 2026 climate event guide
Our ongoing list of this year’s global environmental conferences, summits and more
Far too many to list here, but these are of critical importance.
When: 9–20 November 2026
Where: Antalya, Turkey
The largest climate event of 2026 will be hosted by Turkey in the resort city of Antalya, with Australia leading the negotiations as part of an agreement between the two countries. There will also be a ‘pre-COP’ held in a Pacific island country, though the dates and host country have yet to be confirmed.
COP31 will build on the deal agreed at COP30 in 2025, which included a tripling of adaptation finance and a just transition mechanism, as well as “roadmaps” to transition away from fossil fuels and to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030.
When: 17–28 August 2026
Where: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
The UNCCD COP17 will bring together the 197 Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) to accelerate action against desertification, land degradation and drought.
As one of the most affected countries by desertification, with nearly 77 percent of its land degraded, Mongolia will leverage COP17 to drive solutions for land restoration, sustainable land management and resilience-building across the world.
I'm attending a @theactionnetwork.bsky.social event: Data Centers & the Elections. RSVP here: actionnetwork.org/events/data-…
For the first time, solar power was Portugal’s main source of electricity in July.
South Africa’s Constitutional Court has permanently halted Shell and Impact Africa’s controversial oil and gas exploration off the pristine Wild Coast. HUGE!
A new study shows that across the globe, solar energy is projected to supply about 61% of the world’s electricity by 2050. Also, the world just passed a huge solar milestone: three trillion watts of power.
New Mexico’s clean-energy transition is emerging as a success story in a state long associated with fossil-fuel production. In just five years, solar, wind, and batteries overtook fossil fuels. And electricity prices remained cheaper than average.
Roosevelt Institute Roosevelt Institute: Building Up in 2029: How to Make Green Statecraft Durable
How can the United States build climate policy that lasts? Across 17 essays, 19 scholars and practitioners offer a 2029 agenda for durable green statecraft—from governing and planning to financing and producing the next phase of the energy transition.
Rewilding/rewetting is one of our best tools to combat climate change #ClimateChange #PeatlandRestorationwww.theguardian.com/environment/…
Increased rainfall and storms to hit UK due to biggest El Niño for a century, says Met Officehttps://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/21/increased-rainfall-and-storms-to-hit-uk-due-to-biggest-el-nino-for-a-century-say-met-office‘Unprecedented’ weather pattern over Pacific Ocean to be […]
Climate change threatens the future of cocoa.A study of 282 Ghanaian cocoa farmers found declining yields, rising pest and disease pressure, and tree losses linked to climate change.🌱 The findings highlight the need for climate-resilient agriculture.#ClimateChange #Agriculture #FoodSecurity
“Climate Change Fuels Expansion of Disease-Carrying Insects” — Devdiscourse#EnvironmentalNews #ClimateChange #Climate
#ElNino is not a new phenomenon, but the amplification by #ClimateChange and #GlobalWarming seems to be appearing.And the impact on the Panama Canal, reducing the number of ships it can handle, will only add to the cost of shipping, and so #Inflation.This economic impact brought to US […]
🔴 Top storyAlberta records first August day without wildfires in forty yearsAlberta recorded its first day in forty years without any active wildfires during the month of August.📰 Edmonton Journal#ClimateChange #cdnpoli
New ‘living seawall’ habitat in Boston is already teeming with life.The nonprofit Boston Harbor Now added concrete panels to seawalls that mimic rocky tidal habitats. #ClimateChange #GlobalWarmingyaleclimateconnections.org/2026/08/new-…
Otter spotted for first time in 100 years in New York City’s Bronx River.Image captured in early June shows animal foraging in the waterway in first since early 1900s, signaling its recovery. #ClimateChange #GlobalWarmingwww.theguardian.com/us-news/2026…
Dutch Pension Fund Pulls Nearly Half a Billion Euros From Climate ‘Megapolluter’ BlackRock.“This is a massive win for Dutch pensioners—not to mention all living creatures on Earth.” #ClimateChange #GlobalWarmingwww.commondreams.org/news/blackro…
insideevs.com/news/805634/…
Oh, yes? Did the survey ask about heat pumps?
Germany hits 128 GW Peak of Solar Energy 6 Months Early, 20% of Gridhttps://www.byteseu.com/2302527/By Edgar Meza | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Germany has reached a major milestone in the expansion of solar energy, with nationwide installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity surpassing the …
The former teacher estimates he is saving more than A$5,000 a year after installing a 10.5-kilowatt rooftop solar system and a 13.5 kilowatt-hour battery at his suburban home. The solar panels and battery easily meet most of the electricity needs for his home and electric vehicle (EV).
“In addition to manufacturing solar modules, Translucent has also developed a transportable, containerized microgrid portfolio under the brand name TAU. The solar modules come assembled onto a platform that unfolds…”
Ohio Supreme Court allows certification of out-of-state wind farms ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/08/21/o…
How this works for those interested:24 kWh battery (zero interest loan from NSW Gov)Electric car (federal tax incentives for EV leasing)Heat pump water heater (NSW Gov program)Globird Four4Free plan – free power from 11AM-3PMBattery and car charge during the day, carries us through all night.
⚡ Red States Are Killin' It With Their Solar Factories📰 via cleantechnica#PowerGrid #Energy
PJM Weighs New Surplus Interconnection Path to Bring Batteries and Generation Online Faster->Microgrid Media | More on "Grid interconnection for renewable energy" at BigEarthData.ai | #Batteries #RenewableEnergy
World’s largest cattle station installs microgrid as primary power source" at http://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/08/07/w…
New York City is building high-rises and skyscrapers that heat and cool themselves with geothermal energy and heat pumps–NO FOSSIL FUELS NEEDED!#cleanenergy
An accidental breakthrough in Iceland revealed how to tap into magma itself, potentially unlocking geothermal energy at scales previously thought impossible (@spacedaily.com)Main Link | Discussion
An accidental breakthrough in Iceland reveals how to tap into magma itself, potentially unlocking geothermal energy at scales previously thought impossible.
Imagine how quickly we could totally electrify Australia with renewables, batteries and electrical appliances (including retrofits) if we weren’t paying half a trillion dollars for the dumb, dud AUKUS deal?!And liberate ourselves from the tyranny of fossil fuels forever.
The online sales platform, CATL Mall, claims to offer extensive cell warranties and guarantees, even for small B2B buyers.
Did you know?Wind is moving forward again as part of America’s clean-energy future.Every property deserves the most cost-effective path.Upload your current utility bill→https://sunshineisfree.money/v🎁 $100 Voucher After Proposal Review#SunshineIsFree #WindPower #CleanEnergy
🌋 Underwater Volcanoes Are Geothermal Energy’s Next Frontier📰 via oilprice#Geothermal #Energy
#mwgic #2026 #Power #Storage #Energy #Thermal #Photovoltaic #BESS #Battery #Heatwww.autonocion.com/us/graphite-…
Nanolope Raises €800K to Turn Buildings Into Thermal Batteries techlensmedia.com/news/nanolop…#ClimateTech #EnergyStorage #PropTech #BuildingTech #TechLensMedia
youtube.com/watch?v=3Z0H…
Temporary excise tax cuts undermine the greening of Ireland’s transport
The War in Iran has as Trump stated entred into the Economic D-Day phrase Buffalo Niagara airport has run out of fuel
Republicans are pushing to cut health care funding to pay for a $200 billion war. They already cut $1 trillion from Medicaid and SNAP. This will only get worse as the Iran war drags onAdd your name in 30 seconds. Tell Congress: Fund health care, not war!www.facebook.com/share/r/1C7C…
• Mohsen Rezaei, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), warned that Iran would consider any country supporting the new US economic measures an 'act of war.' He also threatened to shut down all oil exports from the Gulf if the 'economic war continues.'
#Abraham Lincoln #ICE #immigration #Iran #Lincoln #war #water🌐 http://www.newsmart.ch
Byron Donalds says Trump ‘did not break that promise’ to keep prices down amid Iran warRep. Donalds (R-Fla.) joins Meet the Press NOW to discuss his recent win in the GOP gubernatorial primary and weighs in on Trump’s impact on the economy.NBC News: apple.news/AaDGIPADCQ-G…😡MAGA DELUSIONIST

Singapore inflation hits highest in nearly two years, but undershoots expectations
Singapore inflation missed estimates even as it accelerated to a near two-year high in July, as higher energy prices due to the Iran war lifted electricity prices.
The city-state reported that consumer prices rose 2.2% last month, year on year, compared with the 2.3% expected by economists polled by Reuters, and the 1.9% rise seen in June. Consumer price index fell 0.2% on a month-on-month basis.

The new measures will add to an extensive sanctions regime already targeting Iran’s banking, energy, aviation and cryptocurrency sectors. The Trump administration has claimed that Iran’s economy is in freefall, with runaway inflation and a collapsing currency.
Bessent also warned that “any nation that serves as a financial artery of a withering regime should expect to share in its isolation” — language aimed squarely at foreign governments still transacting with Tehran. He has previously warned of further secondary sanctions on nations and entities that conduct business with Iran.
Iran has responded by warning Gulf neighbors against joining U.S. economic measures and tightening its grip on the chokepoint, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil passed before the war.
On Saturday, Mohsen Rezaei, a longtime military commander who became the new secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council earlier this month, vowed to target the interests of oil-rich neighbors if they joined U.S. efforts to further isolate Iran.
#stayinformedcc Prepare now: We are witnessing abrupt climate change #climatechange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateReport #ClimateAction #climateemergency #heatwaves #wildfires #drought #floods #Hurricane #TropicalStorm #globalwarming http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202…
This is an important message from Sadiq Khan, we all need to accept our future will include increasingly hot summers due to #climatechange. #ClimateAction is needed now to cope with this new reality.
It seems that almost every time it rains lately, this happens. By the way, the DOGE cuts to the weather service do not make this easier: http://www.yahoo.com/news/weather… #Rain #NewYorkCityRain #ClimateChange #DOGE #WeatherService
Filipino Cacao Growers Learn to Live With a Hotter Climate.Cacao growers in the Philippines are developing new techniques to protect their crops from increasingly harsh conditions. #ClimateChange #GlobalWarminge360.yale.edu/features/202…
Extreme Temperatures Around the World@extremetemps.bsky.socialRECORD HEAT IN THE BALKANSBoth Western and Eastern Europe are again with record heat !Today it was scorching hot also in The Balkans,locally >40C.In Particular, the BOSNIA town of Gradacac […] [Original post on mstdn.social]
Heatwave in France: 2026 sets record for rockfalls in the Alps.The summer of 2026 saw an unprecedented wave of landslides in the French Alps, especially around Mont Blanc, driven by extreme heat and thawing permafrost. #ClimateChange #GlobalWarmingwww.euronews.com/2026/08/20/h…
substack.com/@contrarian/…
Do this for CA @governor.ca.gov just like @joshshapiropa.bsky.social did for PA.“Effective immediately, PA is requiring AI data centers to commit to strict environmental & transparency requirements AND receive approval from the local community if they want to have their permits reviewed". EO#2026-05
Today's read: Starcloud Raises $250 Million to Expand Orbital Computing and Data Centers 📣🔗 Read the full story at ift.tt/1BarcNyNever miss a beat in telecoms. Catch the latest news on @TheFastMode 🚀 #tech #technews #telecoms
youtube.com/shorts/BkK1P…
'Have Your Friend Elon Build One at Mar-a-Lago,' Says Sanders After Trump Comments on Data Centers http://www.commondreams.org/news/data-ce…
What’s True
The Nevada-based power supplier for California’s Lake Tahoe region, NV Energy, has said it can no longer supply Liberty Utilities, the electric utility that serves communities in the area, because of strains from data centers in Nevada.
What’s False
Liberty Utilities does not plan on stopping service for customers. As of this writing, the two companies have agreed that NV Energy will continue to supply Liberty Utilities until the latter company finds a new energy supplier.
The Data Center Backlash Bursts Into the Midterms http://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/23/u…
📰 Toronto StarAI data centres consume vast amounts of electricity and water, potentially worsening the climate crisis.#ClimateChange #cdnpoli
Rosatom is building 28 reactors abroad and negotiating 50 more #Rosatom #NuclearEnergy #EnergyInfrastructure #ReactorTechnology #InternationalTrade
by KFF
For decades, the White Mesa Mill has sparked debate over whether radioactive contamination threatens human health by getting into the water and the air. Concerns run especially deep in the White Mesa Ute Community.
Hitachi Stock and Other Nuclear Energy Picks Tied to Germany’s Power Demandhttps://www.byteseu.com/2301952/Germany’s role as a growth engine for Eurozone manufacturing puts reliable, large scale power squarely in the spotlight, and that is where nuclear energy stocks come into focus. Stronger …
Pangasinan green group opposes Marcos Jr.’s pro-nuclear stanceWill nuclear energy production help in energy security?The post Pangasinan green group opposes Marcos Jr.’s pro-nuclear stance appeared first on Bulatlat […]
#BO-O-O-O-OGUS!!!#NoNewNukesOverpriced nuclear power taking far too long to build contributes less than nothing to the clean power transition.Uranium mining kills miners, and the reactors leave toxic waste behind.
India’s 100 GW Nuclear Push via Homegrown Reactorshttps://www.byteseu.com/2301641/The Current Gap Is Big Nuclear power supplies about 3% of India‘s electricity, a small piece of the energy mix right now. The country has 8.8 gigawatts of nuclear capacity installed, which is just a sliver of …
⚠️ KANSAS, PAY ATTENTION: Parsons could become a major U.S. AI and energy hub. Data centers, advanced manufacturing and even an underground nuclear reactor are being explored. This could mean jobs and investment—but also major energy, water and infrastructure decisions. 🌻⚡🤖
#BO-O-O-O-OGUS!!!.#NoNewNukesWind and Solar and High Voltage DC power lines are China's keys for transitioning to a fully renewable grid.Nukes kill uranium miners, cost too much, take much too long to build, and leave toxic waste behind.
#BO-O-O-O-OGUS!!!#NoNewNukesApollo Atomics promises its first demonstrator SMR for 2027. I don't believe a word of it.www.nrc.gov/reactors/new…"The U.S. NRC is currently engaged in pre-application activities with Apollo Atomics regarding a construction permit application."
Home battery installations are growing despite the Trump administration’s eliminating the tax credits for them.
📰 Globe and MailEnergy analysts doubt Donald Trump's plan to revive the Keystone XL pipeline because shifting oil markets and new transport options have made the project obsolete.#ClimateChange #cdnpoli
How Florida quietly removed climate change content from textbooks.Publishers bent to state requests watering down information on climate change’s impact. Now the state has turned to updating its science standards. #ClimateChange #GlobalWarminggrist.org/politics/how…
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asks former Exxon scientists about oil giant’s climate change denial
Climate change denial comes in many forms.As we cross the global warming level of 1.5°C with record high global CO₂ emissions, it's not physically possible to limt global warming at this level.Some seem to think that 'physically' means 'in fairyland'.
Call to action 8/31 Tell the NRC NO! They are loosening radiation exposure levels for workers and the public. We may disagree on nuclear, but we are all equally affected by radiation exposures. Because of our shared humanity we must take this seriously. http://www.protectbetter.org/nrc-comments #nuclear
#BO-O-O-O-OGUS!!!.#NoNewNukesWind and Solar and High Voltage DC power lines are China's keys for transitioning to a fully renewable grid.Nukes kill uranium miners, cost too much, take much too long to build, and leave toxic waste behind.
• Also trackedCanadian government repeals electric vehicle sales mandateThe federal government is formally repealing the electric vehicle sales mandate that targeted full electrification of new vehicles by 2035.📰 Toronto Star#ClimateChange #cdnpoli
What Trump said are the well-worn and often rebutted lies of the fossil fuel lobby, whose lies are the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.If you hear such climate science denial tropes, the answers to all of those can be found at skepticalscience.com
Alberta moves to stop data centres from using renewable energy
Alberta’s grid operator is proposing rules that effectively block large new data centres from relying on solar or wind power.
By requiring facilities over 75 megawatts to source continuous, weather-independent baseload power, the policy makes standalone renewables economically unviable, pushing tech developers toward natural gas generation to support the province’s fossil fuel market.
The Alberta Electric System Operator classifies thermal gas generation as the only reliable option for constant power surges, dismissing wind, solar, and battery hybrids as inadequate.
Premier Danielle Smith promotes the data centre strategy as “digital refineries” designed to consume local natural gas reserves. 
Just as though they were bought off by the oil and gas industry.
AI data centres are turning Alberta energy into something the whole world is lining up to buy. This site explains what they are, why they are being built here, and how Alberta’s rules protect the things that matter: your power bill, your water, your community and your wallet.
Alberta produces about 60 per cent of Canada’s natural gas. A data centre refines that gas, in stages, into the most valuable commodity of our time. Gas becomes electricity. Electricity becomes computing power. Computing power becomes intelligence: the answers, predictions and tools the world is buying.
Then the product ships through fibre optic cable, at the speed of light. A digital pipeline that crosses borders without a decade of regulatory battles, carries the finished product instead of the raw one, and never sells at a discount.
🎩 GoodNewsRoundup
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A two-year apartment pilot in Bucharest uses semi-transparent photovoltaic windows to heat domestic water directly in DC, turning an ordinary water tank into thermal storage without a solar inverter or battery.
By Adrian Băisan, PhotoVoltaic Windows SRL
For people living in apartment buildings, using solar energy is not as straightforward as it is for homeowners who have access to their own roofs.
Millions of apartment residents have no usable roof area of their own. In many cases, the only surfaces directly available to them are balconies, balustrades and windows.
Plug-in balcony photovoltaic systems have become an important response to this problem. But they also raise another question: what happens to the solar electricity when it is produced at a time when the apartment does not need it?
For more than two years, we have been testing a different approach in a real apartment in Bucharest, Romania.
Instead of feeding photovoltaic electricity into the apartment electrical installation, semi-transparent photovoltaic windows supply an ordinary electric water heater directly in DC.
The idea is simple: use the water heater itself as energy storage.
Solar electricity produced over several hours during the day is converted directly into heat and stored as hot water for use later.
There is no photovoltaic battery and no solar inverter between the photovoltaic glazing and the heating element. The PV side operates off-grid and does not inject electricity into the public grid.
When solar energy is insufficient, the controller switches the same water heater to the normal AC grid after sunset so that it can reach the thermostat setpoint.
The system is installed on a south-facing glazed balcony in Bucharest.
The photovoltaic glazing has a nominal installed capacity of approximately 845 Wp and supplies domestic hot water for a household of four people, with hot water used every day, including one shower per person per day.
Earlier project documentation used a nominal capacity of 683 Wp, based on the 2021 manufacturer data sheet available when the glazing was ordered in 2022. The manufacturer has since confirmed that the delivered glazing corresponds to newer, higher-power models. Recalculating the same 11-window configuration with the current data sheet gives approximately 845 Wp. This correction changes the nominal STC rating, but it does not change the measured energy delivered to the water heater or the measured hot-water coverage reported below.
We monitored the system over two consecutive October-to-September periods.
During 2023–2024, the photovoltaic windows supplied 446 kWh to the water heater and covered 46.7% of the household’s domestic hot water energy demand.
During 2024–2025, they supplied 462 kWh and covered 43.7% of the domestic hot water energy demand.
In both periods, the family was away for approximately one month, meaning that each October-to-September measurement period effectively represents about 11 months of actual household use.
These results are important because the objective of the system is not maximum instantaneous photovoltaic output. The objective is to use as much of the available solar energy as possible inside the apartment.
The corrected PV nameplate rating also does not affect the separate water-saving and cooling analyses later in this article: the water calculation is based on measured flow and waiting time, while the cooling model is based on glazing area and solar-heat-gain characteristics rather than PV electrical nameplate power.
Germany’s Umweltbundesamt, or UBA — the German Environment Agency, Germany’s federal environmental authority — provides an interesting reference point.
For a south-facing, vertically mounted 800 W plug-in balcony photovoltaic system, UBA estimates annual production of approximately 532 kWh. It also estimates that, without a battery, around 240 kWh per year — approximately 45% — may be consumed directly in the apartment.
The reason is easy to understand.
A conventional plug-in photovoltaic system supplies whatever electrical loads happen to be operating at the same moment the sun is producing electricity.
If the photovoltaic system is producing 500 W while the apartment is using only 150 W, the household cannot simultaneously consume all 500 W unless another load starts, energy is stored, or the surplus is exported.
Our approach changes this relationship.
Instead of trying to make solar generation follow the apartment’s instantaneous electrical demand, we connect it to a load that can absorb energy over time.
A water heater is effectively a thermal battery.
It can receive 100 W, 300 W or 500 W over several hours, accumulate that energy as heat, and provide the stored hot water later in the day.
This allows solar production and actual use to occur at different times without an electrochemical battery.
There is another important part of the concept that is easy to overlook.
The system works particularly well not simply because photovoltaics are connected to a water heater, but because photovoltaic glazing can be a much better electrical match for direct-DC water heating than a typical one- or two-panel balcony PV system.
An electric water heater has a fixed resistive heating element.
Take, as an example, a standard 3 kW, 230 V water heater. The same electrical principle applies to water heaters with other rated powers; the 3 kW value is used here only as a clear comparison example.
If photovoltaic modules are connected directly to that heating resistance, without an inverter or active DC/DC MPPT converter, the operating point depends on the relationship between the PV array voltage and the resistance of the heating element.
This means that the wattage written on the photovoltaic module is not automatically the wattage that reaches the heater.
Consider two conventional modern PV modules with a combined nominal capacity of approximately 800 Wp.
For the module characteristics used in our comparison, connecting those two modules directly to the heating element of a 3 kW, 230 V water heater results in a maximum transferred power of only around 300 W, despite the approximately 800 Wp nominal rating of the pair.
The exact figure depends on the current-voltage characteristics of the modules, but the underlying problem remains the same: two conventional modules operate at a DC voltage that is relatively low compared with the voltage required for a good match with the resistance of a conventional 230 V water heater.
Their nominal 800 W rating therefore cannot be used efficiently by simply connecting them directly to the heating element.
Our photovoltaic-window installation behaves differently.
Although the corrected nominal installed capacity is approximately 845 Wp, we have measured a peak of 499 W delivered directly to the water heater.
This does not mean photovoltaic glass is inherently more efficient than conventional crystalline-silicon modules. It means the electrical configuration is better suited to the load.
Instead of one or two relatively high-power modules operating at low voltage and high current, photovoltaic glazing provides a larger number of lower-power generating elements.
These can be connected electrically so that the array reaches a much more useful DC voltage while total installed power remains moderate.
Moderate power + suitable DC voltage + resistive heating + thermal storage.
That combination fits a resistive water-heating element particularly well.
An active MPPT converter could increase the instantaneous power transferred to the heater under some irradiance conditions by keeping the photovoltaic array closer to its exact maximum-power point.
However, the gain in instantaneous power would not translate one-for-one into additional useful annual energy. The water tank has finite thermal capacity, and once the thermostat setpoint is reached the heater stops accepting energy. Extra midday power can therefore make the tank reach its cut-off temperature earlier rather than increase annual self-consumption proportionally.
In our configuration, the photovoltaic array and the heating resistance are already sufficiently well matched that an active MPPT stage is not essential to achieve the design objective. Any additional useful gain also has to be weighed against the converter’s own consumption, conversion losses, added cost and added complexity.
The measured 499 W peak from an approximately 845 Wp photovoltaic-window system shows that useful power can already be transferred directly to the heater with a very simple architecture.
This is different from the two-conventional-panel example. With two conventional modules totaling around 800 Wp, the poorer voltage match with a 3 kW/230 V heating element makes active power conversion much more important if the objective is to extract something close to the modules’ available photovoltaic power.
Alternatively, several conventional modules can be connected in series to raise the array voltage.
But once several conventional high-power PV modules are installed, total available power becomes much larger. At that point, using an inverter and supplying multiple household electrical loads generally makes more sense than dedicating the whole array to one water heater.
That is why we see photovoltaic glazing and direct-DC water heating as a particularly natural combination.
Photovoltaic windows → direct DC → heating element → stored hot water.
Conventional balcony PV is an excellent solution and has helped make solar generation accessible to people who do not own a roof.
Nor are we saying that conventional modules cannot be used for direct-DC water heating. They can.
With enough modules in series, an appropriately selected heating resistance, or active DC/DC power electronics, conventional modules can also heat water efficiently.
The difference is that a typical balcony system consisting of one or two conventional high-power modules is not naturally matched to a standard 230 V water-heater element.
Photovoltaic glazing occupies a different electrical niche.
A façade or balcony can contain several photovoltaic glazing elements, providing the voltage needed for direct heating without simultaneously creating a multi-kilowatt PV array.
This makes the concept especially interesting for apartments.
The water tank also changes the way we should think about photovoltaic system sizing.
With a conventional electrical system, users often focus on reaching the highest possible instantaneous power.
For direct solar water heating, that is not necessarily desirable.
If a large PV array heats the tank completely by midday, additional production later in the day can no longer be used by that dedicated load.
A more moderate photovoltaic system can instead supply energy for many hours. The heater slowly accumulates that energy.
The important quantity is therefore not only peak watts, but useful kilowatt-hours stored during the day.
The Bucharest results illustrate this. The approximately 845 Wp photovoltaic-window system, with a measured peak of 499 W at the heater, supplied 446 kWh in the first monitored period and 462 kWh in the second.
That was enough to cover 46.7% and 43.7%, respectively, of the domestic hot water energy requirement of a four-person household.
The experiment also revealed another benefit that has little to do with photovoltaic efficiency.
Before using the local water heater, the apartment relied on centrally supplied domestic hot water.
As happens in many apartment buildings, residents had to let water run while waiting for sufficiently hot water to arrive at the shower.
In our Bucharest case study, a measurement showed a shower flow rate of 6.7 liters per minute and approximately five minutes to reach about 43°C in late September.
Based on this measurement and seasonally extrapolated waiting periods of approximately five to eight minutes, the case-study model estimated approximately 62.1 cubic meters of water per year flowing during the waiting periods for a household of four people taking one shower per person per day.
This is not a universal figure. Waiting times vary substantially depending on the building, pipe length, circulation system and operating conditions.
But the mechanism is universal.
If hot water is produced locally and stored only a short distance from the shower, the waiting time can become practically negligible.
In our case, the local 80-liter water heater therefore provides a benefit beyond solar energy: it substantially reduces water wasted while waiting for centralized hot water to arrive.
Photovoltaic windows have another characteristic that conventional opaque PV modules do not have when they are simply attached to a balcony.
They become part of the building envelope.
The same glazing that generates electricity also reduces solar radiation entering the apartment.
We separately modeled this effect for the Bucharest apartment.
The south-facing glazed façade has approximately 12.9 m² of glazing, including 7.92 m² of semi-transparent photovoltaic glass.
Under the assumptions used in the study, replacing conventional clear glazing with the photovoltaic glazing reduces the solar heat gain through the overall glazed façade by approximately 40%.
For the particular apartment and air-conditioning operating assumptions used in the model, this corresponds to an estimated reduction in cooling electricity consumption of approximately 433–481 kWh per summer, with a central value of about 457 kWh.
These figures are calculated estimates, not measured air-conditioning savings. The distinction is important.
Nevertheless, the calculation illustrates a major characteristic of building-integrated photovoltaics.
The glazing can produce electricity and reduce the cooling load at the same time.
For apartments with large south-, east- or west-facing glazed areas and significant summer overheating, this secondary benefit may be particularly relevant.
The roof is not the only place where a building receives solar radiation. Apartment façades receive it too.
Photovoltaic glazing can be integrated into fixed window sections, balcony enclosures or glazed balustrades.
It therefore makes use of surfaces that already have an architectural function.
This does not mean photovoltaic glazing is suitable for every façade. Orientation, shading, transparency, architectural appearance and economics all have to be considered.
But for apartments with significant sun-exposed glazing, the façade can become an energy-producing surface without requiring access to the roof.
And when that electricity is used locally for domestic hot water, the system does not need to depend on simultaneous household electricity consumption.
One of the objectives of our pilot was to avoid unnecessary components.
On the photovoltaic side there is no battery and no solar inverter. The photovoltaic electricity is used in DC directly by a resistive heating element.
When solar energy is insufficient, the controller automatically switches the heater to the AC grid after sunset so that it can reach the temperature set by the boiler thermostat.
The automatic switching concept between photovoltaic DC and AC grid supply has also been included in a Romanian patent application published by the Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks.
But the most important part of the concept is simpler than the switching system itself.
It is the combination of a façade-integrated photovoltaic generator with suitable DC electrical characteristics, a simple resistive load, and inexpensive thermal storage that the household already needs every day.
Most discussions about residential photovoltaics still begin with the roof.
That works well for detached homes. For millions of people living in apartment buildings, it does not solve the problem.
Balcony solar has already shown that apartment residents want access to their own renewable generation.
The next question is how the limited solar surface available to them can be used most effectively.
Our Bucharest pilot suggests one possible approach.
Over two consecutive measurement periods, photovoltaic windows supplied 446 kWh and 462 kWh directly to domestic hot water, covering 46.7% and 43.7% of the household’s hot water energy demand.
The household consists of four people using hot water daily.
The same installation also provides solar shading, while local hot-water production can reduce water losses associated with waiting for centralized hot water.
Most importantly, the system demonstrates that photovoltaic electricity does not always have to be converted into AC, stored in a battery or exported to the grid before becoming useful.
Sometimes the most effective storage system is already inside the apartment.
It is a tank of water.
And for photovoltaic glazing, the combination of higher useful DC voltage, moderate power and thermal storage may make direct DC one of the most natural ways to use the electricity it generates.
The most valuable solar kilowatt-hour may not be the one produced by the largest system. It may be the one generated on the balcony, stored as hot water and used by the same family a few hours later.
Monthly measurements and detailed supporting calculations are available from the author on request.
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Monadnock Ledger-Transcript
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You might have heard the term “balcony solar” in the news recently. These devices are relatively small solar panels that plug into a standard 110-volt outlet and supply power to the circuits they are attached to. The purpose of balcony solar is to provide a cost-effective way to reduce electricity consumption from the grid and, therefore, your electric bill.
During the European energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, balcony solar became a popular means of supplementing grid electricity in some countries, particularly Germany. Now with electricity rates climbing, balcony solar is getting a closer look in the U.S.
Balcony solar is not legal in most states for reasons explained below, but NH Senate Bill 540 was recently signed into law, permitting its use in the state once safety standards are set. Not everyone will benefit from balcony solar, but it is a great investment for those who can. Here’s what you need to know before deciding whether balcony solar is right for you.
Balcony solar – also called plug-in solar, plug-and-play solar, or mini solar – is designed to plug into a standard outdoor power outlet. It is available in many configurations, but common components include a solar panel that collects energy from the sun and a micro-inverter that converts DC power from the panel to AC.
Another device called a smart power meter, which might go by other names depending on the brand, does not come standard with every balcony solar product, but it should. It monitors electricity usage on the circuit to which the balcony solar unit is connected to prevent overloads. This is important because the power generated by balcony solar is hidden from your home’s circuit breakers, so they might not shut off when an overload occurs.
The risk of overloading circuits with balcony solar is significantly lower in Europe due to how homes are wired. In Germany, for example, electrical power is supplied to homes via a single 230V line. This allows greater loads on the wiring and explains why balcony solar has been more readily adopted in Europe.
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A single balcony solar unit will not offset electricity usage for your entire house. This is due to the way buildings are wired for electricity in the U.S. Most homes have two 120V lines that deliver electricity from the grid. Each of these lines is called a “phase.” Power generated from a balcony solar unit cannot go from one phase to another.
For this reason, it’s best to plug balcony solar into the phase with the higher electricity usage or, if it makes economic sense, use two units, one for each phase. Ask an electrician to identify the electrical loads on each phase if you can’t do so yourself.
Yes and no. SB540 legalizes balcony solar conditionally. State building and interconnection codes must first be updated to account for a national safety standard developed by Underwriters Laboratories. UL 3700 addresses the overload risk and ensures that solar micro-inverters shut off quickly during a grid disruption to protect line workers and prevent electric shock when units are unplugged.
UL 3700 was released in January 2026, but the certification process for micro-inverters takes 6 to 12 months. As of July, only one micro-inverter was UL 3700 certified.
Yes, if you are careful about choosing a brand and options that address the issues described above. This means buying a power meter and ensuring that the system complies with UL 3700.
SB540 limits balcony solar to 1,200 watts, even though systems twice that size are available. This is another safety trade-off. However, 800W is a more typical size. Expect to pay about $1,500 for an 800W system with a power meter.
As with rooftop solar, the answer here is, “It depends.” Weather, panel location and positioning, electricity demand, and other variables will affect the efficiency of balcony solar. Ideally, a balcony solar panel should face south, be angled to directly face the sun, and be free of shade.
Do not expect balcony solar to cover your entire electric bill. An 800W system in New Hampshire weather will produce between 2 and 3.6 kilowatt-hours of electricity a day, according to one estimate. That would save about $281 a year with a 5.3-year payback on the initial investment, based on current electricity rates.
You also will not receive net metering payments for excess electricity from the utility because the energy stays in your home.
No, balcony solar is not designed as a backup power source. You can use a battery to store excess electricity for use when the solar unit is not generating power, but this option could easily double the cost of an 800W system.
Yes, you should get your landlord’s permission before installing balcony solar. Explain what it is and the expectations regarding benefits and limitations. Your landlord will want to know where you will locate it, where you will plug it in, and what’s drawing electricity on that circuit. They will also likely have concerns about the location of the solar panels, including aesthetics and space requirements.
Balcony solar kits are readily available from major online retailers and manufacturers.  Popular brands include Anker, Craftstrom, EcoFlow, and Bluetti.
However, the kits sold today are not yet certified under state-mandated safety standards. Our advice: Be patient and wait for certified products and consumer guidance from the NH Department of Energy before plugging anything in.
In the meantime, make sure you have a practical location for the solar panel near an outdoor outlet on a circuit that will give you the most benefit from the system. That location might be on the ground, the side of the house, or, of course, a balcony.
Electricity rates are expected to rise for the foreseeable future, and balcony solar is one way to offset those costs. Just make sure that it’s practical for your situation and that you are willing to wait a few years for the investment to pay off.

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“We have a lot of talk about building new reactors — and not a lot of doing.”
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Facing rising power demand, Gov. Kathy Hochul wants New York to lean far more heavily on nuclear energy as a source of constant, cleaner electricity — and she is arguing that the shift could eventually help restrain power costs.
That ambition, though, could depend on as much as $24 billion in public subsidies.
According to the Times Union, Hochul is aiming to add 5 gigawatts of nuclear generating capacity in New York. That target is greater than the amount of nuclear capacity added nationwide over 30 years and, if achieved, would provide enough electricity for nearly 4 million homes.
State officials say the added nuclear power could serve several purposes at once: supporting economic growth, keeping the grid dependable and, over time, reducing pressure on utility bills. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority estimates that a larger nuclear fleet could create about $50 billion in grid benefits by 2050, the Times Union reported.
Those potential benefits would come with a massive upfront cost. A state analysis found new reactors could need $15 billion to $24 billion in government subsidies, before any extra expenses that might be passed on to ratepayers if projects exceed their budgets.
Interest in nuclear energy has been rising among politicians in both parties as electricity use climbs, including from data centers. Federal tax credits and low-cost loans have also made new reactor projects appear more financially viable.
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A big part of nuclear power’s appeal is its steady output. Plants can generate large volumes of electricity around the clock without the planet-warming pollution produced by coal- and gas-fired plants, giving them a reliability role that wind and solar cannot always match because those sources depend on weather conditions.
But nuclear is also among the most expensive and slowest options for building a new power supply. Under Hochul’s proposal, the first new facility may not come online until 2039, which means it would do little to solve near-term affordability and reliability problems. Ongoing disputes over radioactive waste and the possibility of cost overruns also continue to drive public skepticism.
Rather than offering broad support for nuclear energy, New York has attached a specific buildout goal to the idea. That makes it different from many states that back nuclear expansion in theory without setting a clear construction target.
If the plan advances, New York would look to pair state support with federal incentives to finance and construct new reactors. Backers say the payoff would be a stronger grid supplied by more reliable, low-pollution power.
The core debate is whether a costly investment now would later produce lower, more predictable utility bills. Critics of major nuclear projects say wind and solar can be built faster and at lower cost, while supporters argue those resources alone may not provide enough constant electricity.
That tension is likely to define the debate in New York: whether to accept a costly, slow-moving buildout in exchange for possible future stability, or to prioritize options that may be faster and less expensive but come with different reliability tradeoffs.
The decision could shape what New Yorkers pay for electricity for decades. As University of California San Diego professor David Victor put it: “We’re in the middle of an often proclaimed renaissance in nuclear power. We have a lot of talk about building new reactors — and not a lot of doing.”
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