Solar Now

PENDER COUNTY N.C. (WECT) – The North Carolina Court of appeals upheld Pender County’s decision to deny a special use permit for a 2,360-acre solar farm that would occupy Burgaw, Columbia and Union townships. 
In July 2023, the Pender County Board of Commissioners unanimously denied a permit request for the solar farm and Coastal Pine Solar, LLC took the denial to the North Carolina appellate court. 
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The appeals court ruled on Tuesday, June 17 that the company failed to provide sufficient evidence that adequate utilities were in place or being provided for the project. Specifically, they could not prove existing transmission lines could handle the electricity the solar farm would produce.
The court also noted concerns about drainage. The Pender Soil and Water Conservation Director testified at a 2022 hearing that the land had been removed from agricultural use due to wetland designation. No evidence was presented about measures to offset water runoff from clearing 2,300 acres of timberland, according to the ruling.
The three-judge panel found the county board’s decision was supported by the evidence and did not violate the company’s constitutional rights.

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June 19, 2026
Looking back on renewable energy stocks’ Q1 earnings, we examine this quarter’s best and worst performers, including First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) and its peers.
Renewable energy companies are buoyed by the secular trend of green energy that is upending traditional power generation. Those who innovate and evolve with this dynamic market can win share while those who continue to rely on legacy technologies can see diminishing demand, which includes headwinds from increasing regulation against “dirty” energy. Additionally, these companies are at the whim of economic cycles, as interest rates can impact the willingness to invest in renewable energy projects.
The 17 renewable energy stocks we track reported a strong Q1. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 5.7% while next quarter’s revenue guidance was in line.
Luckily, renewable energy stocks have performed well with share prices up 15.9% on average since the latest earnings results.
Headquartered in Arizona, First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) specializes in manufacturing solar panels and providing photovoltaic solar energy solutions.
First Solar reported revenues of $1.04 billion, up 23.6% year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 1.4%. Despite the top-line beat, it was still a mixed quarter for the company with full-year EBITDA guidance exceeding analysts’ expectations but a significant miss of analysts’ adjusted operating income estimates.
“We delivered a strong start to 2026, with record first-quarter revenue, record sales in India, meaningful margin expansion, and Adjusted EBITDA above the top end of our first quarter preview range,” said Mark Widmar, Chief Executive Officer.
First Solar delivered the weakest full-year guidance update of the whole group. Interestingly, the stock is up 27.8% since reporting and currently trades at $257.93.
Is now the time to buy First Solar? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free.
Working in stealth mode for eight years, Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE) designs, manufactures, and markets solid oxide fuel cell systems for on-site power generation.
Bloom Energy reported revenues of $751.1 million, up 130% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 42%. The business had an incredible quarter with a beat of analysts’ EPS and EBITDA estimates.
Bloom Energy achieved the biggest analyst estimate beat, fastest revenue growth, and highest full-year guidance raise among its peers. The market seems happy with the results as the stock is up 45.4% since reporting. It currently trades at $329.16.
Is now the time to buy Bloom Energy? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free.
Founded in 1969, FuelCell Energy (NASDAQ: FCEL) is a leading manufacturer and developer of carbonate fuel cell technology for stationary power generation.
FuelCell Energy reported revenues of $35.59 million, down 4.9% year on year, falling short of analysts’ expectations by 12.6%. It was a disappointing quarter as it posted a significant miss of analysts’ adjusted operating income estimates.
Interestingly, the stock is up 37.1% since the results and currently trades at $23.76.
Read our full analysis of FuelCell Energy’s results here.
Powering forklifts for Walmart’s distribution centers, Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG) provides hydrogen fuel cells used to power electric motors.
Plug Power reported revenues of $163.5 million, up 22.3% year on year. This number beat analysts’ expectations by 15.9%. More broadly, it was a slower quarter as it recorded a significant miss of analysts’ adjusted operating income estimates and a significant miss of analysts’ EPS estimates.
The stock is down 19.5% since reporting and currently trades at $2.84.
Read our full, actionable report on Plug Power here, it’s free.
One of the first EV charging companies to go public, Blink Charging (NASDAQ:BLNK) is a manufacturer, owner, operator, and provider of electric vehicle charging equipment and networked EV charging services.
Blink Charging reported revenues of $20.78 million, flat year on year. This print came in 4.1% below analysts’ expectations. Zooming out, it was actually a very strong quarter as it recorded a beat of analysts’ EPS and EBITDA estimates.
The stock is down 31.5% since reporting and currently trades at $0.66.
Read our full, actionable report on Blink Charging here, it’s free.
Late in 2025 into early 2026, there was hand-wringing around artificial intelligence. For software companies, the fear was that AI would erode pricing power and compress margins as new tools made it easier to replicate what once required expensive enterprise platforms. Crypto investors had their own version of the same anxiety: if AI agents could trade, allocate capital, and manage wallets autonomously, what exactly was the long-term value of today’s crypto infrastructure?
These concerns triggered a noticeable rotation away from these sectors and into safer havens. But markets rarely dwell on one narrative for long. Spring 2026 came, and the focus shifted abruptly from technological disruption to geopolitical risk. The US’ conflict with Iran became the dominant driver of market psychology, and when geopolitics takes center stage, the script changes quickly. Investors stop debating growth rates and start worrying about oil supply, inflation, and global stability.
Want to invest in winners with rock-solid fundamentals? Check out our Strong Momentum Stocks and add them to your watchlist. These companies are poised for growth regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate.
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Tarragona
Barcelona
Tarragona
Barcelona
Terrassa processes two collective self-consumption solar parks in the north of the city with a joint power of 4.1 MW and 8,346 photovoltaic panels. The projects, named Can Bogunyà and Bonaire, are promoted by the company Solar Renovables del Vallès and are in the public exhibition phase.
The planned distribution reserves 90% of the energy for an energy community within a five-kilometer radius, while the remaining 10% will be allocated to vulnerable families with a social tariff. This perimeter covers the urban area of Terrassa but excludes Les Fonts and the southern half of Can Parellada.
Can Bogunyà will contribute 2.7 MW and Bonaire another 1.4 MW. Between the two facilities, they will incorporate 21 inverters and thirteen battery modules to store 1.3 MW of energy with a two-hour autonomy.
In addition to electricity generation, the project includes an underground low-voltage line to the transformation center on Isidre Nonell street, in Can Roca. The channeling aims to connect production with urban consumption without resorting to overhead infrastructure.
There will be grazing under the panels.
The design of the parks includes an agrivoltaic model that will allow livestock activity with herds in a delimited space under the panels. The formula has the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya and combines energy use with the continuity of land exploitation.
To reduce the visual impact, the developer plans to install vegetation fences around the plants. In the north of Terrassa, this landscape integration is added to the technical integration of the network and recent experiences on changes in access infrastructures in the city.
The total planned investment amounts to 4.2 million euros. Copcisa Elèctrica and Delta Renovables from the Electra de Caldes de Montbui Group provide financing with the collaboration of IDAE.
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Renewable energy investment platform Chrysalis Renewables has acquired the Atlas V and Atlas VI solar projects in Arizona, US. 
The deal is the first under a partnership between Chrysalis, an arm of global infrastructure manager Morrison, and Hanwha Renewables, an offshoot of the Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group, under which Chrysalis acquires projects from Hanwha that meet its investment criteria, while drawing on the latter’s capabilities across development, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), module supply, asset management and operations and maintenance (O&M).  
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Atlas V and Atlas VI are the first projects to be delivered under the model. The two projects have a combined capacity of 357MWdc and are in the final stages of commissioning.  
Located within the multi-phase Atlas Energy Park in La Paz, Arizona, the projects are expected to support domestic manufacturing, strengthen supply chains and improve grid reliability while reducing trade and tariff exposure. 
The projects are contracted under 15-year direct wire, or “busbar”, power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Southern California Edison for delivery into California’s CAISO market and are expected to begin commercial operations in the coming months.  
Qcells, also a subsidiary of Hanwha Group, supplied the domestically manufactured modules from its Georgia facility and is serving as EPC contractor. 
Morrison partner, Gordon Hay, said: “The acquisition of the Atlas projects marks an important milestone for Chrysalis, increasing its generation capacity to approximately 700MW while significantly expanding its regional footprint. The transaction also advances Chrysalis’ portfolio diversification strategy by adding a generation profile that complements its existing assets.” 
The partnership between Chrysalis and Hanwha, announced in February 2026, aims to accelerate the deployment of construction-ready and operational renewable energy assets. 
The initial focus is on more than 3.5GW of solar and BESS capacity in North America. The partners also plan to expand the portfolio into additional markets, including Japan, Australia and Italy. 
In April 2026, Hanwha sold the 1.5GW Atlas North solar-plus-storage portfolio to Lydian Energy. The portfolio comprised four late-stage projects in the CAISO market, including more than 1GW of solar PV capacity and 450MW/1,800MWh of BESS. 

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SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — As construction work to build the new South Kingstown High School continues, officials have started to do some research at the town council’s request about what comes next after everyone moves in. One of those research topics is putting solar panels on the high school roof.
At the latest town council meeting, Phil Conte, who’s one of the architects on the project, updated the council on the feasibility of using solar panels to save long-term on energy costs. The short answer is that he believes the council should take advantage of the incentives that are out there right now.
Conte laid out a fairly strong financial case for installing a solar array while also explaining why the town council is recommended to act now. One of the most important takeaways is that the economics work largely because of government incentives. 
The federal government could reimburse up to 40 percent of the project’s cost — emphasis on the “up to” — through a direct payment program. That state of Rhode Island also offers a $75,000 one-time incentive. The federal reimbursement would likely arrive 6 to 12 months after the system begins operating, while the state incentive would come roughly three months after operation begins.
Normally, projects must be completed by December 2027 to qualify for the current federal incentive. However, Conti explained another option called the “Safe Harbor” provision. That allows South Kingstown to preserve eligibility even if installation finishes later, even as late as 2030, provided the town commits at least five percent of the project’s cost, typically by purchasing equipment, before the federal deadline. 
Conte recommended that the council use this safe harbor option because instead of rushing construction to beat a deadline, the town could spend a relatively small amount now to lock in hundreds of thousands of dollars in future federal assistance.
Conte argued that solar really does become a long-term cost-saving investment. Solar panels usually last about 25 years, and with today’s incentives, the system would pay for itself in less than 10 years. This stretches out to 15 years without the incentives. Electricity prices are expected to rise over time too, making solar energy a financially viable option as time goes on.
Officials have also done a feasibility study about how much solar energy they could theoretically produce on the roof of the school. They found that the roof would be able to support 750 solar panels, about 405 kilowatts of generating capacity. The total estimated project cost is about $1.5 million, minus about $500,000 in expected incentives.
* For the full story, pick up a copy of this week’s Independent on newsstands now or purchase a subscription to our E-Edition by clicking here.
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CIM Group’s Permanent Power Company Closes Approximately $600M Construction Financing Facility for Grape Solar and Energy Storage Project  01net
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Part of a 12 square mile solar farm in Spain
On Wednesday the Interior Department announced that it would pay the energy developer Invenergy $765 million not to develop three offshore wind farms. This is the third such payment by the Trump administration to undo offshore wind projects that have been years in the planning. Trump has so far committed $2.5 billion in taxpayer dollars to killing renewable energy projects. The administration has also tried to stop offshore wind farms already under development — moves that have been blocked by the courts — while the Pentagon has been refusing to grant routine permits for onshore wind projects.
Yes, $2.5 billion to destroy already-approved, cost-effective clean energy projects while Americans are suffering from soaring electricity prices thanks to data centers and high gasoline prices.
Yet here’s the irony: Donald Trump’s disastrous Iran war has delivered a huge boost for renewable energy around the world — except in the U.S.. Trump has so far done more to shift the global economy away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy than any other single individual in history.
Why do Trump and his gang hate green energy so much? The roots of their hatred range from the power of fossil fuel interests, to Trump’s petulant whine that wind turbines ruined the view from his Scottish golf course, to a general sense among right-wingers that clean energy threatens their masculinity.
What’s best for Americans has nothing to do with it. Thus, Trump lackeys justifying their hostility to renewables consistently make arguments even they must know are stupid. Consider, for example, an exchange last month between Doug Burgum, secretary of the interior, and Rep. Jared Huffman of California:
Burgum: All of these projects you’re describing in Nevada have one thing in common—when the sun goes down, they produce zero electricity.
Huffman: Mr. Chairman, I request unanimous consent to enter in the record this amazing new technology that apparently the secretary is unaware of: It’s a battery.
Indeed. To get a clearer understanding of far battery technology has progressed in enabling the transition to renewables, let’s look at how the state of California sourced its electricity this past Wednesday. The chart below shows megawatts supplied at 15-minute intervals over the course of the day. The area shaded yellow represents daylight hours. The light blue line at the top is electricity generated by renewables, mainly solar power (with some wind and hydro as well). In addition to supplying energy for current consumption, renewables supply energy to batteries for nighttime consumption. The black line at the bottom is net electricity supply from batteries — which is negative when batteries are charging, positive when they’re being drawn down:
California — which would be the world’s 4^th largest economy if it were a country — gets more than half of its electricity from renewables. It is rapidly becoming a state largely powered by the sun during daylight hours and powered by batteries during the night.
Burgum’s suggestion that solar is an unproven or unreliable technology is completely at odds with reality.
Nor is California the only economy that now makes substantial use of renewable energy. Burgum’s home state of North Dakota gets more than a third of its electricity from wind power (don’t tell Trump). In South Dakota wind supplies 57 percent of the electricity. And renewables generate a large share of electricity in many countries, including most big European economies. (France is the outlier, not because it relies on fossil fuels, but because it has large nuclear capacity.) Spain, for example, now relies heavily on a solar-plus-batteries system similar to that in California.
And when Trump went to war with Iran, nations that had already shifted toward renewable energy were very glad they had made the move.
To the extent that there’s a competition for the future of electricity generation, it’s between renewable energy and natural gas. Whatever Trump may want to believe, burning coal — even ignoring the environmental damage — is a costly, obsolete technology, which nobody wants to invest in. But new gas-turbine power facilities are still being built (although many places are, like California, rapidly shifting away from natural gas). Trump officials envision a world largely powered by US liquefied natural gas (LNG).
However, countries that relied heavily on natural gas were hit hard by Trump’s gratuitous war with Iran. LNG supplies from the Persian Gulf were blocked and couldn’t be fully replaced by U.S. exports because shipping capacity was limited. Countries that had invested heavily in renewables, like Spain, were largely unscathed. A report from the think tank Ember found that since the war began Spanish electricity prices — unlike prices in some other European countries — were essentially decoupled from the soaring price of natural gas.
Assuming that the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened after Trump’s abject surrender to the Iranian regime, natural gas prices should subside. Yet the world has learned a hard lesson about the riskiness of relying on fossil fuels for electricity generation.
And let’s be clear about the nature of that lesson. It’s not the fact that much of the world’s supply of hydrocarbons comes from a politically volatile region: We’ve known that all too well since the 1970s. What’s new is the recognition of American weakness and unreliability.
In this new era of drone warfare America cannot guarantee reliable access to imported fossil fuels through critical sea lanes. And is America itself a reliable supplier? Can nations that allow themselves to be dependent on U.S. gas and oil be sure that Trump or a future Trump-like president won’t weaponize that dependence, cutting off or threatening to cut off supplies in some future dispute? The obvious answer is no.
The whole world now knows that relying on imported fossil fuels is a major economic and security risk. By contrast, the sun will shine and the wind blow whatever may be happening overseas. Renewables were already rapidly becoming cheaper than fossil fuels. Now it’s clear that they are also far safer.
Thus Donald Trump has in practice become the world’s green energy champion.
MUSICAL CODA
Florida could be 100% powered by solar, but the fossil fuel lobby there is unmatched. That state prefers to sink underwater from climate change than change to renewables.
Wind energy threatens their masculinity? These guys in the manosphere are the most ignorant jerks our country has so far produced.
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Yale Climate Connections
Those who follow global news about renewable energy will know that solar energy around the world continues to grow apace. Those who don’t should be encouraged by the stories below. 
All but one of the articles in this list were published in spring 2026. Though the specifics change — along with such things as tariffs, taxes, rebates, wars, and blockades — the underlying plot remains positive. 
“Solar is winning the energy race.” Gero Rueter, DW, March 28, 2026.  An interesting timeline history of the development and expansion of solar power, with this subhead: “The world’s cheapest power source is scaling at warp speed, pushing coal, gas and nuclear aside.” 
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“Global Electricity Review 2026.” Nicolas Fulghum, Wilmar Suarez, Katye Altieri, and Kostantsa Rangelova, Ember, April 21, 2026. There is tons of data here, but the homepage offers highlights, an executive summary, and key takeaways. Sample sentences: “Record solar growth meant clean power sources grew fast enough to meet all new electricity demand in 2025, thereby preventing an increase in fossil generation,” and “Global solar generation is now the same size as the total electricity demand of the EU.” 
“Drill, baby, drill? US, China fight for the future of energy.” Thomas Kohlmann, DW, April 26, 2026. A good account of this geopolitical competition, with the U.S. pushing oil & gas and China betting on solar power. For more, with a bit of added climate-change context, see “China cashes in on clean energy as Trump clings to coal.” Sara Steffen, DW, February 23, 2026. 
“Africa’s solar power revolution driven by China’s investment.” David Ehl & Privilege Musvanhiri, DW, November 25, 2025. Thanks in large part to Trump’s tariff wars, Africa enjoyed a large but temporary influx of affordable solar panels from China. 
“Chinese solar exports double in a month to hit record high amid energy crisis.” Ember, April 23, 2026. This time, the U.S. war with Iran and the blockades of the Straits of Hormuz are the main factors in this export surge. This article includes a map of countries that reached either their all-time or six-month records for solar imports from China (including the U.S.). 
Despite strong headwinds, some progress is still being made in the US. To focus on those headwinds, see “US renewable energy to attract $120 billion in investment this year.” Catherine Boudreau, Latitude Media, April 28, 2026. The subhead: “Trump’s permit delays and looming restrictions on China-linked components risk chilling investments.” To focus on the progress, see Climate Central’s analysis of solar and wind energy in 2025, based on the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s data. For instance, “Together, solar and wind accounted for a record 19% of total U.S. electricity generation in 2025.”
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by SueEllen Campbell, Yale Climate Connections
June 19, 2026
SueEllen Campbell created and for over a decade curated the website "100 Views of Climate Change," a multidisciplinary collection of pieces accessible to interested non-specialists. She is especially interested… More by SueEllen Campbell

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Unsightly for some, solar panels are now being disguised and designed as ancient Roman tiles to blend into historic city skylines. From Italy to Portugal, Pompeii and Évora are proving that heritage preservation and sustainability can go hand in hand.
"WWE SmackDown" headed to Kansas City for the big Undisputed WWE title rematch between Cody Rhodes and Gunther, with Sami Zayn as the special guest referee.
Itauma, the No. 1 heavyweight prospect in the world, can prove he belongs when he steps up to face top-10 contender Filip Hrgović on Aug. 29 in London.
The Tennessee Titans and Jeffery Simmons have agreed to a 3-year, $105.8 million contract extension making him the highest-paid defensive tackle in NFL history, NFL Network reports.
More than a decade after challenging Gaethje for a world title, one-handed MMA pioneer Nick Newell explains why the newly crowned UFC champion remains unlike anyone else in combat sports.
Clark carries a four-shot lead with two holes still to play in Round 1.
Trader Joe's $3 striped mini tote bags sparked long lines, sellouts and resale mania, with some shoppers camping overnight to snag the limited-edition accessories.
Spike Lee, Ben Stiller and Timothée Chalamet were among the stars who rode on floats along the Canyon of Heroes.
Jalen Brunson (rightly) grabs all the headlines, but it's his supporting act that had the bigger fantasy basketball impact in category leagues.
While bringing home a small trinket or two has long been a part of any vacation experience, shopping has become a signature feature of visiting Japan, with people flying around the world to buy cheap goods and viral products.
Let's talk about the Ronaldo in the room.

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By: Luis Reyes
Published: Jun 19, at 9:30am ET
Solar panels are the default way to power just about anything we leave outside, from a parking meter to a Mars rover. They are cheap, they have almost no moving parts, and they keep working right up until the Sun goes away. On the Moon, the Sun goes away for two weeks at a time, and the cold that comes with it is brutal enough to wreck most of the hardware we bother sending up there.
That two-week night is the entire reason NASA and the Department of Energy have now committed to landing a working nuclear reactor on the lunar surface by 2030. It is also why Washington suddenly cares a great deal about who gets there first.
The two agencies made it official on January 13, 2026, signing a memorandum of understanding to jointly design, fuel, and launch a fission reactor for the Moon. The goal sits inside a broader space-nuclear push the current administration has been building for months, and it carries a deadline that is roughly a decade tighter than where this program sat a couple of years ago.
The short version: America wants a nuclear power plant running through the lunar night before the end of the decade, and it wants to plant one before China and Russia plant theirs.
A lunar day and a lunar night each run about 14 Earth days. During that long night, a solar-only base would have to either shut down or lug around an absurd bank of batteries to limp through two weeks of darkness and deep cold. Neither option scales if you actually want people living up there.
A reactor does not care whether the Sun is up. It splits uranium, makes heat, turns the heat into electricity, and keeps doing that for years without anyone topping it off. That is the pitch, and on the Moon it is a genuinely strong one. The same basic appeal, power that just sits there and works, is why even coin-sized nuclear batteries are getting serious attention down here on Earth.
NASA has wanted this for a while. The agency first floated putting a reactor on the Moon within a decade back in 2021, and by 2024 the realistic target for getting one to a launch pad had drifted into the early 2030s. The technology itself is not new either. NASA’s earlier Kilopower project ran a successful reactor test on Earth in 2018 before wrapping up, so the physics of a small space reactor is settled. What changed recently is not the science. It is the urgency.
Here is where it gets interesting, because the 2030 date did not come from NASA’s engineers. It came from the top. In a memo signed on July 31, 2025, then-acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy, who is also the Secretary of Transportation, ordered the agency to design, build, and launch a reactor putting out at least 100 kilowatts of electric power and ready to fly by the end of 2029. That is a big jump. The program had been targeting a 40-kilowatt class reactor, enough to run roughly 30 households, and Duffy’s memo set the bar at more than double the power and a heavier machine to match. A 100-kilowatt reactor is closer to powering 80 homes.
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Then the politics caught up. On December 18, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Ensuring American Space Superiority” that put deploying reactors on the Moon and in orbit on the official priority list, including a lunar surface reactor ready for launch by 2030, alongside a goal of returning Americans to the Moon by 2028.
The January memorandum between NASA and the DOE is the paperwork that turns all of that into a joint program with money and responsibilities attached. The DOE handles the nuclear side, including supplying roughly 400 kilograms of high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel for ground tests and the flight reactor, according to SpaceNews. NASA runs and funds the program.
NASA is not building the reactor itself. The plan is to pick commercial teams through funded Space Act Agreements, and the field of likely bidders is already public. Westinghouse is offering a space version of its eVinci microreactor it calls AstroVinci, which the company says can be tuned anywhere from 10 to 100 kilowatts using either a Brayton or Stirling power-conversion system.
Lockheed Martin, which has held a fission surface power design contract since 2022, is leaning on decades of naval-submarine reactor work. There is also IX, a joint venture between lunar-lander outfit Intuitive Machines and reactor developer X-energy, plus newer entrants like Antares Nuclear and Radiant Industries.
Not everyone thinks the 100-kilowatt target is the smart play. Lockheed, of all people, has publicly argued that a smaller reactor makes more sense for what is actually planned on the Moon in the near term.
In the company’s own framing, a 5-to-10-kilowatt unit can run a habitat or a rover charging station, a 25-to-50-kilowatt reactor could serve several habitats at once, and jumping straight to 100 kilowatts would, in the words of Bill Pratt, Lockheed’s director of in-space infrastructure, “increase program risk and provide more power than needed” for the current plan. When one of your own contractors is gently noting the headline number looks like overkill, that is worth a pause.
NASA put out a draft solicitation, called an Announcement for Partnership Proposals, on August 29, 2025. The final request for proposals and the actual contract awards are still expected sometime in 2026, with the agency planning to fund up to two reactor developers to carry their designs forward.
The lunar reactor is only half of what NASA has been talking about. The other half is nuclear propulsion, and the pitch there is genuinely wild. At a March 2026 event, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman laid out a plan to launch a small interplanetary fission reactor called SR-1 Freedom, short for Space Reactor-1, by the end of 2028.
It is designed as a nuclear-electric propulsion system, and on its way through the solar system it would drop off three small helicopters, each in the class of the Ingenuity drone that flew on Mars, in a mission NASA is calling Skyfall. After that, SR-1 keeps going deeper into space.
This is not just a slide deck, either. According to the American Nuclear Society, NASA’s fission surface power program executive, Steve Sinacore, said hardware development for the propulsion effort is meant to begin this month, in June 2026, with spacecraft assembly and testing slated for 2028 and the launch penciled in for that December. Whether any of it holds to schedule is a separate question, and NASA’s own track record on space-nuclear timelines is not exactly spotless. But the ambition is real, and it is funded.
So why the rush to power a place where nobody lives? Because the US is not the only one trying. In March 2024, China and Russia announced they would cooperate on a nuclear reactor for the Moon as part of their planned International Lunar Research Station, with a target window the American Nuclear Society puts between 2033 and 2035. On paper that is a few years behind the US goal. In practice, nobody has landed a working reactor on the Moon yet, so the gap is mostly a question of who actually hits their deadline.
The deeper concern is real estate. In his July memo, Duffy warned that the first country to deploy a reactor could potentially declare a “keep-out zone” around it for safety reasons, which would box everyone else out of a desirable patch of ground. The Moon’s most valuable spots, the permanently shadowed craters near the south pole that may hold water ice, are limited, and getting there first with hardware on the surface is a way of staking a practical claim without ever firing a shot.
No treaty has been broken by any of this, and no country has accused another of doing anything illegal. It is a land grab run entirely through engineering schedules.
For all the deadline talk, the official documents are careful about what they commit to. As the American Nuclear Society pointed out, NASA and the DOE never quite say whether a reactor will be operating on the Moon by 2030 or merely built and waiting by then, and this program has a long history of dates that slipped.
That is par for the course with big nuclear projects; the world’s largest fusion machine only switched its first systems on after two years of rebuilding. A reactor that is ready to launch in 2029 still has to survive the trip, the landing, and a switch-on in an environment that is savage to machinery, and none of that is guaranteed by a signed memo. What the last six months changed is that the US has stopped treating lunar nuclear power as a someday project and started treating it as a race it intends to win, with a number, a deadline, and a short list of companies on the hook to deliver it.
Don’t bite your tongue. Speak up.
Dave McQuilling · May 30, 2026
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Spain Weighs Financial Aid to Struggling Solar Power Industry  Bloomberg.com
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Moro solar farm gets go-ahead  AdVantageNews.com
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Perovskite solar module manufacturer Oxford PV announced it achieved a power conversion efficiency of 25.6% for a perovskite-silicon tandem solar module relying on a shingled architecture developed by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE).
“For the first time, the two organizations have successfully combined Oxford PV’s perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells with Fraunhofer ISE’s Matrix Shingle module technology,” Ed Crossland, CTO of Oxford PV, told pv magazine. “Beyond the efficiency gains, the combination also reduces resistive losses, removes the need for copper interconnects, and improves resilience under partial shading – all key considerations as the industry looks to reduce costs while increasing energy yield.”
“The module presented is a prototype, but it is built using standard production cells and in a way that is fully compatible with mass production. Our current tandem modules are already delivering efficiencies of 25% with 10-year lifetime today, and this result builds directly on that. We continue to make progress along our roadmap, with a 26% product planned for release this year and a path to 27% with extended lifetimes by 2027,” Crossland added.
The Matrix Shingle approach improves conventional solar module interconnection by replacing traditional busbar-and-ribbon architectures with a dense, overlapping cell layout. In this method, photovoltaic cells are precision-cut into narrow strips and reconfigured into a shingled pattern, similar to roof tiles. Adjacent strips overlap slightly and are bonded using electrically conductive adhesive (ECA), which provides both mechanical adhesion and electrical interconnection between neighboring cell segments.
By eliminating soldered interconnect ribbons and busbars, the architecture removes inactive spacing that would otherwise block incoming light. As a result, optical shading losses are significantly reduced and a larger fraction of the module surface becomes active photovoltaic area, improving packing density. The reduction in metallization shading also enhances current collection efficiency, as more of the cell surface is exposed to sunlight.
In addition, the shingle configuration shortens current pathways and distributes current more uniformly across the module, which can reduce resistive losses and localized heating. The use of ECA instead of high-temperature soldering also reduces thermal stress during assembly, helping to preserve cell integrity and potentially improve long-term reliability. Overall, the Matrix shingle approach increases module power density by combining higher active-area utilization with improved electrical and optical performance.
“We are delighted to be able to combine two high-tech approaches from Europe in this PV module,” said Stefan Glunz, head of photovoltaics at Fraunhofer ISE. “To achieve this, we have cut the solar cells from Oxford PV into shingles, arranged them in a matrix structure, electrically connected them using conductive adhesive, and then encapsulated them.”
Two tandem glass-glass modules were built with this configuration and edge sealing to protect the moisture-sensitive solar cells: a 491 W rooftop module with an area of 1.92 m², and a 546 W bifacial module with an area of 2.13 m². “Both achieved an efficiency of 25.6% across the entire module area,” Oxford PV’s spokesperson said.
“Our tandem technology and the shingle interconnection work well together technologically,” said Ed Crossland, chief technology officer at Oxford PV. “Due to the lower current densities of the perovskite–silicon solar cells, they can be cut into wider strips, which increases productivity. Tandem solar cells achieve significantly higher voltages and efficiencies than conventional cells, while the current is lower due to distribution across two sub-cells. This lower current density is beneficial, as it helps reduce resistive losses within the PV module. At the same time, the adhesive interconnection of the Matrix shingle technology is a low-temperature process and requires no copper connectors.”
Oxford PV unveiled its first perovskite-silicon tandem solar module with 26.9% efficiency in June 2024. A few months later, the company announced the commercial launch of perovksite-silicon tandem modules in the United States.
It began working on its perovskite tandem solar modules in 2014 and claims to have a “clear roadmap” to bring the technology to over 30% efficiency.
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From merit certificates to solar panels: Hoshiarpur’s brightest students light up Punjab’s green future  The Indian Express
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DOE invests in multijunction III-V solar cell research to drive down the costs of the materials, manufacturing, tracking techniques, and concentration methods used with this technology. Below is a list of the projects, summary of the benefits, and discussion on the production and manufacturing of this solar technology.
High-efficiency multijunction devices use multiple bandgaps, or junctions, that are tuned to absorb a specific region of the solar spectrum to create solar cells having record efficiencies over 45%. The maximum theoretical efficiency that a single-bandgap solar cell can achieve with non-concentrated sunlight is about 33.5%, primarily because of the broad distribution of solar emitted photons. This limiting efficiency, known as the Shockley-Queisser limit, arises from the fact that the open-circuit voltage (Voc) of a solar cell is limited by the bandgap of the absorbing material and that photons with energies below the bandgap are not absorbed. Photons that have energies greater than the bandgap are absorbed, but the energy greater than the bandgap is lost as heat.
Multijunction devices use a high-bandgap top cell to absorb high-energy photons while allowing the lower-energy photons to pass through. A material with a slightly lower bandgap is then placed below the high-bandgap junction to absorb photons with slightly less energy (longer wavelengths). Typical multijunction cells use two or more absorbing junctions, and the theoretical maximum efficiency increases with the number of junctions. Early research into multijunction devices leveraged the properties of semiconductors comprised from elements in the III and V columns of the Periodic table, such as gallium indium phosphate (GaInP), gallium indium arsenide (GaInAs), and gallium arsenide (GaAs). Three-junction devices using III-V semiconductors have reached efficiencies of greater than 45% using concentrated sunlight. This architecture can also be transferred to other solar cell technologies, and multijunction cells made from CIGS, CdSe, silicon, organic molecules, and other materials are being investigated.
In the past, multijunction devices have primarily been used in space, where there is a premium placed on lightweight power generation, which allows for the use of this relatively high-cost solar technology. For terrestrial applications, the high costs of these semiconductor substrates (compared to silicon, for example) may be offset by using concentrating optics, with current systems primarily using Fresnel lenses. The concentrating optics increase the amount of light incident on the solar cell, thus leading to more power production. Using concentrating optics requires the use of dual-axis sun-tracking, which must be factored into the cost of the system.
Although multijunction III-V cells have higher efficiencies than competing technologies, such solar cells are considerably more costly because of current fabrication techniques and materials. Therefore, active research efforts are directed at lowering the cost of electricity generated by these solar cells through approaches such as developing new substrate materials, absorber materials, and fabrication techniques; increasing efficiency; and extending the multijunction concept to other PV technologies. Furthermore, because of the cost of such solar cells, developing reliable low-cost solutions to tracking and concentration are also active areas of research to support cost reductions for PV systems using multijunction cells.
Learn more about the awardees and the projects involving high-efficiency III-V cells below.
The benefits of multijunction III-V solar cells include:
Traditional multijunction III-V cells are assembled in an epitaxial monolithic stack with subcells connected in series through by tunnel junctions. Constructing a multijunction cell in a monolithic stack results in material constraints, and fabricating such devices is facilitated if the individual layers of the subcells have compatible atomic lattice positions and are lattice matched.  This advantage of lattice matching is why Ge, which is lattice matched to some III-V alloys, is traditionally used as the substrate and narrow bandgap cell in MJ’s.  Lattice matching limitations can be overcome with additional complexity using wafer bonding or metamorphic buffer layers.
The tunnel-junction layer is constructed by the interface of highly doped p++ and n++ layers. The interaction of these layers results in a spatially narrow space-charge region, which allows current to flow between the subcells. High-bandgap layers, known as window layers and back-surface fields, can be added to passivate surface states at the interface between a subcell and the tunnel junction, which if left unpassivated, can trap carriers and accelerate recombination.
If the subcells are connected in series, the subcell that conducts the smallest current limits the maximum current that can flow through the device. Therefore, a considerable effort is placed on tuning the current of the subcells.  Luminescent coupling between subcells can relax some of the current-matching design requirements. 
Multijunction III-V solar cells can be fabricated using molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) techniques, but fabrication in large metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactors is typical for commercial-scale production of GaInP/GaInAs/Ge devices. Layers can be grown from trimethylgallium (Ga(CH₃)₃), trimethylindium (InC₃H₉), arsine (AsH₃), and phosphine (PH₃) in a hydrogen carrier gas and using dopants such as hydrogen selenide (H₂Se), silane (SiH₆), and diethyl zinc ((C₂H₅)₂Zn). Using concentrating optics allows individual cells to be quite small—at times, as small as the size of the tip of a pencil. Therefore, these techniques allow hundreds of solar cells to be grown in single batches. Research is being done to further reduce the size of cells and increase the number of cells that can be grown from a single wafer, which will help reduce the cost per cell.
For more information on multijunction cells, visit the Energy Basics website.
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UP Invests ₹5,400 Crore In Green Energy Corridor-II To Support 22 GW Solar Ambitions  SolarQuarter
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From Pompeii to Évora: Invisible solar panels for heritage sites  Yahoo
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Felicitysolar Strengthens Brand Presence at SNEC 2026  StreetInsider
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The solar projects have a combined capacity of 9.8 Megawatts (MWdc) and together utilize 16,950 solar panels across roughly 40 acres.
For 75 years, workers at An old coal mine in Minonk, Illinois extracted coal. Today, those same 40 acres are covered in 16,950 solar panels that produce clean energy for the local power grid.
The two new solar farms, built by TurningPoint Energy and operated by Nexamp, produce a combined 9.8 Megawatts of power. This solar farm is a certified brownfield project, meaning it puts damaged land back to life.
Additionally, the solar project is one of the first systems in the region to use Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS).
DERMS could be compared to a smart traffic controller, but for electricity. Because solar power changes with the weather, the grid needs a way to balance things out in real time. This software helps ComEd manage that power flow smoothly so the grid stays reliable.
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More than 650 local households have already signed up for the program, including 200 low-income families who will see lower energy bills. Large institutions are pitching in too, like Rush University Medical Center, which signed on as a major subscriber.
Ian Hughes, the director of environmental sustainability at Rush, points out that the benefits go far beyond just saving money on electricity.
“Community solar is preventative medicine—it reduces harmful emissions, improves the air quality in vulnerable communities, and moves us closer to the healthier, more sustainable future our patients deserve,” Hughes said.
Local leaders are excited to see the old mine become useful again. Minonk Mayor Russell Ruestman noted that the land used to represent the community’s history with fossil fuels, but now it represents a clean energy future.
By combining domestic manufacturing with smart grid software, the Minonk project shows a practical way forward for updating our energy infrastructure without leaving local workers behind.
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CHN Energy has completed the world’s largest integrated solar-hydrogen-storage project in Jiangsu, China. The 400 MW coastal solar farm, 60 MW/120 MWh battery, and green hydrogen plant producing 482 tons annually are all connected by a dedicated submarine cable — a global first. It can power 200,000 homes a year. Hydrogen production begins August 2026. 
CHN Energy has completed the world’s largest integrated solar-hydrogen-storage project in Jiangsu, China. The 400 MW coastal solar farm, 60 MW/120 MWh battery, and green hydrogen plant producing 482 tons annually are all connected by a dedicated submarine cable — a global first. It can power 200,000 homes a year. Hydrogen production begins August 2026. 
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People who live nearby are bracing for a third night of the persistent smoke. Macy Jenkins reports for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on Friday, June 19, 2026.
A fire at a 500,000-square-foot cold food storage building in Boyle Heights flared up again Friday, sending black and white smoke into the sky just hours after a shelter-in-place order was lifted for those who live nearby.
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The Los Angeles Fire Department said it dispatched crews on standby in anticipation of a change in wind conditions that ultimately caused the flare-up inside the Lineage warehouse-style building, which continued to smolder after its solar paneled-covered rooftop caught fire around 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
In a news conference Friday evening, LAFD Battalion Chief Nicholas Ferrari said the flare-up was predicted and that flames burned through the roof, allowing smoke to escape from the inside while increasing visibility for firefighters.

“You are going to see this fire ebb and flow through different conditions of smoke. The smoke will go away, and it’ll look like we have the fire out, and then 10 minutes later, it could flare up again,” Ferrari said. “This is all predicted, and it’s all part of our strategy to effectively attack this fire.”
He also emphasized the complexities of the firefight, which he described as an “extended event.” According to the LAFD, the entire building is a freezer with the walls and the roof made of insulated material; it holds around 75,000 pallets of food in 600-feet-long, 54-feet-tall aisles.
The shelter-in-place order, reissued Thursday for residents and businesses near the building, remained in effect into Friday morning as firefighters attempted to clear smoke from the building. The order was lifted at about 11:30 a.m., but a smoke advisory remains in effect, the LAFD said in an alert.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District extended a particle pollution advisory until 12:30 p.m. Saturday as smoke continues to affect the air quality in areas east of downtown Los Angeles.
“I want to ask people when they can to please stay inside, keep your pets inside, and if you need to go outside for any reason, if you would please wear a mask,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said during the Friday evening news conference.
A shelter has been established at the Pecan Recreation Center — located at 145 South Pecan Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033— for anyone who wants relief from the air quality. It was expected to remain open, including in the overnight hours, while the firefight continues.
Another shelter was expected to open at City Terrace Park, according to Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis.
Flames still burned in areas that firefighters have not been able to access, largely due to structural concerns about the building. At a late morning news conference, the LAFD said there were flare-ups under solar panels that were difficult to access.
“We’re going to keep this fire as small as possible, and if we can extinguish it as soon as possible, that would be great,” said LAFD Capt. Branden Silverman. “Even though the fire is not huge, it is continuing to burn.”
Air quality monitors have been at the site. Readings did not detect anything hazardous beyond what’s normally found in fire smoke, Silverman said.
“Nothing has been found at this point, other than normal products of combustion,” he said. “If you can smell the smoke and not necessarily see it, we’d definitely advise you to stay indoors.”
As for the flare-ups, firefighters are concerned about placing firefighters in certain areas of the building due to possible structural damage from the fire and water drops on the rooftop. They’re attempting to determine whether the weight of the water on the roof compromised its structural integrity.
Three water-dropping helicopters made several runs Wednesday on the fire, a rarely used tactic during structure fires. Each drop contained about 480 gallons of water, a gallon of which weighs about 8 pounds, LAFD Chief Jaime Moore said Thursday.
“We’re looking at options to see how we can better get water on the fire,” Silverman said. “There’s definitely structural compromise on the roof. It was burning for hours and hours. That’s why we’re not putting people inside the building at this point.”
Silverman mentioned that equipment powered by lithium-ion batteries, which are highly combustible when damaged and can burn for long periods of time, was moved to a portion of the building not affected by fire. There was no evidence indicating the equipment or batteries were damaged.
In an update Thursday evening, the LAFD said crews found a pocket of fire in a freezer container inside the building. Video from NewsChopper4 late Thursday showed gray and white smoke still billowing out of the building as more water drops were being made.
South Coast AQMD dispatched an inspector and mobile monitoring equipment. A survey on Wednesday night included measurements of particulate matter and airborne metals. Preliminary test results showed the particulate matter was generally near background levels.
“Increased levels of bromine and chlorine were also observed,” the agency said. “Bromine and chlorine are typically found at trace levels during structural fires, and the levels seen were below short-term health-based exposure thresholds. Concentrations below this level are not expected to cause adverse health effects. No significant levels of air toxic metals were seen.”
The agency will continue to monitor conditions for potential air quality impacts.
When the fire broke out Wednesday afternoon, a pressurized ammonia line in the building was damaged, causing the release of pressurized ammonia. The chemical was contained.
The fire’s origin was on the rooftop, but authorities have not determined a cause. Most of the fire was contained to the solar array on the rooftop, but parts of the interior were damaged. Although the power was shut down, fire officials said the situation remained challenging for crews since solar panels still conduct electricity.
A spokesperson from Lineage, the food storage company, sent NBCLA the following statement on Friday:
“Lineage’s top priority is the health and safety of the community, and we are continuing to work closely with the Los Angeles Fire Department and other agencies to provide any assistance we can. We are grateful to Los Angeles’ remarkable firefighters for their ongoing and brave efforts.
“Lineage is the tenant-operator of this building. At this time, we believe the fire began while testing was being conducted by contractors of the third-party owner of the solar array located on the facility’s roof.
“This facility is not used for the storage of hazardous materials. It primarily serves as a temperature-controlled storage facility for frozen food before it makes its way to Greater Los Angeles area communities and beyond.
“Our understanding from LAFD and AQMD is that there have been no measurable ammonia concentrations recorded in the community since the fire started. Additionally, Lineage has proactively taken additional steps to pump out the ammonia and transport it offsite, removing the possibility of ammonia posing a risk to the community.
“This facility and the supply chain it connects with employ hundreds of local jobs. We are grateful that no team members at the facility were harmed.”
A 2024 fire on the roof of the building was caused by an electrical problem, the LAFD said. That fire was knocked down using ladder trucks and hand lines.

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NV Energy’s 400-megawatt solar facility under construction in Churchill County, which includes 1600MW-hours of battery storage, is on track for early completion near the first quarter of 2027.
Courtesy NV Energy
By Rob Sabo
Friday, June 19, 2026
NV Energy’s 400-megawatt solar facility under construction in Churchill County, which includes 1600MW-hours of battery storage, is on track for early completion near the first quarter of 2027.
The Sierra Solar project spans 6,787 acres on the east and west sides of Sagehen Creek Road. The battery energy storage system is already complete, and with infrastructure and materials already in place for construction of the photovoltaic solar array, crews could potentially finish the $1.5 billion facility ahead of its scheduled April 2027 completion date, said Tua Fale, vice president of major projects for NV Energy.
“The battery portion of the project came online March 20, and that’s a great win for the customer,” Fale told NNBW during an interview last week. “As we start to settle the numbers – we’re working through the contractor to true up everything – it is looking to be at the very least on budget, but leaning heavily toward being under budget and early.”
Fale said all the foundation piles for the solar array racking have been installed, and the photovoltaic solar modules have been delivered and moved into place. Other key materials are on site and ready for installation by general contractor Kiewit. During peak construction, the project could employ between 350 and 400 trades workers and suppliers, Fale noted. NV Energy is handling much of the behind-the-scenes work as owner-developer through the Engineering, Procurement and Construction delivery method.
The Sierra Solar project includes the large scale battery storage system, photovoltaic solar array, switch yard, and two transmission lines – one connecting to an NV Energy-owned switch yard, and the other connecting to the existing Tracy-Valmy 345 kilovolt transmission line.
Construction of the facility helps NV Energy meet a state mandate of 50 percent renewable energy generation by the year 2030, Fale added. The massive scale of the solar facility also helped drive down overall project costs, he added.
“Through economies of scale, the larger the project, the per-capita cost for each megawatt goes down,” Fale said. “The larger you’re capable of building a project, the cheaper the project is in regards to energy cost.
“Permitting and land cost goes down, and you get better pricing on solar panels and batteries,” he added.
With more than 300 days of sunshine per year, Nevada’s wide-open high desert valleys are prime sites for solar arrays, and the largest solar facilities in the state are in Clark County. NV Energy draws power from multiple solar arrays in Northern Nevada, including the 200MW Dodge Flat Solar near Wadsworth, 100MW Fish Springs Ranch Solar north of Reno, and 19.5MW Fort Churchill Solar Array in Mason Valley.
The site on Sagehen Creek Road north of Fallon was chosen due to its proximity to Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, which is where power generated from the facility is destined once it comes online, although that energy can easily be routed elsewhere to meet demand once it’s on the energy grid, Fale noted.
Sierra Solar will deliver power to TRIC by connecting to the existing Tracy-Valmy 345 kilovolt power line that runs from the Frank A. Tracy Generating Station east of Reno to North Valmy Generating Station near Battle Mountain. Since it’s about 60 miles east of TRIC, there’s little power lost during transmission, Fale said.
“There is a cost to move electricity, so if you’re able to locate your generation closer to the destination, that also drives the cost down,” Fale said.
Fale said the biggest hurdle that has been overcome, and still presents ongoing challenges, has been the impact of tariffs on imported solar panels. Most of the world’s solar panels are made in China, and administrative trade wars have seen tariffs fluctuate wildly.
Fale said the impact has led to tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars of additional cost – and headache – on the Sierra Solar project.
“Because of their unpredictability and because of the size of the project, the tariffs are massive,” he said. “We’re still trying to figure out how to settle some of those tariffs. We have specific teams dedicated to trying to make sure we are paying the right amount, but there was a time when tariffs were 20 percent, then they would jump up to 40 percent to 100 percent. It was a very chaotic time.”
The Sierra Solar site will be one of the largest solar arrays in Northern Nevada, but the possibility exists to expand the site in the future if warranted. Fale said the current scope of the project could readily be doubled in a second phase of solar development on adjacent land, though it’s currently not planned.
“We have an approach and strategy that takes into account the demand that we’re seeing and anticipating for standard load growth,” he said. “There is an opportunity there. We’re prepared, we’ve found the land, we have the capacity, so that is an option.
“If the lowest-cost opportunity for the customer is to take advantage of the additional land that NV Energy currently has next to the Sierra Solar project, that will be flagged and brought up as a project to be developed and to be built, or to be part of a power purchase agreement where a third party could come in,” he added.
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NLC India Invites Bids For Monitoring SECL’s 40 MW Solar Power Plants In Chhattisgarh  SolarQuarter
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Zhang: One of the major challenges is the return-on-investment, which needs to consider over the 20-year lifecycle, not only the initial CAPEX. The second challenge is how to ensure stable grid operation, given the massive amount of renewable energy that is now being connected to the grid.
Third is as the increased scale of power plants, since the conventional manual O&M can’t deal with the challenge and must turn to digital solutions to improve efficiency. The fourth challenge is ensuring long-term reliability and safety, which is always the foundation.
Zhang: LCOE considers factors like investment, yield, and O&M costs, etcetera. Firstly, Huawei leverages the innovation in electronics to minimize the Balance-of-System (BOS) of solar projects. Through breakthroughs in the new IGBT, the new thermal design, and the new generation of 506kW smart string inverter, the flagship product of FusionSolar9.0 solution realized a 40%+ increase in power density compared with the last generation, and pioneering the 1000 Vac application in solar PV system. The FusionSolar9.0 solution can decrease BOS by 0.3- 0.6 US cents per watt in an 11 MW array design, by contrast to the conventional solution of a 9 MW+ array with 300+ kW inverters.
FusionSolar9.0 also boosts energy yield with the 506kW inverter’s longer PV string design and a wider working range for MPPT voltage. This means it allows the system to start earlier and shut down later – another contributor to increased power yield. In projects in China, the 506kW inverter delivers ~1% higher yield versus conventional  solution.
Moreover, the 506kW inverter has equipped the fans with innovative self-cleaning and anti-icing technologies to adapt to diverse environments and weather conditions, which can reduce manual O&M and prevent energy losses. All the features above can bring considerable economic benefits.
Zhang: To achieve higher power and voltage while maintaining high reliability, it depends on Huawei’s sustained investment in and breakthroughs in fundamental technologies, mainly in three perspectives.
First, the new-generation IGBT module boosts voltage withstand capacity by 25%, reduces power loss by 10%, and increases maximum junction temperature by 20%. Second, the innovative Smart Hybrid Cooling System enhances heat dissipation capability by 30% without compromising the overall size and dimensions. Third, it is because the new production line has all the key processes 100% automated and empowered by AI inspection in all manufacturing procedures, which guarantees the strong production capacity with excellent quality.
Zhang: I can summarize these into five capabilities. Firstly, the Smart Internal Potential Construction Algorithm can cope with transient voltage instability by generating reactive power within 10 ms, while it takes around 30 ms for the conventional grid-following inverters.
Secondly, the 0-20 s Smart Virtual Inertia can support frequency stability. Thirdly, it can enhance short-circuit-ratio (SCR) of the PV plant, which brings in stronger renewable energy transmission capability, as the two factors have a positive correlation. Fourthly, the grid-forming inverter can realize auto-recovery of reactive power at nighttime after the power failure is recovered, which can avoid fines in some countries. Lastly, it can provide off-grid power supply during the commissioning phase of a solar farm and use self-generated PV power for equipment commissioning and testing due to its voltage-source characteristic, which is more cost-saving, environment friendly, and socially beneficial, and enables faster grid-connection compared with a diesel generator solution.
The questions and responses in this sponsored interview article were provided by Huawei Digital Power. 
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Published 10:11 am Friday, June 19, 2026
By Keelin Everly-Lang keelin.everly-lang@soundpublishing.com
Solar panels in Federal Way. Photo by Keelin Everly-Lang / Sound Publishing
Puget Sound Energy (PSE) customers may have already seen an increase in utility bills, but what is going on? Why are costs going up?
The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) approved several requests filed by PSE back in December 2025, with increased rates for both natural gas and electricity that began on Jan. 1 of this year.
Bellevue-based PSE is a subsidiary of Puget Energy and provides service to around 1.2 million electric customers and nearly 900,000 natural gas customers in ten Central and Western Washington counties, including King County.
In their press release, the UTC explained that PSE had requested the changes to support costs related to compliance with the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) and expansion of clean energy provided to customers as well as paying for investments to increase reliability and safety for customers and addressing low-income bill assistance costs.
While PSE blames the state’s push for renewable energy as one of the causes of rate increases, the corporate ownership of the majority of power lines in the state by Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and of PSE itself are causing a block in the deployment of new renewable energy projects, according to reporting by ProPublica.
They found that “of the 469 large renewable projects that applied to connect to Bonneville’s grid since 2015, only one has reached approval,” and noted that this is a lower approval rate than any other region of the country.
The investigation found that “no major grid operator is as stingy as Bonneville in its approach to financing new transmission lines and substations needed to grow the power supply, according to industry groups that represent power producers.”
Challenges in getting approval to build new solar and wind projects have put the region behind many other states in renewable energy expansion, but time is also running out for PSE to get projects built that take advantage of federal tax credits that have been cut.
“Included in the rate plan are more than $529 million in federal tax credits that will directly benefit customers by reducing costs of new generation projects. Due to changes in federal tax law, these credits are expiring, creating an urgency to complete projects quickly,” PSE states in a general rate case explanation.
PSE also noted increased damage from wildfires and storms are also a factor.
The UTC said in December that the net impact of these first changes for electric customers is a roughly 12% increase or about $17 per month for the average residential electric customer using 800 kWh per month.
For natural gas customers, the UTC estimated a roughly 7% increase. The average natural gas residential customer using 64 therms a month and connected before July 25, 2021, will see an increase of about $6.50 per month.
PSE is currently going through the approval process for even more rate increases.
On Feb. 27, PSE filed a three-year rate plan with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC). For electric service, PSE is requesting overall increases of 15.2% in 2027, 3.7% in 2028 and 8.7% in 2029.
For natural gas service, PSE is requesting overall increases of 14.2% in 2027, 3.2% in 2028, and 3.6% in 2029.
PSE stated in a press release that “the rate adjustments are needed to support over $3.2 billion in infrastructure investments focused on system safety, reliability, meeting growing customer demand and compliance with Washington state’s clean energy requirements.”
Help with high costs
PSE offers a variety of programs to help their customers manage the high costs of utilities and to use energy more efficiently.
The Bill Discount Rate program can allow customers to qualify for a lower rate based on income and household size, and for those that need additional assistance, the Home Energy Lifeline Program (HELP) provides up to a $1,000 credit to help with bill payments.
Rebates are available for a variety of scenarios including the purchase of new appliances, EV chargers, heating and cooling, improvements in both home and window insulation, new construction, smart thermostats, efficient water heating systems and more.
PSE customers may also be eligible for up to two free shares in the Community Solar income-eligible program, which can save customers approximately $10 to $20 per share per month.
Enrolling in this program means that “solar panels will be installed on the rooftops of publicly owned buildings and other properties across our service area. As a result, you can share the benefits of 100% local solar energy without having to invest in and install a rooftop solar system on your own. Whether you own or rent, there’s no roof or equipment required to participate.”
Another savings opportunity is in a new Peak Time Savings program.
Customers who choose to participate can save $.50/kWh during Flex events that are called by PSE when demand is predicted to spike.
Customers can save more—$1/kWh—by enrolling in PSE’s existing Flex Rewards program, where customers can sign up for a variety of programs to earn rewards by saving energy and/or allowing PSE to remotely adjust their energy usage during events of high demand on the energy grid.
“Any increase in monthly bills is difficult for the families and businesses we serve. We take that seriously,” president and CEO of PSE Mary Kipp said in a press release.
“At the same time, our customers count on us for safe, reliable energy, and many expect that energy to become cleaner in line with Washington’s climate laws. This rate plan reflects the balance we must strike: keeping our gas and electric system strong and dependable, investing in cleaner resources that will power our future, and doing so as responsibly and thoughtfully as possible,” Kipp said.
More context
Washington state is last in the nation when it comes to expansion of annual production of power from wind, solar, hydroelectric and geothermal energy, according to reporting by ProPublica.
Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Texas and Oklahoma have all increased their renewable energy by over 300% where Washington has actually gone the opposite direction at -3%.
Washington started with much higher renewable energy usage due to the high usage of hydropower, which is still the highest in the country. The issue is that the state has added other new sources like wind and solar at a much slower rate.
BPA owns “most of the power lines needed to carry green power from the region’s sunny and windy high desert to its major population centers. Bonneville has no state or local representation within its federally appointed bureaucracy and, by statute, operates as a self-funded business,” ProPublica reported.
The two states that have increased their renewable energy usage the fastest are Nebraska and Kansas, both of which have a uniquely high percentage of municipally owned power utilities.
Nebraska is the only state in the country that is served 100% by publicly-owned utilities and Kansas has one of the next highest rates of municipal rather than privately owned utilities.
This state ownership has made it much easier for them to align legislative and utility priorities and make actual progress on the production of renewable energy, although their infrastructure is also under similar strains due increasing demand.
Share feedback on rate increases
The public can comment on these proposed rate increases by filling out a public comment on the UTC website.
Details of the case docket 26005 and 26006 are also available on the UTC website for review
Public hearings are scheduled for Sept. 29, 2026 (in-person) and Oct. 7, 2026 (virtual) where customers can comment on the proposed rate changes.
The UTC review process may take up to 11 months, according to PSE so the final approved rates may differ from PSE’s request.

source

Igloo
Company officials say the new solar installation will reduce carbon emissions, strengthen energy reliability and support long-term operations at Igloo’s Katy manufacturing facility.
by Dennis Spellman
Business
Jun. 19, 2026
11:23 p.m.
KATY, Texas (Covering Katy News) — Katy based Igloo Coolers and the Sweden-based Dometic Group on June 10 marked the completion of a large solar installation at Igloo’s manufacturing facility in Katy.
The project includes 7,782 solar panels that company officials said will reduce the facility’s dependence on the electric grid while improving energy reliability and helping lower carbon emissions.
More than 50 community members, business leaders and other guests attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the project, which was developed in partnership with renewable energy company CLS Sustainable.
“We are thrilled to celebrate this installation with CLS as we take a step towards more sustainable efforts,” said Josh Militello, president of Segment Mobile Cooling at Dometic. “Directly through this project, we will lower carbon emissions, energy cost savings and build greater operational resilience.”
Company officials said the installation is intended to strengthen operational continuity at the Katy manufacturing facility, where Igloo-branded products are produced for customers around the world.
Igloo
Solar panels on Igloo property in Katy.
According to the companies, the solar array is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 97,500 metric tons over the next 25 years. They said the environmental impact is comparable to the amount of carbon absorbed in one year by roughly 975,000 acres of U.S. forest.
“CLS Sustainable is proud to partner with Dometic on this transformative energy initiative at their Katy manufacturing facility,” said CLS CEO Deke Welling. “The successful completion of Phase One represents a major step forward in supporting long-term sustainability goals and innovation. This project represents more than just solar generation — it reflects the future of industrial energy infrastructure throughout the U.S.”
Igloo became part of the Dometic Group in 2021. Dometic develops products for outdoor recreation and mobile living and operates in more than 100 countries.
CLS Sustainable develops and builds commercial and industrial renewable energy projects across the United States, specializing in large-scale commercial and industrial solar energy systems.
by Dennis Spellman
Jun. 19, 2026
11:23 p.m.

source

For years, one worry has shadowed the rise of solar power. To make serious amounts of electricity, you need serious amounts of land.
And the critics have a point. Large scale solar farms swallow real space, and the fear is simple: cover enough open fields with panels and you smother whatever used to live there.
But on a handful of farms, something strange has been happening in the dirt between the rows. It started slowly, almost invisibly, in the strips of earth the panels were supposed to shade into uselessness. Something the engineers never designed, and at first did not even notice.
The concern is not baseless. A field of panels can look, at first glance, like a field that has simply been paved over.
To hit the clean energy targets the world keeps setting, developers have to build fast and build big. That means more land, and more of those vast, silent arrays stretching off toward the horizon.
So an assumption took hold: every solar farm is a small piece of nature lost. It seemed like plain common sense. Panels go up, the living world goes down. For a long time, almost nobody bothered to question it.
But a growing pile of research has started pointing the other way.
To find out what really happens to the land under the panels, researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory turned to two solar farms in southern Minnesota and tracked them carefully across a five year study. What they found there has been rewriting the rulebook ever since.
These two sites were different by design. Instead of bare gravel or closely mown grass, the panels were raised higher off the ground, leaving room underneath for something to grow.
Then the builders did something unusual. They carefully chose native grasses and wildflowers and planted them right under and around the rows, hoping to rebuild the habitat that used to be there and to hold the soil and water in place. It was a small, almost gardener like decision, the sort of thing that rarely survives an engineering plan.
And then they waited, and watched, year after year.
Each season, the researchers came back to tally what was living on the two sites. And season after season, the numbers kept rising.
By the end of the study, the abundance of insects had tripled at both farms, and the variety of flowering plants had jumped about sevenfold. Where there had once been little more than gravel and stubble, the ground now hummed with life right through the warm months.
Among them were the ones that matter most: bees. Bees have been collapsing for years, squeezed out by vanishing meadows and the steady loss of the wild corners they depend on. Yet the very pollinators in trouble across the country were not merely hanging on beneath the panels. The number of native bees climbed around twentyfold over the five years. They were not surviving. They were flourishing.
A structure built to capture sunlight had become a refuge for the insects that a paved over, warming world has been pushing toward the brink. And it turns out this was not the only gift these sites handed back.
Here is the part almost nobody saw coming. The life the panels sheltered did not stay penned inside the fence.
The researchers found that pollinators raised in the solar meadow fanned out into the land around it, visiting the soybean flowers in the cropland next door. Their visits to those crops held up against the bee traffic around land set aside purely for conservation, and ran far busier than inside the bean fields themselves.
In plain terms, the bees living under the panels were quietly going to work for the farm next door, pollinating the very crops that feed people. A site built to make power was also helping grow food on the land around it.
Here is the part that should make developers sit up straight. Going pollinator friendly is not only kind to the bees. It can be kind to the budget too.
Land planted with hardy native species needs far less mowing and maintenance than a closely cropped lawn. Those savings can be enough to offset the extra cost of raising the panels in the first place. In plain terms, the version that helps wildlife does not have to be the expensive one.
According to Johanna Neumann of the Environment America Research and Policy Center, with bees in serious trouble and the world racing to switch to clean energy as fast as it can, designing solar farms to feed and shelter native pollinators is close to an obvious move.
And the timing could hardly matter more. As solar spreads across millions of acres in the years ahead, each new site becomes a choice between bare, lifeless ground and a living meadow that happens to make electricity.
And that is the revelation hiding out in those Minnesota fields. A solar farm does not have to be a hole punched in the living world. Built with a little thought, it can answer several of our hardest problems at once, powering our lives, feeding the crops next door, and giving the bees somewhere to come home to.
© 2026 by Ecoportal
© 2026 by Ecoportal

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Shreeyashi Ojha reports on a European PV recycling venture looking to maximise the value of materials recovered from end-of-life modules.
As the solar industry matures, decommissioning and waste management are becoming increasingly important. According to Jan-Philipp Mai, CEO of German solar panel recycling firm Solar Materials, large volumes of utility-scale modules are already returning earlier than expected, with many projects being repowered after just 10-15 years rather than operating for decades like residential rooftop systems. 
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Mai attributes this trend to both commercial and technical factors. On the commercial side, developers are upgrading sites with higher-efficiency modules and battery storage systems to maximise constrained land and grid connections. 
“You build the same capacity and power, but you need less land, and then you can install some batteries as well,” he explains. 
At the same time, many modules installed during the industry’s first major growth phase between 2010 and 2015 are now experiencing quality-related failures. 
“A lot of those panels fail after 10 or 15 years,” he says. “That is a really big amount of what we see today.” 
New installations are also contributing to growing waste streams through breakage during transport, construction and installation. Even failure rates below 1% translate into hundreds of thousands of damaged modules annually across Europe. The result is an industry preparing for a major rise in PV waste volumes over the coming decade. 
Despite growing political focus on circular economy principles, the regulatory landscape for PV recycling remains fragmented across Europe. 
Solar panels fall under the EU’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) framework, but implementation differs between member states. According to Mai, this lack of harmonisation creates operational challenges for recyclers and manufacturers alike. 
“Although it’s quite similar, it’s not the same in every European market,” he says. 
The commercial and utility-scale segment presents the biggest complexity. Unlike residential systems covered by structured collection schemes, large-scale projects require bespoke approaches involving asset owners, manufacturers and recyclers across multiple jurisdictions. 
Mai argues the industry is moving beyond viewing recycling purely as a regulatory burden. Growing recognition of the value embedded within end-of-life modules is shifting attention towards commercially viable circular business models. 
At the same time, Mai identifies illegal exports and grey-market activity as one of the sector’s biggest unresolved risks. Modules classified as reusable products rather than waste are frequently exported outside Europe despite being close to end-of-life. “That is a far bigger issue from a regulatory point of view,” he says. 
The economics of PV recycling are increasingly centred around recovering high value raw materials, particularly silver and aluminium. Mai says his company aims to make solar recycling economically viable without relying on disposal fees or regulatory subsidies. “The key question is how can I extract silver profitably,” he says. 
Silver remains the highest-value material recovered from PV modules, followed by aluminium. Copper and silicon also hold commercial value; plastics and lower-grade glass generate comparatively little return. 
Rather than relying solely on shredding and bulk separation, newer recycling approaches aim to dismantle modules layer by layer, separating aluminium frames, junction boxes, glass, silicon and silver into unmixed fractions. 
“If you want to use the glass, it has to be at a higher quality to allow float glass production,” Mai explains. 
Recovered materials are sold into local industrial supply chains. Aluminium can be reused in construction and framing applications, copper in electrical systems and silicon potentially reintroduced into battery or polysilicon production. 
Alongside recycling, second-life applications are also emerging as part of the circular PV ecosystem. Modules with sufficient remaining lifespan can be tested and resold rather than immediately recycled. 
Despite improving recycling economics, logistics remains one of the industry’s biggest operational hurdles. A single 30MW solar park can generate roughly 300 truckloads of decommissioned modules, creating challenges around storage, transport and waste-handling infrastructure. 
Transporting waste over long distances significantly increases costs, particularly in markets where recycling facilities remain concentrated in only a few locations. As a result, companies are exploring decentralised collection hubs and mobile recycling solutions. 
Looking ahead, Mai believes emerging solar markets may have an opportunity to integrate circularity more effectively from the outset than Europe did during its initial solar expansion. He points to India in particular as a market capable of developing both domestic solar manufacturing and recycling infrastructure simultaneously. 
“If we now build the circle right from the beginning, we can create a surplus solar economy,” he says. 
For Mai, the future of PV recycling will depend on building localised circular economies supported by infrastructure investment and international collaboration. As Mai says: “It is a global problem that needs a local solution.” 
Read more in our circular solar economy series, including perspectives from Michael Müller of PVMRC on decommissioning and material recovery in Europe, and Huan Li of Curtin University on China’s growing role in PV recycling and circular manufacturing.

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In recent years, Indonesia's energy transition has shown clear signs of acceleration. As the government sets more ambitious renewable energy targets, and as mining decarbonisation, island-based power system upgrades, floating PV project development and local manufacturing build-out continue to advance, the long-term growth potential of Indonesia's solar PV, energy storage and microgrid markets is opening up further.
During the recent Indonesia Critical Minerals Conference (ICM) and its Coal and Energy Transition Forum, SMM exchanged views with local PV companies, energy storage and energy system solution providers, mining-related companies, industry associations, and representatives from Indonesia's state-owned power utility PLN. Based on these discussions, SMM understands that Indonesia's energy transition is not being driven solely by PV installation targets. Instead, it is gradually moving from policy planning toward concrete application scenarios. Mining energy transition, weak-grid and off-grid scenarios, floating PV, local module manufacturing, energy storage systems, and demand for green electricity and carbon management are becoming the main themes in Indonesia's renewable energy market.
Clear policy targets, but short-term implementation remains constrained by grid conditions and project mechanisms
From a policy perspective, the Indonesian government is increasing its support for renewable energy. Whether viewed through long-term PV installation targets or PLN-related power development plans, Indonesia is seeking to improve its energy structure through solar, hydropower, geothermal, wind power and energy storage, while gradually reducing its dependence on traditional fossil fuels.
However, based on actual market feedback, Indonesia's energy transition is still at the stage of 'clear targets, cautious implementation.' Indonesia is a typical archipelagic country. Its main grid mainly covers Java and Bali, while many other islands still rely more heavily on microgrids, captive power systems or diesel generators. Connecting remote islands or mining areas fully to the main grid would involve high construction costs and significant transmission and distribution losses. As a result, grid conditions have become one of the core practical constraints affecting the implementation of renewable energy projects in Indonesia.
At the same time, project approval, land coordination, financing conditions, PPA mechanisms, local content requirements and the execution pace of PLN projects also affect the actual progress of PV and energy storage projects. Some companies believe that Indonesia's medium- to long-term market potential is clear, but the market is unlikely to see a simple and rapid increase in installations in the short term. Project implementation still requires coordination among policy, grid infrastructure, financing and end-user demand.
Mining energy transition is becoming the most certain incremental demand scenario
Compared with ordinary ground-mounted PV projects, mining and industrial power consumption scenarios are becoming a more commercially logical direction in Indonesia's energy transition. Indonesia has abundant nickel, copper, bauxite, silica and other mineral resources. Mining and smelting projects are often located in Sulawesi, Kalimantan and other areas where grid infrastructure is relatively weak. Some mining areas have long relied on coal power, diesel power or captive power plants, resulting in high electricity costs, while also facing traditional energy price volatility and carbon emission pressure.
Based on corporate discussions, the energy transition in mining is no longer only an environmental requirement. It is also closely linked to energy security, cost control, export competitiveness and downstream customer access. For nickel, copper and other critical metals companies, product carbon footprint, ESG requirements, battery passport requirements and potential carbon costs may all become important constraints when exporting to Europe, Japan, South Korea and other markets. If mining companies can increase their share of green electricity consumption, they will be able to reduce unit product carbon emissions and improve their competitiveness in the international supply chain.
Against this backdrop, combined solutions involving solar PV, wind power, energy storage, diesel backup and microgrid control systems are becoming an important path for mining energy transition. In weak-grid or off-grid areas, wind-solar-storage systems can not only reduce the overall levelised cost of electricity, but also improve power supply stability and reduce mining companies' reliance on diesel and external grids.
Microgrids and energy storage are key supports for Indonesia's renewable energy development
The challenge of Indonesia's energy transition is not simply 'how much PV capacity to build,' but how to ensure that renewable energy can operate stably under complex grid conditions. Due to dispersed islands, complex load structures and insufficient grid strength in some regions, relying solely on PV modules cannot solve all problems. Energy storage systems, PCS, EMS, inverters, transformers and intelligent dispatching capabilities will be critical to whether a project can operate stably.
SMM believes that Indonesia has significant renewable energy development potential, but its grid structure is relatively complex. Many projects cannot be solved by installing a single type of equipment alone. Instead, they require comprehensive consideration of system matching, grid stability, long-term operation and maintenance, and local delivery capability. For weak-grid, microgrid and floating PV projects, integrated system solutions can help reduce compatibility issues among different equipment, while improving system stability and service response efficiency.
At the same time, SMM learned from corporate discussions that Indonesia's mining energy systems are expected to gradually shift from single-equipment procurement toward integrated solutions combining 'wind-solar-storage + AI + carbon management.' Especially given the intermittency of wind and solar generation, AI capabilities can be applied to weather forecasting, generation-side dispatching, demand-side matching and system operation optimisation, thereby improving the economics and stability of new power systems.
Therefore, future competition in Indonesia's renewable energy market may no longer focus only on the price of individual products such as modules, inverters or storage batteries. Instead, competition is likely to shift toward system integration capability, weak-grid adaptability, long-term O&M capability and local delivery capacity.
Floating PV is expected to become a distinctive application scenario in Indonesia
In addition to mining energy transition, floating PV is another important direction worth monitoring in the Indonesian market. Indonesia has numerous islands, relatively abundant reservoir and water resources, and some regions also face land constraints, giving floating PV a strong application foundation. In recent years, the implementation of large-scale floating PV projects such as Cirata has provided a demonstration effect for similar projects in Indonesia.
According to SMM, several floating PV projects are still being advanced in Indonesia in 2026, including the Karangkates floating project, with a scale of approximately 130MWdc, and the Saguling floating project, with a scale of approximately 92MWdc. These projects involve TKDN 4.0 waivers, reflecting the need for Indonesia's floating PV market to balance policy requirements with project execution efficiency amid local supply capacity, project timelines and module technology selection.
From the perspective of project demand, large-scale floating PV projects have relatively high requirements for system solutions. They need to take into account module efficiency, inverter selection, cable costs, floating systems, O&M convenience and long-term stability. Compared with ordinary ground-mounted projects, floating PV places higher requirements on power generation per unit area, equipment reliability and system integration capability. Therefore, high-efficiency modules, central inverters, energy storage and intelligent O&M solutions are expected to see more application opportunities in such projects.
Overall, floating PV is expected to become one of the more representative application scenarios in Indonesia's renewable energy market. On the one hand, it can help ease land constraints for certain projects. On the other hand, it can also support the application of high-efficiency modules and system-based solutions in the Indonesian market. However, future project scale-up will still depend on local content policy implementation, project approval, grid connection conditions and financing arrangements.
TKDN local content requirements support domestic manufacturing, but cost premiums remain significant
Another major theme in Indonesia's energy transition is local manufacturing. As TKDN local content requirements continue to advance, demand for locally manufactured modules from Indonesian government and PLN-related projects is increasing. Local module manufacturers have certain market opportunities in government projects and projects with mandatory local content requirements.
According to SMM, some Indonesian government and PLN-related projects are expected to gradually enter the execution stage in 2026, with approximately 1.2GW of project demand closely related to TKDN 4.0 local content requirements. As these projects require modules that meet TKDN requirements, demand for localised modules is still mainly driven by government projects, PLN projects and mandatory local content application scenarios.

Source: SMM
However, from a pricing perspective, local TKDN modules are priced significantly higher than Chinese imported modules. According to SMM research, TKDN module prices for projects above 10MW are approximately 14.5 US cents/W, while prices for small-scale projects may reach around 16 US cents/W. Modules with around 40% TKDN content are typically priced around 20%-30% higher than Chinese imported modules. This premium mainly stems from local manufacturing costs, insufficient supply chain support, differences in technology efficiency and policy-based pricing mechanisms.
SMM believes that Indonesian local modules do not fully compete directly with Chinese imported modules. Instead, they are mainly used in government projects, PLN projects and application scenarios with strict local content requirements. In the future, Indonesia's module market may gradually form two pricing systems: one market-based pricing system centred on imported high-efficiency modules, and another local project pricing system centred on TKDN modules. For price index development and market research, distinguishing between local TKDN module prices, imported module prices and the premium between the two will become increasingly important.
Are Indonesia's TKDN restrictions a benefit or a burden?
Another major theme in Indonesia's energy transition is local manufacturing. As TKDN local content requirements continue to advance, demand for locally manufactured modules from Indonesian government and PLN-related projects is increasing. Local module manufacturers have certain market opportunities in government projects and projects with mandatory local content requirements.
According to SMM, the current FOB price of Chinese TOPCon modules is around USD0.110/W, while the CIF Indonesia price for Chinese TOPCon modules is approximately USD0.114-0.120/W. In comparison, prices for Indonesian local TKDN modules are significantly higher overall. TKDN 25% TOPCon modules are priced at around USD0.130/W, TKDN 40% TOPCon modules at around USD0.150/W, and TOPCon modules with TKDN content above 40% may reach approximately USD0.185/W.
In terms of price differences, TKDN 25% modules carry a relatively limited premium of around 5% over Chinese CIF Indonesia modules. However, as local content requirements increase, the cost premium expands significantly. TKDN 40% modules are priced around 21% higher than Chinese CIF Indonesia modules, while modules with TKDN content above 40% are around 49% higher. This difference mainly stems from local manufacturing costs, insufficient supply chain support, limited production scale, differences in technology efficiency and policy-based pricing mechanisms.

Source: SMM
In the short term, TKDN requirements can help improve the utilisation rate of local module capacity in Indonesia, support the formation of a more complete local manufacturing ecosystem across cells, modules, glass, aluminium frames and other auxiliary materials, and help reshape Indonesia's PV manufacturing chain and local employment system.
However, from the perspective of project economics, TKDN restrictions also create a cost-benefit challenge for Indonesia's future PV development. On the one hand, local content requirements can strengthen Indonesia's PV supply chain autonomy, enhance domestic manufacturing capability and provide local industrial support for government and PLN projects. On the other hand, higher TKDN module prices will increase initial project investment costs and may affect PPA prices, investment payback periods and developer enthusiasm for certain projects.
SMM believes that Indonesian local modules do not fully compete directly with Chinese imported modules. Instead, they are mainly used in government projects, PLN projects and application scenarios with strict local content requirements. In the future, Indonesia's module market may gradually form two pricing systems: one market-based pricing system centred on imported high-efficiency modules, and another local project pricing system centred on TKDN modules. For Indonesia's energy transition, TKDN policy can support the restructuring of the local manufacturing chain. However, if the cost premium remains high for an extended period, it may also constrain the pace of PV project deployment. Therefore, how to strike a balance between the benefits of local manufacturing and project development costs will become a key issue for the future development of Indonesia's PV market.
Mining decarbonisation will drive rising demand for 'green electricity + carbon management'
Within the critical metals supply chain, the significance of energy transition is expanding from 'reducing electricity costs' to 'reducing carbon footprint.' In particular, during the development of nickel, copper, silica and other mineral resources, end customers may increasingly focus on the power source, carbon emission intensity and traceability of raw material production.
Envision Energy noted in discussions that its strengths lie not only in providing green power systems, but also in carbon management capabilities. Through an IoT-based carbon management system, companies can calculate end-to-end carbon emissions across mining, smelting and production processes, and further allocate emissions to the carbon footprint of each unit of product. Compared with traditional static calculations using Excel, real-time tracking systems can better support companies in connecting with certification bodies, shortening certification cycles and reducing certification costs.
For Indonesian mining companies, low-carbon capability may in the future affect not only production costs, but also the ability of products to enter international markets. As downstream battery, automotive and metals-consuming companies raise their requirements for low-carbon raw materials, Indonesian mining companies' demand for green electricity, energy storage, carbon management and verifiable green power is expected to continue rising.
SMM View: Indonesia's energy transition will move from 'installation targets' toward 'system solutions'
Overall, Indonesia's energy transition is gradually moving from policy-target-driven development toward concrete application scenarios across mining, islands, floating PV and industrial parks. In the short term, Indonesia's PV market still faces constraints related to grid connection, project financing, PPA mechanisms, local content requirements and project execution pace, and actual installation growth will take time to materialise. However, in the medium to long term, Indonesia's unique archipelagic structure, abundant mineral resources, high-cost captive power scenarios and downstream low-carbon supply chain requirements will continue to create demand for PV, energy storage, microgrids and carbon management systems.
In the future, the core competitiveness of Indonesia's renewable energy market may no longer be limited to single-module pricing, but may shift toward more comprehensive system capabilities. For renewable energy companies, those that can provide integrated solutions suited to weak grids, off-grid systems, floating PV and mining load characteristics are more likely to secure long-term market share in Indonesia's energy transition.
For SMM, future research on the Indonesian market will also need to extend beyond traditional module pricing to TKDN module premiums, local manufacturing costs, floating PV project progress, mining green power demand, energy storage system costs, microgrid configuration, low-carbon mineral export requirements, and upstream raw material pricing systems such as silica and quartz sand. As Indonesia's energy transition enters a more practical project implementation phase, price transparency, cost assessment and data services will become increasingly important.
Written by: Ryan Tey Tze Yang | SMM PV Analyst
Data Source Statement: Except for publicly available information, all other data are processed by SMM based on publicly available information, market communication, and relying on SMM's internal database model. They are for reference only and do not constitute decision-making recommendations.
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Energy infrastructure developer Novva has acquired the 120MWp San Jose Solar Power Plant (SJSP) in the Philippines from the Mabuhay Power Holdings Corporation. 
The utility-scale solar project is in Barangay San Jose, Quezon municipality, Bukidnon province, on the island of Mindanao. Construction is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2027, with commercial operations expected to commence in 2028. The transaction establishes Novva’s presence in the Philippines and supports its broader regional ambitions. 
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Novva said the acquisition represents a key milestone in its strategy to develop a scalable power platform across Southeast Asia, as regional electricity demand continues to rise amid the rapid growth of AI, cloud computing and digital infrastructure. 
Steven Liu, CEO of Novva, said: “Power availability has become one of the defining constraints on future growth. With SJSP, we are securing the strategic infrastructure needed to support the next wave of industrial and digital development. By combining disciplined execution with long-term partnerships, Novva is building a reliable clean energy foundation to power the future of Southeast Asia.” 
The company noted that increasing demand from data centres and other digital economy assets is placing pressure on power systems across Asia, making the development of new generation capacity and supporting infrastructure increasingly important. 
The project is also expected to contribute to the Philippines’ target of sourcing 35% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030, while supporting growing power demand in one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-expanding digital markets. 
The company said it plans to continue expanding its clean energy portfolio to support the long-term power requirements of hyperscale data centres and other digital infrastructure developments across the region.
The news follows a series of project developments in the Philippines, involving Levanta, ib vogt and ACWA Power, all of which have advanced solar-plus-storage projects in the country this month.
Hong Kong-headquartered Novva develops, finances, builds and operates clean energy infrastructure across Southeast Asia and Latin America.

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Home » News » Extra tax break for solar farms could cost Lowndes $840K in lost revenue
Officials are raising the alarm about a 2025 tax law regarding solar developments that could cost the county – and nearly 30 other counties across the state – hundreds of thousands in lost tax revenue.
During the board of supervisors regular meeting Monday, Tax Assessor Greg Andrews told the board he planned to send letters to counties with solar developments alerting officials there to the financial impact of the law, which he said creates a tax advantage for solar projects.
“These solar farms are being treated differently than every other industry,” Andrews told The Dispatch after the meeting. “… And 28 counties (with solar developments) don’t understand the impact.”
When industrial properties are assessed for ad valorem taxes, the original construction cost is adjusted upward for inflation and then depreciated for age. The result is the taxable value on which a property owner’s bill is based.
Senate Bill 3166, however, carves solar developments out of that process, which applies to all other industrial properties. The law, passed during the 2025 Legislative Session, sets the inflation factor for solar developments at 1, essentially freezing the starting value and lowering the taxable value compared to what it would be under standard rules for industrial properties.
For example, a $100 million solar farm built in 2020 would still be worth $100 million in 2026 under the provision, while a comparable industrial facility would be valued at roughly $120 million before depreciation is applied.
The law specifies that the 1 inflation factor will be used specifically when the Marshall Valuation Service – the national cost data standards used by appraisers and insurers – does not provide an inflation factor specifically for solar and wind facilities.
Andrews said Marshall Valuation doesn’t publish a dedicated factor index specifically for solar installation, however, the service recommends that an “average-of-all” inflation factor be applied when no specific cost index is available.
Mississippi Department of Revenue uses the same approach for other industrial categories, Andrews said, making solar an unexplained exception.
The issue is only compounded by the addition of tax incentives counties have already granted to solar developments.
Andrews said Lowndes County, which has about $643 million worth of solar panels across more than 4,000 acres, has existing fee-in-lieu agreements with solar developers that reduce their taxable value.
In a fee-in-lieu agreement, companies are exempt from property taxes for up to 10 years in exchange for a fee paid to the city, county and school district. State law dictates the fee cannot be less than one-third of what a company would ordinarily pay in taxes.
Trip Hairston, president for the board of supervisors, said SB 3166 gives solar developments an extra advantage on top of what local governments already provided.
“I’m not one of those people who thinks we should just tax everybody into oblivion, but why do they get a special (incentive) on top of the fee in lieu?”
Hairston told The Dispatch after Monday’s meeting. “The fee in lieu was already there. We’ve given them a special incentive on the county level. Why does the state give them another one?”
In Lowndes County, Andrews projects the gap between what the county would collect under the new law versus what it would collect under the standard assessment process for industry reaches more than $840,000 in year seven.
Hairston said a bill was dropped during the legislative session earlier this year to address the issue, but it did not advance. His hope is for the county to raise enough awareness among affected counties ahead of the next session.
“Twenty-eight counties I don’t think realize the impact of what it’s going to do with their budgets,” he said. “They’re going to get this money, and then all of a sudden, it’s going to be gone.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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As grid constraints and renewables expansion accelerate, ABB has launched its Proteus PV and battery energy storage systems (BESS) portfolio. With utility-scale renewable electricity generation expected to grow by 60 percent over the next four years, according to the International Energy Agency¹, the Proteus portfolio delivers high-efficiency power conversion solutions for utilities, power producers and renewable developers worldwide.
ABB will present its new Proteus solar inverter at Intersolar 2026 (June 22–25, Munich, Germany) at stand B3.250.
“The global energy transition requires proven, scalable and reliable power conversion solutions,” said Daniel Gerber, Business Line Manager, Renewable Power at ABB. “With over 120 GW of power conversion capacity installed to date, ABB combines its enhanced portfolio of PV, BESS and control systems technologies, global presence, engineering, manufacturing, and service capabilities, delivers high performance and consistent project execution worldwide.”
PV is widely acknowledged as the most scalable and cost-competitive clean energy source that is serving an essential role in achieving global net-zero targets, supporting further industrial electrification, and advancing the energy transition. The rapid growth of utility-scale solar projects in major markets such as China, India, and the USA is driving the demand from developers and producers for reliable, high-efficiency power conversion and grid integration solutions.


ABB’s enhanced Proteus portfolio can meet this demand. Inverters, stations and control systems deliver industry-leading efficiency up to 99.45 percent, maximizing energy yield. Ultra-clean power output with THDi below 0.7 percent, reducing equipment stress and extend system lifetime.
Additionally, advanced hybrid liquid and air cooling supports long-term operational reliability, while compact system architecture lowers installation complexity, transport costs, and on-site assembly requirements. The new Proteus inverter features optimized airflow management and enhanced build quality, delivering greater long-term reliability and performance across a wide range of operating environments.
Variable renewable energy sources are increasing grid variability and driving unprecedented demand for BESS solutions that bridge generation and consumption while ensuring grid stability, reliability and continuous power supply. ABB’s Proteus BESS solutions include bi-directional converter stations and advanced control systems. Advanced features, such as grid-forming and black-start operation, combined with its battery-agnostic design and ultra-low harmonic distortion, make it the optimal inverter for utility-scale BESS projects.
ABB has installed over 120 GW of power conversion capacity to date and operates in more than 70 countries, supporting utilities, EPCs, and developers across every major region. With decades of expertise in power conversion and grid integration, ABB delivers proven solutions backed by local engineering and service capabilities that ensure technical support and reliable project execution. Designed for a 30-year service life, the portfolio is supported by comprehensive lifecycle services that consistently outperform industry benchmarks in reliability and operational availability.
¹ https://www.iea.org/reports/renewables-2025
ABB is a global technology leader in electrification and automation, enabling a more sustainable and resource-efficient future. By connecting its engineering and digitalization expertise, ABB helps industries run at high performance, while becoming more efficient, productive and sustainable so they outperform. At ABB, we call this ‘Engineered to Outrun’. The company has over 140 years of history and around 110,000 employees worldwide. ABB’s shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (ABBN) and Nasdaq Stockholm (ABB). www.abb.com
ABB Motion, a global leader in motors and drives, is at the core of accelerating a more productive and sustainable future. We innovate and push the boundaries of technology to contribute to energy efficient, decarbonizing and circular solutions for customers, industries and societies. With our digitally enabled drives, motors and services we support our customers and partners to achieve better performance, safety and reliability. To help the world’s industries outrun – leaner and cleaner, we deliver motor-driven solutions for a wide range of applications in all industrial segments. Building on over 140 years of domain expertise in electric powertrains, our more than 23,000 employees across 100 countries learn and improve every day.
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Your Source for everything Cape Cod
HYANNIS – A fire broke out in a solar farm at the Cape Cod Gateway Airport in Hyannis just before 10:30 AM Friday. The fire was quickly contained but the airport was temporarily closed due to fire apparatus on the field. No injuries were reported.
Cape Wide News was created in 1998 by Provincetown native Tim Caldwell to provide public-safety, spot-news coverage on Cape Cod. This includes the negatives–crimes, crashes and fires–but also positive events such as department promotions and retirements, charity functions and any other activities involving police and fire departments and associated agencies.

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Opponents of proposed 1,900-acre solar farm host pancake breakfast to help fund legal fight  MLive.com
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Plans for a controversial wind farm in the Scottish Borders look set to be blocked, after the local council challenged a Scottish government decision in the courts.
The government's energy consents unit (ECU) granted planning permission for eight turbines up to 200m (656ft) tall at Ditcher Law near Lauder in February.
It overruled the local authority's objection regarding the adverse impact it would have on the local people and the landscape.
Following preliminary hearings, the government is not now contesting the legal challenge and a joint motion for the planning permission to be quashed is now before the Court of Session.
Local councillor David Parker said: "It was important that we took action and we have been successful in ensuring this wind farm has its consent quashed."
The Ditcher Law application for planning permission was submitted in September 2023.
Because of its size, the ECU considered the application with Scottish Borders Council (SBC) acting as a statutory consultee.
But the developer, Ditcher Law Ltd, did not submit relevant information to SBC, including an impact study, until last April – just five weeks ahead of the ECU's deadline.
Although the council advised that, due to a backlog in renewable energy applications it was unable to review the additional information for several months, its request for a deadline extension was rejected.
Members of the council's planning committee voted in September to oppose the development on the grounds that the impact of its connection to the electricity grid through a designated Special Landscape Area had not been assessed.
Earlier this year the ECU ruled that the concern raised by the council was made too late in the application process and permission was granted to Ditcher Law Ltd – triggering the legal challenge at the Court of Session.
Parker added: "It is important to recognize, with so many renewable energy projects that people are concerned about, that if the government does not follow due process the council will stand up for the community's concerns and take action."
As the joint motion has still to be determined by the Court of Session, the Scottish government said "it would not be appropriate to comment".
Developer Ditcher Law Ltd has been approached for comment.
Calderdale Energy Park aims to build 34 turbines on Walshaw Moor near Haworth, home of the Brontes.
Councillor Andrew Eade says the plans would harm the landscape and mean a loss of valuable farmland.
Inspectors say the there is an "unmet need" for the plant, which would be used to store energy.
The site near Cottingham will connect to a number of developments in the North Sea.
The Clean Air Solar Farm would sit across two sites near Lockington and Walkington.
Copyright 2026 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.
 

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Journal & Topics Media Group | Serving Chicago's Great Northwest Suburbs
Friday, June 19, 2026
A state initiative to work toward more accessible renewable energy sources hit home at the board of education meeting for Township High School Dist. 214 last Thursday.
The goal of this solar program is a bit different than what would typically be imagined from a renewable energy program: there is no onsite construction and no ownership of a solar farm by the district. Instead, Dist. 214 would become a “subscriber” of a much larger solar field in exchange for energy credits from ComEd, said Becky Thompson, senior energy advisor at Nania Energy Advisors.
According to Thompson, this program was designed around legislation from the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. “It requires that those credits flow through a third-party energy invoice rather than just going to the developer directly,” Thompson said. “Otherwise, they would not need you, and then it defeats the purpose of making that solar equitable and available for other subscribers.”
It is estimated that joining the program would save the district an average of ten percent on energy billing. According to Andrew Shaver, a founding partner at Community Solar Authority, the district would save about $150,000 of their $1.6 million in electric spending.

The savings likely would not start for another 12 to 18 months as the infrastructure and assets that Dist. 214 would use are still being built. Shaver said there is more demand than supply for projects like these. “In order for a public agency to have a shot at getting an asset when it becomes available, we have to do as much of the upfront work with the approval process as possible, so that way, when a contract comes up, we can bring it to you guys,” he said.
The district would be under a 20-year contract if they wish to sign, which is standard for community solar contracts. While this is a daunting number, Shaver recommends it for public institutions in particular as they are likely to see less drastic change throughout that time than a private company.
School districts across the state have been some of the “early adopters” of this program, Thompson said. “I have some school districts that are already receiving the credits on their bill, so they’re already experiencing the savings, and there are some school districts who signed a contract a year ago and are still waiting for that asset to be built, so it’s, you know, there’s going to be a large variability,” she said.
In the last year or so, 25 to 30 school districts as well as a ton of private companies have taken advantage of this incentive, Shaver said.
The board did not vote on community solar at this meeting, but will consider adding it to the agenda at future meetings as they learn more.

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Infinity Power has signed two engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) deals for solar PV projects in South Africa with an aggregate 775MW capacity. Infinity also formalised a supply agreement for a solar PV-battery energy storage (Bess) project in Egypt. The deals were signed on the sidelines of EnergyNet’s Africa Energy Forum in Cape Town.
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Stock catalysts and sector news, in your inbox.
Solar makers are designing out silver as fast as they can – yet 2026 is still on track for a sixth straight annual deficit.
Key takeaways
Investorideas.com (www.investorideas.com), a go-to platform for big investing ideas including mining and silver stocks, features a silver price analysis article from The Silver Engineer at Golden Meadow.
The solar industry is cutting how much silver goes into every panel as fast as it can, and the market is still headed for a sixth straight annual shortage.
That is the tension worth understanding, because solar has been the single biggest growth engine in silver demand for half a decade, and the people who track the market just took a large slice of it off the table. Silver use in photovoltaics fell 6% in 2025 to 186.6 million ounces and is forecast to fall a further 19% in 2026 to roughly 151 million ounces, according to Metals Focus and the Silver Institute. For a metal whose bull case leans heavily on industrial demand, that is the kind of headline that should worry anyone who is long. It does not, and the reason is the whole point of this piece.
Silver trades around $68 an ounce as of June 18, modestly lower on the year after a volatile stretch. It dropped toward $68 in early June on strong economic data, bounced above $70 when the United States and Iran reached a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, then slid again after the Federal Reserve signaled this week that its next move is more likely a rate hike than a cut. The macro tape has been loud. Underneath it, the demand map is quietly being redrawn, and solar is the loudest part of that story.
The research behind this issue comes from the Silver Engineer at Golden Meadow(R), tracking more than a hundred separate forces that move the silver price. Solar is one of the most important and one of the most misread. A demand cut sounds bearish on its face. Whether it actually dents the structural shortage is a different question, and it turns on why the cut is happening.
Start with how big solar became. Between 2020 and 2024, silver use in solar panels more than doubled, from about 82 million ounces to roughly 197 million, as the world built renewable capacity at record pace. That made photovoltaics the largest single industrial use of silver and a major reason the market kept falling into deficit. So when that engine downshifts, it matters.
Here is what is actually happening. The silver price rose so far and so fast that silver’s share of a solar cell’s cost climbed from about 8% to more than 20%. At that level, manufacturers have every reason to use less, and they are. The industry calls it thrifting: refining how the silver paste is laid down and redesigning the cell so each panel needs less metal without losing performance. Newer techniques, including zero-busbar designs and ultra-fine printing, can cut silver per cell by another 10% to 20%, and mainstream cells are expected to fall below 5 milligrams of silver per watt by 2027. Some makers are going further and substituting copper outright.
The key fact for an investor is that this is a cut to silver per panel, not the end of solar. China installed a record 315 gigawatts of solar in 2025, and even though its market is expected to cool in 2026, possibly recording its first annual decline in two decades, the world is not going to stop building panels. What is happening is narrower than the headline. Thinner silver loadings per cell, together with somewhat softer installations this year, are pulling demand lower at the same time. But the metal is not being designed out of existence. It is being economized exactly where a high price pushes hardest.
There is also a floor under the substitution story. Copper electroplating and pure-copper pastes are advancing, but the reliability problems have not been solved, so mass production is not happening this year. The dominant cell technology, TOPCon, resists copper substitution because of how it is built, and silver stays essential in the highest-reliability applications. That is why analysts who follow the survey argue thrifting may not be enough to curb demand over time: the easy savings are being captured now, while the hard substitution still sits years out, and solar has a long build-out runway ahead, now reinforced by an energy-security case that has little to do with climate policy.
Sources: Silver Institute – World Silver Survey 2026 | pv magazine – Silver Demand From PV Industry Expected to Drop 19% | The Northern Miner – Solar Thrifting Not Enough to Curb Demand
A demand cut and a broken thesis are not the same thing. Solar silver demand is falling because the price did its job: it climbed high enough to force the biggest buyer to economize. That is normal price behavior, not a sign the metal is being replaced. The roughly 36 million ounces coming out of solar this year is real, and it is the honest bear case on silver. But it lands on a market that is still short.
Here is the part that matters. Even with that solar cut fully baked in, 2026 is on track for a sixth consecutive annual shortfall of about 46.3 million ounces, according to Metals Focus and the Silver Institute, the same structural gap I build the case around in Silver Rising. Total industrial silver demand is set to fall about 3% in 2026, and the market is in deficit anyway. That tells you how tight the underlying balance is: silver can lose its biggest growth engine to thrifting and still not have enough metal to go around.
It also frames the risk and the offset. The risk is that copper substitution arrives faster than expected and the thrifting curve keeps bending down. The offset is that thrifting has physical limits, copper is years from mass adoption in the dominant cell type, solar deployment has a long runway ahead, and the other big industrial uses, from grid build-out to electric vehicles to AI data centers, are growing while solar economizes. The way silver has traded throughout 2026, sliding from a January high above $121 to the high $60s while the deficit widened underneath, is a reminder that price and fundamentals can point in opposite directions for a while. The longer-term case rests on a shortage that a 19% solar cut did not close.
Solar is one dimension of the 100-catalyst framework I analyze in Silver Rising, alongside the four other Deep Dives in this issue of the Silver Catalyst newsletter.
Thank you.
The Silver Engineer
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The energy transition has never been only a technological challenge. As our industries scale and become increasingly interconnected, many of the barriers we face today are no longer purely technical but human. At the same time, leaders are navigating accelerating change, growing complexity, and the rapid integration of artificial intelligence across organisations.
Success increasingly depends on our ability to collaborate across disciplines, generations, and areas of expertise. Yet many leadership models were built for a more predictable world. The challenge is becoming increasingly clear: you cannot lead tomorrow with yesterday’s playbook.
Technical expertise remains fundamental. The energy transition depends on world-class engineers, developers, financiers, policymakers, and innovators. However, technical excellence alone is no longer sufficient to lead effectively in today’s environment.
As AI increasingly augments technical work, leadership is becoming less about having all the answers and more about creating the conditions for better decisions. Increasingly, the leaders who create the greatest impact are those who can unlock the collective intelligence of their teams.
As Josef Kastner, CEO of Nexun, reflects: “Experience remains one of the most valuable assets a leader can have, but no individual has all the experience or knowledge needed to navigate today’s challenges alone. Good leadership is about bringing people into the decision-making process, identifying talent, and encouraging others to take responsibility and contribute their perspectives. The real challenge is creating an environment where people work together, exchange ideas openly, and build on each other’s strengths. It sounds simple, but in practice it is one of the most difficult and important responsibilities of leadership.”
This shift requires leaders to move from simply being experts to becoming facilitators of collective intelligence. In a world defined by complexity and rapid change, the ability to unlock people’s full potential may become one of the most important leadership capabilities of all.
Research consistently shows that organisations with broader perspectives in their teams and leadership tend to outperform their peers in innovation and decision-making. The reason is simple: when people with different experiences, expertise, and viewpoints contribute to solving a problem, organisations gain access to a wider range of ideas, challenge assumptions more effectively, and are better equipped to adapt to change.
Creating environments where people can contribute fully is therefore not only a question of culture; it is increasingly becoming a source of competitive advantage.
Carolina Nester, Operations Director EMEA at Nextpower, believes this connection between opportunity and innovation is becoming increasingly important: “The energy transition needs the best talent we can find, and talent does not belong to any particular gender, generation, background, or profile. As leaders, our role is to create environments where people can contribute, grow, and realise their potential. As a mother of both a daughter and a son, I hope they will enter a world where opportunities are shaped by merit and capability. Beyond being the right thing to do, organisations that recognise talent wherever it comes from are ultimately better positioned to innovate and succeed.”
For decades, leadership was often associated with authority, expertise, and decision-making power. While these remain important, the demands placed on leaders are evolving. Increasingly, leadership is about creating the conditions for others to succeed.
This shift becomes even more significant as organisations integrate AI into their operations and decision-making processes. Technology can provide data, automate processes, and support analysis, but it cannot replace the human capacity to inspire, build trust, navigate ambiguity, and unite people around a common vision.
According to Gulnara Abdullina, Advisory Board Member at Circular Synergies and recognised internationally for her leadership within the energy sector, “The leaders who will make the greatest impact in the coming decade are not necessarily those with all the answers. They are the ones who create clarity amidst complexity, empower others to step out of their comfort zone, believe in themselves to take initiatives and make decisions, and build cultures where people can adapt, learn, and grow together.”
Many leadership challenges ultimately become communication challenges. Technical solutions often exist, but progress depends on the ability to align people, create shared understanding, and build commitment around a common direction.
Tiago Antunes, Country Manager Iberia at Solis, believes communication is becoming one of the defining leadership capabilities of the AI era: “Many leadership challenges are actually communication challenges. Technical solutions often exist, but progress depends on our ability to align people, explain complexity clearly, and create shared understanding. Communication is becoming one of the most critical leadership skills of our time.”
The same principle applies to collaboration. The energy transition is fundamentally an ecosystem challenge. No individual, company, or discipline possesses all the answers required to navigate the complexity ahead. The strongest solutions emerge when diverse perspectives come together around a shared purpose.
As Phillippa Rose, Sales Manager at Jinko ESS, explains: “There is something incredibly powerful about bringing together people with different experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives who are all united by the same purpose. When teams learn to speak a common language around shared goals, the quality of thinking and decision-making improves dramatically.”
The upcoming Solar+ Leaders workshop at Intersolar has been designed to foster the kinds of conversations modern leadership increasingly requires, bringing together senior leaders, experts, entrepreneurs, and emerging professionals to explore how leadership must evolve in an era shaped by AI, complexity, and rapid change.
As Carmen Madrid, founder of Solar+ Leaders and Women in Solar+ Europe, explains: “Last year, through conversations across our WiSEu community at Intersolar, we realised something important: the energy transition needs a new leadership playbook. That’s why we created Solar+ Leaders. Through WiSEu, we have spent years creating space for women to reflect on leadership, career development, and the future of our industry. But if we want to shape the leadership energy industries need, the whole ecosystem needs to be part of the conversation. 
Solar+ Leaders was created to help build that playbook together. The energy transition requires us to move beyond labels and embrace the richness of different perspectives, experiences, and talents. We need women and men, experienced and emerging leaders, people from different backgrounds and disciplines, learning from one another. Otherwise, we risk reinforcing the very blind spots we are trying to overcome.
The future of the energy transition will undoubtedly require better technology, stronger infrastructure, and supportive policies. But it will also require leaders who can navigate complexity, build trust, foster collaboration, and integrate technological and human intelligence.
If you are an industry expert, leader, entrepreneur, or emerging changemaker who wants to help shape the leadership our Solar+ industries need for the decades ahead, we invite you to join the conversation at Intersolar Europe. Request your VIP complimentary pass with the code “VIPINT26PVM” Together, we can begin writing the next leadership playbook for the energy transition. Learn more and request your place at www.solarplusleaders.com/events.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those held by pv magazine.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: [email protected].
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A massive round of renewable energy whack-a-mole is under way in the US, where President Donald Trump has been paying (some say bribing) wind industry stakeholders to walk away from their federal offshore leases, while right behind his back a torrent of solar power continues to flood the US grid with clean kilowatts. In the latest development, the leading solar-plus-storage firm Origis Energy has nailed down a massive haul of $900 million in new financing to accelerate its activities, bringing its total to more than $1.4 billion over the past three months.
You can say that again. Oh the irony, it burns. In his desperation to score a win, any win against the steady march of decarbonization, Trump has taken the highly unusual (and possibly illegal) step of throwing billions of taxpayer dollars away on re-purchasing offshore wind leases, even as private sector dollars keep flowing into the solar industry.
Origis Energy is a case in point. The firm states that it has more than 20 gigawatts of solar and storage projects in its pipeline, include near-term projects totaling 5 gigawatts. If that sounds like a lot, it is. The activity level was much lower just 24 months ago. Origis has quadrupled its operations in the period leading up to and following Trump’s return to office last year, despite the sudden shift in federal energy policy.
The global financial community is also brushing off the sharp U-turn, at least in the solar power and energy storage systems space. Origis’s latest haul consists of $650 million in funded credit facilities and a $250 million Letter of Credit. In both cases, the arrangements enable Origis to accelerate the assignment of funds for a series of similar projects, without going through a cumbersome financial application and review process for each one.
The total of $900 million is the work of many hands among the leading lights of the US and global financial communities. Origis lists First Citizens Bank, ING Capital, Natixis, and Santander as Joint Bookrunners and Coordinating Lead Arrangers, with the US-headquartered, global-facing firm EIG nailing exclusive claim to the notes issued within the transaction.
“First Citizens Bank is serving as Administrative Agent and HSBC as Collateral Agent and Coordinating Lead Arranger. Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, and MUFG [the Japan-based firm Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group] are serving as Coordinating Lead Arrangers, Regions Capital Markets as Joint Lead Arranger, and Celtic Bank and TD Bank as participating lenders in the Facility,” Origis adds.
The $900 million in financing follows a similar but smaller round in March, when Origis secured $545 million to support its 700-megawatt solar power pipeline in Texas. The total includes two Swift Air Solar II and Swift Air Solar III, which closed their financing last year.
The Texas angle is no surprise to those of you following the confluence of energy policy and partisan politics. Despite the bellowing, bloviating stream of hot air funneling from the red-state side of the Texas state legislature, Texas has emerged as a leader in installed solar capacity (here’s one recent example).
The blistering hot pace of solar power in Texas has also come back to bite Trump’s pledge to restore coal power. Texas State Attorney General and US Senate candidate Ken Paxton has fallen all over himself in an attempt to assist the President, only to encounter a tsunami of solar. In fact, by 2024 utility scale solar-sourced electricity was beginning to outpace coal on the Texas grid on a monthly basis. With community solar projects chipping in around the edges and no new coal power plants in sight, energy analysts anticipate that solar will beat coal on an annual basis this year.
The last time we checked, much fo the lignite coal mined in Texas goes to fuel the remaining coal power plants in the state’s notoriously isolated grid, and the state still has to import additional coal from Wyoming and elsewhere.
In contrast, solar is an exportable industry for Texas. The state has a solid, and growing, footprint on the solar manufacturing side, which means it is exporting solar equipment all over the country, to red and blue states alike, regardless of the limitations of its grid and regardless of state or federal policy obstacles, too.
The pace of domestic solar manufacturing, in Texas and elsewhere, could put a crimp in red-state plans for building new coal power plants. Alaska and Wyoming are among those aiming to host the first new coal power plants to be built in the US since 2013, when the 9332-megawatt Sandy Creek power plant finally went online in Texas after suffering through a series of damaging incidents that delayed its commissioning date by two years.
Perhaps those state policymakers should take another look at the Sandy Creek timeline before they chase pell-mell after coal power. From the start of construction in 2008 to its 2013 commissioning, developers spent five years bringing the plant to life, far surpassing the typical 12-18 months of shovels-in-the-ground work required to get utility scale solar power plants up and running.
Adding insult to injury, in April of 2025, just 12 years after operation commenced, Sandy Creek suffered a major, disabling failure that forced it to shut down completely. A return to operation is not expected until March of 2027, upon which the plant will earn the unenviable title to a full two years of idle time.
Circling back around to Trump’s persistent attacks on offshore wind, blue East Coast states from Virginia on up to Maine are clearly getting the short end of the renewable energy stick. That’s particularly so in densely developed New Jersey, where space for new utility-scale solar power plants is limited but offshore wind is available in abundance.
New Jersey also lacks any in-state hydropower resources worth mentioning, but other East Coast states have demonstrated how to acquire out-of-state hydropower. Specifically, in January a transmission line connecting New England to hydropower plants in Canada kicked into gear, and earlier this week New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced the official commissioning of a massive hydropower transmission line from Canada to the Queens borough of New York City, accounting for up to 20% of the metro region’s electricity demand all in one blow.
Additionally, Massachusetts has launched a cross-border collaboration with Canada focusing on the development of offshore wind resources in the North Atlantic, so stay tuned for more on that.
Photo: The Florida-based firm Origis Energy is accelerating its solar power plant pipeline with a new round of $900 million in financing, despite the sharp U-turn in federal energy policy (cropped, courtesy of Origis Energy).
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Each year, millions of tourists from around the world visit Pompeii. They admire the southern Italian city’s frescoes and archaeological ruins, but few will likely ever notice the solar panels installed on the roof of the ancient Roman Villa of the Mysteries.
On one side, “it looks just like an ancient Roman tile. But if we look at it from behind, we can see that it is actually a small photovoltaic panel,” explained Gabriel Zuchtriegel, Pompeii Archaeological Park Director.
“It generates electricity to illuminate this villa, and a large share of the energy needed here comes directly from the roof installation,” he added.
While Pompeii is considering extending this solution to other areas of its archaeological park that are far from the electricity grid, the Portuguese city of Évora, has also adopted similar technologies, avoiding the harsh visual impact of conventional black solar panels. On the rooftop of the City Hall, some shingles are slightly clearer.
“They are not normal shingles,” said Humberto Queiroz, EDP R&D Centre and Project manager. “They are made of a semi-transparent epoxy material with solar cells embedded in the middle of it, which generates electricity for the self-consumption of this building.”
The area has around 20 kWp (kilowatt peak) of PV shingles, designed to blend into the building’s landscape architecture and protect the heritage aspect of Évora.
Since 1986, Évora’s historic centre has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. PV shingles are among the solutions through which the European project POCITYF is helping the city reconcile heritage preservation with the modern challenges of sustainability.
“Évora is a World Heritage city and, like most historic cities across Europe, it has the responsibility to preserve its historic centre and safeguard its cultural heritage,” analysed Nuno Bilo, EU project coordinator at Évora Municipality.
“However, it cannot remain frozen in time. We also need to move forward and find solutions that enable historic cities—and in this case Évora—to address one of today’s greatest challenges: decarbonisation.”
Among the solutions developed to make this possible is one created by a small family-owned company based in north-eastern Italy. Matteo Quagliato, who works for Dyaqua, explained the process.
“The tile is made from a resin compound that forms the first layer. We then take the photovoltaic cells, which have already been soldered beforehand, and place them inside. After that, a second layer is added, made from a specially formulated compound. The final step is lowering the mould and removing the finished product: a resin tile containing the photovoltaic cells.”
Solutions like this one and the different technologies adopted in Pompeii send an encouraging message to the rest of the world.
“The lesson Pompeii offers is that if this technology can work here, in a place that is so delicate, so closely monitored, so fragile, and so vast, then it can work anywhere”, said Zuchtriegel.
Glass roofs integrating photovoltaic panels and solar canopies installed in the courtyards of schools in the historic centre are among the other solutions being tested in Évora. Together with Alkmaar in the Netherlands, the Portuguese city is assessing these innovations through the POCITYF project to evaluate their potential for replication across Europe.


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20SD 8MW, LLC, better known as 8 Minute Solar, takes top spot in Tulare County for property assessment; agriculture still holds 12 of the top 20 spots
TULARE COUNTY – Agriculture still dominates the list of Tulare County’s most valuable businesses, but a different kind of farm has taken over the top spot.
The Tulare County Assessor’s Office recently released its annual report of the Top 20 businesses in the county, based on the amount of total business property assessment.
Most of the list includes major agriculture operations whose names are familiar both here and internationally, such as California Dairies (No. 2), Setton Pistachio (No. 2), Land O’Lakes (No. 3), Saputo Cheese (Nos. 7 & 15), and Lactalis (No. 10). In fact, 12 of the top 20 businesses are agriculture related businesses, including Ventura Coastal (No. 5), Calgren Dairy Fuels (No. 9), Touchstone Pistachios (No. 11), Treehouse Almonds (No. 12), Porterville Citrus (No. 17) and Western Milling (No. 20).
But the top company in terms of assessed value is an energy company with a massive southern Tulare County solar farm, 20SD 8MW, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of AES Clean Energy. The entity was created to develop and operate the Rexford Solar Farm, a major solar and battery storage project located on a 3,614-acre site in Ducor, California.
The developer 8 Minute Solar, owners of the Rexford 1 Solar Project, is now developing the second phase of the project, or Rexford 2, near the town of Ducor in southeastern Tulare County. Approved by Tulare County in 2020, Rexford 1 was already the largest solar farm in the nation, estimated to generate 700 megawatts (MW) with another 700 MW of battery storage.
Now, with its second phase, 8 Minute Solar — named for the amount of time it takes for the sun’s light to reach the Earth — is building a 500 MW system with 500 MW of storage on 1,200 acres near the original project for a combined 1,200 MW of solar energy and 1,200 MW of storage. The project covers nearly 5,000 acres.
The project is slated to come online between 2027 and 2028.
The list also includes another energy company you may not have heard about. Renewable energy developer Ormat Technologies operates two major utility-scale Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). Bottleneck Energy Storage Facility is an active 80 MW / 320 MWh lithium-ion battery storage facility located in Tulare. It entered commercial operations in October 2024 and operates under a 15-year Power Purchase Agreement.
Ormat also owns the Shirk Energy Storage Project, an active 80 MW / 320 MWh facility located in Tulare. It achieved full commercial operation on March 12, and is backed by a hybrid tax equity partnership with Morgan Stanley Renewables.
The list also includes retail giants Amazon, which has two distribution centers in Visalia and is good enough to be No. 8 on the list; Walmart, which has a major distribution center in Porterville and comes in at No. 16 on the list; and UPS, No. 13 on the list, also with a major statewide logistics warehouse.
There are two food processing companies on the list, Dreyers Ice Cream is No. 14 on the list, and Ruiz Foods, known for manufacturing and processing the El Monterey brand of frozen foods, comes in at No. 14. No. 19 on the list is Banc of America Leasing & Capital, the consumer financing arm of Bank of America.
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