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I took this portable solar generator on a weekend camping trip and it was a complete game changer  Tom’s Guide
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Sharp Energy Solutions is combining high-efficiency solar technology, battery storage and intelligent energy management to strengthen energy security in Japan and beyond, while building integrated renewable systems for homes, businesses, electric vehicles, stratospheric platforms and satellites.
Sharp Energy Solutions Corporation is the Sharp Group company responsible for its solar power business. Based in Yao, Osaka Prefecture, it provides residential solar, battery storage and home energy management systems alongside industrial solar engineering, construction, maintenance and large-scale power generation. Drawing on Sharp’s more than 60 years of solar experience, the company supports projects from household rooftops to satellites and utility-scale installations across Asia. 
 
Japan’s energy future sits at the intersection of energy security, industrial competitiveness, and decarbonization. The country remains heavily dependent on imported energy, particularly from the Middle East, while renewable energy still represents a relatively limited share of the national energy mix. At the same time, global energy demand is expected to continue rising steadily through the end of the decade, increasing pressure on governments and industry leaders to secure stable and sustainable power supplies. Against this backdrop, many Japanese corporations are accelerating investments into renewable energy, grid modernization, and next generation energy systems. From your perspective, how do you see the global energy market evolving over the next four to five years, and what role will renewable energy play in Japan’s long term economic and energy strategy?
The share of renewable energy will certainly continue to increase over the coming years. When we speak with major Japanese electric power companies, there is already a clear understanding that thermal power generation must gradually be reduced and replaced with renewable energy sources. This is no longer simply an environmental discussion. It has become directly tied to energy security, industrial competitiveness, and the long term stability of national economies.
In line with that broader shift, we are also expanding our solar power business. Personally, the reason I entered the solar energy business was because Japan does not possess significant natural resources. I have always believed that solar power can become Japan’s equivalent of an oil field. My vision was to create more and more “oil fields” within Japan through solar energy generation. That idea became one of the foundations of our renewable energy strategy.
As a result, I believe solar power, wind power, and renewable energy overall will continue expanding rapidly. This direction is supported not only by government policy, but also by industry itself. Japanese corporations increasingly recognize that energy transition is essential both for sustainability and for maintaining competitiveness in the global economy. Renewable energy is no longer viewed as an optional supplement to the traditional energy system. It is becoming a central pillar of future industrial growth and national resilience.
 
As countries around the world pursue green transformation strategies, Japan is increasingly being recognized for its strengths in manufacturing quality, operational efficiency, and advanced system integration. Many industry observers believe Japan could play a leading role in shaping next generation energy systems, particularly through innovations in efficiency, smart infrastructure, and industrial collaboration. Do you agree with this assessment, and what do you believe are Japan’s greatest strengths as the world transitions toward a more decentralized and intelligent energy economy?
I do agree with that assessment. One of Japan’s greatest strengths is quality. That applies not only to hardware manufacturing, but also to software, operational systems, and long term reliability. Japanese companies have historically placed great importance on precision, consistency, durability, and continuous improvement. I believe those strengths remain extremely valuable as energy systems become more advanced and interconnected.
Another major strength is Japan’s culture of partnership and collaboration. Japanese companies tend to work closely together across industries and supply chains, and that creates an environment where cooperation is easier. In the context of green transformation, the ability to collaborate across sectors is extremely important because next generation energy systems require coordination between utilities, manufacturers, technology companies, infrastructure providers, and governments.
I also believe Japan has accumulated significant expertise in efficiency and system optimization. As energy systems become more decentralized and more dependent on real time management, the ability to integrate technologies efficiently will become increasingly important. Japan has strong capabilities in these areas, and I believe those strengths position the country well for the future energy transition.
 
Global electrification is accelerating rapidly, driven by artificial intelligence infrastructure, data centers, electric vehicle adoption, and broader digital transformation. As a result, power systems are facing unprecedented pressure, increasing the need for advanced grid integration, aggregation technologies, real time optimization, and sophisticated energy control systems. While Europe has moved ahead in some areas, many experts see Asia as the next major frontier for energy system innovation. In this environment, what role do you believe Japan can play in helping shape the next generation of energy infrastructure across Asia?
Europe is ahead in certain areas, so it is difficult to make a direct comparison. However, within Asia, I believe Japan is among the most advanced countries when it comes to control technologies, system integration, and energy management devices.
One important strength is the close relationship between Japanese companies and electric utilities. We are already working closely together to address current grid related challenges, including system balancing, renewable integration, and overall grid stability. This cooperative approach allows us to develop solutions more effectively.
Looking ahead, one of the key areas we are focusing on is aggregation. As renewable energy penetration increases, aggregation and demand balancing technologies will become increasingly important across Asia. Countries throughout the region are still in relatively early stages of renewable integration compared to Europe, so there is a significant opportunity to apply advanced Japanese technologies and operational expertise to those markets.
I believe Japan’s role will not only be to provide products, but also to contribute know how related to control systems, optimization, and overall energy management. Those areas will become increasingly important as power systems become more complex and more decentralized.

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The renewable energy industry is increasingly moving beyond standalone hardware toward integrated lifecycle solutions that combine solar generation, battery storage, EPC services, electricity retail, and long term energy management. Sharp appears to be pursuing a particularly comprehensive approach across the energy value chain. For international readers evaluating the future of renewable energy infrastructure, why do you believe an integrated end to end model offers greater long term value than a lower cost modular approach focused primarily on equipment sales?
Our strength is that although we are a manufacturer, we are also involved in power generation businesses, PPA businesses, EPC operations, and energy services. In Japan, there are very few manufacturers operating across such a broad portion of the value chain.
By connecting all of these businesses together, we want to create a circular business model. For example, revenue generated through electricity retail can be reinvested upstream into product development and innovation, which then creates additional value throughout the system. This creates stronger long term sustainability for the business and for customers as well.
We believe that integrated systems create greater efficiency, better optimization, and stronger long term reliability compared to isolated products. As energy systems become more complex, customers increasingly need solutions that work seamlessly together rather than separate technologies operating independently.
If we can successfully establish this model in Japan, we would like to expand similar value chains internationally. However, international expansion is challenging because regulations, grid requirements, and market conditions differ significantly from country to country. Adapting these systems locally requires substantial time and resources.
 
Sharp has also expanded its activities across Southeast Asia, including markets such as Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines. As renewable energy demand rises throughout the region, companies entering these markets must navigate highly diverse regulatory frameworks, grid systems, and local business environments. Looking at Southeast Asia over the next decade, where do you see the greatest long term opportunity for renewable energy development, and what makes that market particularly attractive from your perspective?
Personally, I believe the Philippines represents one of the most attractive markets in Southeast Asia. Many countries in the region have various restrictions that can make business operations more difficult for overseas companies. The Philippines, however, has been relatively open to foreign manufacturers and international participation, and I believe that openness creates significant long term potential.
Another important factor is geography. Because the Philippines is an island nation, renewable energy solutions are particularly well suited to its energy needs. Decentralized renewable systems can play an important role in improving energy access, stability, and resilience.
We are already building relationships and partnerships within the country, and through those networks we believe we are in a position to develop broader value chain activities, including EPC and PPA businesses. In the future, we are also considering establishing a local subsidiary there.
At the same time, expansion across Southeast Asia requires careful localization. Every country has different legal systems, grid connection requirements, and regulatory structures. Successfully adapting to those differences takes time, but we believe the long term opportunity remains significant.
 
Sharp’s involvement in solar technology extends far beyond terrestrial applications. The company has a long history in space grade solar cells dating back to the 1970s, and its technologies have since been deployed on more than 180 satellites, including lunar exploration missions. As the global space economy expands and demand grows for high performance energy systems in communications satellites and aerospace infrastructure, how is Sharp leveraging its expertise from extreme space environments to support both future space applications and terrestrial energy innovation?
We have accumulated a very long history and substantial technical expertise in space related solar technology. That experience has given us important knowledge about reliability, durability, and performance under extremely demanding conditions.
Today, we are already collaborating with automobile manufacturers on vehicle mounted solar cells. We are conducting demonstrations together with Toyota and Nissan, and we have accumulated a considerable amount of operational data through those projects.
We also provide solar cells for HAPS platforms, which are high altitude stratospheric communication systems. These are aircraft like platforms that operate in the stratosphere and function as communications infrastructure.
Looking ahead, we believe communications satellites, particularly low Earth orbit satellites, will become the primary growth driver for our space solar business. The expansion of global communications infrastructure, space connectivity, and satellite networks is creating growing demand for advanced solar technologies.
We also intend to continue expanding internationally. The future opportunity for space related solar technology is not limited to Japan, and we would like to contribute globally in this field.
 
As conventional silicon solar cells approach their theoretical efficiency limits, the industry is increasingly turning its attention toward next generation technologies such as tandem perovskite solar cells. This is particularly important in countries like Japan, where land constraints and limited rooftop space make higher energy density increasingly valuable. Sharp has identified tandem perovskite technology as a key future growth area and is targeting commercialization around 2027. Where do you see the first major commercial opportunities emerging for this technology, and what advantages do you believe Sharp has in bringing it to market successfully?
Our goal is to achieve efficiencies of 30 percent or higher through tandem perovskite technology. Initially, we want to introduce this technology into the residential market because residential applications are especially important in Japan, where rooftop space is limited and energy efficiency per square meter is extremely valuable.
Once efficiency, reliability, and product lifespan are fully verified, we would then expand the technology into industrial applications such as large scale ground mounted solar power facilities.
If this technology becomes commercially viable, it could nearly double power generation compared to current systems. Even in a country like Japan, where available land is limited, that would allow significantly more power generation from the same physical space.
For example, a conventional residential system today may generate approximately 5 kilowatts at around 20 percent efficiency. With perovskite technology reaching approximately 30 percent efficiency, that could increase to around 7.5 kilowatts. At that level, a household could potentially balance its own energy generation and consumption and move much closer to achieving residential carbon neutrality.
At this stage, however, international expansion plans are still under discussion. The Japanese government currently places strong emphasis on a “Made in Japan” approach, so future international strategies will need to be considered carefully over time.
 
China currently dominates global solar manufacturing capacity, and international competition within the renewable energy sector is becoming increasingly intense as worldwide solar deployment accelerates. At the same time, energy supply chains are becoming more interconnected, and collaboration across borders is increasingly necessary to scale production, innovation, and infrastructure deployment. In this environment, how important do you believe international partnerships and collaboration will be for the future competitiveness of Japanese renewable energy companies?
International partnerships are already extremely important, and I believe they will continue becoming more important in the future. We are already conducting business through partnerships with various companies, including Chinese manufacturers, and I do not believe that trend will change.
The renewable energy industry is global by nature. Supply chains, manufacturing, technology development, and infrastructure deployment increasingly require international cooperation. No single country can completely isolate itself within this industry.
At the same time, partnerships allow companies to combine different strengths. Some companies may have manufacturing scale, while others may have technological expertise, quality advantages, or advanced system integration capabilities. I believe successful collaboration across borders will continue to play an essential role in the future growth of the renewable energy sector.

Residential energy systems are undergoing a major transformation. Homes are increasingly evolving into intelligent energy hubs that combine solar generation, battery storage, EV charging, V2H systems, and artificial intelligence driven optimization platforms. Many experts believe this sector could become one of the defining components of the future energy economy. From your perspective, do you see residential energy evolving toward standardized systems, or toward more customized and integrated ecosystems centered around advanced energy management services?
I believe these systems will increasingly become standardized, particularly in Japan. Major homebuilders are already making solar installation standard in the vast majority of new homes. Once solar becomes standard, battery storage naturally follows, and as electric vehicle adoption expands, systems such as V2H will also become increasingly common.
Our COCORO ENERGY platform is already one of Japan’s leading energy related services, and I believe this type of integrated ecosystem will continue expanding in the future.
As these technologies become more widespread, homes themselves will increasingly function as energy management hubs. Generation, storage, charging, and optimization will all become interconnected within a single system. That integration will improve energy efficiency while also helping households manage costs and reduce carbon emissions.
Over time, I believe these technologies will become part of the standard residential environment rather than specialized systems for only certain consumers.
 
As renewable energy systems become more sophisticated and interconnected, there is also growing concern about usability and accessibility, particularly for older consumers or users unfamiliar with advanced technologies. At the same time, policy uncertainty and shifting government priorities continue to create challenges for long term industry planning worldwide. Looking ahead, what do you believe will be the greatest barriers to mass renewable energy adoption, and how can the industry overcome them to make these systems more accessible and easier for consumers to use?
One of the biggest obstacles may actually be government policy. Energy policies can change dramatically depending on political leadership and national priorities. For example, changes related to the Paris Agreement in the United States created major uncertainty for the industry. Those types of policy shifts can significantly affect long term investment and business planning.
Another challenge is complexity. Renewable energy systems are becoming increasingly advanced, integrating solar panels, storage batteries, EV charging systems, and energy optimization platforms. For many consumers, especially elderly users, these systems can feel difficult to understand or manage.
I believe automation will become the key solution. Artificial intelligence and automated control systems will allow energy systems to optimize themselves without requiring users to understand the technical details. Customers should not need specialized knowledge in order to benefit from renewable energy technologies.
Ultimately, the goal is to create systems that automatically operate in the most efficient and optimal way possible while remaining simple and convenient for consumers. I believe that level of automation and user friendliness will be essential for achieving widespread adoption.
 
Finally, Newsweek reaches readers across 59 countries, including corporate sustainability leaders, infrastructure investors, policymakers, renewable energy executives, and global industry stakeholders who are actively shaping the future of the international energy transition. If you had to define Sharp’s role within that future global energy landscape in a single message to the international community, how would you describe the company’s long term mission and identity?
We want to be recognized as a leading company in renewable energy, especially in solar energy. Our goal is not simply to manufacture products, but to contribute to the broader transformation of global energy systems through innovation, reliability, and long term value creation.
We believe renewable energy will play a central role in the future global economy, and we want Sharp to contribute meaningfully to that transition through advanced solar technologies, integrated energy solutions, and sustainable infrastructure development.
In simple terms, Sharp aims to be a global leader in solar power and renewable energy solutions.
 
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The contract award was announced by the company itself, which described the initiative as its official entry into the Mozambican market through the Programme for the Promotion of Renewable Energy Auctions (PROLER), the first competitive mechanism for contracting solar photovoltaic projects implemented in the country.
“The Manje project opens a new chapter for JCM Power in Africa, securing the company’s entry into Mozambique through the PROLER programme,” the company states.
According to JCM Power, the future power station, located in the central province of Tete, is expected to contribute to boosting clean energy production and support national objectives to expand access to reliable, affordable and sustainable electricity. The company also stated that it intends to work in collaboration with the Mozambican Government, Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM) and other local partners to bring the project to fruition.
The project was awarded through PROLER, a programme supported by the European Commission and the French Development Agency (AFD), created to promote private-sector participation in the development of renewable infrastructure and increase the country’s energy generation capacity, which envisages the installation of around 120 MW of renewable capacity through competitive tenders.
The initiative dates back to 2022, when the Mozambican authorities launched a pre-qualification process aimed at selecting private investors for the development of the Manje solar power station in Tete and the Chimbunila solar power station in Niassa province, both with a planned capacity of 30 MW. The selected developers were to secure the financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the infrastructure.
Founded in Canada, JCM Power is an independent power producer focused on the development, financing and operation of renewable energy projects in emerging markets. The company already has a presence in southern Africa, notably through its involvement in the development of the 60 MW Salima solar power station in Malawi, as well as the Golomoti power station, with a 20 MW solar capacity supplemented by a storage system.
Its entry into Mozambique comes against a backdrop of growing momentum in the country’s renewable energy sector. In June, the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy launched a tender for the installation of a 30 MW solar power station in the Dondo district, Sofala province, signalling the resumption of the Proler programme and reinforcing the strategy of using competitive tenders to attract private investors.
At the same time, the Nhamatanda Solar Power Station project in Sofala Province – an investment estimated at $69 million (€59.5 million), promoted by EDM in partnership with the private company VBC – is currently undergoing public consultation. With a planned capacity of 45 MW, the facility is expected to occupy around 160 hectares and contribute to strengthening the National Electricity Grid.
The project forms part of the Energy for All programme, coordinated by the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy, and is in line with the government’s target of achieving universal access to electricity by 2030.
According to data from EDM, the national electrification rate has reached 66.4% and the company plans to make at least 420,000 new connections by the end of 2026, benefiting around two million people. In the first quarter of this year, the country made more than 75,000 new electricity connections, including via the National Electricity Grid and off-grid systems powered by solar and mini-hydro power stations.
Source: Lusa
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Rethinking Indonesia’s electricity economics to reach the 100GW solar target  Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA)
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© 2025 THE COOL DOWN COMPANY. All Rights Reserved. Do not sell or share my personal information. Reach us at hello@thecooldown.com.
“It seems like a way to guarantee profit, while removing risk from shareholders.”
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A proposed $67.8 million rate hike by Delmarva Power is drawing resistance in Delaware, where opponents say higher utility bills would burden families already contending with housing, food, and energy costs.
During a public hearing, residents asked regulators to deny the filing, saying the plan would insulate the company and its investors at customers’ expense, as WDEL reported.
The request was filed in December 2025 by Exelon, Delmarva Power’s parent company. The Delaware Public Advocate estimated it would add about $9.30 a month for the average heating customer and $15.63 a month for customers who use space heaters.
An interim increase took effect on July 9. A typical customer began paying an extra $3 per month, and Delaware law would raise that amount to $4.50 per month if regulators have not issued a final decision by Dec. 9.
Want to go solar but not sure who to trust? EnergySage has your back with free and transparent quotes from fully vetted providers in your area.
To get started, just answer a few questions about your home — no phone number required. Within a day or two, EnergySage will email you the best options for your needs, and their expert advisers can help you compare quotes and pick a winner.
Sierra Club Delaware’s Marissa McClenton said, “It seems like a way to guarantee profit, while removing risk from shareholders.”
She also criticized a proposal to shift $23.2 million recovered through the Distribution System Improvement Charge, saying Delmarva “has not hit the cap” and that approving the move in advance could “[open] us up to another 7.5% rate hike.”
For homeowners interested in saving money on home energy over time, going solar is one of the best ways to do so. You can explore EnergySage to get free solar installation estimates and compare quotes.
Several speakers described the filing as part of a broader pattern in which households are repeatedly asked to pay more, even as a major utility parent company continues to bring in billions in revenue.
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For Wilmington resident Jill Houston, Exelon’s reported $5.97 billion in quarterly revenue was reason enough to oppose the request.
“There’s absolutely no need for a rate increase,” she said.
Exelon’s stock performance has been mixed, but it has still risen 28.7%.
Critics say ordinary customers are being squeezed while investors remain protected.
💡Go deep on the latest news and trends shaping the residential solar landscape
Resident Kristina Kelly said that branches from a nearby tree near power lines destroyed her sweet potato garden.
“Look at Delaware’s housing crisis, look at what families are paying, look at Delmarva’s executive compensation, and then look at people like me,” Kelly said.
McClenton also argued that customers should not be stuck with infrastructure costs associated with data centers and other energy-intensive developments.
“If these big projects need infrastructure improvements, it should come out of their own pocket, not the energy bills of Delawareans,” she said.
Residents can weigh in before regulators decide. Written comments can be emailed to the Delaware Public Service Commission at psc@delaware.gov, using 25-1555 in the subject line, by Sept. 18, 2026.
Delmarva said it is offering customer support measures such as bill payment arrangements, energy-efficiency programs, a $6.5 million Customer Relief Fund, and a proposed 20% discount on electric delivery charges for qualifying low- to moderate-income customers.
The company also said the filing reflects reliability investments already completed, including stronger poles, new substations, and updated technology.
For households considering alternatives, EnergySage’s free services can help clarify whether solar makes financial sense. EnergySage’s solar map shows the average cost of a home solar panel system, along with details on solar incentives, and together those tools can help readers get the best price for rooftop solar panels and access available incentives.
Adding battery storage to a solar setup is also one of the best ways to protect your home during outages, save money on energy, and go off-grid. Readers can explore EnergySage for information about home battery storage options, including competitive installation estimates.
Get TCD’s free newsletters for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here.
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Researchers from the University of Freiburg and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) in Germany have fabricated a perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell using a fully solvent-free manufacturing process.
“At the heart of the project is the fabrication of the perovskite layer using physical vapor deposition (PVD) and other solvent-free, industrially scalable processes,” the scientists said in a statement. “The perovskite layer was deposited through sequential evaporation.”
PVD offers a solvent-free approach to thin-film deposition, as the coating material is transferred directly to the substrate through the vapor phase under vacuum, eliminating the need to dissolve the material in a liquid carrier. The approach can also reduce solvent-related contamination and eliminates the need for subsequent solvent removal or drying steps.
“We have succeeded in eliminating all solvents from the manufacturing process of the wide-bandgap perovskite top cell and integrating this technology into the world’s first fully solvent-free perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell,” said lead author Mohamed A. A. Mahmoud.
“Thanks to excellent collaboration with researchers from four different countries, we were able to combine various measurement techniques to gain a detailed understanding of the processes taking place during the deposition of the perovskite thin films,” said co-author Juliane Borchert. “Perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells have great potential to become the next generation of highly efficient solar cells. For them to make the transition from the laboratory to industrial manufacturing, it is essential to identify the optimal combination of deposition methods that enables reliable, large-scale, and high-throughput production. With this solvent-free tandem solar cell, we are laying an important foundation for achieving this goal.”
The researchers built the solvent-free device in a monolithic two-terminal (2T) configuration, with a sequentially evaporated perovskite top cell integrated onto a silicon heterojunction (SHJ) bottom cell. They deposited the perovskite absorber via sequential evaporation using an optimized precursor recipe designed to achieve the required bandgap and complete conversion of the lead-halide precursors.
The scientists also deposited the hole-transport layer (HTL) by evaporation, avoiding solution processing at the bottom interface of the perovskite cell. At the upper interface, they deposited an ethylenediammonium diiodide (EDAI) passivation layer, followed by a 15-nm buckminsterfullerene (C60) electron-transport layer (ETL). They then deposited 20 nm of tin oxide (SnOₓ) via atomic layer deposition (ALD) and 25 nm of indium tin oxide (ITO) by sputtering.
The 1 cm² device was completed with a 200-nm silver (Ag) electrode and a 100-nm magnesium fluoride (MgF₂) layer.
Tested under standard illumination conditions, the tandem cell achieved a power conversion efficiency of 27.1%, an open-circuit voltage of 1,903 mV, a short-circuit current density of 19.3 mA/cm², and a fill factor of 73.8%. The device also retained 97.06% of its initial efficiency after 6,800 hours of storage in the dark under a nitrogen (N₂) atmosphere.
The scientists said in situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements provided insights into the growth and conversion of sequentially deposited perovskite absorbers on planar and textured silicon substrates. They found that textured silicon promoted more effective conversion of lead-halide precursors into the perovskite phase than planar silicon.
The researchers also observed halide redistribution during thermal annealing, highlighting the importance of carefully optimized annealing conditions for achieving high device performance. However, they noted that the elevated processing temperatures impose additional thermal-stability requirements on the hole-transport layers.
“This achievement and the new insights into the crystallization processes form an important foundation for the further optimization of the technology and its future industrial implementation,” the academics concluded.
The new manufacturing process was described in “Impact of silicon substrate topography on sequentially evaporated perovskite film growth,” published in Joule.

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Our special edition for Intersolar South America 2026 is here!
Discover the latest insights into the Brazilian solar market – in Portuguese.
Entries open in seven categories: Modules, Inverters, BoS, BESS, Manufacturing, Sustainability, Projects.
April 01 – August 31, 2026
A two-day conference in Austin, Texas, bringing together leaders in US solar manufacturing, equipment specification, and factory execution.
Saudi Arabia is accelerating its clean energy transition—join the SunRise Arabia Clean Energy Conference 2026 in Riyadh to explore how solar PV and energy storage are powering its digital economy.
pv magazine USA hosts its multi-day virtual event on U.S. solar and energy storage, covering domestic manufacturing, distributed energy and the growing role of solar-plus-storage in meeting AI-driven power demand.
Thursday, October 7, 2026
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If you’re experiencing solar installation problems after investing in a residential photovoltaic (PV) system, know that they could be due to dirt accumulation or tree growth casting shade on the panels. Equipment problems, like panel or inverter defects, improper installation, or overinflated contractor estimates, could also be behind it.
You’re not alone in this situation, either; many Americans are in the same boat, with their panels failing to deliver on claims made by installers.
As KXAN.com reported in May 2026, the federal agency Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has already received over 2,000 solar-related complaints over the past decade. California, Texas, and Florida are the top three states with the most complaints.
Incorrect system sizing and improper installation are among the most common solar installation problems homeowners may experience. Others may also experience roof problems (e.g., leaks) and even fire hazards.
If a solar installer fails to review previous utility bills carefully, they may miscalculate a household’s energy load. It could lead to them installing an undersized system.
In some cases, installers may also fail to account for future energy use increases and seasonal panel output drops.
Regardless of the cause, an undersized system will not meet your performance expectations because it’s too small. The system’s production won’t be enough to offset your total household electricity needs.
Many homeowners also experience solar installation problems because their contractor (or subcontractor) may have performed shoddy work. Specific examples include:
Roof problems like leaks and rot can occur if a solar installer drilled holes for the panels’ mounting brackets without using the correct techniques and supplies.
They may have purposefully skipped the use of flashing or the application of waterproof sealants. Even if they only forgot, it still points to a lack of solar installer accountability and subpar craftsmanship.
It’s rare for solar panel systems to cause a fire directly, but it can still happen.
The Inter­national Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI) says that in rare cases involving PV modules implicated in house fires, the cause was electrical arcing. Electrical arcing, an electrical discharge “jumping” through the air, can occur due to:
Yes, with one of the primary reasons being that the panels are reaching or have reached the end of their useful service life. As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes, solar panels’ typical lifespan is over 25 years.
Other owners are getting rid of their panels due to:
All those are practical reasons, but for some, it’s because they regret their solar contracts and want to seek contract exit options. Their regret stems from being in agreements that involved deceptive sales practices, misleading information, low-quality work, and faulty equipment.
If your PV system isn’t performing as well as promised by your contractor, don’t assume the worst immediately; instead, do some solar energy troubleshooting. If that still doesn’t work, call your contractor next.
If your actual household energy use hasn’t drastically increased, your PV system’s underperformance may be due to dirt or debris accumulating on the surface of the panels. Try hosing them down with a garden hose or using a long, telescoping soft-bristle brush from the ground.
Check the surrounding area, too, and make sure there’s no tree overgrowth shading the panels.
If basic troubleshooting doesn’t do the trick, call your solar company for help. They should help you get your system back in shape, whether it’s through panel, electrical, or inverter repairs or replacements.
If your contractor doesn’t offer any resolution, or you believe they’ve engaged in deception, you may be within your consumer energy rights to seek legal assistance. They may have exaggerated the numbers when selling you the system, such as the panels’ potential output or energy savings.
In this case, one of your options is to get in touch with Solar Cancellation Resource Center experts. You can get direct access to legal support and representation, helping you get out of a bad solar deal.
If you, friends, or family don’t have a PV system yet but plan to get one, beware of potential scams and bad deals, often signaled by high-pressure sales tactics.
The sales agents or contractors may say they’re offering “free” or massively discounted equipment, but only if you agree to and sign the contract within the same day. They may use statements like “today only” or “one-time deal.”
Be cautious of salespeople who say their products will allow you to enjoy $0 bills. They’re highly misleading, even deceptive, because even if the panels offset the entire electricity usage of a home, utility companies still charge miscellaneous fees, which means that bills are unlikely to be $0.
Yes. Solar panels are still worth it, despite these mounting concerns about bad solar contracts and shady deals. Most problems with solar don’t stem directly from the panels or overall system; they have more to do with the installers or contractors, including their sales tactics and the quality of work.
Solar panels remain among the most accessible options to transition to clean, green, sustainable energy. If installed properly by a highly experienced, reputable, and trustworthy contractor, they should deliver their expected (and realistic) performance, helping you reduce your household energy use and bills.
From incorrect sizing to improper installation, roof problems, and fire hazards, these are all solar installation problems that homeowners can face.
If you’re in this situation, do some basic troubleshooting and then call your installer. If none of that works, consider your legal options, even more so if you believe you’re a victim of deceptive sales practices.
Find the latest on this topic and more by checking out our investigative reports, community news, and in-depth news coverage.
This article was prepared by an independent contributor and helps us continue to deliver quality news and information.
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Solar farms provide clean energy, but new research from China suggests rapid development can come at a cost to birds and their habitat.
Building solar farms is supposed to be the easy part of fixing the climate. But panels need land, and in China most of that land was cropland or grassland with birds living on it. A new study of 2,344 Chinese counties finds that the harder a county pushed solar, the fewer kinds of birds its birdwatchers recorded.
Clean power and habitat are competing for the same ground.
Huiming Zhang and colleagues compared counties against each other. They did not follow any single solar site from before construction to after, so the study shows a pattern and not a cause. The pattern survived a long list of alternative tests.
Amateur birdwatchers logged the sightings on the China Birdwatching Record Center, where experts check each entry. Zhang works at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology. His team matched those records to county figures on solar policy, land cover, weather, and income, month by month from 2014 through 2023.
To measure the birds, the team used a standard score. It rises when a place holds more species, and when those species are spread evenly rather than dominated by one or two.
For the policy side, they scraped official documents off provincial, city, and county government websites. Each document scored from 1 to 9, from a vague plan up to a binding regulation.
Researchers before them counted panels. This team counted the paperwork that put the panels there.
Counties with stronger solar policy had lower bird scores. Moving a county up one standard deviation on the policy scale went with a 2.10% drop in its score.
That’s a small number for one county and a large one for a country installing solar faster than anywhere else. China’s panels already covered about 1,745 square miles (4,520 square kilometers) in 2024, roughly the area of Rhode Island. By 2060 solar is projected to supply close to 45% of the country’s energy.
The authors then separated new rules from old ones. New rules coming into force tracked with a drop in bird diversity. Older rules already in force didn’t.
Whatever is happening to the birds appears to happen early in the solar expansion process.
Counties also lost species outright. The total number of species fell, while the evenness among the ones left over ticked up slightly. That’s the pattern expected when more specialized species drop out and adaptable ones divide up what remains.
The team then checked two satellite measures of plant cover, and the two disagreed. The measure that tracks how healthy and widespread plant cover is went down as solar policy tightened. The measure of how much leaf surface is stacked over a patch of ground went up.
The authors call that combination inferior greening. Land that reads as greener from orbit can be dense, uniform cover under and between the panels. It stands in for the mixed grassland or crop mosaic that used to be there.
Dense and uniform is fine if you’re a plant. It’s a problem if you’re a bird that nests in a shrub of a particular height, or one that eats the insects a varied plant community feeds.
They tested a simpler explanation and dropped it. If lights around industrial sites were pushing birds out, night-light readings should climb with solar policy. They fell instead, because large solar plants get built in empty places.
The losses landed outside China’s dry northern belt and outside its sandy and gravel deserts, and in counties never designated as poverty counties. Inside the desert zones, where birds are already adapted to bare open country, the researchers found no significant effect.
Species split the same way. China’s endemic birds, the ones concentrated in mountain forest nobody is paving for panels, came through unaffected.
Widespread species did worse, along with birds that nest in vegetation and birds that eat meat or a bit of everything. Plant-eaters, which can work with thick ground cover, showed no significant change.
Migratory and resident birds both declined. The counties with the most aggressive solar policy also overlap with major flyways, which turns a local land swap into a problem for wildlife only passing through. Those migration stopovers shape populations thousands of miles away.
Farmers in those counties harvested less, too. The authors estimate a 2.88% drop in crop yield for each one-unit rise in policy strength, an effect they report separately from the bird numbers.
Their recommendation isn’t less solar. It’s solar somewhere else. Put the big utility plants in the arid north, where clearing costs the least, and keep them off productive land in wealthier, wetter regions.
For those regions they point to rooftop arrays and to growing crops under and between the panels, which keeps some plant structure and some food production on the same land.
They also want ecological rules written into policy before the bulldozers arrive, and restoration standards that require a mix of native plants instead of the cheapest fast-growing cover.
Earth.com has reported on how wildflower borders change what lives on a solar site, and on how solar farms can be designed around wildlife from the start. Researchers are making the same case about floating panels on reservoirs.
Shanjun Li of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability is one of the paper’s corresponding authors, alongside co-authors in Beijing, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Maryland, and Hanoi.
Economists can tell a government roughly what a ton of carbon dioxide costs the world. No comparable figure exists for a county’s birds, so a plan that trades one for the other can only put a value on one of them.
Yuanning Liang, an economist at Peking University who wrote an accompanying commentary, called that the next job. He wrote that “credible estimates of biodiversity values are needed when sustainable development policies alter ecosystems.”
The desert-siting fix is still a recommendation rather than a tested result. This study measures what China’s counties have already built. It doesn’t measure what happens to the birds if the panels move.
The full study was published in the journal Science.
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Sanjay Ganjoo, director general of the Indian Federation of Green Energy, urged investment in technologies that extend the period during which solar power can be generated and in mechanisms to evacuate electricity from high potential regions such as Ladakh. He pointed to projects including the Khavda solar park as examples of how otherwise marginal land can be utilised to produce electricity for domestic use. Ganjoo also emphasised the need to strengthen the domestic supply chain so that wafers and batteries are produced locally and research and manufacturing receive greater investment.
Mohammad Rihan, director general of the National Institute of Solar Energy, said large solar parks have improved financial viability by aligning policy, industry and infrastructure, driving down prices and supporting sector growth. He noted that the projects have generated employment and local economic benefits in challenging locations. Rihan added that solar installations had reached 165 gigawatt (GW), module manufacturing capacity had crossed 213 GW and cell manufacturing capacity stood at more than 30 GW, signalling progress towards longer-term renewable targets.
Looking ahead, the experts said India will need to combine large scale renewable projects with stronger transmission links, enhanced technology development and deeper domestic manufacturing to increase energy self-reliance. They recommended focused investment in power evacuation infrastructure for remote sites and in storage or generation extending technologies to make solar output more reliable. The consensus was that while large solar parks will continue to be central to the green transition, complementary measures will determine how quickly capacity can be expanded.
Industry experts said that large scale solar parks can play a key role in making renewable energy more financially viable and supporting India’s green transition, but cautioned that realising that potential will require coordinated investment in infrastructure and manufacturing. They argued that bringing together policy support, industry participation and large scale projects helps reduce costs and strengthens the sector’s long-term prospects. The experts noted that these parks also create economic activity in remote areas and can unlock land that was previously unused. Sanjay Ganjoo, director general of the Indian Federation of Green Energy, urged investment in technologies that extend the period during which solar power can be generated and in mechanisms to evacuate electricity from high potential regions such as Ladakh. He pointed to projects including the Khavda solar park as examples of how otherwise marginal land can be utilised to produce electricity for domestic use. Ganjoo also emphasised the need to strengthen the domestic supply chain so that wafers and batteries are produced locally and research and manufacturing receive greater investment. Mohammad Rihan, director general of the National Institute of Solar Energy, said large solar parks have improved financial viability by aligning policy, industry and infrastructure, driving down prices and supporting sector growth. He noted that the projects have generated employment and local economic benefits in challenging locations. Rihan added that solar installations had reached 165 gigawatt (GW), module manufacturing capacity had crossed 213 GW and cell manufacturing capacity stood at more than 30 GW, signalling progress towards longer-term renewable targets. Looking ahead, the experts said India will need to combine large scale renewable projects with stronger transmission links, enhanced technology development and deeper domestic manufacturing to increase energy self-reliance. They recommended focused investment in power evacuation infrastructure for remote sites and in storage or generation extending technologies to make solar output more reliable. The consensus was that while large solar parks will continue to be central to the green transition, complementary measures will determine how quickly capacity can be expanded.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday called for continuous reforms across all stages of infrastructure project execution during the 53rd PRAGATI meeting. He asked ministries and state governments to adopt an end-to-end approach and a proactive work culture to ensure timely delivery. The meeting reviewed six key infrastructure projects in the railway, road and power sectors across nine states with a cumulative investment of Rs 300 billion (Rs 300 bn). Officials assessed projects on timelines, inter-agency coordination and resolution of pending issues. He said infrastructure projects should b..
GMR Airports plans a US$2 billion (bn) expansion of facilities at New Delhi and Hyderabad as part of a major modernisation drive. Hyderabad’s upgraded airport will be able to accommodate about 80 million (mn) passengers a year, more than double its current annual volume of 34 mn fliers. The company is India’s largest airport operator by number of fliers annually, while rival Adani Airport Holdings Ltd is the biggest by number of airports and is reported to be looking to invest US$15 bn to boost passenger capacity over the next five years. Executives indicated the build-outs in New Delhi an..
Adani Group-operated Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) will begin partial demolition of the north section of Terminal one-B at Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport from 15 January 2027, according to a letter to the civil aviation ministry. The operator has begun redistributing air traffic to Terminal two and to Navi Mumbai International Airport to facilitate the work. The airport, managed by Mumbai International Airport, currently has a capacity of over 50 million (mn) passengers and handles over 950 flight movements daily. Terminal one is nearly 80 years old and parts of it have..
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WANA (Aug 28) – With more than 280 sunny days throughout the year, Iran is considered one of the most potential geographic zones in the world for constructing solar power plants and producing clean energy. Now, the country intends to make a fundamental leap from this potential capacity.
 
Based on the planned arrangements, Iran plans to construct the world’s largest solar power plant with a capacity of 5 gigawatts (5,000 megawatts) in Isfahan province.
 
Currently, the record for the world’s largest single-site solar power plant belongs to China’s “Midong” power plant with a capacity of 3.5 gigawatts. With the fruition of the Isfahan project, Iran can stand at the top of the table of renewable energy owners in the world.
 
Majiid Ansari, Legal Deputy to the President, emphasizing the mandates of the Seventh Development Plan law regarding the compensation of lags in the energy sector, noted: “The main goal setting of the 14th government is the construction and generation of 30,000 megawatts of solar energy in the country.”
 
WANA (Aug 25) – Iran has moved closer to its annual target of reaching 12,000 megawatts (MW) of clean energy following the inauguration of 107 power projects across the country.   Hamidreza Azimi, Deputy Head of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Organization of Iran, announced that 600 MW of renewable power capacity from 107 […]
 
This action is not only a step toward joining the green economy, but also plays a key role in resolving the challenge of electricity imbalance.
 
Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, spokesman for Iran’s electricity industry, announced the country’s annual electricity consumption rate as about 350 billion kilowatt-hours and predicted that this amount would reach 380 billion kilowatt-hours at peak consumption.
 
Referring to the subsidies situation, he says: “Iran is the second country in the world in paying energy subsidies, about one-fourth of which are directly allocated to the electricity sector”; a pattern whose reform and the direction of investments toward clean energy is imperative.
 
Official statistics show the composition and rate of electricity consumption in different sectors of the country as follows:
 
Industrial Sector (36.83%): Holds the largest share of the country’s electricity consumption. Industries such as steel, cement, and petrochemicals need sustainable energy to maintain production cycles. Applying modern technologies like Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSG) and developing renewable power plants around industries will double the productivity of this sector.
Technicians install solar panels on a residential rooftop in Tehran, Iran October 11, 2020. Picture taken October 11, 2020. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency)
Residential Sector (32.34%): The second largest electricity-consuming sector, which pushes the grid load to its peak in the summer season with cooling appliances coming online.
 
Agricultural Sector (14.67%): The electricity of this sector is mainly spent on water well pumps and farm equipment. Using solar panels on farms is an effective step toward reducing costs.
 
Commercial and Administrative Sector (7.19%): This sector has the highest consumption pattern during working hours, which will have a more optimal performance if equipped with automation systems.
 
Currently, the country’s electricity generation is heavily dependent on non-renewable sources, such that about 85 to 90 percent of Iran’s electricity is produced by fossil fuel power plants (thermal, gas, and combined cycle). On the other hand, the share of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in supplying the country’s electricity is about 1 to 1.5 percent (equivalent to 1,000 megawatts).
Milad tower and a solar panel, are seen in Tehran, Iran October 13, 2020. Picture taken October 13, 2020. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency)
The current share of solar energy and other renewables in the national energy mix accounts for only about 1.5 percent. Haji-Mirzaei, Head of the Presidential Office, explaining the priorities of the Presidential Administration in this area, emphasized: “To compensate for the electricity imbalance, creating 30,000 megawatts of solar energy capacity has been targeted, of which 18,000 megawatts have so far been added to the country’s electricity generation capacity, and an important priority of the government is the complete elimination of these imbalances.”
 
The entry of the 5-gigawatt Isfahan power plant into the grid will inject new power into the national grid and cover a significant portion of the existing gap between generation and consumption.
 
The full implementation of this project, in addition to self-sufficiency in electricity supply, will prevent the annual waste of billions of cubic meters of natural gas and turn Iran into one of the main hubs of renewable energy.
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Britain has just legalised a category of solar hardware that could reshape how millions of renters and apartment dwellers generate their own power  and it is a policy India’s own rooftop-constrained cities would do well to watch. From August 27, 2026, households across England, Scotland and Wales can legally buy and use “plug-in solar” kits: panels that connect directly into a standard three-pin wall socket, need no electrician, no planning permission in most cases, and no rewiring of the home’s consumer unit.
The change rests on two statutory instruments — SI 2026/848, which creates a new legal category of “plug-in microgenerator,” and SI 2026/896, which amends England’s permitted development rules so most installations need no planning application. Each certified kit of plug-in balcony solar modules is capped at 800 watts of AC output at the socket, fed by up to 2,000 watts of solar panelling, and comes with automatic disconnect protection that cuts export the moment grid voltage is lost, preventing any backfeed risk to line workers.
The UK government’s own estimate is that an 800W kit can cover up to 20% of an average household’s electricity use and save between £70 and £110 a year, for an upfront cost starting around £400 and, crucially, zero installation cost. Major retailers like Currys, B&Q, Screwfix and Amazon among them have already worked with regulators on the rollout and are expected to stock kits within weeks.
Why this matters beyond Britain
Plug-in or “balcony” solar has been sold legally in Germany for years, where over a million households have adopted it as a low-friction entry point to microgeneration. The UK’s move  after a safety consultation, independent testing of electrical compatibility with British wiring, and a formal engineering standard (G98 Issue 2 Amendment 1)  signals that regulators in a major, risk-averse electricity market are now comfortable with socket-connected generation at meaningful scale, not just as a niche gadget.
There’s a scale ceiling worth noting too: DESNZ has capped the rule at one 800W device per household regardless of how many circuits a home has, rejecting industry calls for a higher per-dwelling limit on the grounds that most UK homes run at least two power circuits. It’s a deliberately conservative first step. A proof of concept for socket-connected generation at national scale, not a replacement for full rooftop systems, which will still make sense for homeowners with south-facing roofs and higher consumption to offset.
The India Situation
India’s rooftop solar push under PM Surya Ghar has been built almost entirely around net-metered, professionally installed rooftop systems for homeowners that comes with a subsidy to boot. This model structurally excludes the large and growing share of urban Indians who rent, or live in multi-storey apartments with no individual roof access or DISCOM net-metering approval of their own. A plug-in category, sized appropriately for Indian balconies and grid conditions, could open solar to exactly this segment without touching net-metering policy, discom interconnection queues, or landlord permissions, the three biggest friction points slowing rooftop adoption in Tier-1 cities today.
The caveats are real and worth carrying over deliberately: UK regulators spent over a year on safety testing before this went live, and India’s own wiring standards, socket ratings and grid protection norms would need equivalent scrutiny before any plug-in category could be certified here. But as a policy instrument for widening solar access to renters and apartment-dwellers,  rather than deepening it only for existing rooftop owners,  it is a live global template that India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and BIS could usefully study now, while the UK’s rollout data is still fresh. Considering how some of India’s priciest apartments have no way to benefit or contribute for now. Making the kits cheaper with tax exemptions might also be a better idea than cumbersome subsidy claims, for systems used in this case.

A typical 2kW system that generates a peak of 800 W output (thanks to less than ideal placement in most cases that balcony solar is made for ) will generate 1.5 to 2.5 units per day, enough for  lights, fans, chargers, or small appliances. At 50-60 units per month, such systems could take a little longer to pay back even without subsidies,  but would still be a handy support if they last 15-20 years as they should with rising electricity prices. 
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The global transition to cleaner energy is often discussed in terms of climate targets or geopolitical competition. Less attention is paid to the industrial systems that make that transition possible. China’s solar photovoltaic (PV) industry offers a useful example. Over the past decade, China has expanded renewable energy at home while becoming the world’s leading producer of solar technologies. The result has been felt far beyond its own borders. Greater manufacturing capacity has made solar power more widely available, supported new clean-energy industries and provided countries and regions with another pathway to diversify their energy supplies. At the same time, China’s dominant position in global PV manufacturing has also raised legitimate questions about supply-chain concentration and resilience, making solar an increasingly important issue in both climate and energy-security discussions.
A file photo shows an aerial view of a solar power plant at sunset in a mountainous area. /CFP
China’s position in the industry did not emerge overnight. Solar PV has become one of the most mature and scalable clean-energy technologies, and China’s role in that evolution has grown steadily over the past two decades. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the annual output value of China’s PV manufacturing sector exceeded 1 trillion yuan (around $148 billion), while exports totaled more than $180 billion. The breadth of overseas demand is particularly notable. Chinese-made solar products are used in economies with very different development strategies and energy policies, suggesting that the industry’s expansion reflects not only domestic industrial policy but also sustained international demand for affordable renewable-energy technologies.
The significance of this development extends well beyond solar panels themselves. China’s investment across the PV supply chain has helped drive advances in batteries, energy storage, smart grids and electric vehicles, contributing to the world’s largest renewable-energy system. As China’s clean-energy technologies have expanded into overseas markets, it have also supported the development of renewable-energy industries in countries and regions such as Malaysia and Vietnam while encouraging investment in more flexible electricity grids. China’s contribution also extends beyond the solar industry itself. In recent years, it has built the world’s largest renewable-energy system, expanded the global reach of its electric-vehicle industry, and played a role in facilitating the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. These developments reflect China’s efforts to link its domestic green transition with broader international environmental cooperation.
A file photo of workers handling newly manufactured solar panels on a production line at a factory. /CFP
There is also an important energy-security dimension. Countries and regions without significant oil and gas reserves have traditionally relied either on domestic coal or on imported fossil fuels to meet their energy needs. Solar power changes part of that equation. Although PV panels and other equipment may still be imported, the electricity itself is generated domestically. For countries and regions with abundant solar resources but limited fossil-fuel reserves, expanding solar generation can strengthen energy security by reducing reliance on volatile international fuel markets. While solar does not eliminate external dependence altogether, it reduces the need for continuous fuel imports by allowing countries and regions to generate more of their own electricity.
A file photo of a solar power tower at the Dunhuang solar power plant in northwest China. /CFP
None of this means China’s solar industry should be viewed without criticism. Manufacturing concentration, recycling, grid integration and the environmental footprint of production remain important challenges, and no single technology can deliver a secure and fully decarbonized energy system on its own. But these trade-offs should be considered alongside the industry’s broader contribution. By lowering the cost and expanding the availability of solar technologies, China has helped make renewable electricity more accessible at a pivotal stage of the global energy transition. The significance of the solar industry development extends beyond its manufacturing scale and export performance. Its development has also expanded the practical options available to countries and regions seeking cleaner and more sustainable paths to development.

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Shade-grown pasture delivers less grass but the same nutrition, suggesting solar farms might have a second life as livestock habitat.
By Brendan Brown
Published August 28, 2026 · How we edit
The experiment at Oregon State University’s research farm in Corvallis was set up like a fair fight. Two groups of weaned Polypay lambs, matched and weighed. Two pastures side by side: one open to the full Willamette Valley sky, the other planted beneath the rows of a working solar array. Turn the lambs out, let them graze a spring, and weigh what happens.
On paper, the solar lambs were at a serious disadvantage. Measured across two years, the pasture under the panels produced 38 percent less forage than the open field, with the fully shaded strips directly beneath the panels growing thinnest of all. A third less food on the table should mean lighter lambs; that is close to a law of animal husbandry.
The scales disagreed. In spring 2019 the solar lambs gained 120 grams a day and the open-field lambs gained 119. The next year it was 89 grams against 92. Statistically, identical growth, two years running, on a third less grass.
The resolution of the paradox was sitting in the forage analysis. Grass grown in shade is not simply less grass; it is different grass. Plants under the panels, receiving less light, put less energy into the coarse structural carbohydrates, the stemmy, fibrous bulk that fills a pasture and fills a rumen without feeding it especially well. What the shaded plants did produce stayed leafier, softer and richer, with the study finding higher nutritive quality in the solar pasture’s forage, more protein and digestibility packed into fewer kilograms.
A lamb, it turns out, does not eat kilograms; it eats nutrition. Offered a smaller salad of better greens, the solar lambs simply extracted what they needed from less material. The researchers’ own summary states the trade cleanly: the lower herbage mass in solar pastures was offset by higher forage quality, resulting in the same lamb production as the open field.
The panels chipped in a second, sneakier subsidy. Lambs in the open field spent their afternoons standing in full sun, burning energy on staying cool, and in the hot weeks of late spring they drank measurably more water, nearly three-quarters of a liter more per head per day, than the lambs loafing in panel shade. Every calorie a solar lamb did not spend on heat regulation was a calorie available for growth. The researchers watched the flocks organize their days around the geometry, grazing the open strips, then drifting under the panels to ruminate through the heat, using the array the way sheep on old pastures use a hedgerow tree.
The study, published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems in 2021 and believed to be the first anywhere to measure livestock production under a working solar array, then did the sums that matter to landowners. Grazing returns came out at $1,046 per hectare per year in the open pasture and $1,029 under the panels, a difference of less than 2 percent. As co-author Serkan Ates noted, the returns are about the same before counting the electricity, and the panels’ output is the entire point of the land. The same hectare was producing its full agricultural value and a power plant’s worth of energy at once, the double-cropping that the agrivoltaics field exists to prove.
There were honest wrinkles in the data. The 38 percent forage deficit was not evenly spread; the strips in permanent full shade grew poorly and established badly, while partially shaded ground between rows sometimes out-produced the open field in high summer, when the panels’ shade kept soil moisture alive after the open pasture had browned off. An earlier Oregon State study on the same site had found late-season grass under panels benefiting from exactly that moisture effect. Shade, in a dry Pacific Northwest summer, cuts both ways.
The Corvallis result has been cited ever since in the argument it was designed to inform, the land-use fight between food and energy. The reflexive objection to solar on farmland is that every panel’s shadow is subtracted pasture, and by the crudest measure, biomass, the objection is true; the study measured the subtraction at 38 percent. What the lambs demonstrate is that the subtraction never reached the animal. Growth, liveweight per hectare, water use, returns per acre: on every metric that ends in meat or money, the shaded pasture matched the open one.
The mechanism is the part worth keeping. Shade taxes a pasture’s quantity and quietly refunds the tax as quality, thinner grass but better grass, and a ruminant is precisely the machine built to cash that refund. The lambs never knew they were part of an energy debate. They stood in the shade on the hot afternoons, ate a third less of something better, and gained weight to the gram alongside their cousins in the sun.
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Canadian Solar’s Q2 2026 revenue increased sequentially, but the company remained loss-making as gross margin fell sharply
Its US manufacturing expansion is moving ahead alongside a sizable contracted module backlog
Canadian Solar is preparing a technology path beyond HJT and TOPCon toward QBC, Space PV and tandem cells
Canadian Solar increased its Q2 2026 revenue sequentially as solar module and battery storage shipments rose, but profitability weakened sharply. The company also outlined plans to expand its US manufacturing base and move toward newer solar cell technologies.
The company reported $1.21 billion in net revenue for Q2 2026, meeting the higher end of its guidance for the quarter, up 12% from the first quarter but down 29% year-on-year (YoY). Gross margin fell to 13.9%, compared with 25.1% in Q1 and 29.8% a year earlier (see Canadian Solar Q1 2026 Revenue Reaches $1.1 Billion).
Canadian Solar’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Xinbo Zhu said the lower sequential margin was mainly due to the absence of an IEEPA tariff refund recorded in the previous quarter, along with normalized energy storage margins. 
Its net loss for the quarter widened to $77 million, from a $32 million loss in Q1. The company had reported net income attributable to Canadian Solar of $7 million in Q2 2025.
Canadian Solar’s recognized revenue from 3.1 GW of solar module shipments during the quarter, up 25% sequentially but down 60% YoY.
On the other hand, battery energy storage shipments reached 3.7 GWh, an 82% increase from Q1 and 73% higher than a year earlier, representing $426 million in revenue. Of the storage shipments, 471 MWh were delivered to the company’s own projects under execution, with the related revenue to be recognized in later quarters.
Its manufacturing business generated $1.10 billion in revenue and $131 million in gross profit, giving the segment an 11.9% gross margin, down from previous quarter’s 29.1%.
Recurrent Energy generated $117 million in revenue, with a 30.7% gross margin. The company said Recurrent Energy’s quarterly performance was affected by the deferral of planned project sales into the second half of the year. Electricity revenue increased following the commercial operation of a major utility-scale solar project in Spain.
Canadian Solar officially opened the first phase of its HJT solar cell factory in Jeffersonville, Indiana, in July through CS Power Tech. Phase I has a nameplate capacity of 2.1 GW. The company expects to begin trial production at Phase II in Q1 2027. The expansion would add another 4.2 GW, taking total US solar cell capacity to 6.3 GW, making it the ‘largest’ crystalline silicon solar cell factory in North America (see Canadian Solar Opens 6 GW HJT Cell Plant In Indiana).
It is also expanding the Texas module factory from 5 GW to 10 GW, with completion expected in H2 2026. The management claims more than 13 GW of contracted US module backlog, worth more than $4.5 billion as of August 14, 2026. The backlog extends from H2 of 2026 into 2027 and beyond.
CEO Colin Parkin said US solar and storage shipments are expected to accelerate in the second half of the year, while ramp-up costs at the Jeffersonville cell facility are expected to weigh on profitability for the rest of 2026.
Canadian Solar’s e-STORAGE business had a $3.5 billion contracted backlog as of June 30, 2026. It also had 34 GWh of operating projects contracted under long-term service agreements. Recurrent Energy had a global solar development pipeline of 21.7 GW and a battery storage pipeline of 84.1 GWh at the end of June.
The solar pipeline included 1.7 GW under construction and 2.2 GW in backlog, while the storage pipeline included 600 MWh under construction and 4.4 GWh in backlog.
Canadian Solar’s technology roadmap extends from current HJT and TOPCon technologies toward quad back contact (QBC), space PV and tandem cells. Through 2028, it plans to improve HJT and TOPCon modules raising their efficiency from 23.2% to 24.4% while reducing silver use from 6.5 mg/W to 3 mg/W.
Shawn Qu, Executive Chairman and CTO shared that in 2028 it will target mass production of QBC technology with module efficiency of 24.8% to 25.2%, and silver use of 1-2 mg/W. It also expects Space PV shipments in 2029, while tandem shipments are targeted for the 2030s with module efficiency above 30%.
The roadmap also includes newer energy storage technologies. SolBank 3.0 is positioned for 2026-28, followed by SolBank 4.0 and a sodium-ion battery product, while the power electronics roadmap includes higher-capacity medium-voltage skids and a solid-state transformer.
For Q3, Canadian Solar expects revenue of $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion, with gross margin between 13.5% and 15.5%. Global module shipments are expected within 3.5 GW and 3.8 GW, while battery storage shipments are forecast at 3.4 GWh to 3.8 GWh. The company maintained its 2026 US shipment guidance of 6.5 GW and 7.0 GW of solar modules and 4.5 GWh to 5.5 GWh of utility-scale battery storage.
It also expects delayed Recurrent Energy project sales from Q2 to be realized in Q3.
TaiyangNews 2024

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Crops below, solar above: How agrivoltaics can boost farmer income  The Indian Express
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Source: Xinhua
Editor: huaxia
2026-08-28 14:39:16
A former coal-mining subsidence area in Anhui, east China, has been transformed into a floating solar farm.
Once marked by mining, the area now generates clean energy, with rows of solar panels floating on the water beneath blue skies. 
#SolarEnergy #GreenTransformation #CleanEnergy #RenewableEnergy #Environment #China #Sustainability

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Solar represents around 98% of new energy capacity installed in Colombia since 2022, when a National Development Plan began to prioritize a shift away from fossil fuels. “The country is no longer in an early adoption phase: solar energy has become the main source of growth in new installed power capacity,” said José Miguel Hernandez, …
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‘World’s first solar ambulance’ just proved it works  CNN
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Hawkes Bay Airport has initiated an Expression of Interest (EOI) process to identify partners for construction and co-investment in a planned 12-17MW solar photovoltaic facility on its property in New Zealand. The installation is slated for a 24-hectare parcel northwest of the runways, catering to the Napier and Hastings area on the country’s North Island.
Chief executive Nick Flack noted that the venture would lay the groundwork for an aviation industry anticipated to depend significantly more on renewable electricity by 2050, with demand possibly reaching 20 times present figures. This EOI phase comes after a more ambitious earlier plan: the airport had previously considered a 45MW solar project alongside Manawa Energy, later acquired by Contact Energy, but both sides agreed to reduce the scope to better match the airport’s enduring needs.
A final investment decision on the reduced project remains pending, with feasibility assessments proceeding in parallel with permitting, engineering, and cultural and community consultations over the coming year. Flack indicated that this stage aims to test market interest in construction, maintenance, and possible co-ownership models prior to determining the asset’s ownership structure.
Airports embracing on-site renewable generation and storage is a growing trend across Australia and New Zealand. In Australia, CleanPeak Energy has entered a 15-year contract to provide Western Sydney International Airport with fully renewable power, integrating a 9MWp rooftop solar array with 30MW/120MWh of battery storage before the airport’s scheduled opening in late 2026. In contrast to Hawkes Bay’s ground-based approach, CleanPeak will own the infrastructure and sell electricity to the airport via a long-term energy services deal, shielding the airport operator from initial capital outlays.
Hawkes Bay’s initiative is part of wider solar momentum in the region. Lodestone Energy and Centralines commenced work in July 2026 on the 31.5MWp Central Hawkes Bay solar farm, a joint venture with the local lines company, aiming for commercial startup by autumn 2027. To the north in the Bay of Plenty, Aquila Clean Energy has switched on its 38MW solar facility, contributing to a rapidly growing utility-scale pipeline that emerged after New Zealand’s 2024 energy crisis, where low hydro reserves and falling gas supplies highlighted vulnerabilities in the nation’s heavy dependence on hydropower.
This growth aligns with governmental efforts to reduce regulatory hurdles impeding smaller solar installations. The Ministry for Regulation has issued a review concluding that the process for residential and small-to-medium solar setups is overly complex, pointing to inconsistent council rules, distributor approval timelines varying from minutes to four months, and a solar adoption rate of just 3-4% among households versus over 30% in Australia. Although the review focused on small-scale systems rather than large projects like Hawkes Bay’s, it underscores broader support for solar expansion across both distributed and utility-scale sectors as New Zealand seeks to diversify its historically hydro-centric power generation.
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Ireland has crossed 3 GW of installed solar capacity across rooftop and utility-scale projects 
Utility-scale solar recently reached a record 1.3 GW, exceeding one-third of national electricity demand at peak 
The sector is now looking toward greater rooftop solar, battery storage and further grid investment 
Ireland’s installed solar capacity has surpassed 3 GW, marking a major milestone for the country’s rapidly expanding solar sector. The figure covers both rooftop installations and utility-scale solar farms, according to the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment.  
The pace of growth has accelerated sharply. Ireland took three years to more than double its installed solar capacity and cross 2 GW in November 2025. It has now added another 1 GW in less than a year, taking total capacity beyond 3 GW (see Ireland’s Cumulative Installed Solar PV Capacity Exceeds 2 GW).   
The 3 GW solar PV milestone comes days after utility-scale solar generation reached a record 1.3 GW on Ireland’s national grid. At the peak, solar supplied more than one-third of national electricity demand, the department said.  
The Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment Darragh O’Brien shared, “Just over 10 years ago there were 2 MW (MegaWatts) of solar in Ireland. Now there are over 3,000 MW (MegaWatts).” He added, “These milestones highlight just how rapidly solar energy, including the growing rooftop revolution, is becoming a major part of our energy system.”  
EirGrid CEO Cathal Marley said grid-scale solar generation had passed 1 GW for the first time in April before reaching the latest 1.3 GW peak.  
Earlier in March 2026, Solar Ireland said solar generation in Ireland exceeded 1 GW for the first time on March 6, meeting nearly 20% of electricity demand at midday as the country surpassed 8 GW of cumulative installed renewable energy capacity (see Ireland Hits 8 GW Renewables Milestone; Solar Now 3rd Largest Source).  
The growth is also visible at the household level. More than 200,000 homes in Ireland have installed solar panels, while more than 120,000 homes have received solar PV grants since the support program began.  
The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) received more than 31,000 Solar PV applications through July 2026, up 76% from the same period in 2025. Solar has also expanded into schools, with free solar panels provided to 2,000 schools across the country. Excess electricity from eligible installations can be sold to the grid through microgeneration arrangements.  
Solar Ireland CEO, Ronan Power noted that Ireland’s first utility-scale solar farm was connected to the grid in 2022. “Three gigawatts is a big moment for Irish solar,” Power said, adding that the speed of deployment was particularly significant. The industry group said the next phase should focus on increasing rooftop solar and battery storage, while continuing investment in the electricity system.  
The association is also calling for measures in Budget 2027 to support these areas. Power said storage would become more important as solar generation increases, allowing electricity produced during the middle of the day to be used later.  
The government said solar deployment has been supported through schemes including the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme, Small-Scale Renewable Electricity Support Scheme and Microgeneration Support Scheme. It plans to continue with the Solar PV grant through 2030.  
TaiyangNews 2024

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One of the UK’s largest fruit, vegetable and flower markets, New Spitalfields stocks London restaurants with green goodness every day.
Now it’s got a green power source of its own: London’s largest rooftop solar installation.
Spread over five roofs, the 2,730-panel project will help slash energy costs and emissions at the sprawling 13-hectare market in Leyton, East London.
With a total capacity of 1.4 megawatt-peak (MWp), the system is expected to generate around 1.27 gigawatt-hours of electricity each year, enough to power approximately 470 homes.
Housing 130 traders selling more than 15,000 products, New Spitalfields Market is managed by the City of London Corporation. It operates overnight and around the clock, making it one of the city’s most energy-intensive markets.
Powering its lighting and refrigerators with electricity generated onsite will reduce the market’s reliance on grid power and its carbon footprint. The solar installation is expected to cut emissions by around 225 tonnes each year – equivalent to the electricity used by around 50 homes annually.
It will also help the City of London achieve its goal of reaching net zero across its own operations by 2027.
Costing £1 million (€1.17m), the solar installation is one of the city’s most significant renewable energy investments to date.
It is hoped it will act as a blueprint for integrating large-scale renewable energy into critical commercial infrastructure across the capital.
“As the UK experiences periods of extreme heat and rising electricity demand for cooling, this project demonstrates the value of investing in local renewable energy generation,” says Chris Hayward, Policy Chairman at the City of London Corporation.


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Despite promising clean energy, solar has become a dirty word in Lincolnshire, with at least 10 large projects currently in the pipeline. Critics point to a loss of productive farmland but one farmer says he has no choice but to turn to solar in order to survive.
Joe Ward slams a spade into the land he hopes will become Windsock Solar Farm. The sound of shovel on stone is like the crack of a whip.
This is not soft compost for roses in the back garden, it is sandy soil littered with rocks bigger than tennis balls.
"The topsoil is very shallow and stony, and the soil texture is coarse," he tells me.
"The last two years have been absolutely terrible. Experts tell us we can expect more drier summers. So if that's the case, the future doesn't look very good for this soil type."
Joe is the third generation of the Ward family who has farmed this land.
At a glance it could be a field of freshly harvested wheat, perhaps destined to become loaves of bread, but Ward tells me it has never really grown food.
"This land here really doesn't sustain wheat in a profitable way. So barley, especially for the malting industry, has been the mainstay of this farm."
But the malting industry, which processes barley to make whisky and beer, is a "reducing market due to consumer changes", Ward says.
"And with climate change making the last two summers so dry, it's been really difficult."
But surely a Lincolnshire farmer can find a crop that will grow in the county's famously food rich soil?
"On soil like this, you just couldn't grow potatoes without a water source," he says, and after changes to an agreement with a water company, which previously meant cheap access to water, Joe says he is left with no other option but to join with a developer who wants to build a solar farm spanning 640 acres (220 hectares), which is the equivalent of 360 football pitches.
"I think it's a good use of the land," Joe insists. "Solar will be far more productive financially for the business.
"It will produce more energy in solar panels than it ever will trying to grow very small crops."
It is just one of many patches of agricultural land in the county destined to use the power of the sun to generate electricity, rather than grow crops.
In a county famed for its produce, the idea is controversial.
Campaigners have been protesting about "energy invasion" fears, due to the number of large solar farms already approved for Lincolnshire by the government.
The Beacon Fen Energy Park in nearby Heckington was the latest to be approved, which the Reform-led county council says was an "appalling" decision.
Council leader Sean Matthews has said it was "another attack on our beautiful countryside".
Local Conservative MP Caroline Johnson says the proposals for Windsock Solar Farm "goes beyond the reasonable amount local people should be expected to bear".
Developers BLC Energy, which is behind the plans, says the impact on local residents is overinflated.
"I'm not going to deny it will be a change to views," managing director Neil Lindsay says.
"Locally, there is a change, but the advantage with solar compared to some of the other technologies is it's relatively low to the ground, which means you can put in hedgerows and new trees."
Neil thinks there is "misinformation about what these things look like".
He says if you were to drive past a solar farm "you wouldn't even know they're there".
"We've seen that from a lot of projects where we've taken concerned members of the community to visit an operating solar farm. Once they get there, they walk around, they understand it. A lot of those fears seem to dissipate."
Back on the farm, Joe climbs into his tractor to survey the land his grandfather bought in the 1950s.
Is he sad to turn over the land to solar after 70 years growing barley?
"Land use always changes," he says. "This is just evolving for the needs of the next 40 years.
"The solar panels can be removed if the needs change, and I'm sure in 40 years' time there will be different technologies and this land will be returned back to arable farming."
Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North.
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Rory Lay runs a beef, sheep, and arable farm and has been hoping for a downpour for weeks
At least 12 people have died in the fires and Algeria's president has announced three days of mourning.
Makers of some of France's most famous cheeses get waivers on where herds graze due to the lack of grass.
Scotland and other northern European nations are seeing more tourists as people avoid the heat.
Two cases of bluetongue are confirmed in Wiltshire as vets struggle to get hold of vital medicines.
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Want a plug-in battery to go with your new solar panels? Read this first to avoid disappointment  TechRadar
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Electricity production in Albania increased by more than a third in the second quarter of the year, while exports expanded by over 55% and imports fell, in a period when investments in new photovoltaic capacities are gradually expanding the country’s production base.
The energy balance of the second quarter of this year, published by INSTAT, shows that net domestic production reached 2,361 GWh in the April-June 2026 period, from 1,757 GWh a year earlier, marking an annual increase of 34.4%. Available energy increased by 5.1%.
The increase in production was accompanied by a contraction in imports and a strong expansion in exports. Gross imports of electricity, including exchanges, fell by 21.5% to 569 GWh, from 725 GWh in the same period last year.
Gross exports increased by 55.4%, reaching 991 GWh, from 638 GWh in the second quarter of 2025. The difference between exports and imports was positive at 422 GWh during the quarter, reflecting a higher level of energy delivered abroad compared to that received.
Hydropower plants continued to dominate domestic production, but the data also show rapid growth of the category of other producers, where INSTAT includes renewable sources other than hydro and thermal, such as photovoltaic plants.
This category produced 448 GWh in the second quarter, from 288 GWh a year earlier, an increase of 55.6%. It accounted for 19% of net domestic electricity production in this period, compared to 42.8% generated by public hydropower plants and 38.2% by private and concessionary hydropower plants. The growth in this category coincides with the expansion of investments in the photovoltaic sector. INSTAT data show that public hydropower plants produced 1,011 GWh during the second quarter, 43.6% more than a year earlier.
Private and concessionary hydropower plants produced 903 GWh, with an annual increase of 18%.
In total, production from hydropower plants reached 1,913 GWh, while 448 GWh came from other producers. Albania did not record production from thermal power plants during the period. The increase in production was also accompanied by higher electricity consumption. Consumer usage reached 1,619 GWh during the second quarter, 6.2% more than the 1,525 GWh in the same period of 2025. Household consumption increased by 5.6%, while that of non-household consumers expanded by 6.9%.
Households used about 823 GWh of electricity during the quarter, while non-household consumers used about 796 GWh.
Total losses in the network remained almost unchanged, increasing by 0.1% to 320 GWh from 319.6 GWh a year earlier. Their weight in available energy fell to 16.5%, from 17.3%.
Transmission losses increased by 20.4%, while those in distribution fell by 3.1% compared to the second quarter of 2025.
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European Energy, a Danish renewable energy developer and operator, has selected Capalo AI to provide optimization and energy trading services for two hybrid solar and battery projects. The projects combine more than 140 MW of solar capacity with 71 MW/170 MWh of battery storage.  
The partnership covers the Anykščiai Hybrid Park in Lithuania, where a 25 MW/65 MWh battery is paired with a 78 MW solar park, and the Saldus Hybrid Park in Latvia, which combines a 46 MW/105 MWh battery with 65.7 MWp of solar capacity. The Anykščiai hybrid facility started operations in June 2026. Capalo AI will optimize the assets and trade their output across electricity markets.  
The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has granted development consent to the Beacon Fen Energy Park, a planned 400 MW solar PV project in England. The project will also include up to 600 MVA of battery energy storage, an on-site substation and electrical connections. To be located in Lincolnshire, Beacon Fen is a Low Carbon project and is a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) since its installed capacity exceeds 50 MW.    
GOLDBECK SOLAR, a German solar projects developer, has acquired the key activities of Bavarian company Koco Energy. The deal strengthens GOLDBECK SOLAR’s expertise in PV façades and solar carports, while expanding its presence in southern Germany. Around 10 Koco Energy employees will join the GOLDBECK SOLAR Group and work from a new facility in Rimsting am Chiemsee. The acquisition covers Koco Energy’s key activities and expertise but does not include the continuation of its business operations under the Koco Energy name. GOLDBECK SOLAR said the move will help expand the use of solar PV across applications such as building façades and parking areas.  
China’s Sungrow has signed an agreement has signed an agreement covering a 722 MW solar project in Poland and a framework agreement for a 1 GWh battery energy storage pipeline with Germany’s GOLDBECK SOLAR. The solar project covers utility-scale developments in Dobrowo, Kikowo and Sidlowo for which Sungrow will supply its 1+X series utility-scale inverters and SG6600UD-MV and SG8800UD-MV medium-voltage solutions. The 722 MW project is expected to become Europe’s largest photovoltaic installation, claims the German firm (see With 722 MW, Poland To Host Europe’s ‘Largest’ Solar Farm).  
Next2Sun, the German vertical bifacial solar PV systems developer, has launched a share offering of up to €5 million to finance its growth. The company said the funds will be used to develop its own solar projects and scale its business. Next2Sun expects to deliver about 50 MW of projects in 2026 and more than 70 MW in 2027. It aims to reach annual project volumes in the three-digit MW range in the medium term. The new shares are available to existing shareholders from August 21 to September 4, 2026 after which other investors can subscribe directly until September 30, 2026. 
 FlexPower Starts Data Center Power Supply 
FlexPower, a Hamburg-based electricity trader, has started supplying data centers with renewable electricity from its own wind and solar portfolio. The company said data center operators can customize their procurement by combining multi-year fixed-price contracts, flexible purchases from the short-term power market, and physical or virtual battery storage.  
The model is designed to help operators manage electricity price risks while increasing the use of renewable power. The company is also working with data center partners on using flexible computing workloads to respond to electricity price signals. It said this business model aligns with Germany’s Energy Efficiency Act that requires operators to cover at least half of their electricity consumption with renewable energy, a limit that will be raised to 100% from 2027.  
Germany IPP Cube Green Energy has completed a series of debt financing transactions totaling about €150 million with German banks and a specialized financing provider. The financing includes asset, corporate and portfolio financing. The company said the funding will support the development of its renewable energy portfolio and projects at different stages, from development to construction. Following Germany’s July EEG auction, Cube Green Energy has more than 250 MW of projects with secured tariffs, while more than 150 MW have reached financial close. 
Denmark-based renewable energy developer Eurowind Energy has secured technical grid connection approvals for 2.31 GW of renewable energy capacity in Romania. The approvals, obtained in June, cover seven projects combining wind, solar and battery storage across the counties of Constanța, Prahova, Botoșani, Brăila and Galați. The largest is a 1,188 MW wind project in Botoșani, which will be developed in phases and include nine wind farms. One of the projects is a 49 MW solar PV with battery energy storage system (BESS) facility. Most of the projects are scheduled to connect to the national energy system after 2030. Meanwhile, the European Commission has approved the acquisition of joint control of Eurowind Energy by Denmark’s Norlys and EWH, along with US-based Blackstone. 
TaiyangNews 2024

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Energies Media
Solar pontoons settling onto bare tidal flats
Twice a day the sea walks off the Changhua coast and leaves a gray plain of mud behind it.
The panels come down with the water.
Whole rows lower their floats onto the flat, rest there through the ebb, then lift again when the sea returns six hours later.
The drop is not small. Mean range at the nearest port runs close to 12 feet.
Every instinct in the industry says an array that spends half its life sitting in wet mud is the weaker one.
It is the stronger one, and the reason has nothing to do with how much sun the site gets.
A silicon module gives up roughly 0.4 percent of its output for every degree Celsius it runs above its rating point.
On land that heat builds through the afternoon and stays trapped in the module backing and the racking steel underneath.
Air is a poor way to carry it off.
Water is not.
Here the cooling runs on two tracks. While the array floats, the sea under it pulls heat out by conduction for as long as the tide is in.
When the water leaves, a thin brine film stays across the frames and the underside and evaporates through the hottest hours of the day, carrying more heat away as it goes.
The site does all of that by itself. No pumps, no spray, no moving parts to fail.
The Changhua shore stays shallow a long way out.
The array sits on tidal flats that local fishermen have worked for generations, bare and glistening at low water, gone under the sea again by afternoon.
What rides on top is a raft of interlocking polyethylene floats.
Rows of modules are joined by hinges so the whole field can flex as the level shifts instead of fighting it.
Fixed piles hold the raft in position and keep it from wandering across the mud.
That anchoring is where this site stopped copying everyone else.
Earlier floating projects sat on rope and dead weight in still reservoirs. Tidal pull and typhoon wind demanded something stiffer, so the second phase went in on concrete pillars and steel H beams, the first large project of its kind built that way.
Two engineers at a technical university in Taipei set the offshore array against a plant on land in the same industrial park.
Both cases were normalized to 100 megawatts so the comparison ran capacity for capacity rather than size against size.
Over a 25 year life the offshore case delivered 2,047 GWh. The plant on land delivered 1,828 GWh.
That is a gap of 219 GWh, or almost 12 percent.
Avoided carbon tracked it, about 1.013 million tons against 0.905 million.
The authors credit the intertidal conditions themselves, meaning the cooling and the way the modules are periodically lifted clear of the water.
The same work puts installation cost roughly 30 percent higher per kilowatt offshore than on dry ground.
Corrosion resistant structures, anti corrosion fixings and marine logistics all consume money a field on land never spends.
Then there is what the water leaves behind.
Salt does not evaporate. The film that cools the glass all afternoon dries to a crust, and on a still morning with no rain that crust can hold back several percent of the output.
Washing here is a weekly item, not a seasonal one.
Below the floats the trouble is alive. Crews on a large pontoon array in Singapore found barnacles gripping the plastic hard enough to be close to impossible to scrape away.
Growth like that adds weight, shifts buoyancy and loads the connectors, so inspection dives run on a cycle no reservoir project has ever needed.
A 12 percent lifetime gain puts shorelines back on the map that grid planners had already written off.
Shallow intertidal zones run along the coasts of South Korea, the Philippines and the Gulf of Thailand, and almost nothing else competes for that ground.
The complex here has grown well past the plant in the study. Both phases together now run to about 440 MWp across 857 acres, which its owner describes as the largest offshore floating solar plant anywhere.
Other marine designs are working the same problem from deeper water, among them floating rings in Norwegian fjords that ride waves 13 feet high.
What makes the Taiwan figure land differently is that it is measured rather than modeled from a spreadsheet.
The engineering bill is real and the maintenance bill is real. The output gap is now in the record beside them, and that is the half of the ledger that moves a decision.
Grid operators spent a decade working out what distributed solar does on rooftops. A stretch of Taiwanese mud has just settled a question about a surface nobody was counting at all.
Hugo is an engineer with strong technical expertise. Multilingual from an early age, his writing combines technical clarity with a strong interest in science and energy.
Hugo is an engineer with strong technical expertise. Multilingual from an early age, his writing combines technical clarity with a strong interest in science and energy.
Hugo is an engineer with strong technical expertise. Multilingual from an early age, his writing combines technical clarity with a strong interest in science and energy.

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Ventura County Partners with ForeFront Power for 7.7 MW Solar and Storage Project  SolarQuarter
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Renewable power manufacturer WEG has supplied a battery energy storage system (BESS) with 4 MW of power and 8 MWh of capacity to Finland’s Callio solar park.
The project is one of the country’s first hybrid renewable energy projects combining large-scale solar generation with battery storage.
It was delivered in April 2026, to Solarigo Systems Oy, the investor and operator of the hybrid park located in Pyhäsalmi mine, a site that is being decommissioned and prepared to host new businesses focused on research, development and sustainable energy solutions. 
Commercial power production at the Callio solar park began in June 2025, with the energy storage equipment maximising the capacity of the existing 13 MWp peak-power solar plant in its role of participating in electricity grid markets.
By enabling the storage of the energy generated by the photovoltaic plant, WEG BESS provides flexibility to the hybrid plant regarding the timing of energy export to the grid.
The project represents one of the first hybrid systems in Finland that combines photovoltaic generation with energy storage. The equipment supplied by WEG includes two battery containers totalling 8,360 kWh of capacity, a 4,400 kVA bidirectional power converter, a 4,500 kVA medium-voltage/low-voltage oil transformer and a central control system for the BESS set and the existing solar plant.
Manfred Peter Johann, Vice President of Automation & Systems at WEG, said:
“With WEG’s energy storage system integrated into the Callio initiative, we are helping to transform a historic mine into an innovation hub for renewable generation and storage.
“While at the same time strengthening the stability of the national power grid through energy arbitrage and rapid response to frequency variations.” 
Image courtesy of WEG
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Solar Boom Sweeps Across Africa as Rooftop Demand Takes Off  Bloomberg
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California Lawmakers Pass Plug-In Solar Bill  The New York Times
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People can now buy plug-in solar panels in shops and online as rules allowing their sale in the UK come into force.
Retailers will begin selling the technology from Thursday, enabling solar power to run into the home network using an ordinary plug.
Already common in places such as Germany, where people hang them on balconies or fences, the panels can help cut bills by reducing the amount of electricity a household draws from the grid.
Each kit produces up to 800W of power, which is enough to provide up to 20% of an average home’s electricity use when the sun is shining, according to officials.
As they go on sale, ministers say prices could start off higher but they expect them to settle at around £400 to £600 – depending on the size and model – amid growing competition as more models come on to the market.
Households should then be able to recoup this cost over a few years, with savings of up to £110 annually on their bills, Desnz said.
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh said: “Plug-in solar is a simple, affordable way for households to take control of their energy bills and start saving straight away.
“From this summer, we’re giving more families the ability to power their homes with clean homegrown energy.”
Argos has confirmed it will begin selling the kits from Thursday, with Amazon expected to follow in the coming weeks.
Currys, B&Q, Screwfix and Wickes are also among retailers that have committed to stocking plug-in panels.
The sale of the technology was previously restricted in the UK because of safety and wiring standards.
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But ministers say the legal change follows rigorous, independent safety testing, covering all key electrical elements, which shows compliant panels are safe and compatible with UK wiring, officials said.
The Government first announced plans to remove the legal barriers earlier this year, announcing it was working with retailers and manufacturers to bring the plug-in solar kits to market.
Energy minister Martin McCluskey said the technology “enables people who might otherwise not be able to get a rooftop solar array to take advantage of solar power”.
This includes renters, leaseholders and homes where installing rooftop solar remains untenable.
However, many will still require consent from landlords, building owners, councils, freeholders or even planning permission or listed building consent.
Before purchasing or installing plug-in solar devices, officials have urged people to check whether any permissions are required for the property.
Mr McCluskey said the Government has written to the National Landlords Association to communicate the panels’ benefits to tenants and encourage them to consider each case on its individual merits.
As the US-Israeli war on Iran continues to drive volatile global energy prices, he said the hope is to give British people “a little bit of breathing room” on their household costs, coming alongside the Government’s previously announced plans to cut VAT on electricity bills.
On whether there will be any support or discounts to help households purchase the kits, Mr McCluskey said the Government is not proposing to deliver them through a Desnz scheme, but local authorities, charities and others will have their own funds they could choose to use for plug-in solar subsidies.
Elsewhere, people will also be asked to register their kits after purchase to provide a “proper line of sight” for grid operators, who have faced multiple challenges balancing supply and demand this summer amid extreme weather, network bottlenecks and shifting energy sources.
“We’re not anticipating any issues with this additional capacity of solar, but it’s obviously something we’ll monitor as the rollout progresses,” he said.
Addressing concerns that some households will need to pay for advice from electricians on installations, Mr McCluskey said the independent safety testing “has given us the assurance that plug-in solar panels are safe and that they’re compatible with UK domestic electrical systems”.
He added consumer advice on installations will be published through the Energy Saving Trust.
Joanna O’Loan, knowledge manager at the Energy Saving Trust, said: “As these products become more widely available, access to clear and reliable information is essential to help people make informed choices that are right for their home and budget.”
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Hawke’s Bay Airport has opened an Expression of Interest (EOI) process seeking delivery and co-investment partners for a proposed 12-17MW solar PV power plant on airport land in New Zealand.
The project would be built on a 24-hectare site northwest of the runways at Hawke’s Bay Airport, serving the Napier and Hastings region on the country’s North Island.
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Airport chief executive Nick Flack said the development would establish an infrastructure foundation for an aviation sector expected to rely far more heavily on renewable energy electricity by 2050, potentially up to 20 times current levels.
The EOI stage follows an earlier, larger proposal. Hawke’s Bay Airport had previously explored a 45MW solar development with Manawa Energy, since acquired by Contact Energy, before the two parties mutually agreed to scale the project back to a size better aligned with the airport’s long-term requirements.
No final investment decision has been made on the smaller project, with feasibility work continuing alongside consenting, engineering, and cultural and community engagement over the next 12 months.
Flack said the current phase is intended to gauge market appetite for construction delivery, operations and maintenance, and potential co-investment structures ahead of a decision on ownership.
Airports pursuing dedicated on-site renewable energy generation and storage have become more common across the Australia-New Zealand region.
In Australia, CleanPeak Energy signed a 15-year agreement to supply Western Sydney International Airport with 100% renewable energy, combining a 9MWp rooftop solar system with 30MW/120MWh of battery storage ahead of the airport’s opening in late 2026.
Unlike Hawke’s Bay’s ground-mounted proposal, that arrangement sees CleanPeak retain ownership of the assets while supplying output to the airport under a long-term energy services agreement, a structure that avoids upfront capital costs for the airport operator.
Hawke’s Bay’s project sits within a broader pattern of solar development activity across New Zealand’s Hawke’s Bay region specifically. Lodestone Energy and Centralines began construction on the 31.5MWp Central Hawke’s Bay solar plant in July 2026, a 50:50 joint venture with the local lines company expected to reach commercial operation by autumn 2027.
Further north in the Bay of Plenty, Aquila Clean Energy energised its 38MW solar PV plant, adding to a national utility-scale solar pipeline that has expanded quickly following the country’s 2024 energy crisis, when low hydro storage and declining gas supply exposed the risks of New Zealand’s historic reliance on hydropower.
That expansion has coincided with government efforts to address regulatory friction slowing smaller-scale solar deployment.
New Zealand’s Ministry for Regulation recently published a review finding the country’s residential and small-to-medium-scale solar installation process more complicated than it needs to be, citing inconsistent council requirements, distributor approval times ranging from minutes to four months, and only 3-4% of New Zealand households currently having solar installed compared with more than 30% in Australia.
While that review targeted small-scale residential systems rather than utility-scale developments like Hawke’s Bay’s proposed solar PV power plant, it points to broader momentum behind solar deployment across the country, spanning both distributed and utility-scale segments, as New Zealand works to diversify a generation mix historically dominated by hydropower.

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The Pulse
An Illinois solar farm recorded a chorus frog calling for 32 of 34 spring days near a pond while rare butterflies fed between panels.
Recent field studies are challenging long-held assumptions about industrial green energy developments. Researchers are discovering that carefully managed clean energy sites can actively support and protect native wildlife populations.
Utility-scale energy facilities face intense local resistance over how they alter rural landscapes and disrupt agriculture.
Beneath the rows of photovoltaic infrastructure at some of these locations, new models of land management are emerging.
These approaches move beyond standard industrial clearance to maintain complex native ecosystems.
There is a good example of this model operating near Meredosia in Morgan County, IL. This site was developed by Pivot Energy and is being operated by Summit Ridge Energy.
Spanning approximately 29 acres near the Illinois River, the 4 MW Morgan Solar 1 and Morgan Solar 1B projects utilize single-axis tracking photovoltaic panels installed on sandy soils.
The mechanical tracker pivots throughout daylight hours to mirror the movement of the sun as it moves across the sky.
Electricity generated at the site will be delivered into residential and commercial customers’ homes via the Ameren electric grid as part of the Illinois Adjustable Block Program.
The main purpose of the property will always be power production.
However, the land underneath the tracker units operates with a very different environmental blueprint than a typical power plant. This is due to a comprehensive restoration strategy implemented on behalf of state regulatory agencies.
Restoration efforts were also successful in providing homes for local amphibians.
In spring 2024, a Wildlife Acoustics Song Meter was deployed next to a small wetland pond north of the solar arrays to detect wildlife sounds. The unit was set up to record and store ambient sounds in real-time as part of an ongoing study during the peak breeding season of amphibians in early spring.
During the 34-day study from March 9 to April 6, acoustic monitors captured Illinois Chorus Frog (Pseudacris illinoensis) calls on 32 separate days. Data confirmed active breeding-season calling behavior around the periphery and surrounding drainage ditches throughout the monitoring period.
Field reports from Summit Ridge Energy outline how these wildlife studies were carried out on-site.
Case studies shared by AGPROfessionals also look at how solar installations can sustain local species.
Much of the credit for this coexistence goes to a conservation plan implemented by regulators. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources approved an Incidental Take Authorization and Conservation Plan.
Under this plan, traditional gravel or sterile turfgrass groundcover was replaced with 29 acres of native short-grass prairie seed mix.
All annual tilling operations and chemical herbicide applications were eliminated.
This unique combination of flora created a densely vegetated area which provided a suitable environment for adult regal fritillaries to feed on milkweed that grew between the panel tracks. Regal fritillaries are highly unusual because their life cycle is dependent on certain species of native violets upon which their larvae develop.
Isolated areas of natural grasslands continue to disappear rapidly.
Therefore, remaining native grasslands located within industrial settings have become essential to maintaining viable local populations of this butterfly.
Ultimately, demonstrating that state-threatened amphibians can survive, and rare insects can find food within a commercial energy facility represents a major body of work.
Moving forward, it demonstrates how targeted habitat-management measures at this type of utility-scale site can successfully support local wildlife use.
County planners and state agency permitting personnel frequently review proposals for using new land with renewable energy as well.
For them, adopting native prairie management represents an ideal design strategy to balance clean energy with regional biodiversity.
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Canadian Solar sinks after swinging to Q2 loss on lower solar module sales (CSIQ:NASDAQ)  Seeking Alpha
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Rooftop Solar Is Having a Rough One  Inside Climate News
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Japan’s Green Investment Promotion Organization has released the final results of its latest auction for utility-scale solar energy projects.
The state-run agency said that 38.2 MW of PV projects were selected in the procurement exercise. It was Japan’s 29th auction for utility-scale solar, running with an auction volume of 115 MW and ceiling price of JPY 9.60 ($0.060)/kWh.
The auction received twelve applications requesting a total 87.3 MW. Authorities approved eight projects, with a weighted average successful bid price of JPY 8.89/kWh.
The largest-approved project, belonging to AC12 LLC, has a planned capacity of 29.9 MW. It has the highest supply price of approved projects, at JPY 9.48/kWh. 
The remaining seven approved projects vary between 400 kW and 1.99 MW in size, with supply prices between JPY 5.30/kWh and JPY 7.80/kWh.
This is the second completed PV auction during Japan’s 2026 financial year, following the 28th auction which allocated 89.2 MW of PV capacity across 29 projects at an average final price at JPY 6.74/kWh. In this auction, the lowest awarded price was JPY 0.00/kWh.
The 27th auction allocated 79 MW of PV projects at a final average price of JPY 4.61/kWh, while the 26th auction assigned 75.3 MW across 37 projects. The lowest bid was JPY 4.97/kWh and the highest JPY 8.75/kWh.
The 25th auction allocated 223.3 MW at an average price of JPY 6.58/kWh, while the 24th auction allocated 79 MW at an average final price of JPY 4.06/kWh. In both these procurement exercises, the lowest bid was also JPY 0.00/kWh.
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Our special edition for Intersolar South America 2026 is here!
Discover the latest insights into the Brazilian solar market – in Portuguese.
Entries open in seven categories: Modules, Inverters, BoS, BESS, Manufacturing, Sustainability, Projects.
April 01 – August 31, 2026
A two-day conference in Austin, Texas, bringing together leaders in US solar manufacturing, equipment specification, and factory execution.
Saudi Arabia is accelerating its clean energy transition—join the SunRise Arabia Clean Energy Conference 2026 in Riyadh to explore how solar PV and energy storage are powering its digital economy.
pv magazine USA hosts its multi-day virtual event on U.S. solar and energy storage, covering domestic manufacturing, distributed energy and the growing role of solar-plus-storage in meeting AI-driven power demand.
Thursday, October 7, 2026
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Tata Power Renewable Energy Ltd (TPREL) has commissioned a 72.5 MW solar project in Rajasthan for captive consumption by Tata Steel Ltd. The project, located in Kalasar, Bikaner, will supply green power to support Tata Steel’s decarbonisation efforts.
The project is expected to generate 166 million units of green energy annually and offset 1,18,856 tonnes of carbon emissions annually. The project deploys 1,71,360 PV modules, manufactured by TP Solar Ltd. 
TPREL said this project underscores its strong engineering expertise and execution excellence, highlighting its capability to deliver complex, technology-driven renewable energy assets within demanding timelines.
With the addition of this project, TPREL’s total utility-scale renewable energy capacity has reached 12.3 GW. Out of this, around 7 GW capacity (5.7 GW solar and 1.3 GW wind) is operational. Around 5.3 GW is under various stages of implementation, which includes 2.2 GW solar and 3.1 GW wind and is expected to be commissioned in phases over the next 6-24 months.
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Entries open in seven categories: Modules, Inverters, BoS, BESS, Manufacturing, Sustainability, Projects.
April 01 – August 31, 2026
Thursday, October 7, 2026
11:00 am – 12:30 pm CEST, Berlin, Paris, Madrid

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The cheapest plug-in solar you can buy is £599 – here’s what to know
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You can now legally buy and install plug-in solar panels in British homes as part of the government’s plans to help reduce electricity costs.
Unlike roof arrays, which are expensive and require professional installation, these new compliant kits are plug-and-play systems that come complete and are designed to be easily fitted. Simply unpack the kit, mount the solar panel (up to 2,000W) on a ground-mounting system or suitable fixing, position the small microinverter box near an AC wall socket, and plug it in.
They promise to make it simple to turn sunlight into electricity and feed it straight into your home through a standard wall socket – with no additional wiring required.
The government has also been working closely with retailers including Currys, B&Q, Screwfix, Wickes and Amazon, who have committed to stocking these systems. But it’s Argos that has become the first UK retailer to stock plug-in solar systems. Here’s everything you need to know.
Read more: Where to buy plug-in solar in the UK
The UKSOL plug-in solar pro compact 460W is a single solar panel system. “ It offers a 460W single solar panel system that can be secured with a ground stand and ballast, essentially something to weigh it down,” explained tech writer Alastair Jennings in his first look at plug-in solar panels.
Once it’s set up, you can refer to the app to see how much electricity the panels are generating. The small microinverter is IP67-rated, so you can leave it outside and run the supplied 4m cable into the house or apartment to plug in.
Read more: How do plug-in solar panels work?
If you’re after a larger solar solution, this one offers two 445W panels. Much like the above system, you can monitor your energy generation live with the smartphone app. “Ballast is not included, and the two 25.5kg panels require careful handling,” explained expert Alastair Jennings. He also recommends “plugging it into a professionally installed exterior plug”.
Read more: Plug-in vs installed solar panels
The cheapest in Argos’s lineup of UKSOL plug-in solar panels is this kit, which has an estimated delivery of late October. It offers a 515W single solar panel system with adjustable mounting options.
The panel then plugs into the 800W microinverter, which can connect via wifi or Bluetooth to the monitoring app on a mobile device. The small microinverter is IP67-rated, so you can leave it outside and run the supplied 4m cable into the house or apartment to plug in.
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Where can you buy plug-in solar? Argos beats Amazon and Currys to first on-sale kits — as British Gas opens free competition to win £500 solar setups  TechRadar
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A new era of home solar power begins today, as plug-in solar panels become legal in the UK for the first time.
From 27 August, households will be able to buy specially designed solar systems that generate electricity and feed it directly into a home through a standard three-pin socket – potentially giving renters, flat-dwellers and homeowners without suitable roofs a cheaper route into solar panels.
The government has described the change as a way to give households the chance to “significantly cut energy bills”, while Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh said the technology could make solar “more accessible to households across the country”.
The legal change sets out the requirements products must meet – and this specification matters. The new rules do not mean consumers can simply buy any solar panel online and plug it into the wall. The government says the specification sets the minimum technical standards needed for a system to be “lawfully connected to the grid” and covers its electric design, British plug, mounting system and fire protection.
“The big advantage of plug-in solar is that it will fit almost any property and you can install it yourself without needing a professional fitter or electrician”, technology journalist Alastair Jennings explains. “Just buy the kit, plug it in, and you’ll start to generate instantly usable electricity, cutting your reliance on the grid and ultimately saving you money.”
The principle is surprisingly straightforward. Solar cells generate electricity from sunlight. A microinverter converts that electricity into the type of alternating current used in homes, and the system feeds it into the household electrical circuit through a standard socket. The plug-in solar panels can be placed in the garden, or on walls and balconies if rules permit.
The solar electricity is then available for appliances to use, reducing the amount of electricity taken from the grid. This means households could save up to £110 a year, according to the government.
However, this depends on the size and position of panels, sunlight, shading and how much electricity is used during daylight hours. Unlike conventional solar installation, the initial plug-in systems do not include a plug-in battery, so excess electricity cannot simply be stored for use that evening.
The government has suggested that plug-in solar could cost around £400-£600, although the first approved products arriving on the market are considerably more. UKSOL’s systems cost up to £1,199, but insiders suggest budget supermarket Lidl will sell them for around £400 – we’ll just have to wait a little longer for its systems to launch.
As market competition increases, prices are expected to fall.
Argos is the first major retailer to launch plug-in solar today, with Amazon, Currys, B&Q and Screwfix set to follow. At Argos, you can buy UKSOL’s plug-in solar panels. UKSOL is the first manufacturer to sell plug-in solar panels in the UK, after becoming certified and compliant ahead of the government’s new ruling.
The cheapest 515W kit costs £599 (Argos.co.uk), while the most premium 1260W kit sets you back £989 (Argos.co.uk). There’s also a 460w plug-in solar pro ground mount bundle for £849 (Argos.co.uk), a duo 890w pro plug in solar kit with hybrid mount bundle for £849 (Argos.co.uk), and a 1030w pro plus plug in solar panel kit with hybrid mount bundle for £899 (Argos.co.uk).
Each UKSOL kit from Argos comes with a mount bundle – which includes the hardware needed to attach the solar panel to a roof, wall, balcony, railing, or another fixed structure – or a ground mount bundle, which includes a freestanding frame that lets you install the panel on the ground, rather than attaching it to your house.
Direct from UKSOL, the compact 460W kit costs £849, while the duo 890W kit costs £1,199, but the systems are slighty cheaper through retailer City Plumbing (£670.80, Cityplumbing.com, £951, Cityplumbing.com).
Lidl was among the first big names to announce it was manufacturing plug-in solar panels, but it’s not yet confirmed when they’ll be available. The supermarket is working with the government to produce compliant, tested, lightweight DIY kits featuring two solar panels and a micro-inverter, designed for balconies, patios, or gardens that plug straight into a standard wall socket.
Anker solix has launched its solarbank 4 E5000 Pro in the UK (from £1,699, Ankersolix.com). The product is a solar battery, but you can add on up to 4kW of solar panels at an extra cost. The 5kWh battery stores electricity, but it also includes an inverter and control hardware to supply power to the home through a plug-in connection. Anker’s “plug-in-ready solar battery” is available to pre-order for delivery from 8 September.
Electrical Safety First urges shoppers to only buy from reputable high street retailers to ensure the device is safe and meets the new interim product specification.
“We advise households to avoid buying these devices from third-party sellers on online marketplaces, no matter how appealing this may be, as these platforms are currently not legally responsible for the safety of goods sold via their sites, exposing people to substandard versions that may put you and your home at risk,” the charity advises.
The government has emphasised the technology’s benefits to those who can’t install conventional rooftop solar panels. The plug-in panels are particularly useful for renters and those in flats with balconies. However, renters must have permission from the landlord, and planning or building restrictions can apply depending on where the panels are installed.
There are other things to be aware of, as Luke Osborne, Technical Director at Electrical Safety First, explains. “Plug-in solar panels send electricity in the opposite direction in your property’s wiring. Whilst many modern homes may be able to enjoy this technology safely, we still have concerns plug-in solar panels may damage older devices in people’s homes which protect people from electric shock, known as RCDs.
“Because of this, it is our view that not every home will currently be suitable for plug-in solar. We urge households to ensure they have an RCD suitable for this technology and to consult a competent electrician if they are unsure if they have the right protections in place in their home.” 
The charity adds that you should never plug in solar panels through extension leads, travel adapters and multi-way adapters, and to have your electrics checked before you buy.
Read more: Plug-in solar panels go on sale in shops and online after legal barriers removed
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Esi SpA Awarded Three Contracts For Revamping Of Photovoltaic Systems, Total Value Of About €0.65 Million  TradingView
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US- and Canada-based PV module producer Heliene is among the companies trialling a new American-made solar glass currently being tested for sale in the US market.
Heliene’s chief executive Martin Pochtaruk has told PV Tech that his company is testing solar glass made by Stewart Glass that entered production earlier this year.
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PV Tech spoke to Pochtaruk for an article published today exploring the opportunities and challenges for US-made solar glass.
The US currently has limited production of locally produced glass for solar modules, but US PV manufacturers such as Heliene are looking to domesticate as much of their supply chains as possible. Heliene has 1.3GW of crystalline silicon module capacity in the US and has recently formed a partnership with Corning and Suniva to secure locally sourced wafers and cells, but US-made glass has so far been a key missing element.
Pochtaruk explained that domestic solar glass production had not kept up with the recent boom in US module manufacturing. “As US module manufacturing has been growing, there has been no supply of non-iron content glass,” he said.
“Being able to use [locally made] glass versus importing glass is also part of de-risking the geopolitics of imports from Asia, and that’s why it’s so important.”
Stewart Glass began production of a 3.2mm front-pane solar glass product in the spring of 2026 at its plant in Logan, Ohio, becoming the first fully operational solar glass plant in the US. Its second line is due to begin production next year, adding a further 250 tons of output to the 150 tons from the first line.
However, potential demand is unlikely to be met solely by Stewart Glass, and, as our article explores further, factors such as power demands and the substantial up-front investment required to set up a glass furnace create a high barrier to entry for other potential suppliers.
Read the full article here (subscription required).
Learn more about how the domestic solar supply chain is developing in the United States at our PV CellTech USA conference in San Francisco on 13-14 October. For full details and booking, click here.

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Energies Media
Arriving at a Vermont farmhouse, a traveler finds solar panels, an EV charger, and an honest answer about how far rural electrification has actually come.
The rolling hills of Vermont in August deliver an iconic postcard landscape: unhurried country roads, lush pastures, and garden aromas from long rows of vegetables bordering weathered old barns. Yet, stepping onto this 10-acre Green Mountain State farmhouse property, the most striking element isn’t what is present, but rather a surprising absence: the smell of burning fossil fuels.
It simply isn’t there. Tucked into the north country landscape, the homestead looks at first glance like any other working New England farm. But a closer look reveals a much quieter transformation—a decade-long solar and clean energy conversion built long before green power became a widespread talking point.
The barn roof provides the primary clue. Sixteen solar panels, installed back in 2014, sit atop the roofline in neat rows—a deliberate financial commitment made when rooftop solar technology cost significantly more than it does today. Inside the barn, a handwritten logbook tracks every single kilowatt-hour generated since activation. Over its first decade of operation, the solar array harvested roughly 50,000 kWh of clean electricity.
To put that figure into perspective, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) indicates that the average American household consumed 10,791 kWh of electricity in 2022. Generating roughly 5,000 kWh annually, the farm’s solar array covers approximately half of its total annual power needs—a substantial contribution to local resilience, though not the full power picture.
Adjacent sit solar thermal water collectors, a less photogenic but equally deliberate choice. Operating through fluid thermodynamics, natural water flow, and gravity, these collectors heat domestic water without drawing a single watt from the electrical grid. Working alongside photovoltaic panels, these complementary systems represent ten years of methodical, stacked investments.
Pulling up to a remote Vermont farmhouse after a long road trip and finding a dedicated EV charger waiting brings a distinct kind of relief. Plugging in a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV right at your destination—rather than searching for public fast-chargers along unfamiliar rural back roads—completely alters long-distance driving.
While U.S. public charging networks have expanded considerably, long-distance electric transit off main highway corridors still demands careful planning. Destination charging eliminates that friction entirely, silently topping off the vehicle’s battery overnight. For electric vehicle owners exploring rural America, this property provides a compelling real-world proof point: local destination charging works, and it fills a vital infrastructure gap.
Ask whether a 10-acre working farm can operate 100 percent electric today, and the honest answer is no—not quite yet.
The property’s vast fields require regular mowing, a demanding task handled by a heavy diesel brush hog. Commercial zero-emission replacements capable of handling rugged working-farm conditions remain scarce on the market. Indoors, propane still feeds auxiliary baseboard heaters, while twin wood stoves supply carbon-neutral warmth during harsh winter spells when grid outages strike.
Vermont’s Department of Environmental Conservation has directed nearly $6 million in grant funding toward replacing diesel-powered medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and off-road equipment with electric alternatives. While that funding signals where state energy policy is heading, it underlines where industrial agricultural technology stands right now.
Economics play a central role in these decisions. As Home Depot CFO Richard McPhail noted, rising fuel costs create heavy financial pressure on average consumers. Rural households, which depend heavily on fuel for heating, personal transport, and heavy farm equipment, feel those price swings with particular severity.
Finances tell only part of the story. Senator Bernie Sanders, writing in Common Dreams, framed the broader climate stakes plainly: consecutive record-hot years, flooding, and wildfires make transitioning away from fossil fuels a practical necessity rather than pure idealism.
What makes this Vermont homestead truly remarkable is the final reveal: this entire clean energy transformation wasn’t driven by state mandates, corporate funding, or grand public announcements. The true hook of this rural energy experiment is that its owners quietly built a functional, semi-autonomous microgrid entirely on their own terms, according to Clean Technica. Stacking self-directed choices over a decade without waiting for federal policy, they prove that rural electrification isn’t an overnight revolution—it is a steady, self-reliant evolution that is already being walked.
Kelly is an experienced writer with 15 years of experience exploring the big stories that shape our world, from tech breakthroughs and space exploration to climate, energy, and the fascinating quirks of science. She has a talent for turning complex ideas into sharp, memorable insights that stay with readers long after they’ve finished reading.
Kelly is an experienced writer with 15 years of experience exploring the big stories that shape our world, from tech breakthroughs and space exploration to climate, energy, and the fascinating quirks of science. She has a talent for turning complex ideas into sharp, memorable insights that stay with readers long after they’ve finished reading.
Kelly is an experienced writer with 15 years of experience exploring the big stories that shape our world, from tech breakthroughs and space exploration to climate, energy, and the fascinating quirks of science. She has a talent for turning complex ideas into sharp, memorable insights that stay with readers long after they’ve finished reading.

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Published on 08/27/2026 at 11:28 am EDT

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(Alliance News) – ESI Spa said on Thursday that it has signed three “turnkey” contract awards for revamping work and technological upgrades on an equal number of photovoltaic plants located in Brindisi, Puglia, with total capacity of about 2.4 MWp.

As the company explained in a statement, the orders have a total value of about €650,000 and relate to the SOL080 plant, of about 0.51 MWp, and 069GEO and 082GEO, both of about 0.93 MWp. The work is aimed at restoring the plants’ full generating capacity and improving efficiency.

Completion of the work is expected by December 31, 2026.

The company also said that, taking into account production delivered as of December 31, 2025, and new projects secured up to the date of the release, total backlog stands at about €33m.

ESI is down 3.4% at €1.58 per share.

By Claudia Cavaliere, Alliance News reporter

Comments and questions to redazione@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2026 Alliance News IS Italian Service Ltd. All rights reserved.
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What's the deal? Otovo, a small-scale solar services company, is acquiring Hawaii-based PV Hawaii LLC alongside Norway's Mr. Elektro for a combined $4.6 million. The move gives Otovo its first presence in Hawaii.
Who are they? PV Hawaii, founded in 2016 and based in Oahu, offers solar repair, warranty, inspection, and panel-cleaning services for residential and commercial customers, and is certified across 10 major equipment brands.
What's the endgame? Otovo plans to bring its Endurance AI platform to PV Hawaii's local field crews and customer relationships. The platform uses AI to diagnose system issues and dispatch technicians in real time, with smart routing to maximise first-visit resolution rates.
Where else? The Mr. Elektro deal deepens Otovo's reach across Norway and Sweden. Both acquisitions extend the same operations-and-maintenance model that Otovo brought to the United States less than a year ago.
Why now? Chief executive officer William (John) Berger framed the deals as part of a repeatable strategy. "We are continuing our successful plug-and-play acquisition strategy that has helped us create the world's leading provider of behind-the-meter energy services for homes and businesses," he said.
The signal: Buying licensed local teams and layering software on top lets Otovo scale service coverage without building crews from scratch — a bolt-on playbook that points to further consolidation in solar operations and maintenance.
Read more: solarpowerworldonline.com
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Solar Power World
By Kelly Pickerel | August 13, 2026
ForeFront Power has reached commercial operation of a new solar system for the Northeast Surface Water Treatment Plant in Fresno, California, that uses the Erthos solar system. Erthos’ Earth Mount Solar system places modules directly on the earth, which allows solar project developers to eliminate all the costs required to procure and install structural steel.
ForeFront Power approached Erthos in 2023 when a combination of inflation and supply shocks caused the price of labor and materials to increase, making the project payback period unattractive for the city of Fresno.
“After conducting our due diligence and vetting Erthos technology, we discovered that the Northeast Surface Water Treatment Plant was an optimal site for an Erthos application,” said Erinne Davis, senior project manager at ForeFront Power. “Erthos helped us avoid significant, expensive civil upgrades, as well as the cost of steel for racking and the labor to install that racking. Realizing these savings on the installation is what enabled the project at this site to move forward.”
The Erthos Earth Mount Solar system is one portion of a solar and battery storage portfolio that ForeFront Power developed for Fresno’s Dept. of Public Utilities (DPU) at three sites: the Northeast Surface Water Treatment Facility, the Southeast Surface Water Treatment Facility, and the Fresno-Clovis Regional Wastewater Reclamation Facility. At a combined 27 MW-DC in size, the DPU projects are expected to save over $122 million in ratepayer dollars by 2045.
Since the Erthos system entered commercial operation in late March 2026, the system has outperformed expectations, operating at an average of 101% of expected energy production and has already delivered 862 MWh of energy to the city. ForeFront Power and Erthos continue to work closely together to optimize system performance.
In addition to avoiding material and labor costs from structural steel, ForeFront Power was able to achieve a higher generating capacity per acre thanks to the unique architecture of Erthos systems. With no row spacing, Erthos offers the highest energy density of any solar architecture in the industry. Another unique feature of Erthos Earth Mount Solar system is that, although the solar modules are mounted flat on the earth, they can follow contours up to 15% slope, meaning they were adaptable to the natural topography of the Fresno site.
ForeFront Power and Erthos have entered into an energy services agreement in which Erthos will maintain the solar energy system, including regular cleanings of the solar array by the proprietary ErthBot PV array cleaner, a dry nylon brush autonomous cleaning robot.
News item from ForeFront
Kelly Pickerel has more than 15 years of experience reporting on the U.S. solar industry and is currently editor in chief of Solar Power World. Email Kelly.

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Renewable energy developers in southern Africa adapting to rapidly evolving market conditions, with future IPPs expected to look very different from those commissioned in previous years. New entrant Modaso hopes that its new wind-solar-battery development in Zimbabwe will prove the viability of a new approach to maximise available transmission capacity
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A solar energy company is proposing to build a 6-megawatt solar farm on about 28 acres of land in Mukwonago, and residents will have a chance to weigh in at a public hearing next month.
The project, called the Spring Lake Solar, would place roughly 13,000 solar panels on land off Section Road and County Highway I. The land is owned by a local family that is leasing it to One Energy Renewables, the company behind the proposal.
Peter Murphy, a director at One Energy Renewables, said the project is designed to generate power for local homes and businesses.
“This is local power being produced and consumed locally,” Murphy said.
Murphy said 6 megawatts is enough to power about 1,600 average Wisconsin homes per year. He also addressed concerns about cost to taxpayers.
“Taxpayers are not paying for this. So the reason solar projects like this are happening is because they are economically viable,” Murphy said. “They’re quiet neighbors. They don’t emit anything.”
If approved, the panels would remain on the property for 30 to 50 years.
Learn more about the proposal in the video player below

Mukwonago resident Gail Yerke attended an informational meeting Monday to learn more about the proposal. She said she reached out to TMJ4 because she believes the community deserves to know about it.
“I think it’s an important issue that people need to know about,” Yerke said.
Yerke said she was in favor of one detail from the meeting.
“The one thing, piece of information I got that I thought was positive was that they don’t plan on having any lithium battery units,” Yerke said.
Still, Yerke has lingering concerns about noise and property values near the site.
“It just doesn’t seem an appropriate use of the land. There’s a lot of subdivisions nearby and homes,” Yerke said.
Despite her reservations, Yerke said she believes the public process is important.
“People will have an opportunity to voice their opinion. I think that’s very important, whether they’re for it or against it, that the community gets to do that,” Yerke said.
A Plan Committee hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, October 7, at Mukwonago Town Hall.

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A study by British energy think tank Ember suggests that the prospect of round-the-clock solar photovoltaic (PV) availability is drawing closer. Solar PV generated just over 10% of global electricity in the first half of 2026, up from 8.9% in the same period of 2025. Its share has nearly doubled from the 5.6% recorded in the first half of 2023.
Over the past three years, solar PV generation has grown seven times faster than total electricity generation. While global electricity generation rose by 12% between the first half of 2023 and the first half of 2026, solar generation more than doubled, from 769 TWh to 1,564 TWh.
However, this growth remains heavily concentrated around midday. On an average day in the first half of 2026, solar met more than 25% of global electricity demand between 11:00 and 14:00, before falling to near-zero levels between 20:00 and 05:00.
In markets with higher levels of solar PV penetration, this concentration is even more pronounced. In Chile, where solar met 26% of electricity demand in the first half of 2026, its contribution reached 71% at midday but had virtually disappeared by 21:00. In the Netherlands, solar met 58% of demand at 13:00, while in Germany it covered 55% at midday. In both markets, however, solar’s contribution fell to zero a few hours later.
The expansion of solar PV is displacing fossil-fuel generation during the day, but hours without sunlight remain a key domain for conventional generation. Between the first half of 2023 and the first half of 2026, average fossil-fuel generation between 11:00 and 14:00 fell from 86 GW to 69 GW. During the evening peak, between 19:00 and 21:00, however, the decline was much smaller, from 106 GW to 101 GW.
New battery storage installations in 2026 are projected to reach 459 GWh, up 50% from the 307 GWh added in 2025. According to Ember data, this capacity could theoretically shift 34% of new daily solar generation to non-solar hours.
This proportion is nearly double the 18% estimated for batteries installed in 2025 and compares with just 4% five years earlier, in 2021.
Falling battery installation costs have been a key driver of this progress. Average global costs fell by 95% between 2010 and 2025, from $2,634/kWh to $140/kWh.
While batteries installed globally in 2025 could shift the equivalent of 18% of new daily solar generation, some countries achieved significantly higher shares.
Bulgaria installed enough storage to shift 77% of its new daily solar generation, followed by Chile at 76% and Australia at 60%.
Bulgaria’s growth has been particularly rapid. The country went from virtually no battery storage capacity in 2023 to adding around 3 GWh in 2025. By May 2026, installed capacity had surpassed 8.6 GWh.
Chile followed a similar trajectory, adding 4 GWh of battery storage in 2025 and bringing its installed capacity to 7.6 GWh. Most of the new storage was installed alongside solar plants, helping to reduce curtailment and shift solar generation into the evening hours.
The United States added 58 GWh of storage in 2025, enough to shift approximately one-quarter of its new daily solar generation.
The European Union, meanwhile, added 27 GWh of battery storage in 2025, equivalent to shifting 16% of new daily solar generation and below the global average.
In California, the combination of solar and battery storage met more than a quarter of electricity demand during the evening peak, between 19:00 and 21:00, on an average day in the first half of 2026. In the first half of 2023, the figure stood at 6.8%.
In the first half of 2026, batteries enabled solar energy to meet more than 10% of evening electricity demand in Chile. In Bulgaria, solar and storage together covered nearly a quarter (24%) of electricity demand between 19:00 and 21:00 and supplied an average of 10% of demand between 19:00 and 07:00.
However, developing solar generation capable of supplying electricity beyond daylight hours will require more than additional battery capacity. Electricity markets must also enable batteries to participate effectively and operate where they provide the greatest value to the power system.
Ember concludes that batteries do not eliminate the need for a diversified electricity mix. Wind, hydropower, nuclear power, and long-duration energy storage will continue to play significant roles, particularly during extended periods of low solar or wind generation.
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Our special edition for Intersolar South America 2026 is here!
Discover the latest insights into the Brazilian solar market – in Portuguese.
Entries open in seven categories: Modules, Inverters, BoS, BESS, Manufacturing, Sustainability, Projects.
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pv magazine USA hosts its multi-day virtual event on U.S. solar and energy storage, covering domestic manufacturing, distributed energy and the growing role of solar-plus-storage in meeting AI-driven power demand.
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