Solar Now

Solar PV supplied roughly three-quarters of new renewable capacity added globally in 2025, according to a new IRENA report
Battery storage additions rose sharply last year as renewable generation expanded
It calls for accelerated grid expansion and flexibility to integrate the next wave of solar and storage
Global renewable energy capacity reached another record in 2025 with 693 GW, led by solar PV, but deployment still needs to accelerate significantly to meet the 11.2 TW goal for 2030 under the UAE Consensus, says a new report. The world’s cumulative installed renewable energy capacity reached 5.15 TW at the end of 2025. 
Released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the COP31 Presidency and the Global Renewables Alliance, the report said 693 GW of renewable power capacity added in 2025 represents 15.5% annual growth.
However, the pace still falls short of what is needed to meet the UAE Consensus target of 11.2 TW of global renewable capacity by 2030. IRENA now estimates that an average of 1.204 TW of renewable capacity must be added annually between 2026 and 2030. This is higher than the 1.122 TW annual average it estimated in October 2025, when the calculation covered 2025 through 2030 (see World Must Add 1.12 TW Renewables/Year To Meet COP28 Goal).
Solar PV accounted for the largest share of new renewable capacity in 2025. IRENA counts about 513 GW of solar PV deployment last year, representing around three-quarters of all new renewable capacity and 12% more than in 2024.
Co-located solar and storage accounted for about one-quarter of utility-scale solar capacity commissioned globally in 2025, says the report citing Bloomberg New Energy Finance. It links the trend partly to falling daytime electricity prices and rising curtailment in some markets.
By the end of 2025, solar PV represented 46.3% of global installed renewable capacity, with 2,388 GW installed worldwide.
IRENA said solar capacity will need to double during 2026-2030 compared with the 2025 level to remain aligned with the 2030 objective.
While solar’s relatively short permitting timelines, established supply chain and cost competitiveness support further deployment, the report writer call for policy frameworks to evolve alongside the pace of solar expansion.
Solar was also among the lowest-cost sources of new electricity in 2025. IRENA put the global weighted average levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of solar PV at $44/MWh, compared with $33/MWh for onshore wind. Excluding China, the average solar PV LCOE was $55/MWh, and $51/MWh for onshore wind.
Storage becomes increasingly important
Battery storage is also expanding as renewable generation grows. Around 112 GW, or about 307 GWh, of battery storage capacity was added globally in 2025, up 48% from 76 GW added in 2024, according to the report.
China accounted for 61 GW of the additions, followed by the US with 18 GW and Europe with 16 GW. Together, these three markets represented nearly 85% of annual battery storage additions at the end of 2025.
IRENA said storage can absorb surplus renewable electricity and discharge it when needed, while also supporting grid stability and reducing congestion. Falling costs are strengthening the economic case for storage, it added.
The report said the cost of a fully installed and commissioned battery storage project declined by almost 30% between 2024 and 2025. Since 2010, costs have fallen by about 95%, from $2,634/kWh to $140/kWh.
Solar-plus-storage gains ground
The report also highlights the growing role of solar paired with storage as the costs of firm, around-the-clock renewable energy generation begin to undercut new gas-fired alternatives. At high-quality sites, the report claims the LCOE of solar-plus-storage at 95% reliability fell to $54-$82/MWh in 2025, down from more than $100/MWh in 2020. IRENA expects the cost to fall by another 30% by 2030 and 40% by 2035.
Grids remain a constraint
IRENA said faster renewable and storage deployment will need to be matched by investment in electricity grids and system flexibility. Grid expansion and modernization have not kept pace with renewable deployment, it added, contributing to connection queues and increasing pressure on infrastructure.
The report recommends regulatory frameworks that allow storage to be co-located with solar and wind, including shared grid connections. It also calls for incentives for storage alongside demand response, interconnections and other flexibility resources.
The report concludes that the 2030 renewable capacity target remains within reach only with a significant increase in annual deployment, supported by investment, infrastructure, policy frameworks, supply chains and skills.
The complete report titled Delivering on the UAE Consensus: Tracking progress toward tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling energy efficiency by 2030, is available for free download on IRENA’s website.
TaiyangNews 2024

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Cumulative solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing capital expenditure (capex) in the United States, since the introduction of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, is forecast to reach $12.2 billion by the end of 2026, accounting more than 50% of all solar PV manufacturing spending since 2001.
This analysis is taken directly from the new Solar Manufacturing USA Quarterly report, released today by Terawatt PV Research – with the research undertaken by the company’s founder and author of this article, drawing on experience of scrutinizing the operations of more than 500 solar PV manufacturers globally since the solar industry moved from R&D to commercial status more than two decades ago.
The new U.S.-specific report returns to the fundamental building-blocks required to understand key quarterly metrics at individual PV manufacturing sites: effective ramped capacity, production output, technology segmentation and manufacturing capex.
Moreover, for the first time, the depth of coverage on PV manufacturing capex has been extended beyond simply equipment-spending at the company level.
The new analysis now segments PV manufacturing capex at the quarterly level for individual manufacturing sites in the United States and further splits the company/site/value-chain/technology-specific manufacturing capex across buildings/infrastructure, new production equipment and maintenance/upgrades.
The net result is unprecedented visibility on the U.S. solar manufacturing sector and the individual companies currently in production, building/equipping new PV factories or adding capacity within existing operating sites.
Furthermore, the consolidated totals provide a highly accurate picture of the entire domestic solar PV manufacturing landscape in the United States today, allowing forecasting out to 2030 to be undertaken with greater levels of confidence.
The new report focuses on company-specific manufacturing sites in production since 2020, leading into the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, the subsequent uptick in manufacturing capex from 2023 until today, and bottom-up forecasting out to the end of 2030 factoring in the impact of new investments arising from Section 232.
In reviewing the consolidated totals, solar PV manufacturing capex since the Inflation Reduction Act was introduced has been a gamechanger for the domestic U.S. PV manufacturing sector.
U.S. solar PV manufacturing capex has exceeded $2.5 billion each year since 2023. A record $4.14 billion was spent on PV manufacturing capex in the United States during 2024, with more than 60% coming that year from just two companies – First Solar (mainly through its spending on new factories in Alabama and Louisiana), and Qcells (part of Hanwha Solutions) from its vertically-integrated investments in Georgia.
Segmenting U.S. manufacturing capex now across buildings/infrastructure, new production equipment and maintenance/upgrades reveals some important dynamics at play for domestic PV production sites today, with the allocations to buildings/infrastructure varying strongly between refitting an existing warehouse for module assembly to building a dedicated greenfield site for solar cell manufacturing (by more than an order of magnitude on a per-installed-Watt basis).
Figure 1: Solar PV manufacturing capital expenditure has grown significantly since the introduction of the Inflation Reduction Act at the end of 2022, with factory build-out spending from buildings/infrastructure costs accounting for about 60% of the total spend during the 2023-2026 period.
For more than 20 years, analyzing the details behind PV manufacturing capex injected into the global solar industry has been pivotal in understanding how new capacity or upgrade-spending are ramped into production; and how the announced capacities translate into production volumes at any given time.
The specifics behind how solar PV manufacturing capex was spent across Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, India, China and Southeast Asia during 1990-2024 played a key part in the evolution of global PV manufacturing and technology during this high-growth sector phase; not to forget the manufacturing capex into thin-film technologies in the United States 15-20 years ago that had very different consequences.
Capex, capacity and production should not be difficult metrics to understand. Yet almost daily, there are misleading discussions about ‘capacity-mismatches’ through the value-chain, over-capacity ‘concerns’, and even some observers talking about the U.S. having to become an ‘exporter of solar modules’, something that has not happened since the 1990’s.
At its core, market research is about tracking capex, technology, production, shipments, pricing, costs and margins at the company and manufacturing site level. Capacity is really an issue only when forecasting production volumes in the future.
In its simplest form, production is in fact the ‘actual’ capacity of a factory at any given time. The ‘effective installed capacity’ is the maximum output of the site based on 24/7 operations and 100% yield.
Thereafter, the relationship between production and capacity is not ‘utilization’ but ‘effective capacity conversion’ and this is determined by production-line uptimes and how many shifts are being operated.
Figure 2: Effective capacity levels for c-Si cells and modules in the United States have been growing quarter-on-quarter since the start of 2025, with effective-capacity-conversion rates varying considerably at the manufacturing site level, from figures of 15-20% during early ramp-up to 70-80% from a select group of companies only. Forecasting cell and module production volumes out to 2030 ultimately frames the additional upstream capex needed to create a more balanced value-chain for silicon-based manufacturing in the United States.
Analyzing manufacturing metrics at the site level allows for regional trends to be quickly established. Looking at the production numbers here is particularly useful in assessing where materials supplies could be strategically developed.
Currently, this type of analysis can only be applied to module production in the United States. Doing this for ingots, wafer and cells is too early.
From a state-level perspective, Ohio – by virtue of First Solar manufacturing bases – was the dominant zone for module production volumes in the United States leading into the IRA being rolled out. However, Texas is the real winner in the post-IRA era, becoming the state leader in module production in 2026 with meaningful contributions from Canadian Solar, Sirius/Elin, Imperial Star, SEG Solar, T1 Energy, TOYO/Abalance and Waaree Energies.
Elsewhere, much of the action is in the Southeast of the country, with a logical geographic split here in grouping the gulf coast corridor of Louisiana and Florida and the advanced manufacturing region including the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama.
Figure 3: Solar module production in the United States shows strong state-level and regional bias, with Texas emerging now as the major hub for c-Si module assembly, with leading proponents such as Canadian Solar, SEG Solar and T1 Energy.
The final output of the new report is to rank and rate the companies analyzed individually in the report.
This step is essential to allow greater emphasis to be placed on tracking the manufacturing decisions taken by the top 20 companies in the U.S. solar sector at any time, given that this subset of companies is typically accounting for more than 95% of all investment and production of significance.
Let’s walk through the methodology now to explain exactly how this is done.
As discussed earlier, the report is built from a newly created, proprietary, bottom-up database of U.S. solar manufacturing activity, analyzed at the individual manufacturing-site level by quarter.
Production is tracked across the c-Si value-chain from polysilicon through modules, together with segmented thin-film ‘cell’ and ‘module’ output equivalence.
Capex is further segmented between buildings and infrastructure, production equipment, and maintenance and upgrades; while excluding R&D contributions to capex.
The underlying data draws on audited filings and company reporting where available, supplemented by bespoke market research analysis based on additional operational and industry evidence and personal communications.
This approach allows current manufacturing activity (production) and the strongest leading indicator of future production growth – capital investment in manufacturing, or ‘manufacturing capex’ – to be assessed within a consistent analytical framework.
Production and capex are independently subjected to statistical transformation and normalization before being combined through a weighted methodology to generate a Manufacturing Strength score for each company.
An operating-production screening process prevents companies with little or no realized production output from being elevated solely by announced or early-stage capital spending.
The resulting scores determine company rankings, while a standardized Z-score analysis measures each qualifying manufacturer relative to the wider U.S. peer-group distribution and forms the basis of the AAA-to-C Manufacturing Strength ratings presented in the report’s ratings hierarchy which is logically presented visually as a truncated pyramid.
Ratings are displayed on an annual basis, with each quarterly report updating the underlying production and capex assumptions — and therefore the forecasted full-year ranking and rating — as new evidence emerges.
The methodology is summarized in the process-flow chart below, which shows how the underlying site-level data architecture feeds into the two core inputs of Production and Capex, how these are independently processed and combined, and how the resulting Manufacturing Strength scores are converted into company Rankings and Ratings.
The first Manufacturing Strength Ratings Pyramid for U.S. solar PV manufacturers will be revealed during my opening talk at the Solar Manufacturing USA 2026 conference in Austin, Texas on 22-23 September 2026.
Figure 4: Manufacturing Strength ratings flowchart showing how site-level production and capex data are statistically processed, combined and converted into company rankings and annual AAA–C ratings for all solar PV manufacturers in the United States today.
The Terawatt PV Research Solar Manufacturing USA Quarterly report is released today, with the first quarterly deliverable scheduled for the start of October 2026, when the analysis for Q3 2026 is completed.
All report enquiries and subscriptions are being managed exclusively by pv magazine USA, extending the working partnership between the parties that led to the launch of the Solar Manufacturing USA event in 2026.
To register your interest in the report, please send an email to: [email protected]
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Researchers from the University of Stuttgart, the Research Center Jülich, and Solarzentrum Stuttgart have come up with a way to check the efficiency of solar cells — with nothing more than a lightly-modified off-the-shelf consumer-grade digital camera.
"An electroluminescence image contains much more quantitative information than simply showing bright and dark regions," explains co-author Jürgen Werner of the team's work. "With a suitable physical camera model and calibration, it can provide absolute luminescent quantum efficiency and, therefore, information about the local quality of a solar cell or module. Our approach shows that even a relatively inexpensive consumer camera can provide quantitative results when its physical response is properly modeled and calibrated."
Quantifying the efficiency of solar cell, whether it's straight off the factory floor or has been installed in-the-field for some time, can already be done by testing the cell's luminescent quantum efficiency — but it requires extremely expensive lab-grade camera systems. The team's contribution to the field is a way to modify cheap off-the-shelf consumer-grade cameras to capture the same information by removing the camera's usual internal infrared filter and replacing it with an external long-pass filter.
The result: a camera that can see in the infrared. It's a technique that has long been used by photographers to capture otherworldly images, but combined with careful measurement of the camera's capabilities means that it can be used to replace expensive lab equipment — making luminescent quantum efficiency measurement within the reach of more people.
"Our next step is to use the calibrated camera to determine quantum efficiencies and open-circuit voltages of further, previously uncharacterized solar cells and modules," Werner adds. "The same model should also be applicable to photoluminescence measurements and potentially to measurements performed in daylight."
The team's work has been published in The Journal of Applied Physics.
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Perovskite PV manufacturer, GCL Perovskite, has completed an end-to-end production run on its GW-scale perovskite module manufacturing line, covering the entire process from raw-material intake to the production of large-area modules. The company said commercial module deliveries are gradually increasing as its focus shifts to production stabilization and yield ramp-up. Current priorities include improving equipment stability during continuous operation, overall line yield, and material utilization while reducing unit manufacturing costs. GCL Perovskite added that its 2 m² single-junction perovskite module has received third-party certification of IEC 61215, while its perovskite-crystalline silicon tandem module has received both IEC 61215 and IEC 61730 certifications. In another development last year, GCL Perovskite led space PV module standard drafting (see China Solar PV News Snippets)
In a technology upgrade, JinkoSolar plans to invest RMB1.792 billion in its Yuanhua base in Haining, Zhejiang province. The project will retire older equipment including texturing machines and tabber-stringers, and introduce advanced wet-processing and patterning equipment, and deploy digital systems including MES, SAP and AI-based tools. According to publicly disclosed environmental impact assessment materials, the project will retire the site’s existing 6 GW crystalline silicon cells and 6 GW modules, while retaining the cell R&D functions. Following the upgrade, the facility plans to have an annual production capacity of 2.7 GW of high-efficiency “new-structure” cells and 4 GW modules. The publicly disclosed EIA materials do not explicitly identify the technology that will be used for the new cells.
Battery manufacturer, CBAK Energy, has disclosed internal test results for its 32140 NH-7Ah full-tab sodium-ion cell and outlined a conditional long-term plan for 12 GWh of annual sodium-ion battery production capacity. The planned lines will be designed to support both sodium-ion and lithium-ion cell production. The company said its NFPP cell reached 90% charge within 15 minutes, while capacity retention remained above 95% during continuous discharge at 15C. At -40°C, the cell retained 87.68% of its discharge capacity relative to its 25°C baseline. Based on internal cycle-life testing and trend analysis, CBAK Energy projects at least 10,000 life cycles under specified protocols. Customer testing of samples is underway in residential and portable energy storage systems, and two and three electric wheelers, while additional evaluations cover backup power and other applications.
EVE Energy has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with China Railway Beijing Engineering Group Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Railway Group, with the two companies agreeing on at least 5 GWh of energy storage project over the next three years. The partnership will focus on new energy projects, energy storage applications and coordination in infrastructure development, supported by a dedicated working mechanism. China Railway Beijing Engineering Group is active in infrastructure, power, solar and EPC projects, while EVE Energy supplies energy storage cells and integrated storage systems. The companies plan to combine their engineering and storage equipment capabilities to advance related projects.
Energy China has launched its 2026 centralized procurement for PV modules, with an estimated volume of 15 GWp across 6 packages, covering EPC and self-invested projects. This year’s procurement is 2 GW smaller than its 17 GW procurement of 2025 with 8 packages. Covering TOPCon, HJT and BC module technologies, the bids are due by October 9, 2026. Here are more details:
For the two TOPCon packages, bidders must have at least 2.5 GWp of cumulative sales over the previous three years from individual contracts of 10 MWp or more.
Package 4 additionally requires at least four individual TOPCon contracts of 100 MWp or more.
The HJT packages require at least 150 MWp of cumulative sales over the same period, while the BC packages require at least 1.5 GWp of cumulative module sales across all technology types.
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PureSky Energy’s 1.98 MW Community Solar Project Begins Operations In Illinois  SolarQuarter
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Scientists found a much cheaper way to measure how well solar panels perform  Digital Trends
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Apex starts work on battery storage plant next to solar farm  Belleville News-Democrat
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The Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) has concluded its investigation into the June 17 fire at a Lineage cold storage warehouse in Boyle Heights, classifying the cause as undetermined.
Investigators confirmed that the weeklong fire originated on the roof, at or adjacent to a section of solar panels. The warehouse had 12,400 solar panels installed across the roof. The investigation did not identify discarded smoking materials, intentional devices, or other accidental ignition sources.
“Based on the evidence examined, investigators determined that an electrical event occurred within the area of origin. However, since the specific cause of that electrical event could not be conclusively established, the incident remains classified as having an undetermined cause,” LAFD said.
The investigation did not conclusively identify the solar panels or associated components as the cause, but could not rule them out.
Lineage has maintained that the fire began while contractors were working on solar panels and has filed a lawsuit against solar company Altus Power and technical infrastructure contractor Pearce Services.
Following the LAFD report, Lineage said: “Today’s report from the Los Angeles Fire Department validates what we have known all along: This was a solar fire.”
Los Palos Street Operating, a subsidiary of Altus Power, disputed that interpretation, stating: “Lineage, unfortunately, continues to misinform the public: its statement today is in direct conflict with the Los Angeles Fire Department’s finding that the cause of the incident is ‘undetermined.'”
Lineage is seeking permits to rebuild the facility. The Los Angeles City Council had previously voted to prevent reconstruction permits from being issued until the LAFD investigation was completed.
Cleanup of the warehouse was completed on September 5, including the removal of 89 million pounds of spoiled food and demolition of the fire-damaged structure.
Frontpage photo: © Martin Helgemeir | Dreamstime
Source: cbsnews.com
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With the recent expansion of a solar array near the University of Toledo Medical Center, UToledo is more than doubling its capacity for solar energy production on Health Science Campus while creating opportunities for student learning and research.
The University will celebrate the completion of the project with a ribbon-cutting ceremony beginning at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 24. The array is located along Main Technology Drive, and the ceremony is set to take place in the adjacent Parking Area 44E.
UToledo will celebrate the completion of a solar array expansion near UTMC with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. The array is located along Main Technology Drive, and the ceremony is set to take place in the adjacent Parking Area 44E.
“This project is an exciting, real-world demonstration of the importance of the groundbreaking advances being made at First Solar and the strong connection to our work at the Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization,” said Dr. Michael Heben, a Distinguished University Professor and the Helen and Harold McMaster Chair and Director of UToledo’s Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization.
“In addition to the economic and environmental benefits, this array serves as an educational asset for our science and engineering students, offering hands-on experience with commercial-scale renewable energy systems. I applaud the hard work done by the Student Green Fund, Michael Green, director of energy sustainability and energy efficiency at UToledo, Dr. Randy Ellingson, a Distinguished University Professor and Wright Center for Photovoltaics Endowed Professor, and our friends at First Solar for making this all happen.”
The original installation has generated more than 2.6 million kilowatt-hours of clean energy since it came online in late 2020. When combined with a reduction in peak electrical demand, this translates to a total economic impact of nearly $275,000.
The expansion increases the nameplate capacity of the array from 330 to 750 kilowatts, more than doubling its expected annual electrical production. This annual electrical production is now estimated at more than $70,000, in addition to peak-demand savings.
As a student-driven initiative that benefits from cutting-edge technology donated by First Solar, the project reflects the power of student leadership, community partnership and research excellence at UToledo.
The array is the flagship project of the Student Green Fund, a committee of undergraduate and graduate students that administers the voluntary $5 fee that students are assessed each semester in partnership with UToledo’s Office of Sustainability. The fund has supported numerous student-led initiatives since its establishment in 2017, including the installation of high-efficiency hand dryers in campus bathrooms and refillable water bottle stations in high-traffic buildings on Main Campus and Health Science Campus.
The Student Green Fund contributed $350,000 to cover the first-phase installation of the solar array and $530,000 to cover the second-phase expansion.
The array is also supported by First Solar, the solar technology giant with a significant footprint in Northwest Ohio and long-standing ties to UToledo. First Solar donated Series 5 modules for the first phase and now Series 6 Plus modules for the second-phase expansion.
First Solar specializes in a type of photovoltaic technology that utilizes cadmium telluride.
UToledo is a global leader in the research and development of cadmium telluride and other thin-film technologies. University physicists — including two who are credited among the most highly cited researchers in the world — routinely publish ground-breaking research that supports a broader distinction in materials science that positions UToledo among U.S. News & World Report‘s Best Global Universities.
“This solar array project has grown into a sustainable system that improves our campus utilities while supporting community electrical grid reliability,” said Michael Green, director of energy sustainability and energy efficiency at UToledo. “It would not have happened without the Student Green Fund and First Solar. As we evaluate third-phase expansion, I look forward to working together to further sustainable systems development at UToledo.”
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Swiss engineers installed 4,872 solar panels on the Muttsee dam in Switzerland’s Glarus Alps, 2,500 metres above sea level. The project has shown significant potential for generating electricity during the winter months. However, installing solar panels at such a high altitude comes with its own set of challenges and benefits. Scroll down to find out more.
Image credit: Lombardi.group

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India’s solar sector is confronting an unexpected shift: while photovoltaic modules are lasting longer than ever, they may be losing economic relevance much sooner.
For years, a 25-year performance warranty has been central to solar project economics. Developers typically assumed that once installed, a module would deliver steady output with gradual degradation over decades. But rapid advances in technology are beginning to challenge that assumption.
Industry experts now point to what is being described as a “solar shelf-life” problem where modules remain functional but are no longer the most efficient or cost-effective option for the same asset base.
This shift comes at a time when India’s solar market is expanding aggressively. The country’s installed solar capacity has crossed 160 GW, supported by policy interventions such as the PM Surya Ghar rooftop scheme and domestic manufacturing mandates under ALMM (Approved List of Models and Manufacturers). However, a mismatch persists: module manufacturing capacity has scaled up rapidly, while domestic cell production remains limited, affecting supply chains and pricing.
At the same time, technology cycles are accelerating. The industry has moved from multi-crystalline to mono-PERC and now toward n-type technologies such as TOPCon, with efficiencies reaching 22–24% globally. Bifacial modules, once considered premium, now dominate installations.
“The pace of change means developers are no longer comparing a module only to its past performance, but to what’s available in the market today,” said a senior analyst at a renewable energy consultancy. “A plant built five years ago may still be operating well, but it could be significantly underperforming compared to new installations.”
This has implications for both utility-scale and rooftop segments. In large solar parks, where land and grid infrastructure are already secured, replacing modules, a process known as repowering is becoming economically viable. With module prices having fallen by nearly 90–95% over the past decade, upgrading systems without rebuilding entire plants is increasingly feasible.
However, the equation is different for residential consumers. Despite the push from schemes like PM Surya Ghar, rooftop adoption still faces barriers including high upfront costs, limited financing options, and low consumer awareness. For households, replacing modules prematurely may not be financially attractive due to installation and labour costs.
Another emerging challenge is how developers assess long-term value. Traditionally, procurement decisions focused on cost per watt. But industry participants say the focus is shifting toward metrics such as levelised cost of electricity (LCOE), degradation rates, and energy yield.
“There is a growing realisation that the cheapest module is not necessarily the best investment,” said an EPC contractor involved in utility-scale projects. “Performance over time and compatibility with future upgrades are becoming critical.”
Yet, the rapid turnover of technology also introduces risks. Newer cell architectures, while more efficient, have limited long-term field data. Concerns around degradation, UV stability, and performance in India’s diverse climatic conditions remain areas of scrutiny.
There is also a downstream implication. If modules are replaced earlier than expected, India could face a surge in solar waste. The country currently lacks a robust ecosystem for large-scale recycling and reuse, a gap that could widen as installations grow.
Looking ahead, industry observers say solar projects may need to be designed not as static assets but as evolving platforms. Developers are beginning to consider “repowering readiness” ensuring that mounting structures, inverters, and grid connections can accommodate future upgrades.
The shift marks a broader transition in how solar assets are valued. The question is no longer just how long a module will last, but whether it will remain economically optimal over its lifetime.
As one analyst put it, “In today’s solar market, the risk is not that a module stops working, it’s that something better arrives much sooner.”
 The Author of this article is – Dushyant Kumar, PV Quality Manager, AXITEC Energy India Pvt. Ltd, leading solar module manufacturer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those held by pv magazine.
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Lightsource bp is seeking approval under the Australian government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act to build the Narrogin East renewable energy project incorporating a 150 MW solar farm with 250 MW of wind generation and a 200 MW / 800 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS).
The estimated $800 million (USD 568.8 million) project is proposed for a 4,481-hectare site located about 8 km east of Narrogin in Western Australia’s south. The project footprint will encompass about 470 hectares of mostly cleared land, and will play host to about 246,000 PV modules, 35 wind turbines and a centralised BESS.
Lightsource bp said the project has been designed to leverage existing infrastructure and will seek to plug into the existing 220kV Western Power transmission line that crosses the site. Once operational, the facility is expected to generate power equivalent to the annual consumption of is about 133,000 homes, contributing significantly to regional and national energy goals. 
“This is a significant investment in Western Australia’s renewable energy future, bringing local economic opportunities and contributing to Australia’s transition to low-carbon energy,” the developer said.
“By integrating wind, solar, and battery storage systems at a single site, the project will generate, capture and store renewable energy for use when it’s most needed, supporting reliable, low-carbon electricity.”
“The battery will enable the project to store surplus energy during times of high renewable output and release it during peak demand, improving grid stability and maximising the efficiency of all renewable assets on site.”
While no construction timeline has yet been provided, Lightsouce bp said it expects all required approvals to be determined by mid-2027, opening the way for the project to move towards construction.
The Narrogin East renewable energy precinct is part of a wave of large-scale renewable energy projects being developed near the Wheatbelt town.
Others include Ace Power’s approved Narrogin Solar Farm project that incorporates 200 MW of PV generation with a 200 MW / 400 MWh battery, and the 200 MW / 800 MWh Narrogin BESS project being developed by TagEnergy.
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The median price of solar photovoltaic modules imported into the United States has risen by more than 40% since tariffs were imposed under Section 232 by the administration of President Donald Trump in August, according to Anza. The data provider compared average prices for imported modules before the new Section 232 rules with prices for modules bought since 7 August that are expected to be delivered after 4 December, when the minimum import prices under the rules take effect.
Anza reported that the average price of a module imported to the US moved from US$0.27/W to US$0.38/W between those periods. Anza president Aaron Hall told PV Tech that tunnel oxide passivated contact modules averaged US$0.38/W, passivated emitter rear contact modules were priced at US$0.385/W, and heterojunction modules were at a low of US$0.39/W, though considerably higher prices have been reported.
Hall indicated that the industry had spent months preparing for possible Section 232 effects and that the sector is now in the most important procurement window. He noted that the 4 December date matters, but that module purchasing should be arranged well before it. According to Hall, the date may be the effective one, yet developers cannot treat it as the moment to make a procurement decision, because modules require time to ship and clear US Customs, and lower-cost supply available before the deadline is already tightening.
Separate Anza data also showed that quotes for module prices after 4 December are about 15% higher, which points to continued price increases beyond the start of December. Alongside the data, the company recommended that buyers give priority to purchasing from domestic manufacturers and seek components and products that can clear US Customs before 4 December.
The elevated prices in the US contrast with lower module prices in Europe. Figures from sun.stores pv.index showed that back contact, full black and monofacial TOPCon module prices all declined between July and August, while bifacial TOPCon modules recorded a month-on-month price increase.
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Researchers from the University of Stuttgart, Forschungszentrum Jülich, and German company Solarzentrum Stuttgart have modified a low-cost consumer digital camera to detect infrared radiation emitted by electrically biased silicon solar modules and measure their external quantum efficiency (EQE).
In PV devices, EQE describes how efficiently electrons passing through a solar cell are converted into emitted photons during electroluminescence. The parameter can be used to assess the radiative quality of a solar cell and determine its open-circuit voltage.
“Our approach shows that even a relatively inexpensive consumer camera can provide quantitative results when its physical response is properly modeled and calibrated,” lead researcher Jürgen Werner said. “An electroluminescence image contains much more quantitative information than simply showing bright and dark regions. With a suitable physical camera model and calibration, it can provide absolute luminescent quantum efficiency and, therefore, information about the local quality of a solar cell or module.”
The scientists explained that conventional digital cameras employ silicon-based complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sensors that can detect both visible and near-infrared radiation, including part of the spectral range associated with electroluminescence (EL) from silicon PV devices. Consumer cameras, however, typically incorporate an infrared-cut filter that suppresses near-infrared radiation. This filter strongly attenuates the weak EL emission from silicon solar cells, limiting the use of unmodified consumer cameras for EL imaging and quantitative PV characterization.
The researchers used a Canon EOS 4000D camera and removed its infrared-blocking filter to increase its sensitivity to infrared radiation. They also used a Heliopan ES RG850 long-pass filter to block shorter-wavelength visible background radiation from reaching the sensor. The camera, originally designed for visible-light imaging between approximately 400 nm and 800 nm, uses a silicon CMOS detector. Its Bayer filters are sufficiently transparent around 1,120 nm to detect the luminescence signal emitted by silicon solar cells.
In addition to modifying the camera hardware, the researchers developed a calibration model that relates recorded image brightness to the absolute luminescence emission of the PV device. The model accounts for both the linear and nonlinear response regimes of the camera, enabling the researchers to convert measured brightness into absolute electroluminescent EQE.
The team tested the camera in EL measurements performed in darkness to minimize background radiation. The calibration established a conversion factor between the measured brightness response and absolute external EQE and required a reference cell or module with known electroluminescent EQE and open-circuit voltage.
According to the research team, the experiments revealed a clear relationship between the measured luminescence response, EQE, and open-circuit voltage. At room temperature, a tenfold increase in the luminescence-related response corresponded to an increase of approximately 60 mV in open-circuit voltage. For the higher-efficiency modules, results obtained from the camera’s linear and saturation regimes were reportedly in good agreement. Deviations observed for older, lower-efficiency modules were attributed primarily to differences in light trapping and photon escape probability.
“An electroluminescence image contains much more quantitative information than simply showing bright and dark regions,” said Werner. “With a suitable physical camera model and calibration, it can provide absolute luminescent quantum efficiency and, therefore, information about the local quality of a solar cell or module.”
The researchers presented the camera and calibration method in “New camera model for absolute quantum efficiency measurements from electroluminescence of solar cells or modules,” published in the Journal of Applied Physics.
“Our next step is to use the calibrated camera to determine quantum efficiencies and open-circuit voltages of further, previously uncharacterized solar cells and modules,” Werner added. “The same model should also be applicable to photoluminescence measurements and potentially to measurements performed in daylight.”
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Comstock Metals, a recycling solutions company, and its parent firm Comstock have begun operations at a solar panel recycling facility located in Silver Springs, Nevada, according to PV Tech.
The site is now running on a continuous basis, slightly more than a month after the company reported that its solar panel recycling system had been fully integrated and tested. At that time, Comstock indicated that every major processing stage had been connected and operated successfully, and that testing of the facility’s individual unit operations had been finished.
Comstock added that it will now increase output on its production platform to satisfy rising customer volume requirements. When the project obtained a lease for the Nevada site in 2024, it was announced that the facility would be capable of processing as much as 100,000 tonnes of decommissioned solar photovoltaic modules annually once fully ramped up.
According to the company, moving to non-stop production delivers an efficient, high-volume, zero-landfill solution that removes disposal-related environmental liabilities for its utility-scale solar customers, who would receive a certification confirming the end-of-life regulatory obligations of the recycled solar panels.
Fortunato Villamagna, President of Comstock Metals, commented that after focused preparation work with production supervisors and operating staff across four shift teams, the company has now successfully advanced to continuous operations.
The Nevada solar panel recycling facility will eventually be joined by another Comstock facility in Ohio. In June of this year, the company said it would set up a solar panel recycling plant, production facility and logistics hub in Cambridge, Ohio. The expansion is intended to scale up the company’s operations, lower logistics costs and enhance services for its expanding Midwest and Eastern customer base.
A third facility in Hanford, California is also in progress. In February of this year, Comstock received certification from the California Department of Toxic Substances Control to recycle universal waste and process photovoltaic modules at its California facility. That site is planned to serve as a collection and pre-processing hub before materials are sent to the Nevada facility for final recovery.
Corrado De Gasperis, CEO of Comstock, said that the company has methodically developed, deployed and tested its system and is now operating continuously. He expressed the view that the technical implementation hurdles and uncertainties tied to the first-time scaled deployment of its proprietary Solar Panel Recycling Production system have now been overcome, and that with demonstrable continuous production, the company’s focus has shifted to volume ramp.
The 45th edition of PV Tech Power examines in depth whether the photovoltaic industry is prepared for the approaching wave of decommissioning and recycling, looking at the development and prospects of solar photovoltaic recycling markets globally.
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To avoid leaving taxpayers with cleanup costs if a company goes bankrupt, the county requires solar projects to carry a performance bond.
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Cecil County, Maryland, is weighing 21 solar projects against the future of its farmland.
Cecil County Office of Land Use and Development Director Stephen O’Connor briefed the Cecil County Council on the projects, which together would generate nearly 90 megawatts of electricity, according to Cecil Daily.
O’Connor told council members that 15 of the projects are still under review after six were resolved and that the arrays would cover 651 acres in total, about 1% of Cecil County farmland.
The 21 projects range from nearly 14 acres to just over 40 acres, and O’Connor said 18 would be sited in Cecil County’s Northern and Southern Agriculture Regions.
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That footprint raised concerns among county leaders. Bob Meffley, the County Council vice president, questioned why more projects are not being directed to land that’s “not good for anything” and asked, “Why can’t we put them there?” Cecil County Council President Al Miller, meanwhile, said those agricultural regions contain prime land and argued that protections for Class 1 soils should remain in place.
The local debate is unfolding alongside a change in state policy. O’Connor said the Renewable Energy Certainty Act, passed during the 2025 Maryland General Assembly session, created a new approval category that, according to Cecil Daily, requires counties to allow certain solar projects larger than 1 megawatt and up to 2 megawatts even when local zoning would say otherwise.
The use of solar panels on roofing has far fewer skeptics, so much so that even many gas stations do it to save money, as it’s one of the best ways to cut and even eliminate energy bills. Homeowners who want to explore rooftop options can try resources like EnergySage to get free solar installation estimates and compare quotes.
In Miller’s view, that state law supersedes Cecil County’s protections for prime agricultural soils, including its rules for Class 1 soils, which have become a flashpoint in places where farming remains important both economically and culturally.
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Questions also came up about what happens over the full life of these projects. After Cecil County Councilwoman Donna Culberson asked how long solar installations typically last and what happens when the panels reach the end of their useful life, O’Connor said the standard lifespan is 25 to 30 years.
He added that Maryland doesn’t currently require solar panels to be recycled, so they would probably end up in landfills unless policy changes, according to Cecil Daily.
To avoid leaving taxpayers with cleanup costs if a company goes bankrupt or otherwise abandons a site, Cecil requires solar projects to post a performance bond upfront, O’Connor said, and the county also requires regular soil testing.
The county is also collecting an impact fee from solar companies, with that money going directly to land preservation. Miller, meanwhile, has pushed for more solar development on rooftops, parking lots, and other already built spaces instead of productive farmland.
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For homeowners considering rooftop solar, EnergySage can also be a useful planning tool. With EnergySage’s help, the average person can save up to $10,000 on solar purchases and installations. EnergySage’s solar map shows the average cost of a home solar panel system by state, along with solar panel incentives for each state, which can help homeowners find the best price for rooftop solar panels and access available incentives.
Adding battery storage to a solar setup is one of the best ways to protect your home during outages, save on energy costs, and go off-grid. Homeowners can also explore EnergySage for information about home battery storage options, including competitive installation estimates.
As O’Connor put it, “If a solar company no longer exists or walks away from a project, we hold a bond to clean it up ourselves” when the panels reach the end of their use.
Elsewhere, local officials are wrestling with many of the same questions about solar, farmland, and who gets the final say. The articles below look at county approvals, legal fights over siting authority, and one solar design that keeps agricultural land in use.
• In Patrick County, officials approved a controversial million-dollar solar farm after hours of debate.
• In Oregon’s Willamette Valley, farmland and wetlands remain at issue as a huge solar project moves forward.
• In Douglas County, Kansas, commissioners approved a solar farm after a multi-hour public deliberation.
• In Texas, the attorney general blocks counties from banning new solar sites outright.
• In Vermont, a company built solar power technology that preserves land for farming.
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The New South Wales (NSW) government has launched consultation on a proposal to introduce Australia’s first mandatory solar panel recycling scheme, aiming to ensure valuable solar panel materials are recovered, reused and recycled rather than being dumped.
Intended to divert thousands of tonnes of solar panel waste from landfill, the proposed product stewardship scheme would require solar manufacturers and importers supplying regulated PV panels into NSW to help fund collection, recycling and resource recovery across the state.
Government data shows NSW is home to more than 1.18 million rooftop solar systems and as they age, and as households increasingly upgrade to higher efficiency panels, waste volumes of PV panels are projected to increase sharply over the next two decades. About 14,000 tonnes of solar panel waste is generated in the state each year, and that figure is forecast to rise to 89,000 tonnes by 2045.
“Current disposal pathways are insufficient to safely and sustainably manage this growing waste stream,” the NSW Environment Protection Agency said in its consultation paper. “Most end-of-life PV panels continue to be landfilled, stockpiled or illegally dumped.”
NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe said the proposed regulation is not simply about reducing waste, but is also about capturing valuable resources and creating new economic opportunities.
“NSW has embraced rooftop solar, and now we’re making sure those panels don’t become tomorrow’s landfill problem,” she said. “Solar panels contain valuable materials that can be recovered and put back to work.”
“A mandatory product stewardship scheme can help build a circular economy for solar panels, while supporting new recycling and manufacturing opportunities here in NSW.” 
Smart Energy Council (SEC) Chief Executive David McElrea said the proposed legislation provides a strong foundation for a circular economy but cautioned that state-level initiatives must be matched by a unified national framework led by the federal government.
“Ideally, states and territories won’t have to go it alone, because solar supply chains do not end at a border,” he said, adding that a patchwork of rules will be more inefficient and costly for consumers, business, industry and authorities.
“NSW is showing leadership, but unless transitioned into a Commonwealth scheme, over 70% of Australia’s decommissioned solar panels will remain uncaptured outside NSW,” he said.
“The federal government has to step up and deliver a national product stewardship framework to provide the scale, consistency, and certainty Australia needs.”
In addition to publishing the opening consultation on the draft regulation, the NSW government has released an issues paper seeking feedback on how the state can support the growth of solar panel recycling, remanufacturing and manufacturing industries.
Submissions on the draft regulation and issues paper are open until 16 November.
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A US federal court has ordered the restoration of the $7 billion Solar for All program. US District Judge Mary S. McElroy ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did not have the authority to terminate funding already awarded under the initiative. The program, created under the Biden administration, provides grants to states, tribal governments and other organizations to expand residential solar access in low-income and disadvantaged communities. A Biden-era program, the EPA had moved to it in 2025 under Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). It was expected to support over 4 GW of distributed solar deployment in 5 years. The EPA had selected 60 winners and committed the funds, before terminating it. The agency was later sued by over 20 US states (see US States Sue EPA Over Ending $7 Billion Solar For All). The EPA however, can appeal against the District Judge ruling. 
Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group, the largest IKEA retailer, has commissioned 101 MW DC/74.9 MW AC Kingstree West Solar Park in the US. Located in Williamsburg County, South Carolina, the project is Ingka Investments’ first utility-scale solar park developed entirely in-house, from land ownership through construction and operation. The project comprises 178,000 solar modules and is expected to generate about 186 GWh of electricity annually. Ingka Investments said it fully funded the project, while Williamsburg County is expected to receive about $7.6 million in additional property tax revenue over the project’s lifetime. With Kingstree West entering operation, Ingka Investments now operates 27 solar parks across nine countries and six renewable energy assets in the US.
Chipmaker NVIDIA is set to invest an additional $1.5 billion in SB Energy, a SoftBank-backed US power and data center infrastructure company. According to SB Energy’s amended filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its initial public offering (IPO), NVIDIA plans to purchase Class N common stock through a private placement at the IPO price. This is in addition to its previous commitment to invest $1.5 billion in private placement. The investment would bring NVIDIA’s total commitment to SB Energy to $3 billion (see North America Solar PV News Snippets).
Apex Clean Energy has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Meta for its 144 MW Starling Solar project in Gonzales County, Texas. Under the agreement, Meta will receive the environmental attributes associated with the project’s electricity, including renewable energy credits. Starling Solar is expected to begin commercial operations in 2027 and will add new generation to the ERCOT grid. The project represents the seventh transaction between Apex and Meta, taking their combined portfolio to about 1.2 GW across Texas, Virginia, Illinois, Kansas and Iowa.
EQT-backed US distributed energy developer Madison Energy Infrastructure has launched a Community Infrastructure initiative to develop an additional 1 GW of distributed energy capacity across the country by 2028. Under this initiative, the company plans to mobilize up to $2 billion in capital to meet electricity demand from artificial intelligence (AI) and data center development. Madison expects its operating portfolio to exceed 1 GW later this year, while the new initiative targets another 1 GW by 2028. 
Skyline Clean Energy Fund (SCEF), a Canadian private renewable infrastructure fund managed by Skyline, has acquired a portfolio of 3,291 solar assets totaling 76 MW DC in Ontario, Canada. SCEF says this transaction increases its installed solar capacity by 83%. The acquired portfolio includes commercial, industrial and residential rooftop and ground-mounted projects operating under long-term fixed-price Feed-in Tariff and microFIT contracts with the province. SCEF’s renewable energy portfolio now comprises 3,375 solar assets and two biogas facilities, totaling 171.68 MW DC.
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Recycling solution firm Comstock Metals and its parent company, Comstock, have started operations at its solar panel recycling facility in Silver Springs, Nevada.
The facility is now running continuously, a little bit over a month after the company said it had fully integrated and tested its solar panel recycling system. At the time, Comstock said that all major processing stages had been connected and successfully operated, and that testing of the facility’s individual unit operations had been completed.
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Comstock added that it will now ramp up its production platform to meet the increasingly higher customer volume demands. When the project secured a lease for the facility in Nevada in 2024, it was announced that the facility would be able to process up to 100,000 tonnes of decommissioned solar PV modules per year once fully ramped up.
According to the company, the shift to a non-stop production ensures an efficient, high-volume, zero-landfill solution that eliminates disposal-related environmental liabilities for its utility-scale solar customers who would receive a certification validating the end-of-life regulatory obligations of the solar panels recycled.
“Following dedicated work preparation with our production supervisors and operating staff across the four shift teams, we have now successfully graduated to continuous operations,” said Fortunato Villamagna, President of Comstock Metals.
The Nevada solar panel recycling facility will eventually be joined by another Comstock facility in Ohio. In June of this year, the company said it would establish a solar panel recycling plant, production facility and logistics hub in Cambridge, Ohio. The expansion is aimed at scaling up the company’s operations, reducing logistics costs and improving services to its growing Midwest and Eastern customer base.
A third facility in Hanford, California is also underway. In February of this year, Comstock received certification from the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to recycle universal waste and process PV modules at its California facility. This is planned to function as a collection and pre-processing hub before sending materials to the Nevada facility for final recovery.
Corrado De Gasperis, CEO of Comstock, said: “We have methodically developed, deployed, tested and are now continuously operating. We believe the technical implementation hurdles and uncertainties related to the first-time scaled deployment of our proprietary Solar Panel Recycling Production system have now been overcome. With demonstrable continuous production, our focus now turns to volume ramp.
The 45th edition of PV Tech Power takes an in-depth look at whether the PV industry is ready for the coming wave of decommissioning and recycling, examining the development and prospects of solar PV recycling markets worldwide.

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The affordability score may also factor into executive and senior management compensation.
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New York is moving to put firmer guardrails around household utility costs as electricity and gas prices continue to strain family budgets.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said the state will expand its energy affordability guideline to millions of middle-income families.
According to the New York Daily News, under the guideline, a household’s electric and gas bills together are supposed to stay below 6% of income, divided into 3% for electricity and 3% for gas. The state’s Public Service Commission will start tracking utilities against that measure.
The state plans to calculate an initial affordability score for each utility by early next year using median area incomes, with full reports due in the summer. A standard that had applied to low-income households could reach as many as 2.5 million middle-income families.
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The move adds pressure on utilities at a time when rising energy prices are worrying both families and elected officials.
For homeowners, going solar is one of the best ways to save money on home energy over time. People who want to explore the option can use EnergySage to get free solar installation estimates and compare quotes.
If a utility falls short of the affordability benchmark, the governor said, it could face closer state oversight and added difficulty when asking for future rate increases.
The affordability score may also factor into executive and senior management compensation, giving utility leaders a financial reason to keep costs in check.
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With household energy bills climbing across New York, Hochul also announced rebate checks of up to $200 for 8.2 million households. The state said the payments are meant to ease rising prices tied to the Iran war.
With EnergySage’s help, the average person can save up to $10,000 on a solar purchase and installation. Homeowners can also use EnergySage’s solar map, which shows the average cost of a home solar panel system by state and details solar panel incentives in each state. Together, those resources can help homeowners get the best price for rooftop solar panels and access available incentives.
Adding battery storage to a solar setup is one of the best ways to protect your home during outages, save money on energy, and go off-grid. Homeowners who want to compare their options can explore EnergySage for information about home battery storage, including competitive installation estimates.
“I have made it a top priority to ensure we keep the lights on and costs down for all New Yorkers, and the PSC’s action today builds on those efforts,” Hochul said, per the Daily News.
💡Go deep on the latest news and trends shaping the residential solar landscape
These stories look at how New York and other governments are trying to ease rising household energy costs.
• New York’s annual electric bill relief is reaching over 800,000 households.
• New York City created its first utility advocate as bills and rate hikes rise.
• States rolled out up to $14,000 for home energy upgrades.
• Homeowners can claim tax breaks for efficiency upgrades and start cutting utility bills.
• Federal incentives put up to $8,000 within reach for home energy improvements.
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Lightsource bp is seeking approval under the Australian government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act to build the Narrogin East renewable energy project incorporating a 150 MW solar farm with 250 MW of wind generation and a 200 MW / 800 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS).
The estimated $800 million (USD 568.8 million) project is proposed for a 4,481-hectare site located about 8 km east of Narrogin in Western Australia’s south. The project footprint will encompass about 470 hectares of mostly cleared land, and will play host to about 246,000 PV modules, 35 wind turbines and a centralised BESS.
Lightsource bp said the project has been designed to leverage existing infrastructure and will seek to plug into the existing 220kV Western Power transmission line that crosses the site. Once operational, the facility is expected to generate power equivalent to the annual consumption of is about 133,000 homes, contributing significantly to regional and national energy goals. 
“This is a significant investment in Western Australia’s renewable energy future, bringing local economic opportunities and contributing to Australia’s transition to low-carbon energy,” the developer said.
“By integrating wind, solar, and battery storage systems at a single site, the project will generate, capture and store renewable energy for use when it’s most needed, supporting reliable, low-carbon electricity.”
“The battery will enable the project to store surplus energy during times of high renewable output and release it during peak demand, improving grid stability and maximising the efficiency of all renewable assets on site.”
While no construction timeline has yet been provided, Lightsouce bp said it expects all required approvals to be determined by mid-2027, opening the way for the project to move towards construction.
The Narrogin East renewable energy precinct is part of a wave of large-scale renewable energy projects being developed near the Wheatbelt town.
Others include Ace Power’s approved Narrogin Solar Farm project that incorporates 200 MW of PV generation with a 200 MW / 400 MWh battery, and the 200 MW / 800 MWh Narrogin BESS project being developed by TagEnergy.
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Months after the City of Cheyenne cut the ribbon on its new Belvoir Ranch trail system, the city council is set to consider the addition of a 140-megawatt solar and battery storage project on a different part of the 18,800-acre property.
September 22, 20264 min read
Months after the City of Cheyenne cut the ribbon on its new Belvoir Ranch trail system, the city council is set to consider the addition of a 140-megawatt solar and battery storage project on a different part of the 18,800-acre property.
Ward II City of Cheyenne Councilman Tom Segrave was on the council when the city purchased the property in 2003. While solar wasn’t always part of the plan, Segrave said Belvoir Ranch has always been meant to serve as a resource for the city and considering solar is just the newest chapter in that original purpose.
“It’s kind of exciting,” Segrave said. “It’s an opportunity. It’s an asset that hasn’t really been utilized. If the city could make some money off of this and not impact the other operations on the ranch, I think we should take a hard look.”
At a work session Friday, city council members will hear a proposal from Hanwha Renewables, the company interested in developing the site. The lease itself will be introduced at Monday night’s council meeting, where it will be read into the record and referred to the Finance Committee for further review. 
At that point, Segrave said, the council will have an opportunity to hear public input.
Segrave said Hanwha Renewables is proposing an initial project on Belvoir Ranch with an option to pursue a second phase later. The company would contract with Black Hills Energy to sell the electricity it produces, he said, and the initial 140-megawatt project the city is considering would take up about 1,200 acres.
“Phase one is not overwhelming the ranch by any means,” Segrave said.
The trails that opened this summer are on the western side of the property. The proposed solar project would go on the opposite end, out of sight for hikers and bikers, he said.
The city originally bought the ranch as a potential landfill site, Segrave said, but shelved that plan when the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality allowed Cheyenne to expand its existing landfill instead. Still, he said the property has room for more development.
“This council has made the decision to try to take this underutilized resource owned by the city and try to make some money for the city for the citizens,” Segrave said.
It’s been analyzed as a potential landfill site, if one is ever needed, and also sits atop groundwater with potential for well development. 
Currently, the city leases land on the east side of the park for cattle grazing. But developing some of the potential energy resources, Segrave said, could generate more income than the grazing leases.
“The trails are on the west quarter, maybe a third, of the ranch,” Segrave said. “So at least two-thirds of the ranch is simply used for grazing. It could be used for a lot of different things.”
Already, Belvoir Ranch is home to 75 NextEra Energy wind turbines on 16,600 leased acres, part of its Roundhouse Wind Energy Center. Those turbine leases are worth $39 million to the city over 39 years, revenue that helped fund the ranch’s new trail system.
Unlike the proposed solar project, those turbines are visible from the trails. 
For Abigail Rose, a Cheyenne Realtor, passing beneath those turbines didn’t take anything away from her experience exploring the trails with her young children over the summer.
“I think they’re kind of cool, honestly, just like big-ass windmills out there that you’re walking under through the trails,” Rose said. “It’s not a problem in my opinion, and I don’t think solar panels would be a problem, either.”
Dominic Valdez, another Realtor in Cheyenne, had the opportunity to go mountain biking on the trails in December, before the area was open to the public. He said he wouldn’t want to see the majority of the acreage covered by solar panels and doesn’t imagine that will be the case.
“We’ve been waiting for so long to get this Belvoir Ranch developed and open to recreation,” Valdez said. “I can’t imagine anybody that was behind this development allowing somebody to do enough solar out there to screw things up.”
Because there’s not much shade on Belvoir Ranch, Valdez said he didn’t go mountain biking there after his initial visit. He sees the area as more of a fall destination, when the sun isn’t so brutal. 
But he joked that maybe the proposed solar project could serve a dual purpose.
“There’s not a whole lot of shade out there, but maybe you could go from solar panel to solar panel and and hang out in the shade of the solar,” Valdez said.
Emma Jane Jackson can be reached at emma@cowboystatedaily.com.
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Emma Jane Jackson joined Cowboy State Daily as an energy reporter in September 2026.
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MyNewsLA.com
Breaking news for Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties
A fire broke out in an outdoor lithium battery storage unit near a solar farm at a Metropolitan Water District facility in La Verne Tuesday, prompting evacuation orders and forcing crews into a defensive posture, while sending one person to a hospital.
La Verne Fire Department Battalion Chief Mark Savage told City News Service the fire was reported around 11:40 a.m. at the facility in the 3200 block of Wheeler Avenue. Los Angeles County Fire Department crews also responded to the scene.
According to Savage, when firefighters initially arrived, there was a small explosion in the battery unit, but no injuries were reported. Savage said the storage unit involved lithium batteries.
Due to the hazardous nature of lithium batteries, fire crews were mainly spraying the area with water to prevent the flames from spreading.
Evacuation orders were issued in the areas around the facility. La Verne police said shopping centers along Wheeler north of Foothill Boulevard were evacuated as a precaution.
Grace Elementary School and Bonita High School were both placed under shelter-in-place orders as crews worked to contain the blaze.
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At about 12:50 p.m., the county fire department said the fire was a hazardous materials incident and that an evacuation order was issued “for everyone near Wheeler and Bonita Avenue.”
“Gather family and LEAVE NOW,” the fire department advised on its X account. “Your safety is in danger if you stay. Use caution while evacuating. Follow instructions from emergency personnel.”
By about 2:30 p.m., Savage said the fire activity had diminished significantly, but “there’s still a hazard on scene.” He said one civilian was injured and taken to a hospital, but no other details were immediately available on the cause or severity of that injury.
A short time later, some evacuation orders were downgraded to warnings, while others were reduced to advisories for residents to remain alert. An evacuation order remained in place in the immediate vicinity of the facility.
The MWD issued a statement saying the fire occurred “at a battery energy storage system near a solar panel field on the northeast side at the La Verne facility, which also houses the Weymouth Water Treatment Plant. The safety of Metropolitan’s water supply is not affected.”
The MWD is a regional water wholesaler that distributes water to agencies throughout Southern California serving millions of residents.
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Arunachal Pradesh Health and Family Welfare Minister Biyuram Wahge on Wednesday, September 23 inaugurated the state-level launch of the Energy for Health initiative, under which solar power systems will be provided to 393 healthcare centres across the state.
The initiative, implemented in collaboration with the SELCO Foundation, aims to improve the reliability of power supply at public health facilities, particularly in remote and resource-constrained areas.
The inauguration programme was held at the Primary Health Centre (PHC) Itafort in Itanagar and was attended by Commissioner of Health Pawan Kumar Saini and Secretary, Health Department, Vivek H.P.
During the event, Wahge released the photo book ‘Energy for Health – Arunachal Pradesh’ and launched the Saura e-Mitra App, a digital incident management system aimed at strengthening the monitoring and management of incidents related to health facilities.
A Health Facility and Human Resource Mapping System, a web-based application, was also launched during the programme. The system is intended to provide digital mapping of healthcare facilities and human resources across the state.
Dr Harish Hande, Chief Executive Officer of the SELCO Foundation, briefed the gathering on the organisation’s Energy for Health initiative and its work in strengthening energy access for healthcare facilities.
The SELCO Foundation’s Energy for Health programme is a nationwide initiative focused on providing reliable solar energy and energy-efficient medical technology to public health facilities in remote and underserved areas.
Under the programme, decentralised solar photovoltaic systems ranging from 3 kWp to 15 kWp, along with battery backup systems, are installed at healthcare facilities to ensure a more reliable power supply.
The foundation plans to provide solar energy solutions to 25,000 public health facilities across 12 states by the end of 2026. The initiative is expected to strengthen healthcare delivery and climate resilience for more than 170 million people and support over 160,000 frontline health workers.
The programme has been developed in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, state health missions and funding partners, including the IKEA Foundation.
In Arunachal Pradesh, the initiative is expected to support healthcare centres in addressing power-related challenges and improving the availability of essential medical services.
Copyright©2026 Living Media India Limited. For reprint rights: Syndications Today
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Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy (SWREL) has secured the Balance of System (BOS) package for a 534.3 MWp solar project in Rajasthan, India.
The company said the project was awarded by a leading independent power producer in India. SWREL has also secured turnkey engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts for two battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in South Africa, with a combined capacity of 616 MWh. The contracts were awarded by a Middle East-based renewable energy project developer.
The total value of the two orders, including taxes, exceeds INR 985 crore.
According to SWREL, the South African contracts represent the company’s second-largest utility-scale BESS project undertaking.
“Together, these orders reinforce the momentum in our business and the confidence customers place in our capabilities. They also demonstrate the strength of our customer relationships, built on consistent project execution, domain expertise and the skilled manpower we have developed over the years,” said Chandra Kishore Thakur, Global CEO, Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy.
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A major solar energy project proposed for western Mills County passed its first challenge last week.
After listening to a presentation from Orion Renewable Energy Group and comments from around 20 citizens, the Mills County Zoning Board of Adjustment unanimously approved a conditional use permit for the utility scale Folsom Lake Solar Project.
The nearly 6,000-acre, 800-megawatt solar project is proposed on leased land south of Bunge Ave. between the Missouri River and 195th St. and would include a 900-megawatt battery storage facility. It would be one of the largest solar projects in the state, producing enough electricity to power 144,000 average-size Iowa homes annually.
“There’s a huge demand for energy across the country,” said Sazzy Gourley, Orion Senior Project Development Manager. “The scale of the project is designed to meet that need and that demand.”
Orion has secured written agreements with 15 Mills County farm families, who have agreed to lease land on their property for the 35-year lifespan of the project.
“We have a lot of interest from farmers in this community, many of whom are older and see this as a form of retirement,” said Gourley. “Some of them also were hit hard by the flooding of 2019. They’ve seen their costs increase and can use the stable income from our rental agreements to invest in their farming operations elsewhere.”
The low productivity of the flood-damaged farm ground in western Mills County and the proximity to nearby industry make the area attractive for development of a solar project, Gourley noted. Soil on the land being utilized for the project has an average CSR2 rating of 60.51. CSR2 ratings below 65 are considered low-quality soils for growing crops.
“So, we’re not taking prime farmland out of production,” said Gourley. That’s one reason why this a good location for the project. It’s also near heavy industry, such as the coal plant, and the Bunge facility. It’s close to existing power-generation infrastructure. There’s a lower population density – we’re just east of the Missouri River and largely south of Bunge Ave., so most of the families that live in our area are part of the project.”
Several of the landowners who have signed contracts with Orion voiced support for the project at the public hearing.
Lori Green said she lives on a 400-acre farm that has been part of her husband’s family for 100 years.
“The soil on our property is not a rich, prime soil that much of Iowa is noted for,” she said. “We are farm leasing with an excellent farmer, but he is now 90 years old. The last two years, he planted just two-thirds of the acres on our farm because he was concerned about the low yield potential. We still have to pay taxes, despite that.
“With rising operational costs, unpredictable weather, less-than-ideal soil and profit margins continuing to shrink, the reality is no younger farmers are coming forward wanting to farm our farm. So, Tom and I finally came to the realization that we really need to make decisions on what opportunities are available to us, rather than those we thought existed or even wishing existed.”
Other landowners and Mills County residents involved with the project shared similar sentiment. Dan Robbins said he wanted to address a false narrative about the project being spread on social media.
“The land is not being sold to a big power company. The landowners are leasing land,” he said.
Robbins said the lease agreements allow landowners the ability to afford increased costs and property taxes and secure ownership of the property for generations to come.
“The farmers that are currently farming the majority of the land in this project are the same people in this room,” he said. “They’re not losing income, they’re not losing farm ground. They are essentially increasing their income and securing something that will come for future purchases, retirement and beneficiaries when we’re all gone.”
Glenwood resident Maddi Sieck said Orion has earned her support, despite concerns she has about the future of some other renewable energy projects around the country
“My brother, sister and I might be the first decedents coming into this,” she said. My uncle and my dad signed the contracts with Orion. I can say now that I’m fully proud of being part of this. I can see that they have taken the time to work with our community. This is not just a one-and-done, in-and-out, push-it-through kind of thing. I’m excited to be a part of it and I’m also committed to making sure that a lot of the things that we’re talking about tonight are followed through on our land and in our project.”
Orion’s financial commitment to community projects throughout Mills County drew praise from other project proponents who spoke at the hearing. Folsom Lake Solar has already made sizable financial contributions to several projects, including murals in Pacific Junction and Malvern, equipment for first responders, the Glenwood 4th of July celebration and a playground initiative in Silver City.
A community grant fund established by Orion through the Community Foundation For Western Iowa will provide up to $17,500 in grant funding for community endeavors in the county over 35 years.
“All of the dollars have to be granted out into Mills County and the funding decisions will be made by a committee of Mills County residents,” Gourley stated. “We’re really excited for the potential impact and also the authority that it gives people in Mills County to decide what’s most important to fund as the county’s needs change over time.”
There was opposition to the project voiced by some citizens at the public hearing, including Terynes Kleffman who lives a half-mile south of the project area.
“I believe deeply in property rights – a landowner should have the freedom to use their land as they see fit so as that use does not cause harm to others,” she said.
Kleffman called the project an unmitigated conflict of land use.
“This specific project area serves as a critical, irreplaceable biological bridge. It sits directly between the St. Mary’s Islands Wildlife Management Area to the south and the Folsom Lake Wildlife Management Area to the east and north,” she said.
“Roughly 20 years ago, public resources and tax dollars were invested to build up these tracks.  Habitat restoration takes a generation. Our community is just now starting to realize the full ecological return for that investment. In fact, that corridor is working so well, that it is a proven pathway for deer, migrating fowl and even elk have passed through there.”
Ed Cambridge said he is neither in favor nor opposed to the project. While he praised Orion for its thorough presentation and generosity in the community, he also has questions and concerns
“My question is, how can Mills County be certain in all of the terms in the zoning ordinance as well as the generous promises will be fully complied with in the future? Thirty-five years is a long time,” he said. “Orion is the developer, the promoter who obtained the leases and seeks permission to build the farm. The actual construction and operation for the next 35 years will be carried out by others – contractors, sub-contractors, operators, non-resident investors and even perhaps foreign entities.
And those entities may be guided by other objectives and motivations.
“A project of this scale and magnitude has the potential to become a problem that does not ensure the protection, the health, safety and welfare of Mills County.”
Orion officials were allowed to give closing statements and address audience concerns before the public hearing was closed.
Before taking a vote on the conditional use permit, board members entered into discussion with Mills County’s Building and Zoning Consultant Matt Wyatt.
Wyatt read aloud a lengthy list of conditions that Orion would need to meet as part of its permit if approved by the board, including providing funding for a third-party inspector during the construction process.
The solar project is projected to generate over $1 million-plus annually in additional property tax revenue. Board member Pat Collins questioned how big of an impact the additional property tax revenue will make, noting that Mills County has very little commercial or industrial tax base at this time.
Wyatt said the impact will be significant.
“When you’re talking about a million dollars on a rural levy, that’s significant in any county,” he said. “Rural levies are your lowest levies – that’s your ag land, things like that. To add a million dollars on a rural levy, that is a big deal.”
Now that the project has approval from the Board of Adjustment, Orion will focus on the permitting process with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Iowa Utilities Commission. Because of the solar projects proximity to Offutt Air Force Base,
Orion will likely be required to meet some special conditions before getting approval from the FAA.
Wyatt said last week’s approval from the Board of Adjustment for the conditional use permit puts Orion on a 5-year clock to complete the additional state and FAA permitting requirements and complete construction.
Gourley said the earliest start for construction would be in the spring of 2028 and the project could start to come online by the end of 2028. In addition to hundreds of construction jobs, he said the project will create 10-15 full-time operations and maintenance positions.
In addition to the additional property tax revenue and community grant fund, Gourley said there will be additional economic benefits from the project.
The Solar Neighbor Program offers non-participating residences living within one-third of a mile of solar panels annual payments of $2,500 and that amount escalates by 30% every decade. The Tenant Transition program is available to any tenant farmers who are currently farming grounds that will be used for solar panels. They’ll receive $300 per acre once the project commences.
Gourley and other Orion officials stressed the company has made a concerted effort to be a good fit for Mills County, communicating throughout the process with county officials, impacted landowners and neighbors and meeting or exceeding all county zoning requirements for utility scale solar projects.
“We door-knocked every home within a third of a mile of the project. We really wanted people to hear about it from us directly and answer any questions project neighbors might have,” said Gourley. “Our project meets or exceeds all of the county zoning requirements. There’s several places where we go above and beyond. One of those is our setbacks. After having conversations with the levee district and county leadership, we voluntarily committed to a 500-foot setback from the levee so that we are not developing in the levee critical zone.
“We’ve had lots of conversations with the local levee district and through those conversations, we also proactively removed any proposed facility showing greater than 3 feet of flooding in a 100-year scenario.”
Gourley said historically, Orion has focused on multiple sources of energy, but solar has become a priority.
“We believe there should be a healthy mix of different energy sources contributing to the grid and we just want solar to be a part of that,” he said.
 
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Council rejects Old Myrtle solar project  suffolknewsherald.com
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LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – Six weeks before facing voters, Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton is defending a veto that split her own council, using a former landfill turned solar farm to make her case.
Gorton vetoed a council-approved ordinance in September that would have allowed large-scale solar on agricultural land. She says the Haley Pike landfill solar project is the model she supports instead.
Edelen Renewables says that because the Haley Pike landfill has been capped, the land is sitting unused, so the company is turning it into a solar project.
“We believe in protecting prime farmland, so we only develop on brownfields like coal mines, landfills, or old industrial areas,” said Adam Edelen, CEO and founder of Edelen Renewables.
Edelen said the company approached the city about the Haley Pike landfill because he saw an opportunity for Lexington to be a pioneer in the green energy space.
“It’s a big deal and it will help Lexington with its goal of being net zero power,” Gorton said.
Gorton said the city encourages solar projects in the proper zones. She said the solar project she vetoed in September would have used agricultural land rather than a brownfield like the Haley Pike project.
“For me the veto was not about solar because I love solar and it was all about the precedent of putting industrial uses on our agricultural land,” Gorton said.
Edelen said that along with creating revenue for land that is sitting unused, the large-scale project will create jobs both during construction and once the project is completed.
“We’re working very hard with the local construction firm to make sure that these opportunities go first to the people of central Kentucky,” Edelen said.
The project is still in its beginning stages, with only one section’s solar panel racks being installed. The project will use 357 acres to provide solar power to Kentucky utilities’ power grid.
“As far as we know, this will be the largest landfill-to-solar project in the country and so Lexington continues to be a leader, continuing to demonstrate the path forward,” Edelen said.
Edelen Renewables believes the project will be completed by the final quarter of 2028.
Lexington mayoral candidate Raquel Carter was contacted for comment. Carter said her ideas on solar projects could not be expressed in a statement but was unavailable for an on-camera interview.
Gorton is doubling down on her decision to veto the Urban County Government’s solar zoning ordinance, emphasizing the agricultural land in Lexington.
“We have big time agriculture. It’s about 2.6 billion dollar economy every year. And so had we approved, and I not vetoed, the industrial solar on the ag land it would be the first time in almost 70 years that a council put industrial use on the ag land,” Gorton said.
This is Gorton’s second veto as mayor.
The council worked on a pathway for solar energy in Lexington for months and approved the amended ordinance earlier this month, capping large-scale solar projects at 1,800 acres. The council can override the mayor’s veto in a nine to 15 vote.
Copyright 2026 WKYT. All rights reserved.

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Home > Mains Article > Canal-Top Photovoltaics
Canal-top photovoltaics can generate solar power while saving land and reducing water evaporation, offering India a large but underused renewable energy opportunity.
By Vajiram Mains Team – Sep 23, 2026, 11:32 IST
Source: TH | ToI
Last updated on Sep, 2026
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Q1. What are canal-top photovoltaics? +
Ans. Canal-top photovoltaics are solar panels mounted on elevated structures over canals, generating electricity while allowing water to flow underneath without obstruction.
Q2. How can canal-top photovoltaics save land and water? +
Ans. Canal-top photovoltaics require little additional land and can reduce evaporation from covered canal stretches, particularly benefiting water-stressed regions.
Q3. What is India's potential for canal-top photovoltaics?+
Ans. A 2024 assessment estimated India’s combined canal-top photovoltaics and canal-bank solar potential at approximately 131 GW across suitable canal networks.
Q4. Why have canal-top photovoltaics not scaled rapidly in India?+
Ans. Canal-top photovoltaics face high structural costs, complex engineering requirements, difficult maintenance, canal layouts and challenges connecting projects efficiently to substations.
Q5. Which states have significant potential for canal-top photovoltaics?+
Ans. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab have the highest estimated potential for canal-top photovoltaics and canal-bank solar installations.
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India’s Solar PV Growth: Capacity Hits 168.04 GW by 2026  SolarQuarter
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Wednesday, September 23, 2026
An electric, autonomous robot that inspects the panels of utility-scale solar farms will make its debut in Australia as part of an Arena-backed initiative that will test and deploy new technologies across a range of projects, in the ongoing quest to unlock ultra-low cost solar.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) announced on Wednesday that it has awarded $25 million in funding to Equans Solar & Storage for a three-year trial called the Lightspeed project, that will test a series of innovations across Equans’ solar and storage pipeline.
Arena says the Lightspeed project aims to test and deploy up to 10 innovative technologies across five key areas – civil works, mechanical works, electrical works, operations and maintenance, and digital coordination – that could collectively reduce the levelised cost of energy from solar.
Solar PV is already the cheapest way to generate power, but Arena’s 30-30-30 vision aims to achieve 30 per cent PV module efficiency and 30 cents per watt (W) installed cost by 2030, and solar electricity below $20 per megawatt-hour.
The first technology to be put to the test in this particular project will be the Nextpower Ranger, a new addition to what is a growing pool of autonomous solar farm inspection robots, in this case produced by California-based PV tracking giant Nextpower.
According to the company’s website, the NX Ranger – as it is also known – is an autonomous robotic inspection system that performs a row-by-row inspection of the underside of solar modules, using advanced AI and dual thermal-optical cameras to “find and flag” issues.
“Its rugged design and 4WD mobility tackle remote terrain, while onboard edge AI delivers instant results – no waiting, no uploads, no guesswork,” the website says.
The trial is not the first use of a robot to inspect solar panels – the CSIRO is trialling its own version of the technology – a robot called “Bear” – and comparing the results with human assessments.
But it does mark the NX Ranger’s first use at an Australian solar farm, which will be used to help demonstrate its benefits to build market confidence.
Alongside solar inspection robots, the Lightspeed project will also test technologies like construction robots and automated piling systems, that have similar potential to reduce labour-intensive activities, improve construction efficiency, increase productivity, and enhance project delivery.
“By supporting the trial of multiple innovation projects under a single funding portfolio we can test technologies more quickly in real-world environments and at a greater scale,” said Arena CEO Darren Miller in a statement on Wednesday.
“This approach allows promising innovations to move from concept to real-world deployment faster, while ensuring lessons learned can be shared across the industry.”
Indeed, Arena has taken a similar approach with Fortescue, granting the mining giant $45 million to help establish a test bed for up to 10 technologies across its gigawatt-scale Pilbara solar portfolio – a key part of its pursuit of achieving “real zero” emissions at the giant mines by 2030.
That collaboration has already produced its first milestone report and a dedicated Built Robotics trial report, sharing insights from the trial of autonomous piling technology at the Cloudbreak Solar Farm in remote Pilbara conditions.
Arena says the new collaboration with Equans will build on this model, creating further opportunities to test, validate and share learnings from emerging technologies that can improve how large-scale solar projects are designed, built and operated.
“Lightspeed Solar project … supported by ARENA is a tremendous opportunity to pioneer in emerging technologies for site constructions and operations, as well as scaling up the use of automated machines and systems,” Equans innovation and development director, Benoit Froidurot, said this week.
“Facing the volume of renewable assets to be built in a near future, following the cost reduction trends and considering grid integration restrictions of solar energy, robotics supported by digital and IA will definitively contribute to achieve these goals,” Froidurot said.
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Sophie is editor of Renew Economy and editor of its sister site, One Step Off The Grid . She is the co-host of the Solar Insiders Podcast. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
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A ribbon cutting ceremony was held at the community solar project on Monegan Road last Wednesday. (Julie Engler/Whitefish Pilot)
Whitefish CIty Manager Dana Meeker and Stacey Schnebel, president of the board of trustees of Flathead Electric Cooperative cut the ribbon at the new community solar project on Monegan Road. (Julie Engle/Whitefish PIlot)
The sun understood the assignment and shone brightly over Monegan Road on Wednesday, Sept. 16 as Flathead Electric Cooperative, Bonneville Environmental Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the city of Whitefish and several citizens celebrated the completion of a new solar project.
“This is an exciting day for us because it reflects the kind of community driven project that this board wants to support – one shaped by local ideas, strong partnerships and meaningful benefits for our members,” said Stacey Schnebel, Flathead Electric Cooperative board president. 
The solar array, built on city land near the wastewater treatment plant, is made up of 448 solar panels that each generate about 700 kWh per year. The project is expected to generate enough power for 21 average homes. A battery system on site stores energy for peak demand. 
People may purchase a panel’s power generation for $700 per panel, which will result in a reduction on their power bill by about $43 per year, per panel. 
The solar array in Whitefish is the third community solar project Flathead Electric Coop has built. The first was built in 2015 off Whitefish Stage Road and the second, in 2018 in Kalispell. 
“This project came online earlier this year and also marks an important first for the cooperative,” Schnabel said. “This is our first community solar project that is paired with a utility-scale battery [that] allows us to store electricity and release it when it can provide better value to our electrical system, including during those periods of higher demand.”  
The energy generated by approximately 80 of the panels will offset the usage on the bills of low-income families in the area, thanks to a $50,000 grant from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation and a $5,000 donation from YeTI Photovoltaic, Inc. 
The U.S. Department of Agriculture provided a $463,307 Rural Energy for America Program grant, known as a REAP grant.   
“Partnerships are really how we get things done in Whitefish,” Whitefish Public Works Director Craig Workman said. 
Whitefish worked with Climate Smart Glacier Country in 2018 to develop the Climate Action Plan which has central themes like using energy more efficiently, conserving water, and producing more of the things we need locally,” he said, adding that creating a community solar project was an objective of the plan. 
“We wanted to help create a facility that could produce energy that is shared among many households and allow property owners to obtain solar power without having to bear the expense and the land burden to install the equipment on their own property,” Workman said. “This expands access to solar power for residents, business owners, commercial property and institutional property owners.” 
Reporter Julie Engler can be reached at 406-862-3505 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at whitefishpilot.com/support.
    Whitefish CIty Manager Dana Meeker and Stacey Schnebel, president of the board of trustees of Flathead Electric Cooperative cut the ribbon at the new community solar project on Monegan Road. (Julie Engle/Whitefish PIlot)
  

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Toxic industrial sites don't have to stay dead—one Massachusetts town transformed a poisoned gasworks into something that generates power instead of peril.
By Ainura Kalau
Published September 23, 2026 · How we edit
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In 2006, a crew in Brockton, Massachusetts finished sealing off a patch of land that had been sitting ruined for longer than most of the people walking past it had been alive. They weren’t digging anything up. They were capping what was underneath, then standing 1,395 solar panels on top of it. I came across this project decades after it happened, and what caught me wasn’t the panels themselves. It was the math of how long a piece of land can sit wrecked before anyone bothers to do something with it besides fence it off.
A quick caveat before I go further: I’m not an environmental engineer, and I have no technical background in remediation or solar construction. Everything below comes from reading contemporaneous reporting and government records, not from any expertise of my own.
Before it was a solar field, the site on Grove Street was a manufactured gas plant, part of a roughly 27-acre former gas works property that had been feeding gas to the city the way dozens of towns across the Northeast once ran on plants exactly like it. When the plant stopped operating, it left behind what these sites tend to leave behind: coal tar and ash worked into the ground. Reporting from the site in 2006, journalist Mark Baard described the panels as rooted in crushed rock covering that old coal tar and ash. That detail is the part of the brightfield story that doesn’t make it into ribbon-cutting photos. The land didn’t get scrubbed clean. It got sealed and left in place.
Brockton spent decades figuring out what to do with land like that, and this wasn’t the only site in the city carrying that kind of history. Lori Ribeiro, who had consulted for the city on its brownfields since 2000, put it directly when the solar project finally broke ground: “We want people to know that if you’re proposing to use these sites for all of your trash uses, we had something else in mind.” That line has stuck with me since I read it, because it names a specific kind of insult. Hand a city a ruined industrial lot, and the default assumption from developers is usually the least imaginative one available: another site for the uses nobody wants near a neighborhood people actually live in.
The word itself is a small pun on brownfield, and it names a fairly specific approach. Instead of trying to scrub a contaminated site clean enough for homes or a park, which gets enormously expensive once contamination runs deep, you cap it, keep any new construction from penetrating the ground, and put the site to work generating electricity instead. By the time it was finished, Brockton’s version came out to a 3.7-acre, 425-kilowatt solar garden carved out of the larger 27-acre parcel. Contracts were signed in March 2006, site preparation ran through April, and the panels went up in May, ahead of an October ribbon-cutting that drew local officials and, from what I can tell, a fair amount of genuine surprise that the plan had worked at all.
Not everyone believed in it going in. Brockton City Council member Linda Balzotti recalled her first reaction to hearing the pitch from the project’s original organizer, years before the panels ever arrived: “I thought he had rocks in his head.” I like that quote because it’s honest in a way these retrospectives rarely allow themselves to be. Most write-ups on a project like this skip straight to the triumphant framing. Balzotti’s line is a reminder that putting a small power plant’s worth of equipment on top of poisoned ground probably sounded like a stretch to plenty of reasonable people in that room.
Mayor James Harrington, once the contract was finalized, framed it the way officials tend to when a plan finally clears: “Brockton is very fortunate to be able to redevelop an idle brownfield into a solar ‘Brightfield’ that generates emission-free solar energy.” By the time the array switched on that October, it was producing on land that had generated nothing but liability for decades.
How do you check a claim like “largest in the country”? In this case, mostly by looking at what trade press was saying at the time. Coverage from late 2006, including a write-up in Electrical Contractor magazine, described the Brockton array as the biggest brightfield in the nation at the moment it opened. That claim was accurate as a snapshot of a young, small industry, when a 425-kilowatt array could plausibly top a very short list. It was never built to last, and it didn’t. Solar scaled fast in the years after, and a 2025 accounting of brownfield-to-solar conversions counted more than 600 brightfield projects scattered across the country, with nearly every closed landfill in Massachusetts alone now carrying a solar array of some kind. Brockton wasn’t the ceiling. It turned out to be closer to a proof of concept that the rest of the industry then ran with.
That’s the more interesting fact to me than the record itself. A “largest in the country” claim is the kind of thing that photographs well and ages fast. What outlasted the record here was the model, not the ranking.
I grew up in a household where money was tight, in ways that shape how you look at a place like this for the rest of your life. I’ve since built a comfortable, upper-middle-class life with my husband, and that gives me an odd vantage point on a story like Brockton’s. I’ve seen both sides of the line that decides who ends up living next to a ruined industrial lot and who gets to never think about it. Cities built up on gasworks and leatherworks and textile mills tend to be working-class cities, and the sites those industries leave behind tend to sit in the neighborhoods with the least leverage to demand something better than a fence and a warning sign.
That’s my own opinion, drawn from where I come from rather than any expertise on land use policy, so take it as one. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a site like this sat idle for decades before anyone found a use for it that didn’t require moving the people around it first. A solar array is a genuinely good outcome for that kind of land. It is also a fairly modest one, next to what a wealthier zip code would likely have gotten instead of a fence.
The panels installed in 2006 are, as far as the public record shows, still the same ones doing the work today, sitting on the same crushed rock, over the same sealed ground. Nobody drives past expecting a monument. From what photos exist, it looks like exactly what it is: a fenced lot of solar panels next to a city with plenty of other things going on. The most useful fixes rarely announce themselves. This one just keeps quietly producing electricity on land that spent longer being useless than it has spent being useful, and one of these years that ratio finally tips the other way for good.
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Ainura was born in Central Asia, spent over a decade in Malaysia, and studied at an Australian university before settling in São Paulo, where she’s now raising her family. Her life blends cultures and perspectives, something that naturally shapes her writing. When she’s not working, she’s usually trying new recipes while binging true crime shows, soaking up sunny Brazilian days at the park or beach, or crafting something with her hands.
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Arunachal Pradesh Health and Family Welfare Minister Biyuram Wahge on Wednesday, September 23 inaugurated the state-level launch of the Energy for Health initiative, under which solar power systems will be provided to 393 healthcare centres across the state.
The initiative, implemented in collaboration with the SELCO Foundation, aims to improve the reliability of power supply at public health facilities, particularly in remote and resource-constrained areas.
The inauguration programme was held at the Primary Health Centre (PHC) Itafort in Itanagar and was attended by Commissioner of Health Pawan Kumar Saini and Secretary, Health Department, Vivek H.P.
During the event, Wahge released the photo book ‘Energy for Health – Arunachal Pradesh’ and launched the Saura e-Mitra App, a digital incident management system aimed at strengthening the monitoring and management of incidents related to health facilities.
A Health Facility and Human Resource Mapping System, a web-based application, was also launched during the programme. The system is intended to provide digital mapping of healthcare facilities and human resources across the state.
Dr Harish Hande, Chief Executive Officer of the SELCO Foundation, briefed the gathering on the organisation’s Energy for Health initiative and its work in strengthening energy access for healthcare facilities.
The SELCO Foundation’s Energy for Health programme is a nationwide initiative focused on providing reliable solar energy and energy-efficient medical technology to public health facilities in remote and underserved areas.
Under the programme, decentralised solar photovoltaic systems ranging from 3 kWp to 15 kWp, along with battery backup systems, are installed at healthcare facilities to ensure a more reliable power supply.
The foundation plans to provide solar energy solutions to 25,000 public health facilities across 12 states by the end of 2026. The initiative is expected to strengthen healthcare delivery and climate resilience for more than 170 million people and support over 160,000 frontline health workers.
The programme has been developed in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, state health missions and funding partners, including the IKEA Foundation.
In Arunachal Pradesh, the initiative is expected to support healthcare centres in addressing power-related challenges and improving the availability of essential medical services.
Copyright©2026 Living Media India Limited. For reprint rights: Syndications Today
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With the recent expansion of a solar array near the University of Toledo Medical Center, UToledo is more than doubling its capacity for solar energy production on Health Science Campus while creating opportunities for student learning and research.
The University will celebrate the completion of the project with a ribbon-cutting ceremony beginning at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 24. The array is located along Main Technology Drive, and the ceremony is set to take place in the adjacent Parking Area 44E.
UToledo will celebrate the completion of a solar array expansion near UTMC with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. The array is located along Main Technology Drive, and the ceremony is set to take place in the adjacent Parking Area 44E.
“This project is an exciting, real-world demonstration of the importance of the groundbreaking advances being made at First Solar and the strong connection to our work at the Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization,” said Dr. Michael Heben, a Distinguished University Professor and the Helen and Harold McMaster Chair and Director of UToledo’s Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization.
“In addition to the economic and environmental benefits, this array serves as an educational asset for our science and engineering students, offering hands-on experience with commercial-scale renewable energy systems. I applaud the hard work done by the Student Green Fund, Michael Green, director of energy sustainability and energy efficiency at UToledo, Dr. Randy Ellingson, a Distinguished University Professor and Wright Center for Photovoltaics Endowed Professor, and our friends at First Solar for making this all happen.”
The original installation has generated more than 2.6 million kilowatt-hours of clean energy since it came online in late 2020. When combined with a reduction in peak electrical demand, this translates to a total economic impact of nearly $275,000.
The expansion increases the nameplate capacity of the array from 330 to 750 kilowatts, more than doubling its expected annual electrical production. This annual electrical production is now estimated at more than $70,000, in addition to peak-demand savings.
As a student-driven initiative that benefits from cutting-edge technology donated by First Solar, the project reflects the power of student leadership, community partnership and research excellence at UToledo.
The array is the flagship project of the Student Green Fund, a committee of undergraduate and graduate students that administers the voluntary $5 fee that students are assessed each semester in partnership with UToledo’s Office of Sustainability. The fund has supported numerous student-led initiatives since its establishment in 2017, including the installation of high-efficiency hand dryers in campus bathrooms and refillable water bottle stations in high-traffic buildings on Main Campus and Health Science Campus.
The Student Green Fund contributed $350,000 to cover the first-phase installation of the solar array and $530,000 to cover the second-phase expansion.
The array is also supported by First Solar, the solar technology giant with a significant footprint in Northwest Ohio and long-standing ties to UToledo. First Solar donated Series 5 modules for the first phase and now Series 6 Plus modules for the second-phase expansion.
First Solar specializes in a type of photovoltaic technology that utilizes cadmium telluride.
UToledo is a global leader in the research and development of cadmium telluride and other thin-film technologies. University physicists — including two who are credited among the most highly cited researchers in the world — routinely publish ground-breaking research that supports a broader distinction in materials science that positions UToledo among U.S. News & World Report‘s Best Global Universities.
“This solar array project has grown into a sustainable system that improves our campus utilities while supporting community electrical grid reliability,” said Michael Green, director of energy sustainability and energy efficiency at UToledo. “It would not have happened without the Student Green Fund and First Solar. As we evaluate third-phase expansion, I look forward to working together to further sustainable systems development at UToledo.”
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The median price for solar PV modules imported to the US has increased by more than 40% since the imposition of tariffs set under Section 232 by the Trump administration in August.
This is according to the latest data from Anza, which compares average price data for imported modules prior to the new Section 232 rules and prices for modules purchased since 7 August, which are expected to be delivered after 4 December, the date at which the minimum import prices introduced in the new Section 232 rules will take effect.
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Anza notes that, between these periods, the average price of a module imported to the US has increased from US$0.27/W to US$0.38/W. PV Tech has asked Anza for further details on specific module technologies
“The industry has been preparing for potential Section 232 impacts for months, and we are now entering the most critical procurement window,” said Aaron Hall, president of Anza, who added that the upcoming 4 December deadline is important, but that module procurement should be planned for well in advance of this date.
“December 4 may be the effective date, but developers can’t treat it as the deadline to make a procurement decision,” Hall added. “Modules need time to ship and clear US Customs before then, and lower-cost supply available ahead of the deadline is already tightening.”
In August, Hall described the new Section 232 rules as “a very strong domestic manufacturing policy”, and today’s pricing data brings to an end a “wait-and-see” period that Anza CEO Mike Hall described to PV Tech Premium in July. Ultimately, uncertainty about the US solar supply chain and access to modules produced overseas has led to additional costs being passed on to buyers.
Indeed, other Anza data published today shows that post-4 December quotes for module prices are up “about 15%”, suggesting that this increase in prices will continue beyond the start of December. The company makes a number of recommendations alongside its latest data, including for buyers to prioritise purchasing from domestic manufacturers and seek components and products that can clear US Customs before 4 December.
The high prices in the US compare to lower module prices in Europe. Figures from sun.store’s pv.index show that back contact (BC), full black and monofacial tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) module prices all fell between July and August, while bifacial TOPCon modules saw a month-on-month price increase.

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A proposed 300-megawatt solar facility and 120-megawatt battery storage project in Butte County is moving closer to the application stage, with Cenergy Power planning to submit to the California Energy Commission soon. If approved, most of the power generated would go back into Butte County, though concerns have been raised about the project’s impact on Blue Oak trees at the planned site.
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The New South Wales (NSW) government has opened a consultation on what it describes as Australia’s first mandatory solar module recycling scheme, releasing a draft regulation and issues paper designed to keep end-of-life modules out of landfill.
The proposed mandatory product stewardship scheme would require solar module brand owners to take financial and logistical responsibility for their products at end of life, funding collection, recycling and resource recovery infrastructure across the state.
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NSW’s Environment Protection Authority is running the consultation, seeking input from unions, industry, recyclers, manufacturers, researchers, local government and the community on how to build recycling, remanufacturing and manufacturing capacity in the state.
According to the government, NSW leads the country in solar uptake, with more than 1.18 million rooftop systems installed across homes, businesses, schools and community facilities.
The state generates around 14,000 tonnes of solar module waste annually, a figure the government projects will rise to 89,000 tonnes by 2045 as the state’s early wave of rooftop installations reaches end of life.
NSW Minister for the Environment Penny Sharpe said the scheme was designed to prevent that growth in waste while capturing the value locked inside retired modules.
“NSW has embraced rooftop solar, and now we’re making sure those panels don’t become tomorrow’s landfill problem,” Sharpe said. “Solar panels contain valuable materials that can be recovered and put back to work.”
Solar modules contain recoverable aluminium, glass, silicon, copper and silver. The government has framed the scheme as a way to build local supply chains and manufacturing capability around those recovered materials, rather than treating recycling purely as a waste management cost.
The case for treating solar module recycling as a material recovery opportunity rather than a disposal obligation has been building in Australian research circles for some time.
In an interview with PV Tech Premium, Professor Yansong Shen, who leads UNSW’s ARC Hub for Photovoltaic Solar Panel Recycling and Sustainability, warned that the solar industry could exhaust global silver reserves within five years at current production rates unless commercial-scale recycling infrastructure is developed.
Shen argued that module recycling should be treated as an “urban mining” challenge requiring metallurgical engineering expertise, rather than a reverse-manufacturing process, and that around 94% of the material in an end-of-life module can theoretically be recovered, though the extraction steps beyond basic sorting remain largely uncommercialised worldwide.
That resource case is playing out against the backdrop of low national recovery rates. The federal government has said only 17% of solar modules are currently recycled in Australia, despite estimating that improved recovery could unlock up to AU$7.3 billion (US$5.1 billion) in benefits through reduced waste and material reuse.
Global PV waste volumes are forecast to reach around 8 million tonnes by 2030 and 78 million tonnes by 2050, according to projections Shen cites, with Australia’s high per-capita solar installation rate making the problem more acute locally than in most other markets.
The NSW proposal is not the first Australian government intervention in PV module recycling, but it is the first to propose making participation mandatory rather than funding voluntary infrastructure.
Western Australia committed AU$17.8 million (US$12.7 million) in its 2026-27 state budget to its Remade in WA programme, split between establishing new collection and processing pathways for end-of-life modules, supporting local government battery collection and ongoing programme delivery.
WA’s approach has leaned on the state’s existing metals-processing industry, treating module recycling as an extension of established aluminium, copper and lithium processing capabilities rather than an entirely new sector.
At the federal level, the government has already committed AU$24.7 million to a national solar module recycling pilot, intended to establish up to 100 collection sites and build the logistics, transport and processing data needed before any national scheme is finalised.
Victoria has taken a different regulatory route, banning solar modules from landfill outright rather than mandating stewardship, a distinction Shen has said matters because a landfill ban addresses environmental protection directly, while a stewardship scheme is better suited to building the recycling industry itself.
NSW’s mandatory scheme sits between those approaches, combining a landfill-avoidance goal with an industry-building rationale similar to WA’s.

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COMMENTARY: The global energy transition shifts from generation to integration  Reuters
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Oswal Pumps has secured an INR 273.19 crore order from Telangana Renewable Energy Development Corporation to install 46.7 MW of grid-connected rooftop solar plants across 9,937 government schools in Telangana.
September 23, 2026. By Mrinmoy Dey

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The Greek government has published a provisional list of 209 businesses selected to receive subsidies for battery storage systems installed alongside existing or new solar PV projects.
The funding is being awarded under Greece’s “Go Beyond Solar Battery” program, which was launched in January 2025.
The provisional list includes 209 companies across Greece. Applicants whose proposals were rejected have until Sept. 25 to lodge an appeal.
The approved applications represent a combined 28.2 MW/49.3 MWh of battery storage capacity. All of the storage systems have durations of up to two hours. The batteries will be paired with a combined 30.8 MW of PV capacity across the 209 projects.
Of the successful applicants, 175 are small businesses, 23 are medium-sized businesses and 11 are large businesses.
Subsidy levels vary according to company size. Small businesses can receive support covering 50% of eligible battery costs, while medium-sized businesses are eligible for 40% and large businesses for 30%.
The 209 projects will receive approximately €8.15 million ($9.31 million) in total funding, according to Greece’s Ministry of Environment and Energy. The funding comes from the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), established as part of the European Union’s post-pandemic recovery package.
Greece launched the Go Beyond Solar Battery program in January 2025 to support businesses installing energy storage alongside operational or planned PV systems. The subsidies apply to storage systems rather than the associated PV installations.
In addition to battery procurement and installation, the program covers energy management systems and costs associated with connecting projects to local electricity networks.
The ministry said the 209 projects must be completed by Oct. 31, leaving successful applicants a little more than a month to procure, receive and install the equipment.
The short implementation window could prove challenging for project developers. The Hellenic Association of Photovoltaic Companies (Helapco), a Greek solar industry association, warned in January this year that its implementation timetable could create difficulties.
According to the ministry, the supported projects are expected to help participating businesses increase energy self-consumption and reduce electricity costs. Of the 209 successful applications, 131 projects will operate under net billing, while the remaining 78 will operate under zero-feed-in arrangements.
The provisional awards, however, represent only a fraction of the program’s original target. When the scheme was launched in January 2025, it had a budget of €153.7 million and targeted the installation of 333 MW of battery storage capacity at commercial and industrial sites.
The 28.2 MW of storage power provisionally approved to date represents about 8.5% of that original capacity target, while the €8.15 million allocated to the 209 projects amounts to about 5.3% of the program’s initial budget.
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PetroGreen Energy Corporation's Bugallon solar power plant project uses Trina Solar’s 705W and 710W Vertex N modules to support performance under the Philippines’ tropical operating conditions.
September 23, 2026. By News Bureau
Trinasolar, a smart PV and energy storage solutions provider, has supplied 35,350 Vertex N 705W and 710W modules (NEG21C.20) for PetroGreen Energy Corporation's 25 MWp Bugallon Solar Power Plant in Pangasinan, Philippines.
Bugallon Solar Power Plant was developed and is operated by Bugallon Green Energy Corporation, a project company under Rizal Green Energy Corporation, the joint venture between PetroGreen and Japan's Taisei Corporation.
The project has recently received its certificate of compliance from the Energy Regulatory Commission and commenced commercial operations in the Philippines’ Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) on September 5, 2026. Developed under the Green Energy Auction Programme Round 2, the project turns auction-backed capacity into new generation for the Luzon grid. It is expected to generate approximately 51 GWh of electricity annually, offsetting approximately 36,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year.
The modules supplied for Bugallon are Trinasolar's n-type i-TOPCon Vertex N 705W and 710W bifacial dual-glass modules. The modules’ power temperature coefficient of −0.29 percent per degree Celsius and resistance to high-temperature and high-humidity environments support long-term performance in the Philippines' tropical operating conditions.
The project extends the partnership between Trinasolar and PetroGreen that dates back to 2015. Previous utility-scale solar projects include the 20 MWp Tarlac-2 project, the 27 MWp Dagohoy project in Bohol, and the 40 MWp Limbauan project in Isabela.
Maria Victoria M. Olivar, Senior Vice President for Business Development and Commercial Operations at PetroGreen Energy Corporation, said, "Each project has strengthened how PetroGreen and Trinasolar work together. From Dagohoy and Limbauan to Bugallon, Trinasolar has supported us with the latest module technology, dependable supply and the continuity needed to advance a growing portfolio. That consistency matters as PetroGreen brings more utility-scale solar capacity into operation across the Philippines."
Elva Wang, Group Director for Southeast Asia at Trinasolar, said, "Since Trinasolar entered the Philippines in 2013, Trinasolar has grown with the market and with longstanding partners like PetroGreen. The Bugallon Solar Power Plant marks another significant step towards achieving the Philippines’ target of 35 percent renewable energy share in its power-generation mix by 2030. We are grateful to be part of this progress alongside invaluable partners like PetroGreen as we continue to deliver the latest solar and energy storage solutions to support the country’s evolving energy needs."

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Alpex Solar Ltd has inaugurated a 2.2 GW tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar cell manufacturing facility at the Kosi Kotwan Industrial Area in Mathura district, Uttar Pradesh, expanding the company’s manufacturing capabilities further upstream in the solar photovoltaic (PV) value chain.
Spread across 9 lakh sq ft, the facility will manufacture G12R TOPCon solar cells. The company said the new capacity will strengthen its ability to serve the domestic solar PV market while adding cell manufacturing capabilities to its existing operations.
Manufacturing expansion
The new facility marks an expansion of Alpex Solar’s manufacturing portfolio beyond its existing solar module manufacturing and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) activities.
Aditya Sehgal, Chief Executive Officer, Alpex Solar Ltd, said, “The 2.2 GW G12R TOPCon cell manufacturing facility marks an important milestone in Alpex Solar’s journey from a solar module manufacturer and EPC provider to a more deeply integrated renewable energy company.”
Monica Sehgal, Whole-time Director, Alpex Solar Limited, said, “The 2.2 GW TOPCon cell facility represents a strategic investment in expanding our manufacturing depth and creating greater value across the solar PV value chain. Vertical integration will give us greater control over critical inputs, technology, and quality, while improving our ability to respond to evolving market requirements.”
The company operates multiple manufacturing facilities across Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, with an integrated portfolio covering solar PV cells and modules, EPC solutions, solar pumps and aluminium frames.
Capacity expansion
Alpex Solar’s existing operations in Greater Noida are set to expand through five new manufacturing units across Greater Noida, Kosi-Kotwan in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The newly inaugurated 2.2 GW TOPCon cell facility takes the company’s manufacturing operations further upstream.
The company’s longer-term expansion plans have also included wafer and ingot manufacturing, as well as solar glass.
The featured photograph is for representation only.
Hitachi Energy has won a contract from Nordic Electro Power (NEPower) to supply power conversion systems for Finland’s largest battery energy storage system (BESS), being developed by Swiss energy company Alpiq in Haapajärvi. The 125 MW project will support Fingrid’s reserve market and help balance electricity supply and demand. Commissioning is planned for mid-2027. Hitachi…
Read More Hitachi Energy wins contract for Finland’s largest battery storage project
The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has established a uniform procedure for allowing additional time to developers that fail to meet prescribed milestones for connectivity to the inter-State Transmission System, subject to payment of milestone extension charges. In its order dated 14 August 2026, CERC laid down eligibility conditions and compensation rates for delays in…
Read More CERC lays out uniform procedure for transmission connectivity extensions
A consortium of Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) and Hitachi Energy India has secured a contract from Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) for the Khavda-Nagpur High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission project.  The contract involves designing and constructing 800kV, 6,000 MW HVDC terminal stations at the Khavda Pooling Station-2 in Gujarat and Nagpur in Maharashtra. …
Read More BHEL-Hitachi Energy consortium wins Khavda-Nagpur HVDC project
GE Vernova has secured a 140 MW wind turbine order in Romania from Public Power Corporation Renewables (PPCR). The company will supply, install, and commission 23 turbines, each with a 6.1MW capacity, for a wind project in Vaslui County. The agreement, finalized in Q2 2024, strengthens GE Vernova’s role in the European Union’s energy transition,…
Read More GE Vernova secures 140 MW wind turbine order in Romania
Tata Power and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Limited have opened a large-scale electric vehicle (EV) charging hub in Mumbai under the TATA.ev MegaCharger initiative. The launch took place on World EV Day and marks the companies’ first co-branded charging facility in the city. The hub is located near Terminal 2 of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International…
Read More Tata Power and Tata Passenger launch Mumbai’s largest EV charging hub
Tata Power Renewable Energy Limited (TPREL), a subsidiary of Tata Power Company Limited, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Andhra Pradesh to develop up to 7,000 MW of renewable energy projects.   Under this partnership, TPREL and the Andhra Pradesh government will explore solar, wind, and hybrid projects, with or without…
Read More Tata Power signs MoU with Andhra Pradesh for 7,000 MW green energy projects
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Solex Energy Ltd. has provided further details of plans to expand beyond solar module manufacturing and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services into solar cell production and battery energy storage systems (BESS).
In May, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Gujarat government to develop 5 GW of solar cell manufacturing capacity and 10 GWh of battery energy storage capacity. At its 12th Annual General Meeting, Solex outlined a timeline for the expansion, targeting 2.2 GW of solar cell capacity by fiscal 2028 and 5.2 GW by early fiscal 2029.
The company also plans to establish 10 GWh of battery pack and container assembly capacity, with the first 5 GWh phase targeted for fiscal 2029.
The expansion is part of an investment program of approximately INR 40 billion ($418.2 million) between fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2030, which Solex described as the largest in its history.
Solex reported revenue of INR 16.21 billion for fiscal 2026, up 143.9% year on year. Ebitda stood at INR 1.87 billion, while profit after tax reached INR 983 million.
The company said its order book exceeds INR 34 billion.
“Our focus is on creating an integrated, technology-driven and globally competitive energy platform from India, with the resilience to grow across cycles and the discipline to create enduring value,” said Chetan Shah, chairman and managing director of Solex Energy.
Solex said the planned move into solar cell manufacturing will give it greater control over quality, costs and supply chains while increasing its participation in India’s domestic solar manufacturing sector.
Energy storage is another focus of the expansion. The company expects demand for renewable generation paired with storage to increase alongside electricity consumption from electric mobility, industrial electrification, artificial intelligence and data centers.
Solex is targeting revenue of more than INR 45 billion by fiscal 2028.
The company is also pursuing international expansion through plans for Solex Europe and Solex USA.
Solex has also recently expanded its technology roadmap through a partnership with Germany’s ISC Konstanz, focused on advancing high-efficiency solar cell technologies. The collaboration includes work on upgrading TOPCon cell lines and developing next-generation back-contact and tandem technologies.
In October 2025, the partners unveiled a rear-contact solar module concept based on n-type technology, offering up to 24.6% efficiency and 665 W output, with commercial production targeted for fiscal year 2027.
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A new predictive control strategy could help building operators reduce energy costs and improve the use of renewable power without the high computing requirements associated with more complex optimisation systems.
The study, titled A predictive rule based control strategy for integrated building energy systems with photovoltaic, heat pump, thermal tank and electric vehicles, examines the operation of buildings equipped with photovoltaic systems, heat pumps, thermal storage tanks and electric vehicles.
Buildings account for about 30% of global energy consumption, making their energy management an important part of efforts to improve efficiency and reduce emissions. Integrated building energy systems can increase renewable energy use, lower operating costs and provide greater flexibility to the electricity grid, but these benefits depend heavily on how the equipment is controlled.
Conventional rule based control is widely used because it is relatively simple and easy to implement. However, it generally relies on fixed operating rules and has limited ability to respond to future changes in electricity demand, solar generation, weather conditions and electricity tariffs.
Model predictive control can address this limitation by using forecasts to optimise equipment operation over a future period. Its drawback is the substantial computing power and complex online optimisation required, particularly when several devices and storage systems operate together.
The researchers developed a predictive rule based control strategy designed to combine the practical simplicity of conventional rule based control with the forecasting capability of model predictive control.
The strategy uses forecasts for weather, building demand and photovoltaic generation to determine the most suitable charging and discharging power, as well as target energy levels for the thermal tank and electric vehicles during different tariff periods. It then determines the actual operation of the heat pump, storage systems and other equipment based on real time system conditions and the overall energy balance.
Results
The results indicate that the proposed strategy delivered performance close to model predictive control while requiring only slightly more computing time than conventional rule based control.
During the one week simulation, the average computing time for each control action was 0.18 seconds for conventional rule based control, 0.27 seconds for the predictive rule based strategy and 239.81 seconds for model predictive control.
Total operating costs were CNY 3,446.93 under conventional rule based control. The predictive rule based strategy reduced this to CNY 2,176.37, while model predictive control achieved CNY 2,034.95.
The results show that the predictive strategy captured most of the cost saving available through model predictive control, while avoiding its significantly higher computational burden.
The strategy also reduced reliance on grid electricity during weekday peak periods. Grid purchases represented about 70% of total electric load under conventional rule based control, compared with approximately 20% under the predictive strategy and 12% under model predictive control.
Potential for practical deployment
According to the study, the results demonstrate that predictive rule based control can continuously adjust the operation of multiple storage devices according to changing conditions, rather than relying only on fixed operating modes, setpoints or thresholds.
This is particularly relevant for buildings with electric vehicles, whose availability and charging schedules can vary throughout the day. Coordinating electric vehicle charging with photovoltaic output, building demand, electricity prices and thermal storage could help reduce peak demand and improve the use of locally generated solar power.
The researchers conclude that the proposed strategy provides a lower complexity alternative for integrated building energy systems. Its combination of predictive capability, reduced computing requirements and relatively strong economic performance could support practical applications where full model predictive control is difficult or costly to implement.
The study provides a potential foundation for deploying more flexible energy management systems in commercial and residential buildings, including projects seeking to integrate distributed solar generation, efficient heating technologies, thermal storage and electric mobility.
Link to the full paper HERE 
Author: Bryan Groenendaal






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In India, a Surge of Solar Is Keeping Coal Power in Check  Yahoo
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The Greek government has published a provisional list of 209 businesses selected to receive subsidies for battery storage systems installed alongside existing or new solar PV projects.
The funding is being awarded under Greece’s “Go Beyond Solar Battery” program, which was launched in January 2025.
The provisional list includes 209 companies across Greece. Applicants whose proposals were rejected have until Sept. 25 to lodge an appeal.
The approved applications represent a combined 28.2 MW/49.3 MWh of battery storage capacity. All of the storage systems have durations of up to two hours. The batteries will be paired with a combined 30.8 MW of PV capacity across the 209 projects.
Of the successful applicants, 175 are small businesses, 23 are medium-sized businesses and 11 are large businesses.
Subsidy levels vary according to company size. Small businesses can receive support covering 50% of eligible battery costs, while medium-sized businesses are eligible for 40% and large businesses for 30%.
The 209 projects will receive approximately €8.15 million ($9.31 million) in total funding, according to Greece’s Ministry of Environment and Energy. The funding comes from the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), established as part of the European Union’s post-pandemic recovery package.
Greece launched the Go Beyond Solar Battery program in January 2025 to support businesses installing energy storage alongside operational or planned PV systems. The subsidies apply to storage systems rather than the associated PV installations.
In addition to battery procurement and installation, the program covers energy management systems and costs associated with connecting projects to local electricity networks.
The ministry said the 209 projects must be completed by Oct. 31, leaving successful applicants a little more than a month to procure, receive and install the equipment.
The short implementation window could prove challenging for project developers. The Hellenic Association of Photovoltaic Companies (Helapco), a Greek solar industry association, warned when the program was launched in January that its implementation timetable could create difficulties. The government subsequently extended the application deadline several times.
According to the ministry, the supported projects are expected to help participating businesses increase energy self-consumption and reduce electricity costs. Of the 209 successful applications, 131 projects will operate under net billing, while the remaining 78 will operate under zero-feed-in arrangements.
The provisional awards, however, represent only a fraction of the program’s original target. When the scheme was launched in January 2025, it had a budget of €153.7 million and targeted the installation of 333 MW of battery storage capacity at commercial and industrial sites.
The 28.2 MW of storage power provisionally approved to date represents about 8.5% of that original capacity target, while the €8.15 million allocated to the 209 projects amounts to about 5.3% of the program’s initial budget.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: [email protected].
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The new ESS News magazine is here!
Download your free digital copy today.
The new issue of pv magazine Global is out now!
Available in print and digital – get your copy today!
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.
Monday, October 26, 2026
10:30 am – 11:30 am CEST, Berlin, Paris, Madrid
Giovedì, 1 ottobre 2026
14:30 – 15:30 CEST, Roma

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