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Gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra has called the clean-energy transition “necessary and urgent” and has promised to make lowering power bills the center of his energy policy — which is key to electrifying everything.
That wasn’t always clear. During the primary, Becerra, a Democrat, was criticized for a lack of ambition on climate, including by me. But, against Republican Steve Hilton, who calls California’s climate policies “stupid,” Becerra is clearly the better choice.
The more I see of his plans, the more I realize voting for Becerra isn’t settling. He could be a great climate governor. His campaign recently announced a proposal called Power Hour. It would provide up to two hours of free electricity every day in the middle of the day, when the sun is brightest and power is cheapest, for millions of working families. I’ve argued for this idea before, because it could transform how we use our grid.
Right now, our grid is cheapest and cleanest in the middle of the day, when solar floods the system with abundant power. We have so much that California’s grid operator currently throws away more than 10% of our solar power during the spring. And it’s so cheap that, in the middle of the day, wholesale electricity sometimes costs less than nothing: Power plants will actually pay someone to take their energy because they have too much.
Yet our utilities mostly charge the same rates at noon as at midnight, when electricity is the dirtiest because gas plants are running. Power Hour fixes that. If midday power is free, families have every reason to charge their car, heat their water tank, and pre-cool their home while the sun is shining, storing that cheap clean energy for later. It’s a way to save the midday sun and spend it after dark.
Under Becerra’s plan, the free hours apply automatically to electricity bills, with no new paperwork. It could save a family about $1,000 a year.
There’s precedent for this idea. Australia began running a program with three free hours in July. Households can use up to 24 kilowatt-hours of free power in that window — more than the average California household uses in a day. That’s enough to run the dishwasher, do the laundry and charge an electric car at no cost.
As of this month, California has started its own pilot program, too. Clean Power Alliance, which supplies electricity to much of Los Angeles County, is giving more than 4,000 randomly selected households free power from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day for two years. Participants will still pay delivery charges on that electricity, but the power itself costs nothing. And nobody can lose: If a family’s bill ends up higher than it would have otherwise, the difference will be paid back. Researchers at UCLA are tracking whether free midday power gets people to shift when they use electricity.
But Becerra’s plan to bring this idea statewide could be undercut before he even takes office. California’s utilities commission is rushing through a new rule that could raise the fixed charges on every household’s bill. That’s the fee you pay before you even turn on a light switch, no matter how little power you use. California’s current fixed charge, set in May 2024, is already the highest in the country. Now regulators are considering moving another huge expense into those fees: wildfire costs, which run an estimated $250 to $490 a year per household.
Regulators want families to keep paying for wildfire costs in electricity bills. But that’s terrible policy. Utility equipment keeps sparking wildfires in a climate that fossil fuel pollution has made hotter and drier. So why should families and wildfire victims foot the bill? Utility shareholders and oil and gas companies should pay. Former state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has proposed a way to make that happen: a bill letting insurers and fire survivors sue fossil fuel companies for climate damages. That’s a far better approach.
Hiding these costs in fixed charges will only make things worse. When more of your bill is fixed, there’s nothing you can do to bring it down. Not rooftop solar. Not a battery. Not turning off the lights. Not even shifting to free midday hours. This would do a lot to ruin Power Hour before it even starts. Plus high fixed charges are regressive: the households using the least power will get hit hardest, and those are often the families already struggling to pay their bills.
The governor’s race isn’t the only one that matters for power bills. Los Angeles runs the Department of Water and Power, its own utility, making the L.A. mayor’s race important for energy policy, too. State regulators don’t control it, so Power Hour wouldn’t automatically reach the city. What’s worse, LADWP’s rate structure is stuck in the past — 2008, to be precise. For almost two decades, the utility has charged its highest prices from 1 to 5 p.m. on weekdays, when cheap solar floods the grid, and its lowest at night, when it’s burning expensive, dirty gas. That’s backward. The next mayor, whether it’s Karen Bass or Nithya Raman, needs to fix this fast. And making power free at noon would be a great place to start.
Statewide, Power Hour is just the beginning of the new climate leadership we sorely need. Becerra can also protect kids from extreme heat in classrooms, which are topping 100 degrees. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Legislature created a school electrification fund to replace old gas furnaces with clean electric heat pumps that cool classrooms and improve ventilation. But this year, Newsom let the program die, just days after half a million kids in Southern California had their school days disrupted by extreme heat. Becerra can bring it back. And he could also make it easier to aggregate batteries across the state, which would keep power bills down for everyone and particularly help lower-income solar customers in the Inland Empire and Central Valley.
The other candidate for governor, Hilton, has no plans to do any of this. Hilton promises to ramp up fossil fuels, back the Sable oil project off the Santa Barbara coast and scrap our environmental policies. He’s a climate laggard.
Ultimately, the choice for governor this November is simple. Becerra wants to save the midday sun and help us spend it after dark. Hilton wants to keep us in the dark ages, burning fossil fuels. California should choose the sun.
Leah C. Stokes is an associate professor of environmental politics at UC Santa Barbara. She is the author of “The Carbon Wave” and writes the newsletter “Notes From the Electric Era.”
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According to the latest IndexBox report on the global Solar Microinverter Modules market, the market enters 2026 with broader demand fundamentals, more disciplined procurement behavior, and a more regionally diversified supply architecture.
The global solar microinverter modules market is entering a phase of rapid expansion, with demand projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate in the high teens between 2026 and 2035. This growth is underpinned by the accelerating shift toward distributed solar architectures in residential and commercial segments, where module-level power electronics deliver superior safety, monitoring, and design flexibility compared to traditional string inverters. Regulatory mandates, particularly rapid shutdown requirements in North America and grid-support standards in Europe, are compelling installers to adopt microinverter-based systems.
At the same time, the integration of microinverters with behind-the-meter battery storage and bidirectional AC coupling is creating new demand streams. The supply side faces structural constraints, notably in wide-bandgap semiconductors such as gallium-nitride and silicon-carbide devices, with lead times extending 12–18 months for critical active components through mid-2026. Nonetheless, gradual capacity additions and supply chain diversification beyond China are expected to ease bottlenecks. Price erosion of 4–7% per annum for standard-AC watt classes is likely, while premium segments with integrated energy management and higher efficiency maintain healthy premiums.
This report provides a data-driven view of market size, segmentation, competitive landscape, and regional dynamics to 2035.
The baseline scenario for the world solar microinverter modules market anticipates robust growth through 2035, with a high-teens CAGR. This outlook assumes continued policy support for distributed solar, gradual easing of semiconductor supply constraints, and sustained cost reductions in balance-of-system components. Demand is expected to be strongest in North America and Europe, where safety regulations and grid codes favor module-level electronics, while Asia-Pacific offers substantial volume growth driven by residential solar adoption in Australia, Japan, and emerging markets.
The market is forecast to witness a shift toward multi-module microinverter configurations (2–4 panels per unit) in cost-sensitive segments, and increasing integration with storage-ready models. Price competition is likely to intensify, particularly in standard watt classes, but differentiation through monitoring software, dual-MPPT inputs, and higher peak efficiency (>97%) will sustain premium pricing. Supply chain diversification into Mexico, Vietnam, and India is expected to mitigate trade risks and reduce dependence on Chinese manufacturing. Overall, the market index is projected to reach 280 by 2035 (2025=100), reflecting a near-tripling of market value over the forecast period.
Residential solar remains the largest end-use sector for solar microinverter modules, accounting for the majority of demand. The segment is characterized by homeowners and small-scale installers seeking safe, reliable, and easy-to-install solutions. Microinverters are increasingly preferred over string inverters due to module-level rapid shutdown compliance, panel-level monitoring, and design flexibility for complex roofs. Through 2035, demand will be propelled by declining solar costs, supportive net-metering policies, and the integration of storage-ready microinverters. Key demand-side indicators include residential solar installation volumes, average system size, and attachment rates of module-level power electronics.
The trend toward multi-module microinverters (2–4 panels per unit) is expected to gain traction in cost-sensitive markets, lowering upfront costs while retaining monitoring benefits. Major companies in this segment include Enphase Energy, APsystems, and Hoymiles. Current trend: Strong growth driven by rooftop solar adoption and safety mandates.
Major trends: Integration with behind-the-meter battery storage and AC coupling, Shift toward multi-module microinverter configurations, Growing preference for storage-ready models, and Increasing adoption in complex roof designs.
Representative participants: Enphase Energy, APsystems, Hoymiles, Chilicon Power, and NEP.
Commercial and industrial (C&I) solar installations represent a significant and growing market for microinverter modules. Businesses are increasingly adopting solar to reduce energy costs, meet sustainability targets, and enhance energy resilience. Microinverters offer advantages in C&I settings, including module-level monitoring for performance optimization, safety compliance, and scalability for phased installations. Through 2035, demand will be driven by corporate decarbonization commitments, favorable financing mechanisms such as power purchase agreements, and the need for grid-interactive systems. Demand-side indicators include C&I solar capacity additions, commercial building stock, and the adoption of smart energy management systems.
The segment is expected to see increased integration of microinverters with energy storage and demand response capabilities. Key players include Enphase Energy, SolarEdge Technologies, and SMA Solar Technology. Current trend: Moderate growth as businesses seek energy resilience and sustainability.
Major trends: Corporate sustainability and net-zero commitments, Integration with energy management and demand response, Growth in third-party ownership models, and Adoption of microinverters for phased installations.
Representative participants: Enphase Energy, SolarEdge Technologies, SMA Solar Technology, APsystems, and GoodWe.
Utility-scale solar projects primarily use central or string inverters, but microinverter modules are gaining a foothold in specific applications such as distributed utility-scale installations, community solar, and projects requiring high granularity of monitoring. The segment’s demand is driven by the need for enhanced safety, reduced fire risk, and compliance with rapid shutdown requirements in certain jurisdictions. Through 2035, growth will be supported by the increasing complexity of utility-scale projects, including those on uneven terrain or with multiple orientations, where microinverters offer design flexibility.
Demand-side indicators include community solar capacity, utility procurement policies favoring module-level electronics, and the integration of storage. Key companies active in this space include Enphase Energy, APsystems, and Sparq Systems. Current trend: Niche but growing adoption for distributed utility applications.
Major trends: Community solar and distributed utility projects, Enhanced safety and rapid shutdown compliance, Design flexibility for complex sites, and Integration with storage and grid services.
Representative participants: Enphase Energy, APsystems, Sparq Systems, NEP, and TSUN.
The OEM integration and aftermarket segment encompasses microinverter units embedded in solar panels by module manufacturers (integrated systems) and aftermarket units for system upgrades and replacements. This segment is driven by the growing trend of AC modules, where microinverters are factory-integrated, simplifying installation and improving reliability. Aftermarket demand is supported by the need to replace or upgrade existing systems, particularly as early-generation microinverters reach end-of-life. Through 2035, demand will be fueled by panel manufacturers seeking to differentiate their offerings with integrated power electronics, and by the expanding installed base requiring replacements.
Demand-side indicators include AC module shipment volumes, average system age, and warranty replacement rates. Key companies include Enphase Energy, APsystems, and Hoymiles. Current trend: Steady growth as panel manufacturers integrate microinverters.
Major trends: Growth of AC modules with factory-integrated microinverters, Aftermarket upgrades and replacements, Panel manufacturers offering integrated solutions, and Extended warranties and service contracts.
Representative participants: Enphase Energy, APsystems, Hoymiles, Deye, and Generac.
The ‘Other’ segment includes off-grid solar systems, specialty applications such as solar-powered infrastructure, and emerging use cases like agrivoltaics and building-integrated photovoltaics. Microinverters are well-suited for off-grid and specialty applications due to their modularity, safety, and ability to operate independently. Through 2035, demand will be driven by rural electrification efforts, the growth of solar-plus-storage in remote areas, and innovative applications requiring module-level power electronics. Demand-side indicators include off-grid solar installations, government electrification programs, and niche application adoption.
Key companies involved in these applications include Enphase Energy, Chilicon Power, and Sparq Systems. Current trend: Emerging opportunities in off-grid and specialty applications.
Major trends: Rural electrification and off-grid solar growth, Agrivoltaics and building-integrated photovoltaics, Solar-powered infrastructure and IoT devices, and Modular and scalable system designs.
Representative participants: Enphase Energy, Chilicon Power, Sparq Systems, NEP, and TSUN.
Interactive table based on the Store Companies dataset for this report.
Asia-Pacific dominates the market, driven by strong residential solar adoption in Australia, Japan, and emerging markets like India. China remains the largest manufacturing hub, but domestic demand is also rising. Supply chain diversification is prompting new assembly capacity in India and Vietnam. Direction: Growing.
North America is a key market, supported by rapid shutdown requirements and strong residential solar demand in the US. Tariffs on Chinese inverters are incentivizing local production and supply chain diversification into Mexico. Canada also shows steady growth. Direction: Growing.
Europe exhibits robust growth, driven by ambitious renewable energy targets, grid codes favoring module-level electronics, and high residential solar penetration in Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy. Regulatory fragmentation poses challenges but also drives innovation. Direction: Growing.
Latin America is an emerging market with significant potential, particularly in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. Growth is supported by declining solar costs, net-metering policies, and increasing energy demand. Microinverter adoption is rising in residential and commercial segments. Direction: Growing.
The Middle East & Africa region offers growing opportunities, driven by abundant solar resources, rural electrification needs, and declining system costs. South Africa, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia are key markets. Off-grid and specialty applications are notable demand drivers. Direction: Growing.
In the baseline scenario, IndexBox estimates a 12.0% compound annual growth rate for the global solar microinverter modules market over 2026-2035, bringing the market index to roughly 280 by 2035 (2025=100).
Note: indexed curves are used to compare medium-term scenario trajectories when full absolute volumes are not publicly disclosed.
For full methodological details and benchmark tables, see the latest IndexBox Solar Microinverter Modules market report.
This report provides an in-depth analysis of the Solar Microinverter Modules market in the world, covering market size, growth trajectory, demand structure, supply capability, trade flows, pricing, competitive landscape, and forecast to 2035.
The study is designed for manufacturers, distributors, importers, exporters, investors, procurement teams, advisors, and strategy teams that need a consistent, data-driven view of market dynamics and a transparent analytical definition of the product scope.
This report covers the global market for Solar Microinverter Modules, which are power electronic devices that convert direct current (DC) generated by individual solar panels into alternating current (AC) at the module level. The scope includes standalone microinverter units, integrated module-level power electronics, and associated components used in residential, commercial, and utility-scale photovoltaic systems. The analysis encompasses products designed for new installations, retrofits, and replacement applications across various end-use sectors.
The report combines the standard market-statistics backbone with strategic chapters that are useful for commercial planning, sourcing decisions, market entry, competitor monitoring, and portfolio prioritization.
The market is segmented into decision-relevant buckets so that demand drivers, pricing logic, supply constraints, and competitive positions can be compared across the same analytical frame.
The classification coverage encompasses solar microinverter modules and their subcomponents under relevant Harmonized System (HS) codes for electrical machinery and equipment. The report segments products by type (standalone modules, integrated systems, components, consumables), by application (industrial automation, electronics, semiconductor manufacturing, OEM integration), and by value chain stage (upstream inputs, manufacturing, distribution, after-sales support). This framework ensures comprehensive analysis of production, trade, and consumption patterns across the global solar microinverter market.
Coverage includes global totals, major demand markets, production and sourcing hubs, leading exporters and importers, and country profiles for the top national markets.
The report combines official statistics, trade records, company disclosures, product-level evidence, and analyst validation. Data are standardized, reconciled, and cross-checked to keep market sizing, trade flows, pricing, and forecasts comparable across countries and time periods.
All indicators are mapped to a consistent product definition and reviewed against the segmentation framework used in the Table of Contents.
Report Scope and Analytical Framing
Concise View of Market Direction
Market Size, Growth and Scenario Framing
Commercial and Technical Scope
How the Market Splits Into Decision-Relevant Buckets
Where Demand Comes From and How It Behaves
Supply Footprint, Trade and Value Capture
Trade Flows and External Dependence
Price Formation and Revenue Logic
Who Wins and Why
Where Growth and Supply Concentrate
Commercial Entry and Scaling Priorities
Where the Best Expansion Logic Sits
Leading Players and Strategic Archetypes
Detailed View of the Most Important National Markets
How the Report Was Built
Market leader with over 80% share in microinverter segment
Major competitor with power optimizer and microinverter lines
Strong global presence, especially in Europe and Asia
Rapidly growing, known for cost-effective products
Niche focus on larger-scale microinverter applications
Part of Delta Group, expanding microinverter portfolio
European inverter giant with microinverter offerings
Known for quality, limited microinverter product line
Entered microinverter market via acquisition and development
Major global inverter supplier with microinverter line
Industrial conglomerate with microinverter products
Known for rapid shutdown and optimization, also microinverters
Emerging player in residential microinverter market
European specialist in microinverter technology
Australian company with innovative microinverter designs
Integrated solar company with microinverter offerings
Chinese manufacturer focusing on cost-competitive microinverters
Korean inverter manufacturer with microinverter products
German inverter brand with microinverter line
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Solar tracker and foundation solution provider PV Hardware USA (PVH USA) has announced a major expansion of its original Houston, Texas, manufacturing facility. The expansion adds approximately 34,200 square feet of manufacturing space, increasing the company’s overall Houston footprint capacity by 42%. 
The company said the added space will support a 35% increase in the production of pre-assembled tracker components. The move is designed to shift complex component assembly away from outdoor construction jobsites and into a controlled factory environment. 
“We are investing in additional domestic manufacturing capacity because our customers are asking us to do more,” said Alfonso Queipo, CEO of PVH USA. “Pre-assembly has become an important part of that strategy because it allows us to move complexity out of the field and into an environment where we have greater control over quality, productivity and consistency.” 
The project builds upon PVH USA’s growing footprint in Texas. In May 2024, the company invested $30 million to launch its first Houston facility, followed by the addition of a 95,000-square-foot tracker factory in September 2025. 
Factory precision vs. field complexity 
Since 2023, PVH USA has focused on refining its pre-assembly model to streamline utility-scale installations and offset field labor shortages facing EPCs and developers. 
According to the company, performing sub-assembly tasks in the factory before equipment ships to project sites yields significant operational advantages: 
“Solar EPCs face mounting pressure regarding labor availability, strict timelines and total project costs,” said Rodolfo Bitar, vice president of business development for PVH USA. “Traditionally, manufacturers pushed the assembly burden onto the jobsite. We ask a different question: what work can be done more efficiently before the equipment ever leaves the factory?” 
Domestic content and sustainability 
In addition to site efficiency gains, PVH USA highlighted the sustainability and supply chain benefits of expanding domestic production in Texas. Localizing sub-assembly reduces the carbon emissions associated with long-haul international shipping while increasing domestic content compliance under U.S. clean energy incentive frameworks. 
The company noted that steel accounts for more than 98% of the total weight of a PVH solar tracker system, enabling high end-of-life recyclability. 
The expansion complements PVH’s existing terrain- and weather-resilient product portfolio, including its terrain-following AxoneDuo Infinity tracker (which accommodates up to 2 degrees of post-to-post slope variation) and its HazardPVH extreme weather mitigation software suite. 
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Solar Power Plant Cost in India: Investment, Land Requirement & ROI  SolarQuarter
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Solar generation was the primary driver of an all-time 80.4% peak in the National Electricity Market (NEM) from renewable and storage generation in the half hour to 1,230 on Saturday, 19 September 2026.
This was 3.2 pp higher than the same period in 2025, and exceeded a previous record set in October 2025, by 1.8 pp. At the time of the Q3 2026 peak, distributed solar supplied 51.8% of total generation, and grid-scale solar adding a further 16.4%.
Also, during Q3 2026, distributed solar capacity across the NEM reached 27 GW from 3.9 million consumer energy resources (CER) installations, representing a year-on-year increase of 12%, which drove output to a Q3 average high of 3,203 MW (+13%), and setting a new peak generation record of 16,992 MW on 20 September 2026.
“CER solar capacity expanded consistently across all regions, with New South Wales (NSW) reaching 9.3 GW, followed by Queensland at 8.3 GW,” the data source and Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) Quarterly Dynamic Report (QDR) says.
“Victoria and South Australia distributed PV capacity reached 6.1 GW and 3.1 GW respectively. Growth in Tasmania remained comparatively smaller and reached 0.4 GW.”
AEMO Executive General Manager Policy and Corporate Affairs Violette Mouchaileh said the quarter showed how demand, supply and storage were continuing to change across the NEM.
“Electricity use continues to grow, but more solar and storage is changing when energy is produced, drawn from the grid and shifted across the day,” Mouchaileh said.
Grid-scale solar generation saw significant growth in Q3 2026, jumping 512 MW (+30%) year-on-year to reach a new Q3 high average of 2,211 MW, that boosted total generation share by 1.9 pp to 8.5%, and achieved an all-time peak output of 8,290 MW in the interval 30 minutes ending 1500 on 27 August 2026, which is 112 MW above the previous peak set in Q1 2026, or up 1.4%.
“ Total network curtailment of wind and solar generation reached a new Q3 high, averaging 281 MW, up 139 MW year-on-year,” the QDR says.
“Grid-scale solar accounted for most of this increase, with curtailment rising by 105 MW, to average 169 MW this quarter. As a percentage of solar availability, curtailment increased by 3.6 pp year-on-year to 6.7%.”
“Increases were greatest in NSW with curtailment at 104 MW (+64 MW), primarily at facilities in the south of the state, followed by Queensland at 48 MW (+41 MW) concentrated at facilities in the north of the state. In Victoria and South Australia, grid-scale solar curtailment remained largely unchanged year-on-year, averaging 15 MW and 1.0 MW respectively,” the report says.
Supported by the uptake of home batteries via the federal government’s Cheaper Home Battery Program (CHBP), 75% of households with rooftop solar and batteries installed, drew less power from the grid during the evening peak between 1600 to 2100, in Q3 2026.
The cumulative CER battery capacity under the program reached 13,917 MWh in Q3 2026 and installations grew from 420,266 to 482,835 between 1 July 2026 to 30 September 2026, an increase of 62,569 battery installations in the quarter.
“Relative to the end of Q2 2026, cumulative CER battery capacity across the NEM increased by 1,652 MWh (+13%), with more than 10% growth in every region by the end of Q3 2026. Under the program, New South Wales recorded 5,885 MWh of installed capacity, followed by Victoria at 3,185 MWh and Queensland at 3,166 MWh. South Australia and Tasmania reached 1,568 MWh and 114 MWh, respectively,” the report says.
Mouchaileh said batteries continue to shift record amounts of renewable energy into the higher-demand evening period, when households and businesses typically need more power.
“Increased battery charging and discharging contributed to significantly lower evening peak prices, with batteries setting prices in almost half of dispatch intervals, up from 18% a year ago,” Mouchaileh said.
Energy shifted by grid-scale batteries more than tripled year-on-year, with batteries charging 13.4 GWh of energy per day on average during daylight hours before discharging 10.9 GWh during the evening peak,  when they supplied 8% of total generation, exceeding gas-fired generation (5.1%) for the first time in any quarter.
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Part of the confusion was that the app and the utility statement were measuring different things.
Photo Credit: iStock
After buying a solar-equipped home in Iowa, one resident saw their credits for power sent back to the grid drop sharply, even though the system still seemed to be generating normally.
They turned to Reddit’s r/enphase for advice, and people suspected the issue was not a major rooftop failure but a problem with how the system was tracking energy use.
The homeowner explained that the gateway had been offline since December 2023, when the system was under previous ownership. They purchased the house in August 2025, and it took them another six months to connect the solar to the utility provider. After that, their system produced 500-700kW “in the early months” before plummeting to 300 kW in July.  
“I’m trying to figure out if I need to get a solar company here or if the issue is on our utility company, as the panels are producing and the issue of decreased exporting on our bills only began recently,” the OP shared with a screenshot of solar production in the Enphase app.
“All panels have a connection, show as normal, and producing nearly the same except for 1 which produces a third because it is cracked,” they added. 
To many, the screenshot suggested a monitoring error rather than a production collapse. One wrote, “The consumption sensors are set up wrong, this happens a lot with bad installers,” noting that the graph showed household consumption rising and falling in step with solar output.
A mismatch like that can have real billing consequences, since a 50% or more drop changes the financial return a homeowner sees. Going solar remains one of the best ways to save money on home energy, and homeowners comparing options can use EasyHome‘s free explorer tool to check pricing and projected savings from vetted installers in their area.
Along with the panels themselves, the homeowner had inherited an unfinished digital setup. With the original solar installer out of business, the OP only obtained app access after noticing the reduced credits and connecting the system to Wi-Fi to review the stored data.
With energy prices through the roof, there’s never been a better time to go solar — and EasyHome can help you find the best prices from the best installers in your area.
EasyHome takes the guesswork and headaches out of energy upgrades by showing you estimated savings from a network of vetted local partners. To get started, just enter your ZIP and share a few details about your home — seeing your estimate is really that easy.
Part of the confusion was that the app and the utility statement were measuring different things. Bills generally reflect electricity sent to and taken from the grid, not every kilowatt-hour the panels produce and the home uses — an important difference when daytime demand is higher.
For this homeowner, the first step was to ensure their monitoring data was accurate. 
“Give Enphase customer support a call and they should be able to flip the software setting so your homeowner app is displaying the correct consumption data,” someone said. 
If the problem persisted, a commenter suggested it could be an installation issue and that an electrician might need to move the CT clamps, a repair they described as a “10-minute in-the-panel job.” 
For homeowners who need a vetted installer, EasyHome‘s free explorer tool is a great resource to compare local options and expected savings. 
You can also explore backup battery storage solutions, since pairing solar with a battery can maximize savings and keep your home powered by solar when the grid goes down.
Get TCD’s free newsletters for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here.
© 2025 THE COOL DOWN COMPANY. All Rights Reserved. Do not sell or share my personal information. Reach us at hello@thecooldown.com.

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Solar panels across the UK produced an estimated 13.6 percent more electricity than in an average summer. Gains were biggest in the south, led by London, the Southeast and the Southwest, all more than 18 percent up, and shrank further north. Scotland and Northern Ireland, where sunshine was close to average, were barely up, at 1.3 percent and 0.9 percent.
The report is the first edition of the company’s quarterly UK Solar Report. It combines Met Office sunshine data, official solar capacity figures and modelling of the company’s customers’ homes to show how solar performed in each region of the UK, and what the solar homes modelled could have saved by switching tariff.
The figures in the report are modelled, not metered. Savings figures come from 1,281 MakeMyHouseGreen customers with solar in Great Britain, using typical summer weather and tariff data from Switchd, which MakeMyHouseGreen also runs.
The report found that:
UK solar panels produced an estimated 13.6 percent more electricity than in an average summer. Every region beat its long-run average, led by London and the Southeast at 19.2 percent.
On a south-facing roof, each kilowatt of panels produced an estimated 394 kilowatt hours in the Southeast, the most in the UK, and 289 in Scotland, the least. London, the Southwest and Wales were close behind the Southeast.
Three regions, the Southeast, Southwest and East of England, produced an estimated 44 percent of the UK’s small-scale solar electricity.
The typical solar home modelled could have saved £63 over the summer by switching from the standard price cap tariff to the cheapest tariffs we compared, assuming spare electricity on the price cap sells at 8p a unit. Every home would have paid less.
On those tariffs, more than a third of the homes (35.4 percent) would have earned more from selling electricity than they spent buying it. On the price cap, fewer than one in five would have.
“This was a great summer to own solar panels” said Llewellyn Kinch, CEO and Founder of MakeMyHouseGreen and Switchd. “Across the UK, they produced an estimated 13.6 percent more electricity than in an average summer. What a solar home gets back also depends on its tariff. We modelled 1,281 of our customers in Great Britain using typical summer weather, and every one of them would have paid less on the cheapest tariffs we compared than on the standard price cap tariff. The typical home could have saved £63 over the quarter.”
For additional information:
MakeMyHouseGreen
UK Solar Report: July to September 2026

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 -507.04
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+ 116.00
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 -3,228.00
 -507.04
 -230.15
 -230.15
+ 116.00
+ 116.00
 -762.00
Vikram Solar, a leading solar PV manufacturer, on Friday said its 9 GW N-type TOPCon solar cell manufacturing facility at Gangaikondan, Tamil Nadu, is on track to roll out its first cells in December 2026.
The full 9 GW capacity will be commissioned in phases, a company statement said.
"Indian module makers, including us, have built their businesses around imported cells. Gangaikondan ends that for Vikram Solar. Cells are where the value, the technology and the risk in a module sit, and in December we start making them here.
"It is the most important step in our integration journey, and not the last: our roadmap runs from wafer to module, on Indian soil," Gyanesh Chaudhary, Chairman & Managing Director, Vikram Solar, said.
India has built world-class module capacity in record time, yet the cell inside most Indian modules is still imported. Cells are the largest component of a module's bill of materials and the stage where efficiency, reliability and cost are decided, the company said.
Gangaikondan addresses that dependence directly: at full capacity, it will supply high-efficiency TOPCon cells for the majority of Vikram Solar's module production.
It will enable modules made in India from cell to frame for the country's utility-scale, rooftop, PM Surya Ghar and PM-KUSUM programs where domestic content requirements apply, as well as for global customers diversifying their supply chains.
The company intends to seek Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) List-II enlistment for cells produced at Gangaikondan in due course.
The cell plant is the second of three phases in Vikram Solar's integration roadmap at Gangaikondan.
The first 6 GW module plant was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in August 2026.
On completion, Gangaikondan will be one of the few sites in India where ingots, wafers, cells and modules are made together. The campus will provide more than 2,000 direct & indirect employment opportunities.
The facility is being developed through the company's wholly-owned subsidiary, VSL Green Power Pvt Ltd, on its nearly 200-acre integrated campus, where co-location shortens supply cycles, tightens quality control and lowers logistics costs.
Published on October 23, 2026
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In a significant move towards sustainability, managed workspace providers like IndiQube and WeWork India are ramping up their investments in solar energy. With plans to evolve towards renewable power in the near future, WeWork India specifically aims to establish a large-scale solar power plant in Karnataka. Similarly, Table Space is also enhancing its renewable energy capabilities through strategic collaborations and investments.

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Taiwan News © 2026 All Rights Reserved.
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Developers accused of bribing local officials to overcome opposition to Fenglin Township solar farm projects
 Oct. 23, 2026 19:05
Hualien District Prosecutors Office's Prosecutorial Hall. (CNA photo)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Hualien District Court on Thursday ordered seven suspects in a bribery investigation involving solar farm projects in Hualien County’s Fenglin to be held incommunicado for two months to prevent collusion with other suspects or witnesses.
The court said Friday that evidence presented by prosecutors indicated the seven suspects may have been involved in breach of trust, bribery, money laundering, and other offenses, per UDN. It cited concerns that some suspects had not responded to prosecutors’ summonses and that the statements given by the seven detained suspects differed from prosecution evidence and from each other’s accounts.
Those detained include former Fenglin Township Mayor Hsiao Wen-lung (蕭文龍), former Hualien County Farmers’ Association General Manager Kuan Chun-yen (官俊彥), HD Renewable Energy Group Chair Edward Hsieh (謝源一), General Manager Jason Chou (周仕昌), Deputy Manager Li Yung-ching (李永清), Senior Assistant Manager Hsieh Tzu-yen (謝紫燕), and former Feng Kuang Chu Neng Inc. General Manager Lin Chun-cheng (林俊呈), per Mirror Daily.
HD Renewable Energy reportedly began targeting Fenglin Township for solar farm development in 2019 because of its relatively flat terrain and sunny weather, per Liberty Times. After the Ministry of Economic Affairs authorized township offices to review small-scale solar farm projects, higher electricity purchase prices in eastern Taiwan attracted investors to the area.
However, HD Renewable Energy’s proposed solar farm projects, covering more than 1,000 hectares, faced strong local opposition. Projects near Indigenous lands on occasion required the company to obtain consent from local tribes in addition to addressing broader community resistance, per Tai Sounds.
To overcome these obstacles, HD Renewable Energy allegedly paid kickbacks of approximately NT$30 million (US$920,000) to Hsiao and NT$10 million to Kuan. Opposition nevertheless persisted, and the company eventually decided to withdraw from the projects.
The Investigation Bureau deployed 11 units across Taiwan on Wednesday to conduct simultaneous searches at 55 locations. HD Renewable Energy executives were allegedly attempting to flee, while investigators seized the suspects and the company’s financial records.
Hualien County Government commented on the case Thursday, saying that, apart from a solar farm project approved under acting county magistrate Tsai Pi-chung (蔡碧仲) in 2018, it had not approved any new projects since then, per CNews.
HD Renewable Energy was previously implicated in a scandal involving a feeder-line application and former Green Energy Industry Promotion Center Deputy CEO Luke Cheng  (鄭亦麟), per Storm Media. Hsiao is running for Fenglin Township mayor as a KMT candidate in the November election, per PTS.
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Solex Energy will unveil its 670 Wp TOPCon module at REI Expo 2026 in Greater Noida, alongside expansion plans.
October 23, 2026. By EI News Network
Solex Energy Ltd. will unveil its TAPI RQ N-Type TOPCon quarter-cell solar module at the Renewable Energy India (REI) Expo 2026, being held from October 22 to 24 at India Expo Mart in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The module offers a maximum power output of 670 Wp and conversion efficiency of up to 24.80 percent.
Designed for utility-scale and high-capacity solar installations, the TAPI RQ combines quarter-cell architecture with N-Type TOPCon technology. According to the company, the module is engineered to enhance energy generation, performance and long-term reliability. It is equipped with an IP68-rated junction box that protects against dust and water ingress.
Dr Chetan Shah, chairman and managing director of Solex Energy, said that innovation remained central to the company's growth strategy. He said that the launch reflected its focus on developing solar technologies that deliver higher efficiency, reliability and long-term value to customers.
Shah added that the company's strategy extended beyond manufacturing capacity to building an integrated, technology-driven solar ecosystem to strengthen India's domestic manufacturing capabilities and global competitiveness.
The unveiling marks the third consecutive year that Solex Energy has introduced a solar technology at the REI Expo. At the 2024 edition, the company introduced a solar module based on rectangular cells. In 2025, it unveiled the concept of its TAPI Rear Contact solar module.
Alongside its product development initiatives, Solex Energy is pursuing an expansion of its renewable energy manufacturing operations under its Vision 2030 roadmap. The company aims to establish 10 GW of solar cell manufacturing capacity, 10 GWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) manufacturing capacity, and 2 GW of wafer and ingot manufacturing capacity. The proposed investment for this integrated manufacturing ecosystem is INR 14,300 crore.
As part of the expansion, Solex Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Gujarat government for an investment of INR 4,000 crore to establish a 5 GW solar cell manufacturing facility and a 10 GWh BESS manufacturing facility. The solar cell plant is planned in two phases, comprising 2 GW and 3 GW of capacity, respectively.
The proposed investments are intended to strengthen backward integration, expand domestic manufacturing and develop a more integrated renewable energy supply chain. The company said that the roadmap aligns with the national objectives of Atmanirbhar Bharat and Viksit Bharat.
Solex Energy is also looking to establish strategic partnerships with dealers and distributors across India and international markets, including the United States and Europe, to expand its distribution network and market reach.

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You are here: Latest news / Cearn solar farm proposal: increase in major developments decided by central government in the Vale causing concern
Published Friday 23 October 2026
A detailed Council discussion about the Cearn solar farm has highlighted ongoing and widespread concerns about the growing number of large-scale infrastructure plans that are decided centrally by the government rather than locally by councils who are more able to assess the effects of these on their communities.   
Vale of White Horse District Council Leader, Cllr Bethia Thomas, will write to the government and has expressed her concern about the lack of local accountability in the decision-making process for the proposed Cearn Solar Farm sited near villages in the west of the district. This comes amidst the growing number of nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) proposed in the district over the coming years and the overwhelming cumulative impact they will have.
At the recent full Vale council meeting, two questions were raised – one by Cllr Jill Rayner and another by Cllr Sally Whiteman, alongside a proposed motion by Cllr Lee Evans – all relating to concerns around the proposed Cearn Solar Farm and the growing number of NSIPs in the district. There were also questions around the reservoir.
The Cearn motion was passed with some amendments made after a detailed debate, and Cllr Thomas will write to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Transport to raise questions and concerns about the impact of the proposed development.
The proposed solar farm would potentially cover 2,800 acres of land located across three development areas between Garford, Charney Bassett, West Hanney, Goosey and Baulking.
At approximately 2,800 acres, the scheme being developed by Cearn Solar Farm Ltd, would be one of the larger solar farm proposals in the UK. Because of its size, the development application (which has not yet been submitted) will be examined by the national Planning Inspectorate and the decision will be made by the Secretary of State, not by Vale of White Horse District Council (which is considered a statutory consultee).
The proposal comes at a time when the concentration of major infrastructure projects in the Vale is unusually high – aside from the proposed White Horse Reservoir (formerly known as SESRO), Botley West Solar Farm together with a major new substation near Farmoor, and the East West Rail project, alongside the Thames to Southern Transfer, which will also impact on the district over the next ten years.
Cllr Bethia Thomas, said: “We are advocates of renewable power and solar power generation – as shown by our own decarbonisation programme across our leisure centres – but at present there are many questions we still need the answers for on the Cearn Solar Farm.
“We need to know the full impacts on farmland and on our natural environment. How would the construction traffic management work – especially if the reservoir is being built at the same time? Like Botley Solar Farm, we want to know what community benefits would be on the table for such a significant development.
“The bigger picture is that our communities are now potentially impacted by several nationally significant infrastructure projects – with the reservoir, Botley solar farm and substation – and the East West Rail improvements, alongside this latest proposal. The bottom line is these are all Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) – which means the final decisions on whether these projects go ahead sits centrally with government – not the district council. If they’re wholly decided in London, the impact on local people can’t be properly taken into consideration.
“These represent major planning and socio-economic changes in the Vale. We know better than national government what is best for our communities – but we have little control in the approval process other than as a statutory consultee. This flies in the face of local democracy and the government’s mantra that it wants to devolve powers to a community level. We know that going forwards there is likely to be a substantial increase in the number of projects that will fall under the NSIP umbrella.
“Only this week we have seen concerning news of a significant increase to the reservoir construction access points to the site – with serious implications for the surrounding areas and the impact of construction traffic. This is a key reason local councils should be part of the decision making process… this also goes for projects like the solar farm. If Cearn goes ahead there is a strong possibility that the construction periods could overlap – with the cumulative impact a worry.
“A great deal of our officer and member time is already focussed on doing everything in our power to influence and scrutinise these projects to ensure the core issues are addressed up to and after the decisions are made. We want to ensure we secure the best possible outcome for all the communities that are impacted.
“We will continue to urge government to listen to local voices and to do everything we can within our power to ensure that the voice of our community is listened to.”
Make an enquiry
01235 422 422
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18001 before dialling)
Vale of White Horse District Council, Abbey House Abbey Close
Abingdon OX14 3JE
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© 2026 Vale of White Horse District Council

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Flexible solar panels are lightweight, frameless modules that can bend to fit curved or weak surfaces where standard glass-and-aluminium panels are too heavy or rigid. Most commercial products today are semi-flexible crystalline silicon modules, in which high-efficiency cells are laminated between a polymer front sheet such as ETFE and a flexible backsheet, while thin-film versions deposit CIGS, amorphous silicon, or emerging perovskite layers directly onto plastic or metal foil. They are used on factory sheds and carports with low load capacity, electric buses and vehicles, caravans and boats, portable and off-grid kits, building-integrated surfaces, and defence and telecom sites. The global flexible solar panel market is projected to reach about USD 914 million by 2030, and India is adding more than 45 GW of solar a year while building a domestic cell base. Rising rooftop demand, lightweight applications, and policy support for local manufacturing make Flexible Solar Panel Manufacturing Plant Setup in India an attractive niche for solar module makers and clean technology investors.
Investment depends mainly on the technology route, line capacity, automation, cell sourcing, encapsulation materials, and testing capability. The Flexible Solar Panel Manufacturing Plant Cost ranges from about INR 10–25 crore for a small semi-flexible line of 25 to 50 MW a year to INR 60–120 crore for an automated plant of 150 to 300 MW a year with stringers, laminators, and full testing, and INR 250–500 crore for a thin-film roll-to-roll facility or a large integrated line. Cells and materials make up most of operating cost, so cell prices, material choices, and yield shape profitability. Standard glass modules earn a gross margin of about 20 to 30% and a net margin of 8 to 12% according to IMARC, while flexible modules typically sell at a premium per watt, supporting somewhat higher margins in well-run niche plants.
This guide is written for investors exploring how to start a Flexible Solar Panel manufacturing plant in India. It focuses on a semi-flexible crystalline silicon plant of about 200 MW a year producing lightweight modules for industrial rooftops, vehicles, portable systems, and building-integrated uses, and also explains small lines and thin-film facilities. It covers products and markets, the demand outlook, the production process flow, machinery and raw materials, location and infrastructure, a detailed cost and financial breakdown, standards and approvals, and how a DPR and financial model turn all of this into a bankable plan.
The snapshot shows a small but growing niche within a very large solar market. Weight savings open up rooftops and vehicles that standard panels cannot serve, while India's new rules requiring domestic cells in many projects and a growing local cell base support domestic module making. The wide investment range reflects a real choice between a small semi-flexible line, an automated plant, and a thin-film facility. The sections below work through that choice.
Indicative Project Cost in India (2026)
These ranges provide a realistic frame for early planning, but actual returns depend on cell prices and availability, the cost of polymer front sheets and encapsulants, lamination yield, durability and warranty performance, certification for flexible products, the premium customers pay over glass modules, and competition from imports. A site-specific Flexible Solar Panel Feasibility Report narrows each of these assumptions to your chosen technology, products, capacity, location, and customers.
Table of Contents
A flexible solar panel replaces the heavy glass front and aluminium frame of a standard module with lightweight polymer layers, so it weighs a fraction as much and can follow gentle curves. Semi-flexible crystalline silicon modules use the same high-efficiency cells as standard panels, such as TOPCon or back-contact cells, interconnected and sealed between a weather-resistant front sheet, usually ETFE or reinforced PET, encapsulant films, and a flexible or composite backsheet. Thin-film flexible modules instead deposit very thin semiconductor layers onto plastic or stainless steel foil, which makes them more bendable but usually less efficient. Encapsulation quality, cell crack resistance, and resistance to heat and moisture decide lifetime.
Commercially, flexible modules are sold to industrial rooftop developers and EPC contractors working on sheds with low load capacity, to bus, truck, and electric vehicle makers, to caravan, boat, and leisure markets, to portable and off-grid kit makers, to building-integrated solar projects, and to defence and telecom users. A Flexible Solar Panel Manufacturing Plant can serve all these segments by adjusting size, power, and materials. Buyers value low weight, efficiency, durability, ease of installation with adhesives or clips, certification, and a credible warranty.
The Main Product Types and Applications
Choosing the product range is the most important commercial decision, because it determines technology, materials, certification, and customers:
These choices shape the whole plant. Semi-flexible crystalline modules can be made on adapted module lines using purchased cells, with special front sheets and laminator settings, while thin-film products need deposition, laser scribing, and roll-to-roll equipment with far higher capital and technology needs. Most new entrants therefore start with semi-flexible crystalline modules for lightweight rooftops, vehicles, and portable kits, and consider thin-film only with a strong technology partner.
Key Growth Drivers in India and Export Markets
Demand is supported by rooftop growth, electrification of transport, and new uses for solar power:
India-Specific Market Opportunity
The strongest opportunity for new entrants lies in lightweight modules for industrial sheds that cannot take glass panels, in vehicle and bus modules as fleets electrify, and in rugged portable systems for defence, telecom, and remote sites. Producers that combine reliable cell supply, proven durability, certification, and installation support will be best placed to grow.
Understanding the process helps you plan equipment, layout, and where cost and quality are decided. For semi-flexible crystalline modules, the flow runs from cell inspection through laser cutting, tabbing and stringing, layup with front sheet and encapsulants, pre-lamination inspection, vacuum lamination, edge trimming and sealing, junction box fitting, and final testing to packing. Stringing and lamination decide cell cracks and yield, while materials and lamination settings decide lifetime.
The Flexible Solar Panel Manufacturing Process Flow
The sequence below reflects a semi-flexible crystalline line. Thin-film plants instead deposit, scribe, and encapsulate active layers on a moving foil.
Two factors decide profitability across this flow. The first is yield, because flexible modules bend in use and cells crack more easily, so gentle handling, low-stress interconnection, and careful lamination are needed to avoid rejects and hidden microcracks. The second is durability, since polymer front sheets and encapsulants must resist ultraviolet light, heat, moisture, and flexing for many years, and field failures quickly damage warranty costs and reputation.
The main inputs are high-efficiency solar cells, which may be imported or sourced from India's growing cell makers, ETFE or reinforced polymer front sheets, POE or EVA encapsulant films, flexible or composite backsheets, copper ribbons or interconnects, low-profile junction boxes, cables and connectors, adhesives and edge sealants, and packaging.
Cells are the largest cost, and their prices move with global polysilicon and wafer markets and with import duties. Qualifying both domestic and imported cells, securing durable front sheets and encapsulants from proven suppliers, and testing every new material combination before production help manage cost, supply, and quality risk.
Site selection for a flexible module plant is driven by access to cell and material suppliers, proximity to solar EPC, vehicle, and industrial customers, and state incentives for solar manufacturing. Other factors include reliable, clean power, good logistics for imported materials, a skilled workforce from existing module plants, and nearby testing laboratories. Established solar manufacturing clusters offer the best mix of suppliers, skills, and services for a new entrant.
Choosing the Best Location for Flexible Solar Panel Manufacturing Plant Setup
Gujarat is India's largest solar module manufacturing hub with ports and suppliers, while Tamil Nadu and Telangana are attracting large cell and module investments. Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh offer large industrial rooftop markets and incentives, and Karnataka provides links to electric vehicle makers. The final choice should weigh cell access, customer proximity, incentives, skills, and land cost.
Quality, Safety and Environmental Systems
Modules must meet Indian and international standards for design qualification and safety, such as IS 14286 and IS/IEC 61730 for crystalline modules, under the solar goods quality order, and flexible products also need tests for bending, impact, and adhesive mounting where relevant. A credible plant needs electroluminescence and IV testing on every module, controlled lamination, climate chamber and ultraviolet testing for new designs, and full traceability of cells and materials. Safety focuses on lasers, hot laminators, and high-voltage testing. Environmental systems cover solvent and adhesive fumes and recycling of scrap under e-waste rules. An experienced Flexible Solar Panel Manufacturing Consultant in India can help plan technology, materials, testing, and certification so the plant meets regulatory and customer requirements from the start.
Infrastructure Requirements (200 MW Plant)
A clean, temperature-controlled production hall, humidity-controlled storage for cells and films, and a capable testing laboratory are the most important infrastructure requirements, since dust and moisture harm yield and durability. Reliable power, compressed air, and good road access complete the core needs.
The equipment set covers cell testing, cutting, interconnection, layup, lamination, finishing, testing, and packing. Stringers, laminators, and testing systems account for most of the machinery budget for semi-flexible lines, while thin-film plants are dominated by deposition equipment.
Machinery should follow the technology plan. A small line needs a cell tester, a semi-automatic stringer, a layup bench, one laminator, an EL tester, and a sun simulator, while an automated plant adds laser cutters, high-speed low-stress stringers, automatic layup, multiple laminators, and an in-house reliability lab. Thin-film facilities add sputtering, evaporation or chemical vapour deposition, laser scribing, and roll-to-roll encapsulation, and accurate testing is essential at every scale.
The tables below break down capital and operating costs for a semi-flexible crystalline plant of about 200 MW a year in India. The final Flexible Solar Panel Investment Cost for your project will depend on technology, capacity, automation, testing scope, land cost, and location.
Capital Expenditure (CapEx) Cost Structure
Machinery makes up most of the fixed capital, while working capital is significant because cells and imported films are bought in advance and stock must cover several product types. Certification and reliability testing add upfront cost before sales begin. Because of this, a detailed Flexible Solar Panel Business Plan should model sales by product and segment, cell and material prices and import duties, yields, certification costs, warranty provisions, price premiums over glass modules, and working capital together, so that funding supports a steady ramp-up.
Operating Expenditure (OpEx) Cost Structure
With cells and materials making up most of the cost, margins depend on cell prices, material choices, yield, and the price premium per watt. A good operating model tracks cost per watt, cell breakage and reject rates, warranty claims, and realised prices by segment, and tests margins against higher cell prices, lower premiums, or stronger import competition.
Based on analysis of a 200 MW semi-flexible plant, the financial profile is attractive but niche, supported by premium pricing per watt and growing demand from lightweight rooftops and vehicles, but dependent on yield, durability, and building specialised channels. The profitability of the Flexible Solar Panel manufacturing business in India improves markedly with reliable cell supply, high yield and low breakage, proven long-term durability, certified products, partnerships with EPC contractors and vehicle makers, and export sales.
Technology and channel decide where a plant lands within these ranges. Semi-flexible crystalline lines need modest capital and can pay back quickly if they find steady customers, while thin-film plants need much more capital, longer development, and strong technology partners. Products sold into vehicles, marine, and export markets usually command higher prices than lightweight rooftop modules competing against standard panels.
Returns can be strengthened by sourcing cells from multiple suppliers, investing in low-stress stringing and lamination, proving durability with independent tests, building partnerships with rooftop EPCs and vehicle makers, offering installation support, and exporting certified products.
Key Risks and Mitigation
The main risks are cell price swings and supply, durability problems such as cracks, delamination, and yellowing, gaps in certification for flexible designs, limited and fragmented demand, competition from cheap imports and from standard modules, and rapid technology change. Supply risk is reduced by qualifying several cell sources; quality risk by proven materials and reliability testing; market risk by focusing on segments where weight matters most; and technology risk by flexible line design. Promoters often work with a Flexible Solar Panel Business Plan Consultant in India to test these scenarios before committing capital.
Approvals for this plant centre on product certification under solar quality rules, e-waste obligations, and factory requirements, along with standard business registrations. Promoters setting up a Flexible Solar Panel Manufacturing Plant in India generally need the following:
Product certification is usually on the critical path, since modules cannot be sold in India without BIS approval and testing can take several months, especially for new flexible designs. Starting certification testing early, alongside line installation, shortens the time from investment decision to first sales.
Note: The exact approvals, registrations, licenses, and certification requirements may vary depending on factors such as plant location, capacity, products, state pollution control categories, customer specifications, and applicable regulations. Businesses are advised to undertake a detailed regulatory assessment during the project planning stage to ensure full compliance and timely implementation.
Several recent developments give useful context for investors considering this market:
The common thread is a fast-growing domestic solar supply chain, stricter quality rules, and rising interest in lightweight products from major manufacturers. New entrants who secure cells, prove durability, and certify their designs will be best placed to grow.
A detailed DPR provides a structured roadmap for the venture, from market demand and technology selection to cell sourcing, plant design, certification, and economics. It helps investors decide the right technology, products, capacity, and location, estimate capital and operating expenditure, assess profitability, and identify risks before committing funds.
At its core is a detailed Flexible Solar Panel Financial Model covering sales by product and segment, prices per watt and premiums over glass modules, cell and material costs, import duties, yields, labour, certification and testing costs, warranty provisions, working capital, debt servicing, cash flows, break-even, return on investment, and payback under different price and volume scenarios. Banks and investors rely on this model to judge long-term viability, which is why many promoters appoint a Flexible Solar Panel Plant Project Report Consultant in India to prepare the report and validate its assumptions against current market data.
For a flexible module project, a strong DPR also clarifies the technology route, the cell and material sourcing plan, the reliability and certification strategy, and the route to rooftop, vehicle, and export customers, which together are the factors most likely to decide success. By testing margins against cell prices, yields, and competition, the report turns a promising solar niche into a plan that lenders and partners can trust.
 
What are the first steps to set up a flexible solar panel manufacturing plant in India?
Start by choosing your technology and segments, such as semi-flexible crystalline modules for lightweight rooftops or vehicle modules. Then commission a feasibility study and DPR, secure cell and material suppliers, select a site in a solar manufacturing cluster, install stringing, lamination, and testing lines, obtain BIS certification and other approvals, and build partnerships with EPC contractors, vehicle makers, and distributors.
How much does it cost to set up a flexible solar panel manufacturing plant in India?
Investment ranges from about INR 10–25 crore for a small semi-flexible line of 25 to 50 MW a year to INR 60–120 crore for an automated plant of 150 to 300 MW a year, and INR 250–500 crore for a thin-film roll-to-roll or large integrated facility.
What are the main steps in making flexible solar panels?
For semi-flexible crystalline modules, the flow runs from cell inspection through laser cutting, tabbing and stringing, layup, pre-lamination inspection, lamination, edge trimming and sealing, junction box fitting, final testing, and packing.
Which machinery does a flexible solar panel manufacturing plant need?
Key equipment includes cell testers, laser cutters, tabber-stringers, layup stations, EL testers, vacuum laminators, edge trimmers, junction box stations, sun simulators, and climate chambers, with deposition and roll-to-roll equipment for thin-film plants.
What raw materials are used for flexible solar panel manufacturing?
The main inputs are solar cells, ETFE or polymer front sheets, POE or EVA encapsulants, flexible or composite backsheets, copper ribbons, junction boxes, cables, connectors, adhesives, and packaging.
How profitable is flexible solar panel manufacturing in India?
A well-run semi-flexible plant can earn a 25 to 35% gross margin and a 10 to 15% net margin, with payback in about 3 to 5 years, helped by premium pricing. Profitability depends on cell prices, yield, durability, and finding steady customers.
Which approvals does a flexible solar panel manufacturing plant need in India?
Typical approvals include BIS certification under the solar goods order, ALMM enlistment for government projects, IEC and UL certification for exports, e-waste registration, pollution control consent where required, factory and fire approvals, and GST, Udyam, trademark, and Import Export Code registrations.
How do I get a feasibility study or DPR for the flexible solar panel manufacturing project?
A detailed feasibility study and DPR covers market demand, technology, products, cell sourcing, plant design, certification, and full financials. Investors usually engage a Flexible Solar Panel Manufacturing Feasibility Study Consultant with experience in solar and clean technology projects to prepare the report and validate it for lenders.
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The low voltage cable market sits exactly where electrification stops being a policy target and becomes physical infrastructure. Every new solar rooftop, data centre hall, charging depot, factory line and connected building relies on low voltage cable to move power from a transformer to the load, which is why demand keeps compounding even when headline generation projects pause.
Recycled, or secondary, aluminium is made by melting aluminium scrap and refining it into alloy ingots, billets, and liquid metal, using about 95% less energy than making primary aluminium from bauxite.
The Australia Power Industry is the physical foundation of one of the developed world's most coal-reliant electricity systems, which is precisely why its transition now ranks among the largest infrastructure investment programmes in the country's history.
Every solar panel is connected by cables built to survive 25 years or more of sun, heat, rain, and high DC voltage. India added a record 44.6 GW of solar capacity in 2025-26, taking cumulative solar capacity past 150 GW, and rooftop programmes such as PM Surya Ghar are adding millions of smaller systems.
Biomass briquettes, often called white coal, are dense blocks of compressed agricultural and forestry residues that burn cleanly in industrial boilers, furnaces, and power plants.
Lead-acid batteries start every car, truck, and two-wheeler, back up telecom towers, data centres, and homes through inverters and UPS systems, and store energy for solar installations. Almost all of the lead, plastic, and acid in a used battery can be recovered, and India already meets more than 80% of its lead demand from recycling.
Fuel cells turn hydrogen into electricity with water as the only exhaust, which makes them one of the most important technologies in India's clean energy transition. They power hydrogen buses, trucks, and trains, provide backup power for telecom towers and data centres, and supply off-grid and distributed electricity where diesel generators are used today.
India's cities generate well over a lakh tonnes of municipal solid waste every day, and much of it still ends up in overflowing dumpsites that release methane, catch fire, and pollute land and water.
Every solar power system needs an inverter to convert the direct current produced by solar panels into alternating current that homes, businesses, and the grid can use.
Sodium-ion batteries are emerging as a practical complement to lithium-ion technology. They work on the same principle, shuttling ions between a cathode and an anode, but use sodium, which is abundant, inexpensive, and available within India, in place of lithium.
Few industries in India have scaled as quickly as solar manufacturing. Backed by ambitious renewable energy targets, a rooftop programme for households, import duties on foreign modules, and the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM), domestic module capacity has multiplied in just a few years.
Setting up an Electrical Panel Manufacturing Plant in India is a fabrication-and-assembly venture powered by heavy grid modernisation, a fast-growing renewable-energy build-out, rising industrial and commercial construction, and the spread of automation across factories and buildings.
Saudi Arabia has turned its power transition into one of the world's largest procurement programmes, and international developers, lenders, and equipment makers are following the tenders.
Setting up a Battery Manufacturing Plant in India is a high-demand, energy-driven venture, powered by the country's booming automotive sector, huge power-backup market, and the fast-growing shift to electric vehicles and renewable storage.
Setting up a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Manufacturing Plant in India is a capital-intensive, strategically important venture, powered by the country's push toward a gas-based economy, the shift to cleaner fuels in transport and industry, and rising demand for LNG as a truck, bus, and industrial fuel.
The India carbon credit market is moving from a voluntary, project-by-project trade into a regulated national system with binding targets, a central registry, and exchange-based price discovery. According to IMARC Group, the market was valued at USD 33.69 Billion in 2025, grew to USD 44.42 Billion in 2026, and is projected to reach USD 405.47 Billion by 2034, expanding at a CAGR of 31.84% (2026–2034).
Setting up a Syngas Production Plant in India is a capital-intensive but strategically valuable venture, driven by the country's push for cleaner industrial fuels, coal and biomass utilization, and chemical self-reliance. Syngas, or synthesis gas, is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide produced by gasifying carbon-rich feedstocks, and it serves as a versatile building block for power, chemicals, hydrogen, and synthetic fuels. With abundant biomass, coal, and waste feedstock and growing policy support for gasification, India offers a favourable environment for new plants.
Setting up a Battery Energy Storage System Manufacturing Plant in India is a capital-efficient, high-growth venture, driven by the country's renewable energy expansion, grid modernization, and supportive storage policies. As solar and wind capacity scales up and the grid needs to balance variable generation, battery energy storage systems have become essential infrastructure.
Setting up a Lithium-ion Battery Recycling Plant in India is a capital-intensive but high-potential venture. India's rapid rise as a major electric-vehicle market, its large consumer-electronics base, and its fast-growing energy-storage sector are together creating one of the deepest and fastest-expanding pools of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries in the world.
Solar glass is a type of specialty glass that has high transmittance and is designed exclusively for use in solar energy systems. Unlike regular flat glass, solar glass is designed to have maximum light transmission with minimal losses due to reflection and absorption.
A solar inverter is a vital component in solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, responsible for transforming the direct current (DC) electricity produced by solar panels into alternating current (AC) electricity. This AC power is then suitable for use by the electrical grid, various appliances, and industrial equipment.
Australia has firmly established itself as a dominant force in the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market, maintaining its position as one of the world's leading exporters. The country's strategic geographical location in the Asia-Pacific region, combined with substantial natural gas reserves, has enabled it to become a critical energy supplier to rapidly growing Asian economies, particularly China, Japan, and South Korea.
Japan's lead acid battery market stands as a cornerstone of the nation's energy storage infrastructure, demonstrating remarkable resilience and adaptability in an era dominated by rapid technological evolution. Despite the global shift toward lithium-ion technologies, the Japanese lead acid battery sector continues to thrive, driven by its unmatched cost-effectiveness, proven reliability, and exceptional recyclability.
Green hydrogen is the cleanest form of hydrogen available, as it is produced through water electrolysis using the electricity generated from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, or hydropower. Carbon dioxide emissions are zero since no fossil fuels are used. Essentially, an electrolyzer is used in the electrolysis process to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The resulting hydrogen is refined by purification, compression, or liquefaction and then fed into various applications. Green hydrogen is considered a cornerstone of the global energy transition because it can store renewable energy, decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors, and serve as a sustainable alternative to fossil-fuel-based hydrogen.
Japan’s thermal power plant industry remains a crucial pillar of the nation’s energy infrastructure, providing a stable and reliable source of electricity for both industrial and residential consumption. Thermal power generation, which primarily involves the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil, continues to play a key role despite increasing investments in renewable energy.
An electrical panel, also called a distribution board or switchboard, is an important installation in electrical infrastructure that acts as the main center for the distribution, control, and protection of electrical power within residential, commercial, and industrial systems. It acts as the point at which electrical energy is received from the utility or a source of power generation and is distributed to various circuits and equipment in an organized manner.
The global oil and gas EPC market is currently experiencing a remarkable transformation as it positions itself at the intersection of traditional energy demands and technological innovation. As of 2024, the market is demonstrating robust growth, reaching USD 52.9 Billion in 2024, depending on regional scope and market segmentation approaches. This substantial market base is supporting a major number of capital projects worldwide, including offshore platform projects and onshore installations that are collectively shaping the energy landscape.
Bamboo pellets are a biomass fuel type created through the compression of bamboo residues like shavings, sawdust, and chips into thick cylindrical pellets. They are an environmentally friendly substitute for conventional fossil fuels like natural gas and coal. Due to the fast growth rate and high biomass yield of bamboo, it has become one of the most renewable raw materials for the production of bioenergy.
Biomass briquettes are dense, solid fuel blocks made of compressed organic waste materials like sawdust, agricultural wastes, wood shavings, coconut shells, rice husk, or herbaceous biomass. The briquetting process usually involves drying the biomass to lower the moisture content (usually down to 10-15%), grinding or milling for a fine particle size uniformity, and then compressing under high pressure with or without a binding agent.
Biogas is a renewable energy form generated by the anaerobic fermentation of organic matter including agricultural residues, animal waste, municipal solid waste, sewage sludge, and food waste. Microorganisms in the absence of oxygen break down organic substances in the process and produce a gaseous mixture of mainly methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2), with traces of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and water vapor.
A battery is an electrochemical energy storage system that transforms chemical energy into electrical energy by way of redox reactions between its electrodes and electrolyte. It consists of a single or multiple electrochemical cells, each having a positive electrode (cathode), a negative electrode (anode), and an electrolyte for ion transfer. Batteries are categorically divided into primary (non-rechargeable) and secondary (rechargeable) types.
The global energy landscape is undergoing a seismic transformation, with green hydrogen emerging as one of the most promising solutions to achieve deep decarbonization across sectors. Far from a niche technology, green hydrogen is emerging as a critical pillar of the future energy system, offering a pathway to a sustainable and resilient economy.
Transmission line towers are essential support components of transmission lines installed on overhead to distribute high-voltage electricity over long distances. Towers are made of galvanized steel, primarily, and are designed to tolerate mechanical stress, environmental loads, and electrical safety. Some of the important characteristics of transmission line towers are high structural strength, corrosion resistance, adaptability for modular design, and high service life. They are normally produced in lattice form (tubular or free-standing towers) or tubular form, with types including suspension towers, tension towers, angle towers, and terminal towers based on use.
The energy storage revolution is here, and it's powered by graphene. While the world struggles with the limitations of conventional lithium-ion batteries, a new technology is emerging that promises to shatter every performance barrier we've accepted as unchangeable.
Australia is undergoing a significant energy transformation, underscoring the growing role of renewable energy sources. These sources are key to combating climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the primary cause of global warming and air pollution. Beyond environmental benefits, renewable energy strengthens energy security by diversifying power sources and reducing dependence on volatile fossil fuel imports, contributing to greater energy independence.
Learn how to plan capital investment, manage raw material costs, post manufacturing cost and optimize operations for setting up solar panel plant.
Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) represents a power grid technology that stores electricity to enhance electric power grid reliability while increasing operational efficiency. BESS permits battery recharging during periods of low demand or extra grid supply capacity. BESS provides three principal operational functionalities which include power grid stabilization during supply disruptions, control of energy supply variations, and integration of intermittent renewable generation from wind and solar resources.
China's economic presence is expanding globally, and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have become a focal point for its investments, especially within the energy sector. The region, rich in natural resources and experiencing rising energy demands, offers strategic opportunities for Chinese energy giants looking to invest and expand. LAC is currently leading a transformative movement towards sustainable energy. From 2015 to 2022, the region increased its renewable energy capacity by an impressive 51%, now generating 64% of its electricity from renewables such as hydropower, wind, and solar. This shift addresses the global demand for cleaner energy while supporting local economic growth and enhancing energy security.
Hydrogen is a clean, renewable, and widely available energy source that can be produced through various methods. Production techniques such as coal gasification, steam methane reforming, electrolysis, and thermochemical processes highlight its versatility. Hydrogen is essential in several critical sectors, including methanol and ammonia production, petroleum refining, transportation, power generation, as well as in electronics, metal industries, and as a rocket propellant. The increasing concern over carbon emissions and greenhouse gases has led to a shift towards cleaner fuel options. Hydrogen is recognized for its cleanliness and versatility as an energy carrier. Additionally, supportive government initiatives and favorable policies are driving the growth of hydrogen production globally.
Hydrogen is a clean, renewable, and abundant energy source derived from various methods. Its applications span across transportation, heating, and power generation. Diverse production methods, including coal gasification, steam methane reforming, electrolysis, and thermochemical processes, contribute to its versatility. Hydrogen plays a pivotal role in crucial sectors like methanol and ammonia production, petroleum refining, transportation, power generation, as well as in electronics, metal industries, and as a rocket propellant.
A floating solar farm is a renewable energy installation in which solar panels are mounted on floating structures in water bodies such as lakes, reservoirs, ponds, or even the sea. This technology, also known as a floating photovoltaic (PV) system, or “floatovoltaics,” enables solar power generation in areas with limited available land or where land use is restricted for other purposes. Floating solar farms offer various benefits, including improved solar panel efficiency through cooling, land conservation, reduction of evaporation and algae growth, and integration with hydropower facilities to generate both solar and hydroelectric power in the same location.
Nuclear power utilizes nuclear reactions to generate heat, which is then converted into electricity. This energy is released from the nucleus—the core of atoms composed of protons and neutrons. Nuclear power can be derived from nuclear fission, nuclear decay, and nuclear fusion reactions. Across the globe, nuclear power plants predominantly use the fission of uranium and plutonium to produce electricity. The heat generated from fission is used to create steam, which drives turbines connected to generators. Nuclear power offers several advantages over fossil fuels, such as minimal greenhouse gas emissions and a higher energy density, meaning a small amount of nuclear fuel produces a large amount of energy.
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New solar panels on the roof of Harpswell Community School could start generating electricity this year.
Shawn Johansen, director of facilities for Maine School Administrative District 75, said that after contractors receive a few remaining pieces and paperwork is finalized by Central Maine Power, the array will generate about 110,000 kilowatt-hours of energy each year.
The electricity will be sold back to CMP rather than going to the building, but the generation will slightly exceed the school’s current usage. A 2026 report by the architecture and engineering firm Harriman said the building used approximately 87,000 kilowatt-hours in the 2024-25 school year.
ReVision Energy is installing the array. The company also installed solar panels on Mt. Ararat High School when it was rebuilt in 2021. ReVision proposed the array on Harpswell Community School. It is also working with the district to install an array on Bowdoin Central School.
The array is being paid for by a third-party investor, Massachusetts-based Blue Haven Solar. The school district has a 25-year lease for the array and will receive energy credits from CMP, effectively lowering the school’s electricity bill.
The investor, who will get tax credits for their investment, also will pay for the array’s maintenance.
Johansen said the arrangement means there are no additional costs to taxpayers. The agreement does include an option for the district to buy the array after seven years.
Johansen said the district will save a small sum of money, likely about $1,800 in the first year, with the credits from the array. He said adding solar energy is primarily a way to reduce the district’s carbon footprint.
Sam Lemonick is a staff reporter at the Harpswell Anchor. He can be reached at [email protected].
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Websol Energy Appoints Vinay Vyas As CEO Of Websol Renewables, Targets 5,350 MW Solar Cell Capacity By 2028  SolarQuarter
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Solar Power World
By Billy Ludt | October 22, 2026
As energy affordability emerges as a defining issue heading into the midterm elections, new analysis from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) shows how solar and energy storage are lowering electricity costs in both red and blue states. Growth in solar and energy storage helped drive down average wholesale electricity prices by 42% in Texas and 51% in California from summer 2021 to summer 2026, according to the analysis.
A West Virginia residential solar installation by Solar Holler.
Prices fell even as electricity demand grew in both states, according to the new analysis. Over the same five-year period, solar generation increased 421% in Texas and 90% in California, while battery storage capacity grew more than 26-fold in Texas and nearly sevenfold in California.
From June through August 2026, solar and storage saved Texans approximately $3.55 billion and Californians approximately $2.5 billion compared with the same period in 2021.
“As the midterm elections approach, delivering affordable, reliable power is a priority that transcends party lines and Texas and California are proof that the growth of solar and storage is driving down prices,” said SEIA CEO Tim Pawlenty.
In California, electricity use grew 2.5%, while the average wholesale price fell from $77.54/MWh to $38.32/MWh after accounting for inflation. In Texas, electricity demand surged 30%, yet the average wholesale price fell from $54.97/MWh to $31.77/MWh.
Lower wholesale prices have helped reduce generation costs for residential customers, even as other expenses have pushed bills higher. From summer 2021 to summer 2026, residential generation costs fell 4% in Texas and 10% in California. Solar and storage growth has helped put downward pressure on energy prices despite transmission and distribution costs driving up overall residential electricity bills by 3% in Texas and 22% in California over the same time period.
The analysis compared weighted average hourly wholesale electricity prices from June to August in 2021 with the same period in 2026 across the CAISO and ERCOT markets, using inflation-adjusted 2026 dollars.
News item from the Solar Energy Industries Association
Billy Ludt is managing editor of Solar Power World and currently covers topics on mounting, inverters, installation and operations.

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Researchers in India have developed a reusable, thermally conductive gel that can passively cool silicon solar cells and improve their power conversion efficiency. The research aimed to develop a cost-effective and sustainable cooling solution that reduces operating temperatures, improves electrical performance, and extends the lifespan of photovoltaic devices without requiring external energy. The gel consists of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) blended with tin (Sn)-coated and Sn-filled carbon nanotubes (Sn-CNTs).
“In the present study, Sn was employed as a coating material because of its excellent wettability, relatively low melting temperature (232 C), and good compatibility with carbon nano materials, enabling uniform coating of CNT surfaces,” the researchers explained. “Sn provides a practical balance of thermal performance, processability, interfacial compatibility, and economic feasibility, making it well-suited for enhancing the effective thermal conductivity of CNTs.”
To prepare the gel, the researchers dissolved 0.5 g of PVA in 5 ml of dimethyl sulfoxide at 120 C and added Sn-CNTs at concentrations of 0.5 wt%, 0.7 wt%, and 1.4 wt%. They stirred the mixtures for one hour and ultrasonicated them for 30 minutes before cooling and casting them into 5 cm × 5 cm molds. The samples were then kept at 0 C for 24 hours as part of a freeze-thaw crosslinking process. The team also prepared a pure PVA gel for comparison.
The scientists analyzed the gels’ structure and composition and measured their thermal conductivity, tensile strength, and thermal stability. For the cooling tests, they attached the 0.7 wt% and 1.4 wt% formulations to the rear of a commercial polycrystalline silicon solar cell and compared their performance with that of a device cooled with pure PVA gel and an uncooled reference device. They also monitored weight loss and device performance over 40 days. To assess reusability, they soaked the used 0.7 wt% gel in deionized water for 24 hours before testing it again.
“The intrinsic thermal conductivity of Sn-CNTs provides excellent heat transfer capability through the gel medium,” the researchers said. “Furthermore, PVA/Sn-CNT conducting gel manifested superior thermal conductivity of 3.2 W/mK and mechanical strength of 0.21 kPa. Consequently, the developed conducting gel highlights excellent potential for thermal management of solar cells without compromising the power conversion efficiency (PCE).”
The tests showed that the 0.7 wt% formulation reduced the solar cell’s operating temperature by 9.5 C and increased its power conversion efficiency from 12.5% to 13.2% under simulated sunlight. After 40 days, the gel-cooled device retained an efficiency of 12%, which increased to 13.3% after the gel was soaked in water and reused.
“Overall, this method offers a green, affordable pathway to boost solar efficiency, lifetime, and thermal control using sustainable materials,” the researchers concluded. However, the they did not provide a detailed cost assessment of the proposed cooling solution or compare its economic feasibility with that of existing solar cell cooling technologies.
The findings are presented in “Reusable thermally conductive Sn-CNTs infused PVA gel for efficient silicon solar cell module cooling,” published in Solar Energy. The research team included scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi and Amity University in India.
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According to the latest IndexBox report on the global Concentrated Solar Power Csp market, the market enters 2026 with broader demand fundamentals, more disciplined procurement behavior, and a more regionally diversified supply architecture.
The global Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) market is entering a strategic re-rating as utilities and grid operators prioritize dispatchable, long-duration renewable capacity over intermittent generation alone. CSP’s integrated thermal energy storage (TES) allows solar energy to be shifted into evening peaks and overnight periods, providing firm capacity, grid inertia, and ancillary services that are increasingly valuable in high-renewable-penetration systems. Deployment is concentrated in sunbelt regions with high direct normal irradiance (DNI) and urgent grid-stability needs, while manufacturing and component expertise remain clustered in a few industrial hubs.
The competitive landscape is consolidating around vertically integrated developers and specialized EPC-integrators capable of managing multi-year project execution and performance risk. Project economics are shifting from levelized cost of energy (LCOE) toward levelized cost of storage (LCOS), with value stacking through capacity payments, ancillary service markets, and clean firm power contracts. This report provides a structured, commercially grounded analysis of the CSP market, covering historical development from 2012 to 2025 and forward-looking scenarios through 2035, segmented by technology, end-use sector, storage architecture, and geography.
The baseline scenario for the global CSP market through 2035 assumes continued policy support for dispatchable renewables in key sunbelt markets, gradual cost reduction in solar field and thermal storage components, and sustained bankability for integrated CSP-TES projects. Under this scenario, deployment is expected to grow at a moderate single-digit CAGR, with capacity additions concentrated in the Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific, and selected Latin American markets.
The value proposition of CSP is increasingly tied to its storage duration and grid-support capabilities rather than pure generation cost, supporting demand from utilities and independent power producers seeking firm capacity. Hybrid CSP-PV configurations are expected to gain share, optimizing land use and grid connections while improving project economics. Supply chain constraints, particularly in specialized receiver tubes and molten-salt components, may temper growth rates in the near term but are expected to ease as manufacturing capacity expands.
The market index (2025=100) is projected to reach approximately 145 by 2035, reflecting cumulative growth of about 45% over the forecast period. Key uncertainties include the pace of cost reduction in competing battery storage, the availability of concessional financing, and the evolution of capacity remuneration mechanisms in emerging markets.
Electric utilities and independent power producers are the primary buyers of CSP capacity, driven by the need to meet renewable portfolio standards while maintaining grid reliability. As variable renewable penetration increases, utilities require dispatchable generation that can be scheduled to match demand peaks and provide ancillary services. CSP with thermal energy storage offers a unique combination of renewable generation and long-duration storage, enabling utilities to contract for firm capacity rather than intermittent energy. Through 2035, demand from this segment is expected to grow as more utilities seek clean firm power contracts and capacity payments to replace retiring thermal generation.
Key demand indicators include renewable portfolio standards with dispatchability credits, capacity auction outcomes, and the share of variable renewables in utility generation mixes. The segment’s growth is also supported by hybrid CSP-PV projects that optimize land and grid connection use. Current trend: Growing demand for firm capacity and dispatchable renewable power.
Major trends: Shift from feed-in tariffs to capacity payments and clean firm power contracts, Growing preference for hybrid CSP-PV configurations, Increasing focus on grid inertia and ancillary services, and Rising demand for long-duration storage beyond 6-10 hours.
Representative participants: ACWA Power, NextEra Energy, Engie, and Abengoa.
Independent power producers are increasingly active in CSP development, particularly in markets with supportive offtake structures and high direct normal irradiance. IPPs typically develop, own, and operate CSP plants under long-term power purchase agreements or capacity contracts, often partnering with technology providers and EPC contractors to manage execution risk. The segment’s demand is driven by the availability of bankable offtake agreements, access to concessional financing, and the ability to stack revenues from energy, capacity, and ancillary services.
Through 2035, IPP demand is expected to grow as more countries auction dispatchable renewable capacity and as development finance institutions support CSP projects in emerging markets. Key indicators include PPA signing volumes, auction results, and the cost of capital for CSP projects. Current trend: Expanding project pipelines in sunbelt regions.
Major trends: Growth in auction-based procurement for dispatchable renewables, Increased participation of development finance institutions, Rising focus on value stacking through multiple revenue streams, and Expansion of IPP project pipelines in Middle East and Africa.
Representative participants: ACWA Power, SolarReserve, BrightSource Energy, and Cobra Group.
Industrial and process heat applications represent an emerging demand segment for CSP, particularly for industries requiring high-temperature heat such as mining, chemicals, and food processing. CSP can provide decarbonized process heat either directly or through thermal energy storage, reducing reliance on fossil fuels. The segment’s demand is driven by corporate decarbonization commitments, carbon pricing mechanisms, and the need for reliable heat supply in remote industrial locations. Through 2035, demand from this segment is expected to grow as more industries seek to reduce Scope 1 emissions and as CSP technology providers develop modular solutions for industrial applications.
Key indicators include industrial energy costs, carbon prices, and corporate sustainability targets. Current trend: Emerging demand for decarbonized industrial heat.
Major trends: Growing corporate focus on Scope 1 emissions reduction, Development of modular CSP solutions for industrial heat, Rising carbon prices in key industrial markets, and Integration of thermal storage for continuous process heat.
Representative participants: GlassPoint Solar, Abengoa, and Sener.
CSP is increasingly being integrated with desalination and water treatment plants in arid sunbelt regions, where the need for both electricity and fresh water is acute. CSP can provide both power and thermal energy for desalination processes, improving overall plant efficiency and reducing reliance on fossil fuels. The segment’s demand is driven by water scarcity, population growth in arid regions, and the need for sustainable water infrastructure. Through 2035, demand from this segment is expected to grow as more countries invest in integrated water-energy projects. Key indicators include water stress levels, desalination capacity additions, and government investment in water infrastructure.
Current trend: Increasing integration of CSP with desalination plants.
Major trends: Integration of CSP with multi-effect distillation and reverse osmosis, Growing investment in water infrastructure in Middle East and North Africa, Rising focus on energy-water nexus in project development, and Use of thermal storage to enable continuous desalination.
Representative participants: ACWA Power, Abengoa, and Engie.
CSP is finding niche applications in mining and remote communities where reliable, dispatchable power is needed and grid connection is limited or expensive. In mining, CSP can provide power for operations and processing, often integrated with thermal storage to ensure continuous supply. For remote communities, CSP can offer a sustainable alternative to diesel generation, reducing fuel costs and emissions. The segment’s demand is driven by the need for reliable power in off-grid locations, corporate sustainability targets in the mining sector, and government programs to electrify remote areas.
Through 2035, demand from this segment is expected to grow modestly as more mining companies seek to decarbonize operations and as remote electrification programs expand. Key indicators include mining activity in sunbelt regions and off-grid electrification budgets. Current trend: Niche demand for off-grid and remote power applications.
Major trends: Growing mining sector focus on decarbonization, Rising diesel costs driving interest in renewable alternatives, Government programs for remote community electrification, and Integration of CSP with thermal storage for continuous off-grid power.
Representative participants: Abengoa, GlassPoint Solar, and Sener.
Interactive table based on the Store Companies dataset for this report.
China and India lead deployment, driven by renewable portfolio standards and grid stability needs. Australia and South Korea show interest in hybrid CSP-PV and industrial heat applications. Manufacturing expertise is concentrated in China, supporting cost reduction. Direction: Growing.
The U.S. remains a key market with existing CSP capacity and interest in long-duration storage. Policy support through investment tax credits and state-level renewable mandates supports growth, though competition from PV and batteries is intense. Direction: Stable.
Spain remains the largest European market, with limited new deployment due to policy uncertainty. Interest in industrial heat and hybrid projects is growing, and European developers are active in export markets. Direction: Stable.
Chile and Mexico offer high DNI and growing renewable penetration, supporting CSP demand. Brazil and Peru show interest in CSP for mining and industrial applications. Financing remains a key constraint. Direction: Growing.
The region is the largest and fastest-growing market, led by projects in Morocco, South Africa, and the UAE. High DNI, water scarcity, and grid stability needs drive demand. ACWA Power and other developers are active. Direction: Growing rapidly.
In the baseline scenario, IndexBox estimates a 3.8% compound annual growth rate for the global concentrated solar power csp market over 2026-2035, bringing the market index to roughly 145 by 2035 (2025=100).
Note: indexed curves are used to compare medium-term scenario trajectories when full absolute volumes are not publicly disclosed.
For full methodological details and benchmark tables, see the latest IndexBox Concentrated Solar Power Csp market report.
This report is an independent strategic market study that provides a structured, commercially grounded analysis of the global market for Concentrated Solar Power Csp. It is designed for battery and storage manufacturers, power-electronics suppliers, system integrators, EPC partners, developers, utilities, investors, and strategic entrants that need a clear view of deployment demand, technology positioning, manufacturing exposure, safety and qualification burden, project economics, and competitive structure.
The analytical framework is designed to work both for a single specialized storage or conversion component and for a broader renewable energy generation and storage technology, where market structure is shaped by chemistry, duration, project economics, system integration, safety requirements, route-to-market, and grid-interface logic rather than by one narrow customs heading alone. It defines Concentrated Solar Power Csp as Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is a utility-scale renewable energy technology that uses mirrors or lenses to concentrate sunlight onto a receiver, converting it to high-temperature heat. This thermal energy is stored and used to drive a conventional turbine or engine to generate electricity, providing dispatchable power and examines the market through deployment use cases, buyer environments, upstream input dependencies, conversion and integration stages, qualification and safety requirements, pricing architecture, commercial channels, and country capability differences. Historical analysis typically covers 2012 to 2025, with forward-looking scenarios through 2035.
This report is designed to answer the questions that matter most to decision-makers evaluating an energy-storage, battery, renewable-integration, or power-conversion market.
At its core, this report explains how the market for Concentrated Solar Power Csp actually functions. It identifies where demand originates, how supply is organized, which technological and regulatory barriers influence adoption, and how value is distributed across the value chain. Rather than describing the market only in broad terms, the study breaks it into analytically meaningful layers: product scope, segmentation, end uses, customer types, production economics, outsourcing structure, country roles, and company archetypes.
The report is particularly useful in markets where buyers are highly specialized, suppliers differ significantly in technical depth and regulatory readiness, and the commercial landscape cannot be understood only through top-line market size figures. In this context, the study is designed not only to estimate the size of the market, but to explain why the market has that size, what drives its growth, which subsegments are the most attractive, and what it takes to compete successfully within it.
The report is based on an independent analytical methodology that combines deep secondary research, structured evidence review, market reconstruction, and multi-level triangulation. The methodology is designed to support products for which there is no single clean official dataset capturing the full market in a directly usable form.
The study typically uses the following evidence hierarchy:
The analytical framework is built around several linked layers.
First, a scope model defines what is included in the market and what is excluded, ensuring that adjacent products, downstream finished goods, unrelated instruments, or broader chemical categories do not distort the market boundary.
Second, a demand model reconstructs the market from the perspective of consuming sectors, workflow stages, and applications. Depending on the product, this may include Utility-scale power generation, Grid stability and ancillary services, Desalination co-location, Industrial decarbonization, and Mining and off-grid power across Electric Utilities & IPPs, Heavy Industry (mining, cement, chemicals), Water Utilities, and Government & Public Infrastructure and Site selection & solar resource assessment, Technology selection & feasibility, EPC contracting & financing, Solar field construction & receiver installation, TES and power block integration, Commissioning & performance testing, and Long-term O&M and optimization. Demand is then allocated across end users, development stages, and geographic markets.
Third, a supply model evaluates how the market is served. This includes Specialized glass for mirrors, High-temperature steel alloys, Heat transfer fluids (synthetic oils, molten salts), Solar tracking motors and controllers, and Turbine and generator sets, manufacturing technologies such as Molten-salt thermal energy storage, Synthetic oil or molten salt as HTF, High-precision solar tracking systems, High-temperature receivers and heat exchangers, and Supercritical CO2 power cycles, quality control requirements, outsourcing, contract manufacturing, integration, and project-delivery participation, distribution structure, and supply-chain concentration risks.
Fourth, a country capability model maps where the market is consumed, where production is materially feasible, where manufacturing capability is limited or emerging, and which countries function primarily as innovation hubs, supply nodes, demand centers, or import-reliant markets.
Fifth, a pricing and economics layer evaluates price corridors, cost drivers, complexity premiums, outsourcing logic, margin structure, and switching barriers. This is especially relevant in markets where product grade, purity, customization, regulatory burden, or service model materially influence economics.
Finally, a competitive intelligence layer profiles the leading company types active in the market and explains how strategic roles differ across upstream material suppliers, component and controls providers, OEMs, storage-system integrators, EPC partners, project developers, and distribution or service channels.
This report covers the market for Concentrated Solar Power Csp in its commercially relevant and technologically meaningful form. The scope typically includes the product itself, its major product configurations or variants, the critical technologies used to produce or deliver it, the core input categories required for manufacturing, and the services directly associated with its commercial supply, quality control, or integration into end-user workflows.
Included within scope are the product forms, use cases, inputs, and services that are necessary to understand the actual addressable market around Concentrated Solar Power Csp. This usually includes:
Excluded from scope are categories that may be technologically adjacent but do not belong to the core economic market being measured. These usually include:
The exact inclusion and exclusion logic is always a critical part of the study, because the quality of the market estimate depends directly on disciplined scope boundaries.
The report provides global coverage. It evaluates the world market as a whole and then breaks it down by region and country, with particular focus on the geographies that matter most for deployment demand, battery-material processing, cell and component manufacturing, power-conversion capability, renewable integration, and project delivery.
The geographic analysis is designed not simply to rank countries by nominal market size, but to classify them by role in the market. Depending on the product, countries may function as:
This study is designed for strategic, commercial, operations, project-delivery, and investment users, including:
In many energy-transition, storage, power-conversion, and project-driven markets, official trade and production statistics are not sufficient on their own to describe the true market. Product boundaries may cut across multiple tariff codes, several product categories may be bundled into the same official classification, and a meaningful share of activity may take place through customized services, captive supply, platform relationships, or technically specialized channels that are not directly visible in standard statistical datasets.
For this reason, the report is designed as a modeled strategic market study. It uses official and public evidence wherever it is reliable and scope-compatible, but it does not force the market into a purely statistical framework when doing so would reduce analytical quality. Instead, it reconstructs the market through the logic of demand, supply, technology, country roles, and company behavior.
This makes the report particularly well suited to products that are innovation-intensive, technically differentiated, capacity-constrained, platform-dependent, or commercially structured around specialized buyer-supplier relationships rather than standardized commodity trade.
The report typically includes:
The result is a structured, publication-grade market intelligence document that combines quantitative modeling with commercial, technical, and strategic interpretation.
Energy-Storage Market Structure and Company Archetypes
The Key National Markets and Their Strategic Roles
Pioneer, built many large plants globally
Developer of Ivanpah Solar Power Facility
Major investor in large CSP projects worldwide
Key supplier for steam turbines in CSP
Developed Crescent Dunes plant
Built and operates CSP plants
Key designer of parabolic trough plants
Provider of parabolic trough systems
Supplies equipment for CSP power blocks
Joint venture (Sener & Masdar)
EPC contractor for major CSP projects
Leading supplier of key CSP components
Major supplier of parabolic trough receivers
Leading Chinese CSP technology provider
EPC for large international CSP projects
Specializes in CSP for oilfield steam
Major investor in global CSP projects
Operates and invests in CSP assets
Owns and operates CSP plants in portfolio
Developer of modular tower systems
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Japanese electronics manufacturer Panasonic Holdings announced it will start full-scale mass production of glass-based perovskite solar panels for applications in building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) one year ahead of schedule.
The company had originally planned to start production in fiscal year 2030, which in Japan runs from April 1, 2030, to March 31, 2031.
“Ahead of full-scale mass production, we began commercial activities in September 2026 by selling pre-production products manufactured at Panasonic HD’s development facility in Moriguchi, Osaka Prefecture,” the company said in a statement. “Going forward, we aim to establish mass-production technologies at our Nagahama facility and accelerate market development through the commercial deployment of these initial products.”
“Panasonic HD was selected for a Green Innovation Fund project by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) in September 2025 and has since been developing mass-production and installation technologies for glass-based perovskite solar cells,” it went on to say. “Given the progress in these technologies, growing market demand, and supportive government policies, the company has decided to bring forward the start of full-scale mass production from its original schedule.”
Panasonic said its pre-production glass-based perovskite solar panels feature a laminated-glass structure, with maximum dimensions of 1.8 m × 1.0 m and glass thickness configurations of 3+3 mm or 6+6 mm. The products are available with float glass or high-strength glass and support customized decorative designs.
The mass-produced products, scheduled for launch in April 2029, will feature larger dimensions of up to 1.8 m × 1.2 m and additional glass thickness configurations of 4+4 mm and 5+5 mm. They will also be available in laminated insulating glass configurations, with tempered glass offered as an additional option.
According to the company, both product generations comply with Japanese building standards and have passed internal tests based on IEC 61730 and IEC 62790. Panasonic also said it plans to pursue module certification in line with customer requirements and market developments.
The company uses inkjet coating, laser processing and glass encapsulation technologies in the manufacturing process. It said the technology enables customized dimensions, transparency levels and decorative patterns, making the products suitable for building-integrated photovoltaic applications, including windows and facades.
Panasonic did not disclose the modules’ power conversion efficiency, rated power output, temperature coefficient, expected service life or pricing.
The Japanese electronics manufacturer has been developing perovskite solar technology for more than a decade. In 2020, the company unveiled a lightweight perovskite solar module with a power conversion efficiency of 16.09% and an area of 802 cm², manufactured using an inkjet coating process.
In 2023, it began testing glass-based perovskite solar panels in a building in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, in cooperation with property developer Mitsui Fudosan Residential. The company subsequently achieved a certified efficiency of 18.1% for an 802 cm² device.
More recently, in December 2025, Panasonic and Japanese building materials manufacturer YKK AP tested the technology in office windows, focusing on installation methods and design flexibility.
The commercialization efforts come as the Japanese government seeks to establish a domestic perovskite solar industry. In November 2024, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced a target of deploying around 20 GW of perovskite solar capacity by 2040.
The government also outlined plans to support domestic manufacturing and reduce production costs to JPY 14 ($0.09)/W by 2030 and JPY 10/W by 2040. In September 2025, the Ministry of the Environment introduced subsidy programs to support early deployment of perovskite solar cells and their integration with battery storage systems.
Japan has since stepped up its support for the technology. In May 2026, NEDO opened a supplementary funding call under its Green Innovation Fund to advance mass-production technologies for single-junction perovskite solar cells.
In September, the Ministry of the Environment announced plans to exclude conventional silicon solar panels from newly introduced subsidy programs starting in fiscal 2027, prioritizing perovskite and other next-generation solar technologies. The policy shift is intended to strengthen Japan’s industrial competitiveness and accelerate the commercialization of emerging photovoltaic technologies.
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A research team in China has proposed a hemispherical perovskite solar cell with a textured surface designed to reduce sensitivity to the angle of incident sunlight. The hemispherical geometry is intended to enable radial charge collection, while the textured surface scatters incoming light in multiple directions to enhance absorption and promote more uniform charge generation.
“Perovskite solar cells have attracted intensive research interest as a promising candidate for next-generation photovoltaic technologies, offering high power conversion efficiency and low manufacturing cost,” the researchers said. “However, the practical energy yield of conventional planar perovskite cells is severely compromised by optical losses under varying solar incidence angles, leading to significant power fluctuations that undermine their viability for renewable energy generation.”
To evaluate the design, the researchers modeled five cell architectures: planar, nanowire, smooth hemispherical, and hemispherical structures with rounded-cone or textured rounded-cone front surfaces. Each device consisted of an indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode, a phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) electron transport layer, a methylammonium lead iodide (CH₃NH₃PbI₃) perovskite absorber, a nickel oxide (NiO) hole transport layer, and a silver (Ag) rear electrode.
The researchers used Lumerical software to simulate the five architectures, analyzing light absorption, scattering, electromagnetic fields, and charge generation across wavelengths ranging from 300 nm to 800 nm and incidence angles from 0° to 50°. They then incorporated the resulting charge-generation profiles into electrical simulations that accounted for carrier transport and recombination. The simulations were used to calculate current-voltage characteristics, power conversion efficiency, and maximum power output under different illumination angles.
Across incidence angles ranging from 0° to 50°, the textured rounded-cone cell achieved an average short-circuit current density of 25.47 mA/cm², compared with 24.03 mA/cm² for the smooth hemispherical cell and 22.52 mA/cm² for the planar device. It also achieved an average maximum power output of 28.25 mW/cm² and light absorption exceeding 95%.
“The design effectively decouples device performance from incident light angle, overcoming the critical challenge of angular-dependent power output,” the researchers concluded. “The three-dimensional hemisphere symmetry enables balanced carrier transport, while the Mie resonances induced within the perovskite shell ensure efficient light trapping.”
The solar cell concept was presented in the study “Angle-robust photovoltaics via Mie resonance hybridization for stable power output in perovskite solar cells,” published in Solar Energy. The research team included scientists from China’s Jilin Normal University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
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Websol Energy System has appointed Vinay Vyas as chief executive officer of its wholly owned subsidiary, Websol Renewables.

Vyas brings over 18 years of experience in renewable energy and energy storage. He has worked on a clean energy portfolio of more than 8 GW, valued at INR 24,000 crore, and led the development of what is described as the world’s first integrated green hydrogen and ammonia project at ACME Cleantech. He has previously served as Chief Executive Officer of FusionX Energy, Group Lead (Vice President) for renewable power, BESS and green hydrogen at Welspun Group, and Director of the Global Renewable Energy Center at Canadian Solar. He also chaired the Energy Storage Committee at the National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI) in 2025.

Websol crossed INR 1,000 crore in revenue in FY26 and plans to take its manufacturing capacity to 5,350 MW of solar cells and 4,550 MW of modules by 2028. Websol Renewables extends the company’s presence further along the solar value chain.
Websol continues to expand its solar cell and module manufacturing capacity while strengthening its presence across the renewable energy value chain. The company operates an integrated manufacturing facility at the Falta Special Economic Zone in West Bengal, with a solar cell capacity of 1,200 MW and a module capacity of 550 MW, using Mono PERC and bifacial technology. The facility is designed to process wafers up to 210 mm. Websol supplies solar cells primarily within India, supporting module manufacturers in meeting Domestic Content Requirement norms, and markets its modules in India and internationally.
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The Pulse
A green laser line flicks across a cracked solar panel on a lab bench.
There is no furnace glowing behind it.
There is no tank of acid waiting to dissolve anything.
Just a pulse of light moving over glass, and underneath it, a wafer of silicon quietly letting go of the glue that has held it for decades.
That small, almost boring scene is the whole story.
What makes a pulse of light strong enough to peel a solar cell apart without wrecking it?
A standard solar panel is built like a sandwich nobody expects to open again: glass on top, a thin silicon cell in the middle, a plastic encapsulant gluing it all together, and a backsheet sealing the bottom. That bonded layer stack is designed to survive at least 25 years of weather, which is exactly why it fights back once the panel is retired.
The method, developed at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, fires short pulses of green or near infrared laser light through the transparent front of the module, so the energy lands on the silicon cell surface itself. These nanosecond pulses do the work the furnace used to do.
Instead of melting the whole sandwich or soaking it in solvent, the light does one precise job. It weakens the bond between the cell and its encapsulant and at the same time strips the silicon nitride anti reflective coating, which avoids a separate acid etching step some recovery routes require.
That double effect is what lets the glass and the cell come apart cleanly.
Picture a pallet of decommissioned panels, aluminum frames already stripped, surfaces dulled by years outdoors. Each one still holds a wafer of silicon worth far more per pound than the glass around it, plus a thin web of silver paste threaded across the cell face.
Conventional recycling usually shreds that whole stack into a mixed pile of glass, aluminum and crushed cell fragments. Shredding recovers bulk materials efficiently but tends to fragment or contaminate the smaller, higher value fractions, which make up only a sliver of a module’s mass and most of its recoverable worth.
That is the gap the laser aims at.
It opens a path to the two small, valuable fractions that shredders routinely lose, leaving the glass and frame to be handled the ordinary way afterward.
After the laser pass, the cells went through one wet chemical cleanup step before anything was weighed or tested. That step returned silicon at a near complete purity level with a 97 percent recovery yield, and silver at 99.7 percent purity, also at a 97 percent yield.
So material that normally disappears into mixed powder came back as two clean, separate streams. The institute says silicon recovered from discarded modules is already good enough for reuse in battery anodes, and describes its purity as still climbing toward full solar grade rather than there yet.
The energy side of the ledger is just as striking. The group reports less than 1 kilowatt hour per module for the laser step, against roughly 25 kilowatt hours for a conventional thermal route such as pyrolysis. That gap is why the team frames this as a fundamentally different approach to recycling.
None of this has run at industrial scale yet. The researchers described the results as proof of principle and noted that the recovery routes were demonstrated at laboratory scale, not on a line that could process thousands of panels a day.
Even so, the work covered a range of real module types rather than one lucky sample, spanning PERC, TOPCon, Al-BSF, polymer frontsheet and recent IBC designs. That kind of versatility across formats matters because cell architectures have turned over several times in the past decade.
The hardware is not exotic either. Green pulses need roughly half the fluence to delaminate a module, but near infrared sources cost two to three times less, which the team argues makes the cheaper wavelength attractive once capital cost enters the picture.
The urgency behind this work is not abstract. One of the project’s research leads has described the silver and silicon still locked inside old panels as a potential goldmine of resources, and expects Europe to face a substantial wave of discarded panels by 2030, including arrays like the panel arrays now aging across airports and warehouses on both sides of the Atlantic.
Solar manufacturing has been a heavy pull on the metal, taking close to a quarter of newly mined silver in 2024. That demand has been falling since, as manufacturers thin the silver loading in each cell, which makes reclaiming what is already installed more interesting rather than less.
So the next steps are less about physics and more about logistics: building a line that can feed panel after panel under the beam, and proving the economics hold at full volume. That same push toward squeezing more value from hardware already in place shows up elsewhere, including the turbine tracking work on dammed rivers. If the laser route scales, the stack of retired panels behind a recycling yard starts looking less like trash and more like ore nobody had figured out how to mine yet.
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India’s operational battery energy storage manufacturing capacity is concentrated in downstream manufacturing, which accounts for 92% of the total, while cell manufacturing accounts for just 8%, according to Mercom India’s recently released Energy Storage Manufacturing Ecosystem Report.
Downstream manufacturing includes battery packs, containers, and integrated energy storage systems. The significant gap between cell and downstream manufacturing highlights India’s continued dependence on imported battery cells, materials, and specialized equipment.
The report states that India has a significant battery storage manufacturing pipeline, with substantial capacity under construction and announced. However, only 21.6% of the total identified operational and pipeline capacity is currently operational. Cell manufacturing remains at an early stage, with most identified capacity yet to become operational.
“India’s battery manufacturing industry is expanding rapidly, but domestic cell production is still at an early stage. While downstream manufacturing has grown much faster, enabling companies to assemble battery systems domestically, the industry continues to rely on imported cells and materials. A large amount of cell capacity is under construction or announced, but the real challenge will be converting that capacity into stable commercial production,” commented Raj Prabhu, CEO at Mercom Capital Group.
Existing manufacturers accounted for 47% of India’s identified manufacturing capacity across operational and planned facilities, while new entrants accounted for 53%. Lithium-based chemistries dominated capacity across cell and downstream manufacturing.
Gujarat accounted for 51% of battery storage manufacturing capacity under construction, followed by Maharashtra at 20%.
“Manufacturers will need to achieve competitive costs, consistent quality, strong yields, and sufficient utilization, and that will be much easier with a clear demand trajectory and better visibility on how quickly storage deployment will scale. India has a significant opportunity to build a competitive battery manufacturing ecosystem, but demand and supply need to develop in parallel,” added Prabhu.
Battery systems accounted for more than half of the capital expenditure (CAPEX) for utility-scale energy storage projects in the second quarter (Q2) of 2026. Cells represent a substantial share of battery system costs, making cell pricing and sourcing critical to project economics and the competitiveness of domestic manufacturers.
Government initiatives are helping expand domestic cell manufacturing. The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) program for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) manufacturing has an allocation of INR 181 billion to support 50 GWh of capacity, plus an additional 5 GWh for niche technologies. Of the projects receiving active support, 6.4 GWh is operational, and 28.6 GWh under construction.
A 20% local-content requirement applies to projects supported by the Viability Gap Funding (VGF) program. However, eligible downstream components and services can meet the requirement without using domestically manufactured cells, limiting its direct effect on domestic cell demand.
“For domestic manufacturing to continue expanding, manufacturers need clear long-term visibility on storage deployment, project awards, and equipment demand before committing large amounts of capital to new cell plants. That visibility is critical to supporting capacity expansion, maintain utilization, and improve cost competitiveness. Domestic manufacturers will ultimately need to compete on cost, quality, reliability, and supply availability as more capacity comes online,” said Prabhu.
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Nationwide solar energy contractor Mypower has joined the Metal Cladding & Roofing Manufacturers Association (MCRMA), strengthening the association’s expertise in this increasingly important area of metal building envelope design and helping to unite two traditionally distinct sectors.
As the first solar PV system designer and contractor of its kind to join the MCRMA, Mypower’s involvement will help to ensure the installer’s perspective on the safe integration of solar panels in metal roofing projects is better represented.
Being a member will also enable the Mypower team to develop its knowledge and understanding of the technical aspects of metal roofing and cladding system design and construction to better inform future projects and reduce risk.
Established in 2010, Mypower is an award-winning national commercial solar PV installer based in Gloucestershire.
The company provides consultancy, design, supply, and installation services for high-yield rooftop solar solutions for industrial, commercial and agricultural facilities. To date it has installed over 150,000 panels across more than 500 commercial systems throughout the UK, with projects sometimes involving thousands of panels on a single roof.
Ben Harrison, Founder and Managing Director at Mypower, said: “Joining the MCRMA is a natural step as we expand and share our solar PV installation knowledge in commercial roofing. Working collaboratively with key stakeholders in the roofing and cladding industry, helps improve our roof engineering knowledge and keeps our solar installation standards best-in-class.
“Protecting our clients’ roofs, ensuring that they receive a high quality, energy generating solution, reducing costs and enhancing the value of one of their most valuable assets, their building, is paramount to me, as a Chartered Surveyor.
“Through our membership, our team of experts will be able to develop stronger relationships with metal roofing manufacturers and technical committees to coordinate design and fixing standards with established British Standards and technical guidance.”
Mypower’s approval as an MCRMA member comes at an important time given the rapid growth of rooftop solar PV installations as building owners and operators look to reduce their reliance on grid-generated electricity.
The number of commercial rooftop solar PV installations in the UK has increased significantly over the past five years, driven by soaring electricity costs and policy changes. The UK added over 500 MW of new commercial rooftop capacity in 2024 alone, and the country’s total solar capacity had expanded from around 14–15 GW to almost 24 GW by mid-2026.
Carlton Jones, Director of the MCRMA, added: “We are delighted to approve Mypower as a new member of the MCRMA. Despite the rapid expansion of the solar PV sector, which means they now feature in many metal building envelope projects, collaboration between specialists working in solar energy and those in the metal roofing industry continues to be rather limited.
“Having Mypower’s perspective within the association will, therefore, be extremely valuable as the industry works towards a more integrated approach where both disciplines work more closely together to deliver stronger outcomes for clients.”
>> Read more about the MCRMA in the news
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Nearly two-thirds of home movers in the UK want their next property to generate most or all of its own energy using solar panels, batteries, and heat pumps.
That is according to the 2026 Greener Homes Report by property website Rightmove. The report also found that 87 per cent of movers say a home's ability to stay cool is important when choosing their next property, perhaps no surprise given the record-breaking summer temperatures earlier this year.
Just over half (53 per cent) of movers say recent energy price rises have increased their interest in technology like solar panels and battery storage. In contrast, just eight per cent said they would prefer to remain fully on the grid.
Greg Jackson, founder and CEO of Octopus Energy, said: "This Rightmove Green Homes report shows a massive shift in consumer sentiment around electrification at home – the turbulence in the Middle East means people are voting with their feet, Octopus has seen demand for heat pumps double, and solar and EV surge."
Jackson added: "Greener homes are not only cheaper to run, they also reduce our reliance on a system still controlled by global fossil fuel markets. They mean we take back control of our energy bills, and our independence."
And while these new technologies remain expensive and relatively rare when taking the UK housing stock as a whole, their adoption has grown significantly this decade. Rightmove said that since 2022, mentions of heat pumps in newly listed homes have risen by 151 per cent, while solar panel mentions increased 94 per cent, and electric car chargers 79 per cent.
Interest from movers has shown a similar increase, with demand for homes with heat pumps up 83 per cent, and for those with solar panels up 61 per cent.
The recent hot weather has increased movers' desire for homes able to cool as well as heat. According to the report, 45 per cent said their current home struggles with hot weather, and 22 per cent include air conditioning among the three highest priorities for their next home. Searches for homes with air conditioning on Rightmove more than doubled this summer, rising 104 per cent compared with the same period in 2025 (also a record-breaking summer).
Well over half (61 per cent) of movers said they are considering installing air conditioning in their home.
Despite the clear demand for improving the efficiency of Britain's homes, progress in efficiency is being made. Rightmove said 49 per cent of homes for sale and 61 per cent of rental homes now have an EPC rating of C or above.
Among new-build homes, 89 per cent have an EPC rating of A or B, compared with just six per cent of the rest of the housing stock.
Read more: Best solar panels, compared
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The financing combines the financing of an operational 208 MW PV portfolio with the financing for the construction of 118 MW/472 MWh of co-located BESS capacity across four projects in Extremadura and Andalucía, Spain. This creates an integrated renewable generation and storage portfolio designed to optimise the management and distribution of renewable electricity.
The transaction forms part of BRUC and Alter Enersun’s strategy to further integrate renewable generation and energy storage, reinforcing the growing role of hybrid renewable projects in Spain’s energy transition. The addition of battery storage capacity enables the storage of the electricity generated by the photovoltaic plants and facilitate its dispatch according to system requirements, providing greater flexibility to renewable generation.
BRUC is a leading independent renewable energy platforms in the Iberian market, with a diversified portfolio of renewable generation assets. Alter Enersun is a leading Iberian renewable energy company with photovoltaic installations across Spain, Portugal and Italy.
The WFW Madrid Energy team that advised the lenders was led by Finance Partner José María Anarte, supported by Senior Associate Antón Ramil and Associate Sara Estradera.
José María commented: “This transaction highlights the growing convergence of renewable generation and energy storage in Spain’s energy market. The financing of a portfolio combining operating photovoltaic assets and large-scale battery storage reflects the increasing sophistication of the country’s renewable energy sector and the evolution of financing structures required to support it. We are delighted to have advised the lenders on a landmark transaction at the forefront of this trend, an area in which WFW continues to play a leading role”.
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Japan Forward
Panasonic Holdings' perovskite solar cells on October 20 in Minato Ward, Tokyo. (©Sankei)
Panasonic Holdings announced on October 20 that it will begin full-scale production of next-generation perovskite solar cells in April 2029, one year ahead of schedule.
The glass-integrated technology is designed to turn building windows and walls into electricity-generating surfaces, expanding opportunities for renewable energy. 
Sales of pre-production units began in September 2026 as the company moves toward full-scale commercialization.
Perovskite solar cells are thin and lightweight, allowing them to be installed in a variety of locations. Panasonic’s glass-based version offers greater durability and design flexibility. According to the company, the technology can be incorporated into windows and railings, where conventional solar panels are difficult to install.
“We want to make it possible to generate electricity from surfaces that have previously gone unused, including those on buildings,” said Yuichi Yoshikawa, head of Panasonic’s Corporate R&D Strategy Office.
Panasonic originally planned to begin mass production in fiscal 2030 but moved the timeline up ahead of technological advances and rising demand. 
Panasonic is currently manufacturing pre-production units in Moriguchi, Osaka Prefecture, while full-scale production will begin at a new facility under construction in Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture.
Marketed as Eneface, the panels feature a power-generating layer applied directly to glass. Laser processing lets manufacturers customize their transparency and patterns. Initial mass-produced panels will measure 1.8 meters by 1.2 meters.
The technology began operating at a port facility in Kobe in September 2026. The panels are also slated for installation in a Hankyu Hanshin Properties building scheduled for completion in December 2027.
Cost and durability remain major hurdles. The glass-based panels currently cost several times as much as conventional architectural glass.
“We are aiming to keep the initial price to no more than five times that of conventional glass,” a Panasonic representative said.
Other companies are also working to bring perovskite solar cells to market. Sekisui Chemical began commercializing its film-based technology in 2026 and plans to launch a production line with an annual capacity of 100 megawatts in fiscal 2027. Kaneka, meanwhile, aims to begin sales in fiscal 2028.
Flexible Solar Tech Gains Ground in Hokkaido Pilot Projects
(Read the article in Japanese.)
Author: Hiroto Kuwajima, The Sankei Shimbun
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Maryland’s solar growth was built over several stages. Before the latest policy updates, state energy officials had already recorded a major jump in installed capacity, from 258 megawatts to 1,000 MW. In 2026, new legislation added another layer: access rules for residents who cannot use a conventional rooftop system.
Maryland’s solar position starts with geography. Policy, however, has done much of the practical work behind that advantage. The state’s Mid-Atlantic solar resource supports rooftop systems. It also fits community solar projects and installations on public sites. Around Baltimore and the Washington suburbs, electricity demand is dense. Major commuter corridors add another strong use case for local generation. Together, these conditions give solar a clear role in Maryland’s grid.
The incentive structure adds a second layer. Maryland’s Renewable Portfolio Standard requires 50% renewable electricity by 2030, including a solar carve-out that reaches 14.5%. That target has kept solar in utility planning, state grant programs, and local permitting discussions.
Independent resources like Maryland Solar Guide have tracked how Maryland’s installer market has matured alongside these policy wins — with verified local companies now covering every county in the state. That broader coverage matters environmentally because solar growth is no longer concentrated only in dense suburbs or early-adopter neighborhoods.
Homeowner protections add a legal safeguard behind solar access. Under Maryland Real Property Code §2-119, an HOA or condominium restriction is unreasonable if it raises installation costs by at least 5% or reduces projected energy generation by at least 10%. Associations still review design and placement, but homeowners now have a measurable standard instead of a vague approval process.
Solar growth supports Maryland’s target to cut 2006 greenhouse gas emissions 60% by 2031. Electricity is only one part of that target. Still, it touches homes, public buildings, schools, businesses, and cooling demand during hot months.
Local solar reduces the amount of power pulled from the regional grid when the sun is producing and daytime demand is active. The impact is especially relevant in places with steady daytime loads, such as schools, offices, libraries, and municipal buildings. Each local project adds clean generation without requiring a new fossil-fuel plant.
Grid resilience comes from diversity. Rooftop arrays, school canopies, community solar gardens, and public-site systems create more generation points across the state. Storage, transmission upgrades, and demand management still matter. Distributed solar simply gives Maryland more clean electricity sources close to where residents use power.
Community solar widens the environmental benefit. Maryland made its community solar program permanent in 2023, giving renters, multifamily residents, shaded homes, and households without suitable roofs a way to subscribe to off-site solar generation. The permanent program also keeps low- and moderate-income access at the center of participation.
The 2026 policy gains focused on access, process, and household-level participation. The Utility RELIEF Act created a path for portable solar energy-generating systems, often called balcony solar. These systems are movable photovoltaic devices connected through a standard outlet and used mainly to offset part of a building’s electricity use.
For renters and apartment residents, that provision matters because it recognizes a smaller form of participation. Under the Act’s portable solar provisions, residential users are limited to one system per electric meter and up to 1,200 watts back to the building’s electrical system. Customers must notify the electric company and provide a safety certification. Utilities may not require prior approval or charge a fee for electricity sent back through the system.
Permitting moved in the same practical direction. Maryland law now creates an automated review path for residential solar permits. For eligible projects issued through that software, the permit fee is capped at $500. The rollout still depends on the statutory implementation schedule. For homeowners, the main gain is process certainty, not an instant statewide shortcut.
MSAP adds the income-access piece. The Maryland Solar Access Program supports income-qualified residential solar through grants awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. FY26 applications closed after funding requests exceeded the available budget. The program still matters because it connects solar growth with households that face higher upfront barriers.
Eco-conscious residents can start with the access path that fits the property. Rooftop ownership works for suitable roofs and long-term control. Community solar fits renters, shaded homes, and multifamily housing. Portable solar gives apartment residents a smaller legal pathway under the 2026 rules. Income-qualified households can follow future MSAP funding windows.
Association rules deserve a separate check. Homeowners in HOAs or condominium communities can compare proposed restrictions against the 5% cost and 10% generation thresholds. Renters can focus on community solar subscriptions and portable-system rules instead of rooftop ownership.
Maryland has the policy pieces for stronger solar growth: renewable targets, HOA protections, community solar, automated permitting, portable systems, and income-based grants. The environmental value will come from execution. Faster permitting, broader participation, safer plug-in systems, and cleaner electricity can bring more households into the state’s solar transition.

Daily News Brief | October 22, 2026
Global War on Terrorism Memorial Installed at U.S. Naval Academy Ahead of November 6 Dedication
Stefanie is a local blogger and social media content marketer from Maryland and most recently a wife and a mother. She has an unhealthy obsession with puns, sarcasm and caffeinated beverages.
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Some 200 California households will help design VPPs that prioritize their needs in a Living Laboratory project. The goal: to vastly scale up VPP participation.
22 October 2026
(Binh Nguyen/Canary Media; Agile Electrification; Eric Brehm/Unsplash)
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Hello, everybody! Welcome back to California Wire. This week, I’m going to be talking about virtual power plants again — but not the ones set up by utilities and tech giants or run by solar-battery vendors like Sunrun and Tesla. Instead, I want to dive into a pretty radical new concept: letting participating households design VPPs themselves. 
On Wednesday, the Agile Electrification Project, led by the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego, launched a new phase of research on a potentially groundbreaking project meant to do just that. 
Over the next 12 months, some 200 volunteer households that have solar panels, home battery systems, electric vehicles, heat pumps, smart thermostats, and other connected devices by various manufacturers will work with researchers to develop the ground rules for a set of hypothetical VPP programs. 
Their decisions — about how much electricity they’re willing to share, under what conditions, and in exchange for what incentives — could serve as a data gold mine for policymakers, utilities, and companies trying to build VPPs for the millions of Californians who might be interested in them, but aren’t participating in the handful of options currently available. 
So says Andrew Krause, CEO of Northern Pacific Power Systems, a California-based solar, battery, and home electrification contractor and co-lead of the Agile Electrification project. ​“What would happen if we put customers in a simulated environment, tweaked the rules, and found compelling, sophisticated program designs that give people agency to achieve their desired outcomes?” he asked. His hope is that ​“homeowners will self-organize around the right programs if they have a sense of control.” 
Today, VPPs are run by utilities or companies that can afford to enlist customers and offer them special deals to participate. This can yield impressive results, as demonstrated by Sunrun and Tesla’s increasingly large-scale VPP dispatches over the past two years. 
But most of the state’s more than 2 million homes with rooftop solar, and a significant chunk of its 2.5 gigawatts of residential batteries, were bought with loans or cash and installed by local and regional contractors. Those systems are VPP-capable, Krause said, but ​“nobody’s representing them right now to do things they are capable of doing if they’re given the right conditions.” 
To discover what these households want out of a VPP, Agile Electrification will send surveys to the participants in what it calls its Living Laboratory. Some questions will deal with standard VPP issues, like how often people are willing to have their air conditioning turned down during heat waves, or how much battery power they want to keep in reserve in case of a possible blackout. 
But they’ll also explore what motivates households to share their energy, said Thomas Familia, a former utility energy analyst and postdoctoral research scholar at Arizona State University working on the project. Some may want to maximize their financial benefits. Some may want to use more clean energy. And others may want to help neighbors who need to run lifesaving medical equipment. 
“We want to make it clear there’s a personal relationship between the VPP and the household itself,” he said. 
Those surveys will guide the Agile Electrification team in developing a range of hypothetical VPP programs. Balto Energy, a San Diego–based startup with software that tracks and analyzes home energy usage, will collect and share the data on how each home’s virtual participation in those programs would alter their hour-to-hour electricity usage profiles. 
How can utilities and grid planners make use of this collective VPP feedback? That’s where the testing facility DERConnect comes in. The UCSD-backed lab uses advanced grid-simulation software and hardware to extrapolate how Living Laboratory households’ shifts in energy use would impact the state’s real-world grid. ​“We pipe those responses back to DERConnect, and they simulate the impact on the grid,” Krause said. 
Krause believes that ​“solar-led electrification” can help Californians offset high and rising utility electric rates and make it affordable to switch to electric vehicles and home heating and appliances. But he also worries that rich people may use solar and batteries to ​“defect” from the grid entirely, leaving the rest of us stuck paying for increasingly costly utility infrastructure. 
Virtual power plants could help prevent that, but to do so, they need to rapidly and dramatically scale up. Utilities and heavyweights like Sunrun and Tesla will continue to play vital roles in bringing VPPs to their full potential. But plenty of critics question whether households in these programs are being paid their fair share for the energy flexibility they’re providing. We need ideas like the Living Laboratory to open the floodgates of participation — and to give us all a stake in the outcome. 
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Speaking of Sunrun and Tesla, both companies are major players in the Demand Side Grid Support program, one of the biggest VPPs in the country. And the hot weather hitting California this fall has given those batteries a chance to shine.
According to data released by Sunrun last week, the two companies hit a collective 745 megawatts of capacity on Oct. 6, up from previous records of 669 MW on Oct. 5 and 580 MW on Sept. 9. Some of those customers are enrolled in a separate emergency program, but we know from past events that the lion’s share of solar-charged battery customers are signed up via the DSGS program. 
Unfortunately, big cuts to state funding for DSGS will make it hard to retain customers, so that support may not be available if similar heat-driven grid conditions occur in the 2027 season. Perhaps California’s next governor will realize this and work with state lawmakers to revive the program. 
Last week, Northern California utility Pacific Gas & Electric conducted a series of ​“public safety power shutoffs” affecting tens of thousands of customers from the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Coast to the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada. 
Its post-PSPS investigation found multiple spots where the grid suffered ​“weather-related damage” that could have sparked wildfires if it had remained energized. Still, people weren’t happy about having their power cut off. 
PG&E has made major improvements since its earliest botched PSPS events, both in warning people in advance and cutting power more surgically. It has even torn out a few high-risk power lines and given the handful of customers at the end of them solar, batteries, and generators instead. 
This isn’t just a California problem. Utilities in Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon are being forced to cut grid power in the face of rising wildfire risks. Some energy experts say distributed solar and batteries could play a bigger role in how utilities manage wildfire risk. But that’s a topic for another day. 
The Living Laboratory isn’t the Agile Electrification team’s first rodeo. In 2024, they enlisted about 60 homes in Sonoma County to share data on their fossil gas and electricity usage. The goal was to model how much money households could save over time by electrifying, installing rooftop solar, or doing both. 
The chart below shows the results of that research measured in terms of net present value (i.e., the future returns on a household’s investments over 20 years). The bottom line? Electrifying a home and relying on grid power alone doesn’t offer nearly as high a return on that investment as installing rooftop solar does. But installing solar and going all-electric together offer the biggest bang for the buck. 
(Agile Electrification)
My mom and dad came to visit last weekend. Lily the corgi loves spending time at their home in Lake Arrowhead, which is as close to doggie heaven as one can imagine. But there’s nothing like getting to hang out with her grandpa in her own backyard.
Lily kissing her grandpa. (Jeff St. John)
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Jeff St. John is chief reporter and policy specialist at Canary Media. He covers innovative grid technologies, rooftop solar and batteries, clean hydrogen, EV charging, and more.
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The INDHEAP project reaches a critical milestone, demonstrating how hybrid solar thermal and photovoltaic systems can decarbonise industrial heat with up to 40 % cost savings.
Decarbonising industrial heat remains a major challenge in Europe’s energy transition, particularly for low‑ and medium‑temperature processes still heavily reliant on fossil fuels. The EU-funded INDHEAP(opens in new window) project was launched in 2024 to address this issue, with a focus on developing integrated solar thermal and photovoltaic solutions for industrial heat and power. Two years into the project, it has shown that combining energy efficiency, waste heat recovery and hybrid solar technologies is not only technically feasible but economically viable, and it can substantially improve both energy use and emissions in industrial environments.
INDHEAP’s progress is underpinned by rigorous analysis and site-specific engineering. The consortium has established validated thermal profiles for its primary demo site in Valdemoro, Spain, and replication sites in Cyprus and Portugal, providing the basis for techno-economic assessments that highlight the potential for full industrial decarbonisation by 2050. Results show that targeted energy efficiency measures, such as waste heat recovery, can reduce heat demand by up to 20 %, while integrating solar technologies and electric heating can lower overall energy costs by up to 40 %. Building on this foundation, INDHEAP has developed a comprehensive integration concept for its Valdemoro site. It combines solar thermal collectors, photovoltaics, a novel electric thermal energy storage (e-TES) unit and existing infrastructure into a flexible, cohesive system. Parallel concepts are being developed for its replication sites, underscoring the need to adapt solutions to local industrial contexts. INDHEAP is making steady progress towards the deployment of its demonstrator at the industrial site of Spanish project partner TotalEnergies. Site preparation is complete and construction works have begun, with detailed engineering being finalised for all major components, from solar systems and storage to control and monitoring infrastructure. “The project is now entering its most critical phase, with the implementation of the demonstrator in a restricted industrial environment, with the aim of starting testing in early 2027,” reports Valery Vuillerme of INDHEAP coordinator French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission in a press release(opens in new window).
Behind the scenes, INDHEAP is refining the technologies that will make these systems scalable. The team has finalised the design of the e-TES system, and it has identified refined rapeseed oil as a promising heat transfer and thermal storage medium. Improved solar thermal collectors are also being tested for higher temperature operations and advanced control strategies are being validated to ensure safe, efficient and cost-effective performance. Commitment to openness, knowledge sharing and the wide dissemination of research outcomes is central to the project’s strategy. INDHEAP has therefore launched a dedicated Zenodo Community(opens in new window), offering a single access point to scientific publications, deliverables and technical insights for researchers, industry stakeholders and policymakers. As INDHEAP (Optimal Solar Systems for Industrial Heat and Power) moves towards validation in real industrial conditions, it offers a tested, flexible blueprint for industries seeking to navigate the complex path toward net-zero emissions. For more information, please see: INDHEAP project website(opens in new window)
4 May 2026
Last update: 23 October 2026

Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/467928-turning-hybrid-solar-concepts-into-industrial-reality
European Union, 2026
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Friday, October 23, 2026
DD India
October 23, 2026 1:33 PM IST
₹52.08 lakh crore | renewable energy | Solar Energy | Indian Agriculture | PM KUSUM | Agrivoltaics | AgriPV | farmer income | 3 | 000 GW | 14 | 37.54 MW | 36 operational projects | 10 pilot projects | 47.35 million hectares
Author: DD India
Agrivoltaics, which combines agricultural cultivation with solar power generation on the same land, is emerging as a promising approach to improving land-use efficiency, diversifying farmers’ incomes and advancing India’s clean energy transition.
According to an official release, agriculture provides livelihoods to approximately 46.1 per cent of India’s population. The Gross Value Added (GVA) of the Agriculture and Allied Sector is estimated to reach ₹52.08 lakh crore in 2025-26, highlighting the sector’s importance to the Indian economy.
India’s extensive agricultural land offers significant opportunities to integrate solar energy generation with farming. According to Land Use Statistics for 2023-24, the country’s reported area stood at 306.96 million hectares, of which approximately 55 per cent was agricultural land. The net sown area was 138.99 million hectares, while the gross cropped area stood at 217.88 million hectares.
Agrivoltaic systems involve installing solar panels above or between crop rows, allowing agricultural activities to continue alongside electricity generation. Depending on the crop, panel design and local conditions, partial shading can help reduce soil moisture loss and protect crops from extreme heat.
The electricity generated can be used to operate irrigation pumps and meet other farm requirements. Farmers may also earn additional income by supplying surplus electricity to the grid, while reducing dependence on conventional electricity and diesel-powered pumps.
India’s Agrivoltaic Potential
As of August 2025, India had 36 operational agrivoltaic projects with an installed capacity of 37.54 megawatts, while another 10 pilot projects were under development, according to the PIB backgrounder.
The country’s estimated agrivoltaic potential ranges from 3,000 gigawatts to nearly 14,000 gigawatts, indicating substantial scope for combining agricultural production with renewable energy generation.
The release also notes that, in some cases, annual farmer earnings could increase from around ₹60,000 per acre to more than ₹1 lakh per acre through income diversification. Actual returns would depend on local conditions, crop selection, system design and project economics.
A GIS-based national screening exercise identified 47.35 million hectares of “restricted cropland” as suitable for agrivoltaic development after applying environmental, agronomic and technical filters.
Fruits, vegetables, spices and medicinal plants are among the crops identified as promising options for cultivation alongside solar installations.
Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh have been identified as high-potential states. Together, they account for nearly 50 per cent of India’s estimated AgriPV power generation potential, supported by cropland availability, solar resources and favourable agro-climatic conditions.
Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Bihar and West Bengal have moderate potential, while the southern, western and central regions offer favourable conditions for wider deployment.
Government Initiatives to Promote Agrivoltaics
The Government is promoting solar energy adoption in agriculture through policy measures, research, pilot projects and financial support.
The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM), launched in February 2019, encourages solar energy adoption in agriculture, solarisation of irrigation pumps and decentralised power generation. The scheme envisages central financial assistance of approximately ₹34,422 crore and aims to reduce dependence on diesel while creating opportunities for farmers to diversify their income.
The National Institute of Solar Energy, in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s Indian Agricultural Research Institute, has also established a Centre of Excellence on Agrivoltaics for research, demonstrations and capacity building. Its initiatives include a 100-kilowatt agrivoltaic system at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute.
The India Agrivoltaics Alliance, launched in 2023 and anchored by the National Solar Energy Federation of India, has grown to more than 40 members. The alliance works with government ministries and industry stakeholders on policy advocacy, research, pilot projects and scalable business models.
Several states are also pursuing solar energy initiatives in agriculture. Maharashtra’s Mukhyamantri Saur Krushi Vahini Yojana 2.0 envisages 16,000 megawatts of solar projects across approximately 35,000 acres of government and private land to support electricity supply to agricultural consumers.
Gujarat’s Kisan Suryoday Yojana aims to expand daytime electricity supply for agricultural activities, with a planned supply window of up to 16 hours daily, from 5 AM to 9 PM, through the phased commissioning of solar and other non-conventional energy generation plants.
Karnataka’s Surya Raitha Scheme promotes solar-powered irrigation pumps and enables farmers to earn from surplus electricity.
Global Conference on Agrivoltaics
The 7th AgriVoltaics World Conference is being held in New Delhi from October 21 to 23, 2026, under the theme “Powering the Global South.” The conference brings together stakeholders from industry, research, policy and finance to explore opportunities for integrating solar energy generation with agriculture.
Agrivoltaics offers India a pathway to combine food production with clean energy generation while improving land productivity and potentially strengthening rural livelihoods. Its wider adoption will depend on scientific research, crop-specific designs, suitable land selection and farmer participation to ensure that solar installations complement rather than compromise agricultural productivity.
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AG Biondi has proposed that the Court of Justice dismiss an appeal brought by Croatian importer BT Solar d.o.o. and Slovenian customs operator RC-Log d.o.o. concerning the Commission’s invalidation of invoices issued under a price undertaking for Chinese photovoltaic modules. In his Opinion in Case C-64/25 P, delivered yesterday, the AG considers that the Commission was entitled to investigate breaches committed while the undertaking was in force, even though the goods were released for free circulation after its repeal.
The dispute concerns EU anti-dumping and countervailing duties imposed on imports of crystalline-silicon photovoltaic modules and cells originating in or consigned from China. In 2013, the Commission accepted a pr
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New Delhi [India], October 21 (ANI): China’s proposed export restrictions on 12 solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing technologies may accelerate India’s push to develop domestic capabilities in solar wafers, cells and ingots, according to a report by JM Financial.
China’s Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology proposed adding 12 solar PV manufacturing technologies to its Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited or Restricted from Export on October 16. 
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The proposal covers technologies used in manufacturing polysilicon, silicon wafers and solar cells, along with critical and core equipment incorporating these technologies.
The proposal divides the technologies into prohibited and restricted categories, with stakeholders invited to submit feedback until November 15, 2026.
Also Read | CJP’s Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka Withdraw Delhi HC Plea After Judge Flags Alternative Remedy.
The JM Financial report said the development could strengthen the case for India to expand domestic solar manufacturing, particularly in areas further up the production chain. However, it cautioned against assuming that all TOPCon production lines, Chinese machinery or technology transfers would automatically be prohibited.
It said, “We view it as structurally positive for Indian solar manufacturing (may accelerate backward integration) with short-term disruption”
India remains dependent on China for several inputs required by solar manufacturers, including specialised production equipment, industrial gases and chemicals, spare parts, process software and skilled engineers. 
This dependence could make the proposed restrictions a risk to near-term capacity expansion, even as they increase the importance of developing domestic manufacturing capabilities.
“The greatest opportunity lies in moving upstream, but that is where the technological and execution barriers are the highest,” JM Financial added in its report.
The report also highlighted that potential beneficiaries may not necessarily be India’s largest solar cell and module manufacturers. Companies that can move quickly from module assembly into the production of solar cells, wafers and ingots could be better positioned to benefit from the changing trade environment.
The development could also affect the cost of setting up new solar manufacturing facilities. Delays in equipment supplies or the need to procure more expensive equipment from European vendors could push up manufacturing costs. This, in turn, could lead to higher domestic solar cell and module prices.
If domestic prices rise significantly, India may further relax the ALMM-II mandate beyond December 2026, the report said. At the same time, Chinese exporters could become more aggressive in pricing finished solar products, including cells and modules, potentially making them more attractive to Indian developers. (ANI)
(The above story is verified and authored by ANI staff, ANI is South Asia’s leading multimedia news agency with over 100 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe. ANI brings the latest news on Politics and Current Affairs in India & around the World, Sports, Health, Fitness, Entertainment, & News. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)
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Vikram Solar Limited, a prominent name in India’s solar manufacturing sector, has announced that its state-of-the-art 9 Gigawatt (GW) N-type TOPCon solar cell manufacturing plant at SIPCOT Industrial Park in Gangaikondan, Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu, will commence production in December 2026. This development marks a significant milestone in India’s solar manufacturing capabilities, with the facility on track to produce its first batch of solar cells as scheduled.
The development of this facility is seen as a critical step towards reducing India’s dependency on imported solar cells, which are essential components of solar modules. At full capacity, the Gangaikondan facility will not only support Vikram Solar’s module production but also benefit domestic programmes such as utility-scale projects, rooftop installations, PM Surya Ghar, and PM-KUSUM initiatives by adhering to domestic content requirements. Furthermore, it will cater to international customers looking to diversify their solar component supply chains.
The Gangaikondan plant represents the second phase of Vikram Solar’s integration strategy, following the inauguration of a 6 GW module plant on the same site in August 2026 by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. The company is also planning to establish a 9 GW ingot and wafer facility, which has received board approval and is targeted for completion by the fiscal year 2029. Future expansions to increase cell production capacity to 12 GW are also on the agenda.
Spanning nearly 200 acres, the Gangaikondan site is poised to become one of the few integrated solar manufacturing campuses in India, producing ingots, wafers, cells, and modules. The development is being executed by VSL Green Power Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary, and is expected to create over 2,000 direct and indirect jobs. This co-location strategy promises enhanced quality control and reduced logistics costs.
Gyanesh Chaudhary, Chairman and Managing Director of Vikram Solar, elaborated on the importance of this venture, stating, “Indian module makers, including us, have built their businesses around imported cells. Gangaikondan ends that for Vikram Solar. Cells are where the value, the technology, and the risk in a module sit, and in December we start making them here. It is the most important step in our integration journey, and not the last: our roadmap runs from wafer to module, on Indian soil.”
About Vikram Solar Limited: Established as a key player in photovoltaics, Vikram Solar Limited has made its mark internationally and holds a strong manufacturing footprint in India. The company is recognised for its efficient photovoltaic module manufacturing across 39 countries, and maintains a vast distribution network within India. Vikram Solar has consistently been featured in PVEL’s PV Module Reliability scorecard and Bloomberg NEF’s Tier 1 solar PV modules manufacturer list.
For media inquiries, please contact Srabani Sen at +91 7349661300 or [email protected].
Disclaimer: This article is based on a regulatory filing submitted to the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE).
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(ABC 6 News) — Minnesota is approaching a big milestone as the 400th school in the state is set to become solar powered.
The Minnesota Department of Commerce is spearheading the project as they plan to have the solar array up and running by the end of the year.
Officials from the department visited an elementary school in Maplewood on Thursday morning, to highlight new investments in solar energy.
“When we invest in Minnesota schools, we’re investing in more than classrooms and textbooks. We’re investing in the infrastructure our communities depend on and the opportunities we want the next generation to have,” said Commerce Temporary Commissioner Julia Dreier. “These programs are bringing new technology to schools across Minnesota, and we’re seeing those investments become real projects that students and communities can benefit from every day.” 
State leaders say the “Solar for Schools” program has helped 191 districts install solar panels on buildings since 2022, spending over $30 million.

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Core Development Group Marks 15-Year Anniversary as a National Leader in Energy Solutions  StreetInsider
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“[My system] paid for itself two or three times over, probably more.”
Photo Credit: iStock
For U.K. households considering rooftop solar, a concern raised in a debate wasn’t that panels stop producing useful power but that the surrounding math could change. 
Export rates can drift toward $0, standing charges may rise, and the main lasting value may be in using the electricity yourself.
The question surfaced in r/SolarUK, where one user asked whether suppliers might eventually “whack up the daily standing charge” as more homes add solar, weakening the payback from generating power at home.
Across the Reddit thread, commenters kept separating self-consumed power from exported power. 
As one person put it, “The energy will remain free for you to use,” but they also said, “The value of your solar-generated electricity to export will reduce.”
One user on Agile Export said it’s already happening and described just how uneven those export payments can be.
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“On Agile Export, during August, I managed to get paid just under 18p kWh,” they said, which is about 24 cents. They also noted that, “Throughout the summer there were many days where export was close to 1p and even 0p.” 
In other words, the financial case may depend more on when electricity is used and stored than on how much a system generates.
Several replies framed the issue as one of oversupply. If it’s “a good day for rooftop solar it’s a good day for commercial solar too,” one commenter wrote, so lots of solar generation can reach the grid at once and pull export prices lower.
Some commenters focused on the grid itself. Even when solar households buy fewer units of power, utilities still have to keep the network ready, provide an “always-on and super-reliable connection,” and handle fluctuations in both imports and exports. 
In that reading, standing charges could rise because the infrastructure has to be there whether a home takes a small amount of electricity or a large amount.
Not everyone in the discussion saw that as a reason to avoid solar. One homeowner said that after 14 years, their system had “paid for itself two or three times over, probably more.” 
Another said they had gone “fully off-grid 4 years ago,” although a different commenter argued that matching the reliability of the grid at home would require “multiples more capacity than a standard domestic installation.”
Many of the suggestions centered on increasing self-consumption instead of counting on export payments. Batteries were a recurring part of that advice. After concerns were raised about excess solar production on sunny afternoons, one commenter replied, “This is why batteries are important.”
The Agile Export user pointed to batteries that can forecast the following day’s solar output and decide how much power to take on overnight “so that the next day’s solar generation doesn’t go to waste.” 
That kind of setup could help households keep more of the economic benefit of solar even if export rates keep softening.
One commenter added, “That said, solar and battery economics at the household level will probably be good for many years to come.”
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Series A led by VXI Capital, with backing from the people who built modern solar, including founding Enphase CEO Paul Nahi, former SunPower CEO Tom Werner and former New York energy czar Richard Kauffman
Nine years in the making, Optivolt’s energy intelligence turns passive solar hardware into adaptive power systems by managing energy in real time from within the panel

San Francisco — Optivolt, a power electronics company building the intelligence layer for solar, yesterday announced a $32M Series A led by VXI Capital, a new hard tech fund founded by the former CTO of the Defense Innovation Unit of the U.S. Military, with participation from RA Capital, Valo Ventures, and Atlas Innovate. This round brings Optivolt’s total capital raised to date to $42M.
The solar panel has become a commodity. Optivolt gave it a brain. Its Power Balancer embeds active power electronics directly into the panel, managing energy among cell groups in real time to recover power otherwise lost to shade, weather, dirt and uneven degradation. This creates a foundation for adaptive, connected solar systems. With more than 20,000 panels incorporating the Power Balancer already shipped, the company will use the new financing to expand manufacturing and bring the technology to solar systems at every scale, from individual homes to utility-scale projects designed to help power AI data centers.
“Solar became cheap enough to compete. I founded Optivolt to make it intelligent enough to power the world,” said Rohit Kalyanpur, founder and CEO of Optivolt. “For nine years, we’ve rebuilt the solar panel from first principles, embedding aerospace-grade power electronics so it can respond to Earth as it actually is, not the ideal conditions of a lab. The result is the first solar panel system that thinks for itself – one that adapts to shade, weather, dirt and degradation in real time, recovering energy conventional solar leaves behind. The next step is putting it everywhere.”
“The next era of energy will not be built by simply installing more of the same passive solar panels we already have. It will be built by making solar intelligent enough to become the backbone of the global power system,” said Orin Hoffman, Managing Director at VXI Capital. “Optivolt has spent nine years building the architecture for that future. This financing is about taking it from a technical breakthrough to the platform on which the next generation of solar is built.”
“At Enphase, we transformed rooftop solar by managing power at the output of each panel. Today, rising panel power, the widespread adoption of storage, and the urgent need to reduce costs demand a new approach. Optivolt is bringing a new class of power electronics inside the panel itself to unlock the next leap in performance and economics,” said Paul Nahi, the founding CEO of Enphase and Optivolt investor. “I helped build the last generation of solar power electronics. At Optivolt we are building the next.”
Despite decades of progress, the conventional solar panel remains fundamentally passive hardware. Solar panels are rated under controlled laboratory conditions, but operate in a world of shade, dirt, debris and uneven degradation. Inside a conventional panel, one underperforming cell can constrain the output of an entire cell group – or cause a bypass diode to take that group out of production altogether. A localized problem can therefore suppress the output of a much larger section of the panel.
Optivolt redesigned the electrical architecture inside the panel around a power electronics brain. Its Power Balancer redistributes energy among the panel’s cell groups in real time, addressing mismatch before it becomes a larger loss. It replaces conventional bypass diodes and builds rapid shutdown and monitoring into the panel, allowing solar systems to be designed without separate module-level optimizers, microinverters or rapid-shutdown devices.
Putting active power electronics inside a solar panel created a fundamental engineering problem: heat. To solve it, Optivolt assembled a team with experience designing power systems for satellites, bringing the discipline of aerospace – where every watt matters and hardware must survive without repair – to a product built to spend decades inside a solar panel. That team developed the Power Balancer, which operates at 99.4 percent conversion efficiency under typical conditions.
Optivolt holds 19 issued patents and has 27 additional patent applications pending, covering key elements of its panel-integrated power electronics architecture. Optivolt has earned UL certifications covering its integrated junction-box enclosure, panel-integrated electronics, rapid-shutdown system and solar-module safety.
In Optivolt’s internal testing, panels incorporating the technology produced up to six times as much power as panels using bolted-on optimizers under defined shade scenarios.
“At SunPower, we spent nearly three decades pushing the limits of how efficiently a solar panel could turn sunlight into electricity. Optivolt is attacking the other half of the problem: how much energy that panel actually delivers in the real world once it leaves the factory,” said Tom Werner, former CEO of SunPower and Optivolt investor. “The next great solar panel won’t just produce more power under ideal conditions. It will deliver more energy across the imperfect conditions of its working life.”
“I’ve spent most of my career making clean energy financeable at scale – building new financing tools, redesigning markets and driving deployment costs down,” said Richard Kauffman, former Chairman of Energy and Finance for New York and an Optivolt investor. “But finance can only take the industry so far. When the same solar project produces more energy over its lifetime, the economics change everywhere. Optivolt rewrote that equation inside the panel itself, dramatically expanding the share of the world’s energy demand that solar can economically serve.”
About Optivolt
Optivolt is a power electronics company building the intelligence layer for solar. Its panel-integrated Power Balancer redistributes energy among cell groups in real time, helping solar systems deliver more energy under real-world conditions while simplifying the hardware around the panel. Optivolt’s long-term goal is to make every solar panel an intelligent, connected node in a global energy network, capable of both managing its own performance and coordinating with the system around it. Founded by Thiel Fellow Rohit Kalyanpur, Optivolt is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.
To learn more, visit optivolt.com
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Belleville aldermen vote to terminate solar farm lease  Belleville News-Democrat
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The equipment could be mounted on a wall, set up on a balcony, or placed in a garden.
Photo Credit: Fuse Energy
Fuse Energy is pitching a new plug-in solar kit to U.K. households that often miss out on rooftop installations, including renters, apartment residents, and people whose roofs are not suitable for a standard system.
However, the company cannot yet legally install the battery-backed setup, so interested customers can only add their name to a pre-order waitlist.
As TechRadar reported, Fuse Energy’s Jules package pairs a 2.5-kilowatt-hour battery with up to four 500-watt solar panels that plug into a standard socket. 
The company’s app decides when to store electricity and when to draw power from the battery.
The product is marketed to renters, apartment residents, and households with roofs that are shaded, structurally unsuitable, or otherwise impractical for a traditional rooftop solar system.
Rather than requiring scaffolding and a full roof installation, the equipment could be mounted on a wall, set up on a balcony, or placed in a garden, TechRadar noted.
U.S. households looking to save on energy can use EasyHome‘s free explorer tool to get hassle-free pricing and savings estimates from vetted installers in their area.
Plug-in solar kits became legal in the U.K. in August, but Fuse said a plug-in setup that also includes battery storage is still not approved under current rules. For that reason, buyers can only join Fuse’s waitlist.
With energy prices through the roof, there’s never been a better time to go solar — and EasyHome can help you find the best prices from the best installers in your area.
EasyHome takes the guesswork and headaches out of energy upgrades by showing you estimated savings from a network of vetted local partners. To get started, just enter your ZIP and share a few details about your home — seeing your estimate is really that easy.
The 2.5-kWh battery would let households save some of the solar power they generate instead of using only whatever the panels produce in real time. That could help them use more of their own electricity after sunset or during periods of weak sunlight.
Fuse noted the package will cost £577 ($772) once deliveries are allowed. The company estimated about £180 ($241) a year in electricity bill savings, suggesting a breakeven rate of a little over three years.
For comparison, Fuse said its standard rooftop solar systems usually cost between £7,000 ($9,365) and £8,000 ($10,702) before installation and scaffolding are factored in.
That lower entry price could open solar power to people who can’t access a typical rooftop setup.
U.K. shoppers need to check what is actually legal before putting money down on any plug-in solar product.
Because the Jules package runs on a standard socket and can be placed on a balcony, wall, or in a garden, the system could help more households lower energy bills without needing a detached home or a roof suitable for conventional solar.
EasyHome‘s free explorer tool also helps households explore options for backup battery storage alongside solar. Pairing solar with a battery maximizes savings and keeps power flowing when the grid goes down, and Fuse is trying to introduce that flexibility in a simpler format.
Fuse is not promising an immediate rollout. The company said first deliveries of Jules are “expected post legislation approval in 2027.”
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China’s mainstream TOPCon module export prices held steady for a second week, despite efforts by major polysilicon producers to set minimum price floors on module and polysilicon products.
According to the OPIS Global Solar Markets Report released on Oct. 20, the Chinese Module Marker (CMM), the OPIS benchmark assessment for TOPCon modules below 645 W from China, was unchanged at $0.107/W Free-On-Board (FOB) China.
Forward prices were also stable, with Q1 2027 loading assessed at $0.106/W and Q2 through Q4 2027 at $0.105/W.
Under the pricing framework discussed by China’s eight major polysilicon manufacturers at an Oct. 11 meeting in Hangzhou, minimum selling prices of CNY 0.79 ($0.118) /W for TOPCon modules and CNY 0.86/W for back-contact modules were proposed, equivalent to $0.118/W and $0.129/W FOB, alongside a minimum polysilicon selling price of CNY 43/kg, inclusive of tax.
Market participants, however, remained skeptical that the proposed measures would provide price support amid persistent oversupply and weak downstream demand.
Several trade sources questioned whether the pricing discipline could be sustained, as industry self-discipline agreements do not constitute legally enforceable price controls and their effectiveness depends on manufacturers’ willingness to comply.
A source at a Chinese top-tier integrated manufacturer similarly described the proposed fixed module pricing mechanism as difficult to implement, suggesting that efforts by these major polysilicon producers to dictate downstream module prices could be “one-sided wishful thinking”.
In Oct. 2024, the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIY) released an estimated photovoltaic modules production cost of CNY 0.68/W in an attempt to address below-cost bidding in large-scale procurement tenders. However, industry sources noted that the price guideline was non-binding, allowing manufacturers to continue submitting bids below the suggested floor.
Weak installation demand and pressure to clear inventories ahead of year-end could further undermine efforts to stabilize prices, sources said. A tier-1 vertically integrated manufacturer said module shipments were subdued in the third quarter, with producers likely to cut prices in the fourth quarter to stimulate sales volumes, defend market share and support revenue. The manufacturer expected prices to remain stable or edge lower through the rest of the year.
Another downstream manufacturer said the short-term price outlook would also depend on whether manufacturers could secure higher selling prices on existing inventories, adding that many producers were highly motivated to clear stocks in the final quarter of the year.
The outlook for high-efficiency modules, however, was less certain, with demand potentially strengthening in 2027 as China introduces tighter efficiency requirements and increases the adoption of higher-efficiency technologies in its domestic market.
The mandatory national standard taking effect on Jan. 1, 2027 sets minimum efficiencies of 23.2%, 23.2% and 23.5% for n-type TOPCon, HJT and BC modules, respectively. On Oct. 16, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) proposed higher thresholds of 23.4%, 23.4% and 23.7% under its draft 2026 Standard Conditions for the PV manufacturing industry.
Separately, China has proposed export controls on 12 photovoltaic technologies including polysilicon, silicon wafer and cell manufacturing technologies as well as the technology management of core equipment.
According to the proposal, certain technologies such as perovskite tandem cells would be categorized as prohibited exports, while TOPCon, back-contact and heterojunction technologies would be subject to export restrictions where specified thresholds are met.
One market analyst expected limited impact on China’s solar product exports, as the new export controls primarily target manufacturing technologies rather than finished products.
The analyst said the measures could reinforce China’s technological leadership by restricting the transfer of proprietary know-how, particularly as overseas markets increasingly push to localize solar manufacturing. This could also benefit Chinese vertically integrated solar manufacturers by preserving their technological advantage, the source said.
However, tighter controls could complicate overseas manufacturing capacity expansions, joint ventures, technology licensing and equipment shipments involving restricted production know-how. Additional registration and licensing requirements could extend project lead times and introduce uncertainty, the analyst added.
OPIS is a specialist business within Dow Jones Energy, a global energy intelligence business that brings together trusted price reporting, research and market intelligence across the energy value chain. OPIS publishes the OPIS Global Solar Markets Service, which includes pricing data for solar panels and components across Asia, Europe and the U.S., manufacturing capacity data, module forward curves, and a global solar policy tracker. 

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In Nigeria, Solar Panels Are the New Wedding Gift  Bloomberg.com
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Solex Energy launches India’s first N-Type quarter cell solar module at REI 2026  scanx.trade
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Rwanda’s Energy Development Corporation Limited (EDCL) has opened a tender for a 200 MW floating solar power plant alongside an 800 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS). The project is set to be built at Lake Sake, within the Ngoma district of Rwanda’s Eastern province.
Available tender details explain the project will be structured as an independent power producer scheme, with the chosen developer set to enter a long-term power purchase agreement with the state-owned Rwanda Energy Group (REG) through its subsidiary, the Energy Utility Corporation Limited (EUCL), which will act as the offtaker.
The selected bidder will be responsible for the design, supply, installation, testing, commissioning, operation and maintenance of the floating PV system and BESS. Interested bidders are required to have at least 10 years experience in designing, constructing and managing renewable energy power plants.
The tender kicks off with a pre-qualification round, with interested independent power producers expected to meet a series of administrative, technical and financial requirements as set out in pre-qualification documents available on REG’s website.
A site visit for potential applicants is taking place on October 23. The deadline to submit initial bids, which must be sent electronically, is November 12.
Rwanda’s solar market is still in its relative infancy. The Africa Solar Industry Association (AFSIA) has tracked 47.5 MW of operational solar across the country to date, according to figures available in the association’s project database.
There are relatively few operational floating PV plants across Africa despite research identifying significant potential in deploying solar on the continent’s inland bodies of water. A 2023 study found Africa could generate 100 GW of solar by installing on 1% of its 100,000 sqm of reservoirs.
The largest floating solar project under development in Africa is a 600 MW project on Lake Kariba, the world’s largest artificial lake and reservoir by volume, on Zimbabwe’s northern border with Zambia. Last December, government officials in Zimbabwe said work would begin on the site this year, beginning with an initial 150 MW phase.
The largest operational floating PV project in Africa to date is a 13 MW array in Morocco, which came online in July.
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University Affairs
October 22, 2026
Solar panels on top of the Canyon View Terrace parking structure on USU’s Logan campus.
Utah State University has completed the second phase of its campus solar expansion, adding more than 1 megawatt of new solar generation and its first large-scale battery storage system. The work builds on the 1,058 kilowatts installed in the first phase earlier this year and brings USU’s total new solar capacity to more than 2 megawatts across seven sites.
The newly completed installations include:
In total, the new phase is expected to produce approximately 1.5 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. The energy generated by this phase is equivalent to:
Combined with the first phase, USU’s new solar systems are expected to generate more than 3 million kilowatt-hours per year.
The Uintah Basin Campus project was funded with support from Rocky Mountain Power’s Blue Sky Program and Wattsmart Battery Program. The 500 kilowatt-hour battery stores solar energy for use by the campus. A portion of its capacity is also reserved for Rocky Mountain Power to dispatch when needed, helping support the reliability of the regional electric grid.
“Every kilowatt-hour we generate on our own campuses is one we don’t have to buy, and over the 25- to 30-year life of these systems, those savings add up,” said Zac Cook, associate director of utilities and energy management at USU. “Projects like this save the university money while reducing the environmental impact of our operations. Adding battery storage in Vernal helps us get even more value from that clean energy and gives us experience we can carry to future projects across the state.”
USU will host a ribbon cutting on from 3-4 p.m. Oct. 27 at the Bingham Entrepreneurship and Energy Research Center on the Uintah Basin Campus. The event will celebrate the completion of the solar and battery project and recent renovations to the BEERC. USU President Brad L. Mortensen will attend.
These projects reinforce USU’s commitment to sustainability, energy cost stability, and long-term environmental stewardship. By producing its own clean electricity, the university reduces its reliance on fossil fuels, hedges against utility price volatility, and saves on utility costs over the 25- to 30-year life of the systems.
For more information about USU’s energy management and sustainability efforts, visit https://www.usu.edu/facilities/services/energy-management and https://www.usu.edu/sustainability/.
Solar panels at USU’s Poisonous Plant Research Lab in Logan.
Solar panels at the Bingham Entrepreneurship and Energy Research Center on USU’s Uintah Basin campus.
Zac Cook
Energy Manager
Facilities
435.797.7048
zac.cook@usu.edu
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USU enrolled a record 32,286 students this fall, an 8% increase driven in part by significant growth in concurrent enrollment and at campuses across the state.
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Beginning next week, visitors to Utah State University’s main campus will notice something new near the Quad: temporary fencing signaling the start of a construction project expected to last through November 2028.
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TOWN OF MUKWONAGO — A public hearing for a proposed 6-megawatt solar energy project in the Town of Mukwonago has been rescheduled for Monday due to overflow attendance at the originally scheduled hearing.
A Joint Plan Commission and Town Board meeting that includes a public hearing regarding a conditional use permit for the proposed Spring Lake Solar project on its agenda will take place at 6:30 p.m. Monday at St. James Catholic Church, 830 E. Veterans Way.
The meeting had to be rescheduled from its original Oct. 14 date because Mukwonago Town Hall, W320-S8315 Beulah Road, was not a large enough venue to hold all of the area residents who showed up for the public hearing, according to the Town of Mukwonago clerk’s office.
Seattle-based OneEnergy Development LLC wants to install 13,000 solar panels across approximately 28 acres on property northwest of Highway I and Section Road in the Town of Mukwonago. The land would be leased from the Sugden family, with Peter Murphy of OneEnergy serving as the developer’s agent and Stan Sugden as the property owner, according to town documents.
The proposed solar facility could generate enough electricity to power nearly 1,600 Wisconsin homes annually and support more than 30 union jobs during peak construction, according to the developer. The project would connect to existing electric distribution lines along Highway I and serve local We Energies customers.
If approved, construction of the facility would begin in spring 2027 and is expected to take four to six months. The facility is expected to operate for 30 to 50 years; at the end of its useful life, the solar equipment would be removed and the land restored for potential agricultural use, according to the project website.
The project has received mixed feedback from area residents. Resident Loree Mueller, in a letter to the Plan Commission, raised concerns about the project’s impact on the rural community.
“I understand that renewable energy is important and that solar power can have benefits,” Mueller said in the letter. “However, the proposed location and scale of this project are not appropriate for this rural community. A project covering 28 acres would fundamentally change the character and use of this property and could have consequences for surrounding residents for decades.”
On the other hand, resident Jennifer Rath expressed support for the project, citing financial challenges facing farmers.
“Why not since farmers can’t afford fuel or sell their crops?” she said.
The Waukesha County Green Team also showed support for the project in a letter signed by Debra Schneider, president of the Waukesha County Green Team.
“As our county faces increasing energy demands and environmental challenges, investing in renewable energy solutions is both a strategic and responsible choice,” Schneider said in the letter. “This project represents a significant step toward a cleaner, more sustainable future while offering substantial benefits to our local economy.”
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China dominates global solar manufacturing, but Chinese companies may be interested in expanding to Australia, experts say. (Getty: Song Wei/VCG)
Twenty-three years ago, a Chinese-Australian solar scientist moved from Sydney to Wuxi to build China's solar panel manufacturing industry from scratch, using technology developed in Australian universities. 
Shi Zhengrong became the world's first clean energy billionaire, nicknamed "The Sun King". China went on to dominate global solar panel manufacturing and, thanks to a mix of innovation and cut-throat competition, made solar the cheapest source of electricity in history.
Australian science graduates filled the top technology roles at the biggest Chinese solar companies. And a solar cell design developed in Australia became the global standard.
Meanwhile, Australia mostly stopped building its own solar panels.
Scientist-turned-entrepreneur Shi Zhengrong built the first gigawatt-scale solar company. (Getty: China Photos)
Now, with the federal government preparing to ramp up Australia's own tiny solar manufacturing industry, Dr Shi sees the story coming full circle.
"It's an exciting opportunity for Australia," he said, speaking to the ABC from China.
Where China once built an industry from Australian innovation, Australia now needs China's help to do the same.
To build low-cost panels at scale, experts say Australia needs access to the production line technology and manufacturing patents China has developed over the past 20 years.
So, what does it take to build a solar panel?
And why would Chinese companies share their solar-manufacturing secrets?
When Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last month announced $1 billion in government funding to boost the number of solar panels made in Australia, he chose a deeply symbolic location.
The coal-fired Liddell power station in the Hunter Valley permanently closed last year, the first of four in the area to be shut down over the next decade.
Mr Albanese said the $1 billion Solar Sunshot program would generate clean energy jobs and funnel investment into the traditional coal-mining region by bringing manufacturing back to Australia.
"We've created the innovation and seen all the value added offshore," he said.
"We missed the opportunities. We're not going to miss the opportunities of this generation."
The public reaction in the weeks since has been mixed. Many energy experts welcomed the plan as a way to ensure supply of a critical energy resource (solar will soon generate most of Australia's electricity) and carve out a slice of a growing global industry.
But some economists and the federal government’s own Productivity Commission warned it could lead to the government wasting money by subsidising the production of panels that China can make more cheaply.
A new federal government program hopes to boost solar panel production in Australia.
At the heart of the debate is an old and familiar question.
How can Australian manufacturers, governed by tighter regulations and paying more for labour, compete with imported goods?
The answer, clean energy experts say, is to change the question.
"It's about what is the global supply chain and where is it sensible we play a part?" Renate Egan, executive director for the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics and professor of engineering at UNSW, said.
Australia needs to work with China, including welcoming Chinese solar manufacturers into Australia, Professor Egan said.
"It's the only way to do it, they have a 20-year technological innovation advantage over the rest of the world."
Australian solar pioneer Muriel Watt agreed.
"China has spent the last 20 years really pushing hard on their R&D and they have by far the best technology," Dr Watt said.
"We've left it really late, we're starting from scratch for everything."
There are broadly four stages to building a solar panel from scratch:
Of these four stages, steps one and three are the most technically advanced.
Australia's only solar manufacturer, Tindo Solar, designs and makes modules from imported components.
These locally assembled panels represent a mere one per cent of the total number of panels installed in Australia each year.
So where in the supply chain should Australia focus its manufacturing efforts? 
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) last year funded the Australian Photovoltaics Institute (APVI), working with Deloitte and a group of key industry stakeholders, to investigate the feasibility of Australia setting up its own solar manufacturing industry.
The resulting Silicon 2 Solar report published in February outlined a "credible and feasible" pathway for Australia to build a domestic supply chain.
It proposed doing this at a relatively modest scale by global standards, with 10GW of polysilicon production and 1GW to 5GW across the other three steps.
All up, this would require $3.2 billion of government financial support over 10 years.
Polysilicon refineries, like this one in Shihezi, China, are vast industrial facilities. (Supplied: Daqo New Energy)
For comparison, global solar PV manufacturing capacity is expected to reach almost 1,000 GW in 2024.
Australia installs about 5GW of solar annually and this figure could increase to as much as 50GW as fossil fuels are phased out and new energy-intensive industries, like green hydrogen, come online.
Australia should initially focus on the first and last steps of the supply chain: polysilicon refining and solar module assembly, Dr Watt, who co-authored the Silicon 2 Solar report, said.
Australia has several advantages in manufacturing solar panels, Dr Watt said.
Another of Australia's advantages is that it's not China, Dr Watt said. The US, India and Europe are also ramping up solar manufacturing to reduce their dependence on imported Chinese panels. To do this, they're looking for sources of polysilicon outside of China.
"The Europeans and the Americans don't want to buy the Chinese product," Dr Watt said.
"If we can work with them to set up in Australia then we have a better opportunity in those value streams than the rest of the world does."
To complicate the picture, early last year the Chinese government mooted banning the export of technology used to make solar panels, in order to maintain its global dominance in the solar industry.
The ban would potentially apply to technology used in ingot-casting moulds to construct the wafers that are pieced together to create solar cells.
"We'll have to work hard to get the confidence of China to import production lines," Dr Watt said.
"We're hoping our good relations will be really useful here because so many [in the Chinese solar industry] come and go to Australia."
Dr Shi opening China's first solar module production line in 2002 alongside UNSW staff. (Supplied: Martin Green)
Aside from ingot and wafer production, Australia may also need Chinese expertise to refine polysilicon and manufacture solar cells at scale, Professor Egan, also a co-author of Silicon 2 Solar, said.
"I would expect we would do it in collaboration with a partner from China," she said.
Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance, agreed.
"I see manufacturing [intellectual property] as a challenge but also an opportunity," he said.
So why would China, which appears to be wary of losing its global dominance in solar manufacturing, share its production-line secrets with Australia?
One answer is that Chinese companies are looking to diversify their own supply chains and bypass the tariffs countries like India and the US have placed on Chinese-made panels.
Twenty years ago, Australia appeared set to be a global player in the solar panel manufacturing industry. Here's how we lost our head start.
It's in their commercial interests to not confine their solar manufacturing to China, Dr Egan said.
"I think there's an appetite in China itself to diversify.
"The companies in China have shareholders and they operate like companies anywhere else in the world. They want security of supply and access to markets."
Dr Shi said Chinese companies were "interested in analysing the opportunity" of manufacturing in Australia, given Australia already imports most of its solar panels from China and the two countries have a long history of research collaborations.
"When you start from scratch you need support and partners, you need a supply chain and engineering support and talent. Gradually by practising you will start to build local capabilities."
SunTech being listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2005, with Dr Shi in the centre and Australian university researchers also attending. (Supplied: Martin Green)
Chinese manufacturing help may amount to Chinese ownership of solar manufacturers in Australia.
Dr Watt acknowledged this could be politically sensitive.
"You can see the politics the minute someone announces it's going to be a fully Chinese company," she said.
"Although we seem to be quite happy having all sorts of other countries own our water supply and pipelines and everything else."
While preparing the Silicon 2 Solar report, Dr Watt and her co-authors approached Chinese solar manufacturers, to ask them if they'd consider expanding to Australia. After initial surprise, the response was favourable.
"They've set up in Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia as a means of diversifying, but they hadn't thought about Australia," she said.
"They went, 'Oh well, you didn't seem to be a manufacturing country. You don't make anything.'"
Whether Australia does become a solar manufacturing country could partly depend on the fate of the Sydney-based start-up SunDrive.
Founded in 2015 by two UNSW graduates, it quickly became a jewel in the crown of the Australian solar industry, receiving significant government research funding and winning the backing of high-profile investors, including Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Dr Shi, also an alumni of UNSW, is its chairman.
SunDrive co-founders David Hu and Vince Allen holding a prototype solar cell in 2020. (Supplied: Sundrive)
SunDrive's key innovation was to develop a patented method to replace the use of silver in solar cells with copper, which is cheaper and more abundant. The result is a solar cell that costs less and generates more electricity, SunDrive said.
It's built a 20MW solar-cell production line in South Sydney and plans to build a commercial-scale factory at the site of the Liddell power station in the Hunter Valley.
The Liddell factory will have a capacity of "hundreds of megawatts", the company's chief commercial officer Maia Schweizer said.
"We'll go as big as we possibly can, while still being able to sell into the Australian market," she said.
But the company has even greater ambitions. Partnerships with other manufacturers, including in China, "opens up an addressable market of hundreds of gigawatts for us globally," Dr Schweizer said.
SunDrive needed at least two things to happen to build its Liddell factory in Australia, she said.
The first was ongoing support from Chinese solar companies.
"We've had extremely strong and positive relationships with Chinese companies … and we expect that to continue.
"We will be absolutely be counting on that to make this first factory a success."
SunDrive solar cells, made at its pilot production line in South Sydney, will soon hit the market. (Supplied: SunDrive)
The second factor was government financial support. Without this, Dr Schweizer said, SunDrive may build its first factory overseas.
Countries such as the US are offering hefty subsidies to entice domestic solar manufacturers.
"Ultimately our investors want to see us actually launch and grow and succeed," Dr Schweizer said
"And so we would look at where would be best to do that."
If that happens, Australia would have once again created the innovation and seen all the value added offshore.
On Tuesday this week ARENA opened a six-week process of public consultation on the design of the $1 billion Solar Sunshot program.
Tindo Solar CEO Richard Petterson said Australia should act quickly to set up the scheme. Europe, the US and India are establishing their own solar manufacturing industries and looking to secure supply chains.
If Australia takes too long, "They'll say, 'We don't need you anymore.'"
Tindo, which has been making solar modules in Australia for 14 years, operates a 150MW factory in Adelaide and recently unveiled plans for a 1GW plant in eastern Australia.
But attracting private investment for the $100m "gigafactory" has proved a challenge, Mr Petterson said.
The capacity of rooftop solar in Australia will eclipse the country's entire electricity demand in coming decades, according to a report that charts the technology's rise.
The US Inflation Reduction Act unleashed billions of dollars in clean energy funding and generated an investment vortex that sucked in capital from around the world. This has made it harder to fund clean energy ventures in Australia.
"It's not reasonable to ask private industry to compete by itself against other government-supported industries," Mr Petterson said.
Without financial help from Solar Sunshot, the Tindo gigafactory won't get built, Mr Petterson said.
He estimates the factory's economies of scale would allow Tindo to make modules 10–15 per cent cheaper than it does already. 
This will make the Australian product about the same price as imported premium-quality Chinese-made panels.
"Why can't we make our own panels?" he said.
"If you apply the argument that we can't, as we've seen over the past 30 years, you end up making less and less things onshore.
"If we keep applying it we'll have almost no industry here."
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