Author: solarenergy
The latest analysis from Wood Mackenzie expects market uncertainty in China, Europe and the US to cause two consecutive years of contraction in the global solar inverter market, with a decline forecast to 577 GWac this year and 523 GWac in 2026. December 16, 2025 Patrick Jowett According to an analysis by CBS, the global solar inverter market will shrink over the next two years Wooden Mackenzie. The consultancy forecasts that the market will decline to 577 GWac in 2025, a decline of 2% year-on-year, followed by a further decline of 9% to 523 GWac in 2026. Wood Mackenzie says…
Industry leaders have recommended that buyers purchasing battery energy storage systems (BESS) look past the sticker prices and headlines during a period of 2015 pv magazine Webinar Week Europe 2025. In a session on what to look for when purchasing BESS, held as part of pv magazineDuring last week’s virtual conference, panelists discussed pricing, supplier and product reliability, and the prospects for battery storage in Europe. Ed Mulloy, Solution Engineer at Accure Battery Intelligence, said that because of the industry’s fixation on $/kWh, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are incentivized to “take the risk out of that number and build it…
Accelerated testing by French certification body Certisolis finds major performance differences and design vulnerabilities in tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar panels that current international standards do not address. December 17, 2025 Gwénaëlle Deboutte By pv magazine France French testing and certification laboratory Certisolis has released the first results of accelerated degradation tests conducted under its Optisol program, highlighting the performance differences of TOPCon solar panels. The Optisol campaign applies stress conditions beyond those required by the International Electrotechnical Commission standards IEC 61215 and IEC 61730, Certisolis said. “The aim is to go beyond the requirements of IEC 61215 and…
The New Orleans City Council has approved a $30 million Virtual Power Plant (VPP) program that will protect residents during power outages. The resolution establishes a citywide distributed energy resources (DER) program, creating a VPP of batteries installed in approximately 1,500 homes and 250 community settings in New Orleans, Louisiana. “This is a historic step toward protecting lives in New Orleans,” said Nathalie Jordi of the community organization Together New Orleans. “Rather than wait for the power grid to go down again, the city is building power at the neighborhood level that keeps people safe when it matters most.” The…
By Brad Kramer December 17, 2025 Fort Churchill Ruins in Nevada. After a five-month freeze, the Trump administration is allowing a major solar energy project to proceed. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued a decision report on December 15, a series of revisions to the Libra Solar project in southwestern Nevada will be authorized. Located about 20 miles south of the Fort Churchill substation in Yerington, Nevada, the $2.33 billion, 700 MW solar + storage project was originally approved during the Biden administration in September 2024. However, regulatory changes under President Donald Trump left Libra Solar indefinitely on hiatus…
Flexible perovskite solar panels are emerging as a candidate for lightweight, bendable solar photovoltaics, but maintaining high efficiency while maintaining long-term stability and low costs remains difficult. A research team from the Institute of Metal Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Zhengzhou University reports flexible perovskite solar panels with an energy conversion efficiency of more than 20 percent that can tolerate mechanical and environmental stress. The work focuses on single-walled carbon nanotube films used as window electrodes in scalable flexible perovskite solar panels. The team shows that single-walled carbon nanotube films are hydrophobic, which helps block moisture and…
US-based SEG Solar is building a 3 GW billet and wafer factory in Indonesia. The new production will take place at the existing cell manufacturing facility, completing an end-to-end solar energy production chain for the company. December 16, 2025 Patrick Jowett US solar manufacturer SEG Solar has completed construction of a 3 GW rod and wafer factory in Indonesia. The facility will be located in Batang regency on the north coast of Central Java province in Indonesia. The project covers an area of approximately 50,000 m² and is expected to start production in the third quarter of 2026. SEG also…
Scottish tidal energy company Nova Innovation will install a floating solar project on an artificial lake at an industrial sand quarry in Cheshire. The company will install a 400kW solar array with 450 solar panels at North Arclid Lake, at the Arclid Quarry site in Cheshire, operated by Bathgate Silica Sand. Nova won the contract through its AquaGen365 joint venture (JV) with engineering firm RSK. The JV bills itself as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for floating solar projects, covering feasibility studies, design, consents, installation and operation. This deal saw AquaGen365 carry out investigations and obtain approval for the project from Cheshire East…
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a thermoacoustic Stirling heat pump prototype that offers high thermal performance, a peak coefficient of performance of 1.68 and potential applications in high-temperature industrial processes, enabling carbon-free heating for sectors such as petrochemicals and metallurgy. December 17, 2025 Emiliano Bellini The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) announced this week that a group of its researchers have developed a prototype thermoacoustic heat pump that can reach an output temperature of more than 200 C. Acoustic heat pumps transfer heat using sound waves instead of traditional mechanical parts such as compressors. A loud…
The Planning Inspectorate has accepted a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) application for The Droves solar project in East Anglia. If ultimately approved for development, the site would have approximately 500 MW of solar capacity and a battery energy storage system (BESS) of unknown size. The Planning Inspectorate is now carrying out the pre-investigation phase, which includes consultation and examination of the proposed project. The Droves Solar Farm Limited is a subsidiary of large-scale solar and BESS developer Island Green Power (IGP). The site is proposed to cover approximately 840 hectares of land north of Swaffham and south of Castle…