Author: solarenergy
Global investment manager Quinbrook has sold its energy optimization business Flexitricity to Drax Group.The £42 million transaction values Flexitricity at £36 million, with a further £6 million covering estimated net working capital and cash adjustment. Completing the acquisition will require UK government approval and UK energy regulator Ofgem to review the transaction, but these are the only remaining conditions to completion.Quinbrook acquired Flexitricity in 2020 for £15.2 millionat which point Flexitricity had a contracted portfolio of 540MW of flexible energy assets. Quinbrook said it has since overseen the doubling of the company’s portfolio to approximately 1.3 GW of distributed capacity.…
Scientists conducted a literature review in six areas of agrivoltaic energy, taking into account sustainability, cover crop productivity, socio-economic resilience, solar energy generation, spatial efficiency and species. They found that, under optimal conditions, agrivoltaic energy could generate more than $1 trillion in additional global agricultural income. January 22, 2026 Lior Kahana Researchers from Western University in Canada have conducted a multi-dimensional study on agricultural voltaics and concluded that this form of energy production could help improve energy production. more than 1,800 million tons annually in global crop yields. “This research looked at agrivoltaic studies between 2018-2024 and synthesized them across…
Fujiyama Power Systems has begun production at its 1 GW solar cell manufacturing facility in Dadri, India, with all output intended for internal use to strengthen supply chain security and support domestic content programs. January 22, 2026 Uma Gupta Image: Fujiyama Power Systems By pv magazine India Fujiyama Power Systems, a provider of rooftop solar solutions in India, has started production at its 1 GW solar cell factory in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh. The company said the facility will fully cater to internal consumption, strengthening backward integration and supply chain security. The company currently operates 1.6 GW of solar panel production…
Electrical research and production cooperative (ERMCO), a manufacturer of distribution transformers, opens a new factory in Maricopa County, Arizona. The investment will create more than 500 jobs for the community. ERMCO The facility, located in Waddell, approximately 30 miles west of Phoenix, will expand ERMCO’s three-phase transformer manufacturing capabilities while exploring new manufacturing opportunities. ERMCO is trying to meet the demand for more energy distribution. This marks the first time ERMCO has expanded manufacturing operations west of the Mississippi River. Arizona is closer to major customer regions in the western US, reducing transportation time and costs for transformer projects on…
Scientists from the French research institute CEA-Liten have identified hydrogen migration in doped selective layers as the main driver of UV-induced degradation in silicon heterojunction solar cells. They also found that combined light and thermal light treatments can partially restore performance and improve long-term UV stability. January 22, 2026 Emiliano Bellini Researchers from the department of new energy technologies and nanomaterials (Liten) of the French Alternative Energy and Atomic Energy Commission have investigated UV-induced degradation (UVID) pathways in heterojunction (HJT) solar cells and found that light treatments that combine thermal and light activation gradually restore the selective conductivity of the…
Rising silver prices are pushing PV manufacturers towards copper-based metallization, with DK Electronic Materials targeting large-scale deployment of high copper paste solutions by 2026, while Fraunhofer ISE warns that efficiency compromises remain unacceptable. January 21, 2026 Lior Kahana Silver prices are rising, with $100 per troy ounce within reach, putting heavy pressure on the PV supply chain, where at current levels at least a fifth of module costs go to silver for cell metallization. Highlighting this trend, China-based metallization paste supplier DK Electronic Materials revealed that a gigawatt-scale customer will use its copper-rich paste for commercial production. “We expect 2026…
Scientists at Osaka Metropolitan University have developed a single organic molecule that naturally forms the internal p/n bonds needed to convert sunlight into electricity, offering a potential shortcut to more efficient organic thin-film solar cells. The study shows how careful molecular design and self-assembly can generate stable nanoscale p/n heterojunctions without the need to physically mix separate p-type and n-type materials. Solar cells generate electricity when photons create charge carriers in a semiconductor and an internal electric field at the ap/n junction drives these charges apart. In conventional devices, these bonds form at the interface between individual p-type and n-type…
China-based PV equipment supplier Ideal Energy (Shanghai) Sunflower Semiconductor has completed an AI-enabled pilot line for ultra-thin flexible heterojunction (HJT) solar cells, targeting lightweight energy systems for space and near-space applications. January 21, 2026 Vincent Shaw Ideal Energy (Shanghai) Sunflower Semiconductor has announced the completion of an AI-enabled demonstration line for ultra-thin, flexible HJT solar cells designed for space and near-space applications, taking a step beyond conventional photovoltaic manufacturing to advanced, lightweight energy systems. The company said the pilot line, which was completely designed and integrated in-house, successfully produced the first batch of ultra-thin P-type flexible HJT cells that meet…
Scientists from the University of Seville have developed real-time optimization models that show that electricity storage in Spain may be approaching its economic limit, with a cumulative capacity of more than 32 GWh pushing down prices and undermining project profitability. January 21, 2026 Pilar Sanchez Molina By ESS news Traditionally, storage planning is based on production cost models or capacity expansion models. The former optimize dispatch on a levelized cost basis, while the latter assess investment decisions within a marginal price framework, typically assuming that thermal generation drives market prices. However, both approaches imperfectly capture storage, especially in terms of…
Researchers from KAUST, TU Delft and LMU Munich have improved the performance of monolithic perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells by changing the physical structure at the front of the bottom heterojunction solar cell. January 21, 2026 Valerie Thompson A research team from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (LMU Munich) has shown that controlling nanoscale surface roughness at the recombination layer in perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells can improve performance. The researchers noted that the influence of the surface roughness of the nanoscale crystalline silicon (c-Si) bottom cell has received much…