Author: solarenergy

As electric vehicles and networked storage expand globally, engineers are looking for better ways to track how lithium-ion batteries age under real-world driving and operating conditions. A new study supported by Jilin University and China FAW Group reports a deep learning-based method that monitors battery health with errors of less than 1 percent, even when current and voltage vary in complex patterns. The work appears in the journal ENGINEERING Energy and focuses on health status, a measure of how much usable capacity remains compared to a new cell. Conventional approaches often assume stable operating conditions and can struggle when confronted…

The systems deliver outlet water temperatures up to 74 C, operate at ambient temperatures from -25 C to 43 C, and can be connected in groups of up to 16 units for larger commercial applications. March 4, 2026 Lior Kahana The ecodan Pro CAHV Image: Mitsubishi Electric Trane HVAC USA Mitsubishi Electric Trane HVAC US (METUS), a joint venture between Mitsubishi Electric and Trane Technologies, has launched a new line of air-to-water heat pumps for hydronic heating and domestic hot water (DHW) in three-phase applications. The new range, branded ecodan Pro, debuts with the CAHV heat pump, offered in two…

Origis Energy will complete three solar projects totaling 413 MW this summer in Ector County, Texas. The Rockhound Projects have received their latest round of funding and will join Swift Air Solar II and III in West Texas to produce more than 700 MW of solar energy upon completion. Swift Air Solar from Origis Energy. “This financing reflects the quality of the Rockhound portfolio and the confidence our capital partners place in Origis’ ability to execute complex, multi-project transactions with discipline and scale,” said Alice Heathcote, CFO of Origis. Natixis CIB and Santander invested $545 million in the Rockhound projects.…

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) yesterday approved three initiatives to expand clean energy generation in the state, improve grid reliability and control electricity costs for New Jersey homes and businesses. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill NJBPU opened incentives for solar and battery storage projects, opened a second round of storage requests, promoted the Competitive Solar Incentive (CSI) Program, and approved the nation’s largest expansion of a state-run community solar program. “Solar energy and battery storage are the fastest and most cost-effective ways to build new electricity generation. Today’s actions advance Governor Sherrill’s clean energy goals while continuing…

Researchers from South Korea have improved dust detection from solar panels using SMOTE and stable diffusion (SD) augmentation, where SD increases detection accuracy from 76.5% to 98.9% while maintaining spatial realism. March 4, 2026 Lior Kahana A research group from South Korea Jeju National University addressed the imbalance of the datasets in photovoltaic modules by applying two complementary augmentation strategies. Specifically, they applied a synthetic minority oversampling technique (SMOTE) at the feature level and stable diffusion (SD) augmentation at the image level. A dataset imbalance occurs when one class in a dataset contains many more examples than the other, causing…

Researchers in Türkiye have developed a passive dirt-resistant coating for PV panels using oleic acid-modified aluminum oxide nanoparticles applied via a spray coating. Laboratory and field tests showed that the coating reduced dust build-up and initially increased daily energy production, although performance declined under long-term environmental stress. March 5, 2026 Lior Kahana A research team from Konya Technical University in Türkiye has unveiled a passive anti-pollution solution for solar panels. The approach is based on a thin film of aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) nanoparticles, modified with oleic acid, which is applied directly to the glass surface of photovoltaic modules using a…

By Martin McConnell March 5, 2026 Renewable energy company Zelestra has broken ground on two projects in Texas known as Echols Grove and Cedar Range. With a total of 441 MWdc, the projects are Zelestra’s largest in the US Zelestra supervises the construction of both projects itself instead of outsourcing them McCarthy Construction Companies will act as the lead EPC contractor for both jobs. The company says construction started early this year in January and both sites should be online by the end of 2027. Once online, the projects will also count towards the company’s energy partnership with tech titan…

Researchers from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have reported a new interface engineering strategy that significantly increases the efficiency and stability of three-dimensional perovskite solar cells. Working with international partners, the team formed a thin two-dimensional perovskite phase at the buried interface of the perovskite absorber, a location that has been difficult to selectively target with previous approaches. The work, published in Nature Energy on February 6, shows that the method improves the crystallization quality of the perovskite films and reduces defect concentrations at buried interfaces by more than 90…

French solar manufacturer Heliup has raised €16 million to scale up production of lightweight solar panels designed for commercial and industrial roofs with low load-bearing capacity. March 5, 2026 Gwénaëlle Deboutte By pv magazine France Heliup, a French industrial deep-tech company, has raised €16 million to accelerate the large-scale deployment of its lightweight PV technology. The company produces lightweight solar panels designed for existing roofs with low load-bearing capacity and wants to tap into a large, still underutilized market. The financing round was led by Supernova Invest, with participation from new investors MAIF Impact, Lita Gestion and C2AD. Existing investors…

EirGrid has warned of a “potentially challenging situation” for the country’s electricity system between 2026 and 2028, as rising demand threatens to exceed available generation capacity. In its latest All-Island Resource Adequacy Assessment, the operator analyzed the balance between electricity supply and demand in Ireland over the next ten years. The report shows that between 2026 and 2028, both basic and secure assessments will fall outside Ireland’s three-hour reliability standard, indicating that additional capacity will be needed to maintain the adequacy of the system. Conditions improve towards the end of the decade. From 2029, the basic assessment will return within…