Author: solarenergy

By Brad Kramer December 9, 2025 The winners of the Solar Builder Project of the Year Award 2025 have been announced! Congratulations to the Northern Cheyenne Buffalo Facility, Gilman Brothers Co., Willcox Greenhouse, Double Black Diamond Solar and the Orcas Center Microgrid. Editors’ Choice Awards were presented to Active Church, Camp Elena, Casa PerlArte Resiliency Hub, Department of Energy Rooftop Solar and Women’s Bean Project. Please go to the official Projects of the Year site to read through all the winners and watch video interviews with key stakeholders. Congratulations to all this year’s winners and thanks to everyone who nominated,…

When we ask “how is solar energy used in real life?”, we’re really asking two things: where does it show up in our daily world, and how much of our power needs can it actually cover?The short answer: far more than most of us realize. From rooftop panels and backyard pools to factory roofs, highway signs, and the phone charger in our backpack, solar has quietly slipped into almost every corner of modern life.In this guide, we’ll walk through how solar energy works, then jump into its practical applications at home, in business and industry, in our cities and transportation…

Battery discharge reached a record high of 362 MW in Ireland’s transmission system in November.According to the latest data from state transmission system operator (TSO) EirGrid, this record was reached on Tuesday, November 25, when demand was high and renewable generation from wind energy was low.This new record for battery shipments comes as EirGrid and fellow TSO SONI launched a major update last month, allowing battery units to be fully integrated into the real-time electricity market. The launch of Ireland’s new planning and dispatch programme was discussed last month in a guest article on Solar Power Portal by Yayu Yang,…

The new Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI) buyer guidelines focus on the risk of forced labor, supply chain transparency and compliance compliance when sourcing solar energy globally. December 9, 2025 Pilar Sanchez Molina SSI has published its first Buyer’s Guidea 54-page document designed for companies, project developers, investors and public institutions to strengthen responsible purchasing in the solar energy sector. The guide is composed of two parts. A public section provides practical recommendations for buyers, while a members-only appendix contains templates, checklists and sample contract clauses. Collaboration with SSI member companies led to the development of the document, which is designed…

Stationary storage battery pack prices fell to $70/kWh in 2025, a 45% decline from 2024, making it the cheapest lithium-ion category for the first time, according to BloombergNEF (BNEF). December 9, 2025 Marija Maisch By ESS news Although the pace of price declines has slowed, lithium-ion battery packs will hit a new record low in 2025. According to the latest analysis from BloombergNEF (BNEF), prices have fallen 8% since 2024 to $108/kWh, making them 93% lower than in 2010. Despite a rise in battery metal costs, persistent overcapacity in cell production, fierce competition and the continued shift to cheaper lithium…

Solarpro has developed a steel deck mounting structure with a drill-free mounting system for solar panels on roofs. December 9, 2025 Marie Beijer By pv magazine France Solarpro, a Paris-based PV company, has developed a steel deck mounting structure with a drill-free mounting system for rooftop solar panels. Waterproofing is an important consideration when installing solar panels on buildings, especially when multiple contractors must coordinate on overlapping schedules. Solarpro designed the Solaboac system to address this challenge for steel roofs. The current version of Solaboac is compatible with three families of high-efficiency panels: the Tarka 126 from the French manufacturer…

The U.S. solar industry installed 11.7 GW of new capacity in the third quarter of 2025, which was the industry’s third largest quarter ever and pushed total installations past 30 GW this year. Despite actions in Washington aimed at clean energy, solar and storage are responsible for 85% of all new energy added to the grid in the first nine months of the Trump administration. Credit: Duke Energy According to the Insight into the US solar market Q4 2025 According to the report released today from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie, 73% of all solar capacity…

Asset owner and operator Varco Energy, together with Fluence Energy, has achieved commercial operations for the first phase of the 142.5 MW/348.5 MWh Sizing John Energy Storage Project.Located within the Mersey Ring to the east of Liverpool, the The first phase of the project consists of a 57 MW/137.5 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), with a duration of 2.4 hours. Construction of Phase 2 is underway, with Fluence selected to expand the project by a further 85.5 MW/201 MWh BESS. Commercial operations for the second phase are expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026.According to Varco Energy,…

Solar PV projects could receive up to £295 million in government support through the upcoming Contracts for Difference (CfD) allocation round 7 (AR7).Announced yesterday that the budget for AR7 has been split into AR7 and AR7a; AR7a is the auction for all renewable technologies except offshore wind, which has its own auction in AR7.AR7a has a total budget of £310 million, which would be the maximum support the government would pay to renewable energy producers if wholesale electricity prices fell below a certain threshold.The technologies in AR7a are split into two ‘pots’, with Pot 1 containing projects using established technologies,…

Researchers studying PV panels in Chile’s extremely dry Atacama Desert found that cemented pollution can cause up to 9.8% annual energy loss. Their combined field and laboratory work shows that dry cleaning leaves behind residue that accelerates future cementation, making wet cleaning the more effective long-term strategy, despite higher costs and scarce water. December 9, 2025 Emiliano Bellini An international research team has investigated the formation of cemented pollution on PV panels operating in the hyper-arid conditions of the region with the world’s highest solar radiation levels, the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, and found that annual energy losses, if…