Author: solarenergy

Irish Minister for Climate, Energy and Environment Darragh O’Brien said the project could be co-funded by the EU and completed by the mid-2030s. October 23, 2025 Blathnaid O’Dea Ireland’s Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, Darragh O’Brien, has announced that Ireland and Spain are in discussions about the construction of an interconnector to connect the two countries’ electricity grids. After taking part in an event focused on Europe’s electricity grids in Luxembourg on Monday and Tuesday of this week, O’Brien took to social media platform to say he had met with his Spanish counterpart, Energy Secretary Joan Groizard, to…

Venture capital, public market and debt financing in the solar sector reached $17.3 billion in the first nine months of 2025, according to Mercom Capital Group. October 23, 2025 Ryan Kennedy By pv magazine USA Total corporate financing, including venture capital, public market and debt financing, fell 22% year-over-year through the first three quarters of 2025, according to a report from Mercom Capital Group. Through the first nine months of 2025, total corporate funding was $17.3 billion, down from the $22.3 billion raised in the first nine months of 2024. Venture capital funding reached $2.9 billion through 55 deals in…

Photosynthetic algae develop unique pigments to protect against sunlight and increase energy efficiency Green marine algae have developed a remarkable defense against the harmful effects of excess sunlight, according to a study by Osaka Metropolitan University and its international research partners. The research found that a pigment called siphonin acts as a protective shield, allowing algae to maintain efficient photosynthesis without risking damage from excessive light exposure. The research focused on the marine algae Codium fragile, which, like land plants, contains light-harvesting complexes equipped with chlorophyll to absorb sunlight. However, Codium fragile is distinguished by the addition of unique carotenoids,…

Electricity rates are climbing faster than ever before. Duke Energy Progress customers saw their rates jump by 10% on October 8th, 2025, and Duke Energy Carolinas customers are bracing for increases starting January 1st, 2026. Across the United States, the average price per kilowatt-hour has climbed to nearly 15 cents, with no signs of slowing down. The culprit? Unprecedented demand for electricity. Artificial intelligence, data centers, electric vehicles, and intense summers are pushing the power grid to its limits. Utility companies are scrambling to keep up, and homeowners are footing the bill through higher monthly costs. Understanding the Rising Cost…

The US-based developer of copper-indium-gallium-selenide thin-film PV products said its modules will be tested without modification by companies developing marine PV and power beaming applications. October 23, 2025 Valerie Thompson Ascent Solar Technologies, a US manufacturer of copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) thin-film PV products, announced that it has shipped modules for testing to an ocean technology company and a power beaming technology company active in defense and aerospace. The project partners have not been disclosed. “Ascent supplied its standard thin-film PV modules for these tests; no changes or modifications were made to the supplied modules,” said Paul Warly, CEO of Ascent Solar…

Irish renewable energy company Astatine has announced an investment of €800 million (£695 million) to roll out renewable energy generation and industry decarbonization solutions across Britain and continental Europe, in partnership with Aviva Investors.Under the program, the companies will develop a number of assets – including PV generation projects, battery energy storage systems (BESS), electric vehicle (EV) chargers and heat pumps – targeting the energy, heat and transport sectors, which the companies describe as “energy-intensive industries and hard-to-mitigate sectors”, across the continent.While the companies did not specify where these projects would be built, or how much money would be invested…

The Chinese company says its new product is available in a standard container configuration. The liquid and forced air cooling systems reportedly maintain a cell temperature difference of just 3 degrees Celsius October 23, 2025 Lior Kahana Elecnova 1 MW / 2 MWh containerized ESS Image: Elecnova China-based Elecnova has introduced a new all-in-one energy storage system (ESS) container designed for industrial and network-scale use. The system has a storage capacity of 2.17 MWh and a nominal output power of 1 MW. “The compact standard container footprint of 6 meters and compliance with international shipping standards ensure hassle-free global transportation…

Downing Renewable Developments (DRD) has been given permission for a 49.9MW solar power plant in Cornwall after appealing against the council’s initial refusal.The Fair Park solar power station, with associated battery storage, will be built near Carland Cross in Cornwall. DRD, an investment manager who set up Downing LLP to build renewable energy sources on land in Britain, said the site’s 30-year operational period will allow sheep grazing and deliver a net biodiversity gain of 148%.When construction begins, a one-off community payment of £1,000/MW will be given to each local parish council to support local community projects, and DRD will…

A UAE research team developed a hybrid 1D CNN and random forest model to detect multiple faults in bifacial PV systems, including dust, shading, aging and cracking. Using simulated IV curves and a 180-day synthetic dataset, the model achieved 100% accuracy in general condition detection and 97.6% in specific fault classification. October 23, 2025 Lior Kahana A research team led by the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates has developed a new machine learning approach for fault detection in bifacial PV systems. The method combines a one-dimensional convolutional neural network (1D-CNN) with the Random Forest (RF) learning method…

The NIMBY arguments against solar and storage range from the insane (solar panels suck up all the sun’s energy!) to the indisputable (projects are changing rural landscapes). Regardless of opinion, the solar and storage developer’s priority is to hear community concerns and find solutions. One obvious concern that community members may have with large-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS), especially as more and more are installed in urban areas, is their noise levels. Residents will continue to live and work near these systems long after the developer has moved to the next location. It’s a valid concern, says Thomas Corbishley,…