Author: solarenergy

The influence of gas prices on UK energy prices is declining due to the government’s Contracts for Difference (CfD) renewable energy programme, according to a new report from energy think tank Ember. Ember said 15% of the UK’s energy generation has already been decoupled from the price of gas, which is “helping to suppress energy prices”. Ten gigawatts of operational renewables – three-quarters of the wind, solar and hydropower built between 2023 and 2025 – are covered by the CfD scheme, which provides a fixed price for power that is independent of wholesale gas prices. Given the falling costs of…

OVO Energy will cease operations later this year, sell its operations and exit the market.The company said expectations about financial resilience and increased regulatory scrutiny have changed the economics of the sector, “particularly for standalone energy retail companies”.Fellow domestic energy company E.ON will acquire OVO’s energy retail business, in a transaction that will include OVO’s retail customers and staff. The process is expected to be completed this year, until then the two will continue to operate as separate companies.OVO’s home services business, which provides boiler maintenance and insurance, has been sold to Hometree, and Kaluza, OVO’s energy management software business,…

British Solar Renewables (BSR) has acquired Berden’s 56MWp solar project near Bishop’s Stortford, Essex.The IPP purchased the fully approved, ready-to-build project from the developer, Statera Energy, for an undisclosed amount. The project is located on approximately 177 hectares of land between the towns of Stocking Pelham and Berden and is expected to generate approximately 60 GWh of power annually. A grid connection for 2027 has been agreed for the location and a Contract for Difference (CfD) with a term of 20 years has been awarded in the government’s Allocation Round 7 (AR7). BSR said the project would “support the agricultural…

A High Court in South Africa has ordered the country’s Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy to provide full documentation relating to three solar tenders awarded to local solar manufacturer ARTsolar in 2021 and 2022, after the company questioned whether preferred bidders had followed local content requirements for PV modules set out in the tenders. ARTsolar told pv magazine The legal team is currently reviewing the documentation received. May 13, 2026 Patrick Jowett South African solar manufacturer ARTsolar is reviewing documentation relating to three public tenders after alleging that local content requirements of the tenders had not been followed by…

Amazon has conducted a six-month field trial of a rooftop heat pump system developed by US startup Transaera in one of its logistics facilities. The system uses metal-organic framework (MOF) based dehumidification to remove moisture from the outside air before cooling. May 13, 2026 Emiliano Bellini Amazon has conducted a six-month field trial of a new type of rooftop heat pump at one of its logistics facilities in the United States. The system is described by its supplier, US startup Transaera, as a dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS), a type of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) technology that treats…

By Brad Kramer May 13, 2026 Renewables and battery storage are poised for growth amid rising data center demand, according to recent data from kWh analysis. In an interview earlier this year, CEO Jason Kaminsky discussed how data centers will impact the market in 2026, as well as potential policy headwinds. As technology companies’ growth ceilings increasingly depend on the availability of electricity, energy will become a business constraint if demand is not met. Renewable energy combined with battery storage becomes the only scalable answer in this cycle: nuclear power plant construction is too slow, the supply of gas turbines…

The aircraft, acquired by Skydweller Aero in 2019 and converted into an autonomous long-life platform, crashed after losing power. It was equipped with approximately 17,000 photovoltaic cells on its wings. May 13, 2026 Luis Ini Solar impulse 2 Image: Milko Vuille, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 By pv magazine Mexico The experimental solar-powered aircraft Solar impulse 2 crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Mississippi on May 4 during an unmanned test flight conducted by Skydweller Aero. Preliminary information from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) indicates that the plane lost power shortly after takeoff from…

Gravity storage is getting a boost from the South African state-owned company Eskom. May 13, 2026 Tristan Rayner By ESS news Energy Vault has struck a deal with South Africa’s state-owned utility Eskom, signing a strategic development agreement for the potential implementation of a 25 MW/100 MWh grid-scale gravity energy storage system (GESS) at the Hendrina power plant in Mpumalanga. The agreement also formalizes a framework to “license, co-develop and collaborate up to 4 GWh of long-term storage deployments” across all 16 states of the Southern African Development Community, including countries such as Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Botswana, Tanzania, Zambia and…

US researchers have developed an IR-CW laser-based method to remove backplates from silicon solar panels at the end of their life without damaging the glass or wafers, using controlled heating of the silicon-EVA interface through the front glass. The process enables clean mechanical delamination while maintaining device performance and provides a more energy-efficient and cost-effective alternative to conventional thermal or chemical recycling methods. May 13, 2026 Emiliano Bellini Researchers from the University of Virginia in the United States have developed a laser-based technology that makes it possible to remove backsheets from discarded solar panels without damaging the glass or silicon…

The Indian coal company has dissolved its solar manufacturing subsidiary CIL Solar PV Ltd, formally ending its planned participation in integrated solar PV manufacturing. May 12, 2026 Uma Gupta The head office of Coal India Image: Coal India Limited By pv magazine India Indian state-owned miner Coal India Ltd has dissolved its solar manufacturing arm, CIL Solar PV Ltd, ending its proposed entry into integrated solar PV manufacturing. In a regulatory filing, Coal India said the name of its subsidiary, CIL Solar PV Ltd, has been struck off the register of companies under Section 248(5) of the Companies Act, 2013,…