Author: solarenergy

For decades, clean energy in America was promoted by subsidies. The ITC and PTC helped scale solar and storage, creating an industry that might not have survived without them. Those subsidies worked. They gave renewables the time and capital to prove themselves. But they also disrupted the markets. Developers planned pipelines around political timelines, not project efficiency. Investors prioritized tax certainty over technology. And because subsidies softened the costs of delays, too many projects could afford to go through slow, sequential steps. Implementation has been delayed. Marginal projects survived. Projects lived or died not on their merits, but on how…

ENGIE North America has announced that it has entered into a PPA with Meta for the new 600 MW Swenson Ranch Solar project in Stonewall County, southeast of Lubbock, Texas. The project will be the largest asset in ENGIE’s more than 11 GW operational and under construction portfolio of solar, wind and battery storage in North America. Swenson is expected to be operational in 2027, when Meta will purchase 100% of the project’s output to support its data center operations in the United States. “We are excited to continue expanding our relationship with Meta,” said Dave Carroll, CEO and Chief…

The French manufacturer Voltec Solar has designed a solar panel that can withstand impacts from 55 mm hailstones. The RG5 certification is the highest resistance level listed in the European hail index. October 27, 2025 Gwénaëlle Deboutte by pv magazine France. The French manufacturer Voltec Solar has developed a solar panel that is specially designed to withstand large hailstones. The Tarka Diamant module is equipped with ultra-resistant RG5 certified photovoltaic glass, which can withstand impacts from 55mm hailstones without visible damage or loss of performance. The module features photovoltaic glass based on a patented design developed in collaboration with ballistic…

The UK government will make changes to the environmental permitting system, allowing onshore renewable energy generation projects, including solar, to bypass certain permits for faster deployment.As part of its Plan for Change, the government has reformed the planning process to accelerate the rollout of housing and infrastructure. This supports its commitments to deploying renewable energy and building millions of new homes. These new-build homes will also be this standard equipped with PV panels on the roof.The changes to environmental regulations streamline the permitting process by exempting ‘low-risk activities’ from the permit requirement if they meet other safety and environmental conditions.…

The shift to 15-minute spot market intervals has increased battery arbitrage revenues in Europe while providing more accurate signals for grid efficiency, says French battery storage specialist Storio Energy. October 27, 2025 Gwénaëlle Deboutte By ESS news The transition of the electricity spot market to 15-minute increments, effective October 1, is already changing the economic dynamics of battery storage in Europe. Paris-based Storio Energy said it has tracked a 20% increase in battery market arbitrage revenue thanks to more accurate recording of price movements. The wholesale electricity market, which sets prices 24 hours in advance, now displays prices at 15-minute…

New method uses solar biofilms to eliminate soil pollutants Recent research has shown that iron-mineral-bacterial biofilms can effectively degrade environmental pollutants using solar energy. This new approach not only improves the degradation of antibiotics such as tetracycline hydrochloride and chloramphenicol, but also represents an important advance for sustainable pollution control and bioremediation. Scientists have discovered that non-phototrophic microbes in soil can utilize sunlight through mineral-microbe interactions, expanding the recognized impact of solar energy beyond photosynthesis. By exploiting the interactions between iron minerals and bacteria, researchers have developed biofilms with charge-storage capabilities, allowing pollutant reduction even in soil zones where light…

Janta Power closed $5.5 million in seed financing to develop its vertical solar tower, with pilot programs already underway at major global airports such as Dallas-Fort Worth and Munich International Airport. October 27, 2025 Ryan Kennedy By pv magazine USA Janta Power, developer of vertical three-dimensional solar towers, announced that it has closed a $5.5 million seed funding round led by Mac Venture Capital and Collab Capital. The money is expected to help the startup scale up its patented 3D solar towers, which are designed to have high energy density for areas with limited space. The product has applications for…

Scientists in China have developed a new signal-missing aware energy prediction method using signal decomposition, multi-scale covariate interaction, and collaborative transfer learning across multiple domains. The approach reportedly improves average prediction accuracy by 15.3%. October 27, 2025 Lior Kahana A research team led by China’s Hunan University has developed a new missing PV power prediction method designed to handle missing and incomplete data. The multi-domain collaborative transfer learning-multiscale covariate interaction (MDCTL-MCI) methodology combines signal decomposition, multi-scale covariate interaction and multi-domain collaborative transfer learning. “This study investigates how covariate information can be effectively used to improve predictive performance, and whether the…

Colombia has approved COP 8.35 trillion ($2.1 billion) for its Colombia Solar program to equip 1.3 million low-income households with PV systems between 2026 and 2030. October 24, 2025 Luis Ini Image: Manidip Mandal, Unsplash By pv magazine LatAm Colombia’s National Planning Department (DNP) has confirmed that policy document CONPES 4158 authorizes COP 8.35 trillion in financing for the period 2026-2030 to support low-income electricity subsidy schemes for approximately 1.3 million households. The initiative is part of the Colombia Solar Program, led by the Ministry of Mines and Energy with technical support from the DNP and the Ministry of Finance…

A data center in the Pacific Northwest will come online years earlier than expected due to the deployment of a 62 MWh battery energy storage system on campus, meaning the data center won’t have to wait for the local utility to update its own charging service to meet power needs. Calibrating energy will deliver a BESS of 31 MW/62 MWh Aligned data centers’ Pacific Northwest data center campus, which will bring the battery online in 2026 and allow the facility to scale operations sooner than would be possible with traditional utility upgrades. Calibrant and Aligned have been working with a…