Author: solarenergy

The UK government’s flagship company, Great British Energy (GBE), has published its strategic plan for the next five years.GBE will build a portfolio of “at least” 15 GW of clean energy generation and storage capacity through ownership and investment and mobilize £15 billion of private finance through out-of-pocket spending.The strategic plan, which is a response to the the government’s Statement of Strategic Priorities, published in Septemberdescribes the key areas of focus for the company and how it will achieve its objectives.According to President Juergen Maier’s foreword, the document is “in some way about the mechanisms and levers we can use…

At the end of October the Illinois General Assembly passed the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act (CRGA), significant landmark legislation that will make Illinois’ electric grid more resilient, add new clean energy capacity, and meaningfully reduce ratepayers’ energy bills. The bill is nearly 1,000 pages long, with dozens of provisions focused on affordability. But one of the most transformative pieces is the development of a new large-scale solar + storage battery and community program. A community solar project in Kingston, Illinois completed by Nexamp. The timing couldn’t be more timely. The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that 63 GW…

Solarwatt France has initiated a statutory early warning procedure at the Lyon Commercial Court to secure the future of its activities. December 5, 2025 François Puthod By pv magazine France Solarwatt, a German supplier of photovoltaic panels and solar batteries, has announced a restructuring plan to address current challenges in the French and European photovoltaic markets. As part of this plan, French subsidiary Solarwatt France filed an early warning procedure with the Lyon Commercial Court on December 3, the company said in a statement. In French company law, a statutory early warning procedure is designed to detect and address financial…

Brazil published Law 15,296 on November 25, introducing a series of legislative changes in the electricity sector, including guidelines for the regulation of storage systems, tax exemptions and the reduction of import tax rates on battery energy storage systems and their components to zero. December 5, 2025 Livia Neves By ESS news Brazil has introduced a series of regulations and incentives for battery energy storage systems (BESS), published under Law 15,269 on November 25. The law outlines electricity storage as an independent entity to be regulated by Aneel, Brazil’s electricity regulatory agency, alongside generation, transmission, distribution and commercialization activities. It…

Japan allocated 75.3 MW of PV capacity in its latest tender process. The lowest price at the auction was JPY 4.97 ($0.032)/kWh. December 5, 2025 Emiliano Bellini Image: Beau Swierstra, Unsplash Japan’s Green Investment Promotion Organization has final results of the latest auction for large-scale solar energy projects. The state agency said 75.3 MW of PV projects were selected in the tender. It was Japan’s 26th utility-scale solar auction and was expected to allocate 163 MW of generation capacity. The 27 selected projects range in size from 300 kW to 21.7 MW. The lowest bid was 4.97 JPY ($0.032)/kWh and…

For the first time, a complete aluminum-graphite dual-ion battery system has been built and tested, demonstrating that lithium-free, high-performance batteries can provide stability, fast response and recyclability for next-generation networking applications. December 5, 2025 Marija Maisch Aluminum-graphite dual-ion battery system consisting of pouch cells, battery module, battery management system and quantum sensor Image: Andreas Scheunert / Fraunhofer IISB By ESS news In a milestone for lithium-free battery technology, the joint R&D project INNOBATT, led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology (IISB), has completed a battery system demonstrator based on aluminum-graphite dual-ion batteries (AGDIB). The demonstrator confirms…

By SB staff December 4, 2025 Northern solar energy has built its first project in the Midwest, featuring a 7.5 MWp fixed-tilt solar array paired with 1,050 kVA battery storage in Illinois. The interconnection of the system is planned for the end of December 2025. The new solar energy + storage system will provide direct power to Prysmian’s cable factory in Du Quoin, Illinois. The facility, which produces copper medium-voltage cable that can be used in renewable energy applications such as solar and wind power, will extract renewable energy from the system, reducing dependence on the electricity grid and accelerating…

The former CEO of Sunnova is now a leading global solar energy services company Otovo. John Berger licensed the name Otovo earlier this year from the Norwegian startup, and efforts on separate continents have now merged to offer repair services across Europe and the United States. Berger was appointed CEO of Otovo and Andreas Thorsheim will take on the role of Chief Product Officer. “Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for Otovo as we complete this transformative combination and create the world’s first global home energy services company,” said Berger. “Over the past two years, more than 200,000…

The two companies will invest approximately CNY 2 billion ($282.8 million) in the new facility, which will house two production lines, each with a capacity of 2.5 GW. The project has already passed the environmental assessment. December 5, 2025 Vincent Shaw A newly formed joint venture between back-contact (BC) solar panel manufacturer Aiko And Skyworth PV plans to build a 5GW BC panel factory in Beihai, Guangxi Province. The new company, called Skyworth-Aiko (Beihai) Solar Technology Co., Ltd., will invest approximately CNY 2 billion ($282.8 million) in the new facility, which will house two production lines, each with a capacity…

The European Marine Energy Center (EMEC) has completed demonstration work on a combined battery storage, tidal energy and hydrogen production plant in Orkney, Scotland.The EMEC described the work as a “world first” integration of the three technologies; during periods of high generation, the energy generated by the tidal turbine charged the battery, powered the hydrogen electrolyser and exported power to the grid; during periods of low generation, the battery discharged current to the electrolyzer to keep it running.The successful tests follow a recommendation from EMEC and Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, with as many as 30 tidal current projects found…