Author: solarenergy

The world is at a crossroads. Climate change demands urgent action, and the energy sector stands at the center of the solution. As fossil fuels continue to contribute to rising global temperatures, the search for clean energy sources has never been more critical. Two technologies consistently emerge in these discussions: nuclear energy and solar power. Both promise to reduce carbon emissions, but they take different approaches to generating electricity. For homeowners, businesses, and communities across North Carolina, understanding these energy sources matters. While nuclear energy operates at the utility scale, powering entire regions, solar energy offers something nuclear cannot—the ability…

Developers have until November 3 to respond to Ofgem’s ‘minded’ position to approve a Progression Commitment Fee (PCF) as part of the reformed grid connection process.The plans that Ofgem wants to approve will see projects that accept a Gate 2 offer but fail to meet Queue Management Milestone 1, namely initiating planning permission, pay the PCF. Treated as a cancellation fee, the PCF would start at £2,500/MW and increase by £2,500/MW for every six months that a project does not progress, up to a maximum of £10,000/MW. The National Energy System Operator (NESO) has proposed an amendment to the Connection…

Mercedes-Benz unveiled its first car prototype with a silicon-free, 20% efficient nanoparticle solar coating that powers the car even when it is off and uses modules thinner than a human hair. October 21, 2025 Pilar Sanchez Molina Mercedes-Benz Vision Iconic Image: Mercedes-Benz German carmaker Mercedes-Benz has unveiled the Vision Iconic prototype, the first car with its “solar paintphotovoltaic solution, during Shanghai Fashion Week in China. The company said the coating consists of innovative modules just 5 micrometers thick that can be applied to the car body “as a wafer-thin paste” or to other substrates. The protective layer is described as…

A new documentary from the American Solar Grazing Association (ASGA) highlights a growing movement transforming both agriculture and renewable energy. ‘Pastures and Panels’ tells the story of farmers and ranchers who are revitalizing family farms by grazing sheep on solar sites, creating a resilient model that produces food, fiber and energy for the nation – all on the same land. The movie is now streaming on YouTube. A still from the documentary “Pastures and Panels” Sun grazing is the practice of raising livestock on land that also generates solar energy. It turns solar energy projects into productive farms that naturally…

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank have launched a $12.5 billion initiative to finance regional electricity interconnection in Southeast Asia under the ASEAN Power Grid program. October 21, 2025 Patrick Jowett The World Bank, ADB and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have announced a financing initiative to support the development of an ASEAN Power Grid (APG), a project aim for regional interconnection among Southeast Asian countries by 2045. The recently announced ASEAN Power Grid Financing Initiative (APGF) will mobilize large-scale financing for cross-border electricity interconnections over land and along the seabed, to develop a pipeline…

EirGrid, the transmission system operator (TSO) for the Republic of Ireland, has launched a consultation setting out how it will acquire its first long-term energy storage (LDES) capacity. October 20, 2025 Tristan Rayner Image: Polar night energy By ESS news EirGrid has opened a consultation on the proposed procurement model for LDES, which sets out how such storage assets will be financed, dispatched and connected to the national grid. The article, published last week, moves the country closer to a market framework for multi-hour storage. Firstly, EirGrid’s definition of long duration is set at a minimum of four hours, with…

Standardized testing can accelerate indoor solar power for smart devices Researchers from Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) School of Sustainable Energy Engineering (SEE) have introduced a new framework to standardize indoor solar testing – an advance that could accelerate the deployment of self-powered smart devices and increase confidence in performance data across the field. Led by SEE Professor Vincenzo Pecunia and his Sustainable Optoelectronics Research Group, the study sets a benchmark for accurate, reproducible measurement of indoor photovoltaic (IPV) efficiency under real lighting conditions. The work, recently published in the journal Joule, marks SFU’s first research article to appear in the…

An international research team has developed a tracker-based rooftop PV system that can be installed on both new and existing stadiums. The proposed design reportedly allows for easier implementation and delivers higher power compared to conventional stadium PV covers. October 20, 2025 Emiliano Bellini A group of researchers led by the University of Salerno in Italy has developed a deployable tensegrity roof structure for tracker-based photovoltaic applications. “In our new research, we have presented a new solar roof module for sports stadiums with sun tracking capabilities, which can be used both for the design of new solar stadiums and for…

CleanCapital has announced the commercial operation of its newest solar project in downtown Buffalo, New York. The 3.59 MW Elk Street solar project illustrates CleanCapital’s expertise in brownfield development and the company’s ongoing commitment to distributed energy generation and the revitalization of underutilized land. Located just north of the Buffalo River, on an 11-acre site formerly used as part of an ExxonMobil tank farm, the solar project transforms a capped and lined brownfield adjacent to a water treatment plant into a productive energy source for the city of Buffalo. The site will provide affordable solar energy to local residents, including…

Solar energy analyst Josh Cornes, from Solar Media Market Research, discusses what the delayed grid connection timeline means for the UK’s transmission-scale solar development pipeline.The National Energy System Operator (NESO) gave transmission-scale developers a hammer blow when it announced that only 11 GW had been allocated to transmission projects before 2030, and another 6 GW between 2030 and 2035. Transmission developers have taken enormous risks and spent millions over the past five years to secure grid connection offers for solar projects; some collected more than 20 GW of connection offers, which will now only be fulfilled after 2035.According to the…