Author: solarenergy

Scottish ministers have approved plans for a 342MW transmission-linked battery energy storage (BESS) system in South Lanarkshire.The Red Moss BESS project was submitted to the Scottish Energy Consents Unit (ECU) by Qair UK, previously known as Green Switch Capital. It is the company’s first Section 36 consent.Qair Group acquired a majority stake in Green Switch Capital in August 2024 and renamed the British renewable energy developer Qair UK.The approved site will include 148 battery storage units and the construction of a new 132 kV substation, the Redshaw Substation. The location of the 342MW Red Moss BESS in South Lanarkshire will…

DHL Freight Sweden and Denmark-based Green Energy Group have announced a nationwide one-year pilot in Sweden to test the use of vehicle-integrated PV with a fleet of biofuel-powered transport trucks. October 9, 2025 Valerie Thompson To measure how solar energy improves the efficiency of biofuels, Danish startup Green Energy Group is supplying its vehicle-integrated PV systems (VIPV) to DHL Freight Sweden for use in ten vehicles in a twelve-month pilot project. Based in Sweden, the project includes ten vehicles from Scania and Volvo, powered by hydrogen-treated vegetable oil (HVO) and liquefied biogas (LBG). Four of the HVO and four of…

For its 2026 budget, the Irish government will allocate a record €558 million ($648.1 million) to grants for energy upgrades for homes and communities, including the popular micro-generation scheme for residential PV, and extend the €400 income tax exemption for micro-generation profits until 2028 to help reduce energy bills. October 9, 2025 Blathnaid O’Dea The total fund committed to sustainable energy in Ireland’s 2026 National Budget Plan is almost €1.1 billion. The plan was published on October 7 and includes a significant portion for the country’s solar energy sector. Ireland’s 2026 Budget has earmarked €558 million for home and community…

Quality assurance laboratory Intertek expands acquisition of Clean Energy Associates (CEA) in 2022, rebranding the consultancy as Intertek CEA. Intertek CEA provides technical and consultancy services in the solar energy and energy storage sectors. The company’s experts are uniquely positioned to help customers navigate the complex and ever-changing clean energy landscape, and mitigate quality, safety and investment risks by addressing the dynamics in supply chains, factories, diverse markets and workplaces. Intertek CEA has supported projects in more than 85 countries and is a trusted partner to some of the world’s leading clean energy developers, owners and financiers. Intertek CEA’s end-to-end…

As silver prices approach $50 per ounce, researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) say pv magazine that efforts to reduce silver use in solar cells will not compromise the quality of the modules if they are designed properly. October 9, 2025 Emiliano Bellini Silver traded around $49 an ounce on Thursday, compared to around $44 in the last week of September. The price increase and the possible crossing of the $50 threshold in the coming weeks or months are prompting the PV industry to intensify efforts to…

The risk that demand for electricity in the UK will exceed supply, leading to power outages this winter, is the lowest since winter 2019/20.The National Energy System Operator’s (NESO) Winter Outlook 2025/26 predicts a reduced base case margin of 6.1 GW, representing 10% of average peak demand during cold spells. It is slightly lower than the projection published in the Early view of winter in July.Last year the margin was 5.2 GW. According to NESO, this year’s larger reduced margin results from the increased storage capacity of battery energy at both the transmission and distribution levels, an increase in gas-fired…

Researchers in China have built an off-grid, fast-cycling, sorption-based atmospheric water capture system. The system is powered by three PV modules and has been tested with four condensation methods, both indoors and outdoors. October 9, 2025 Lior Kahana A group of scientists from China’s Yunnan Normal University and Yunnan Provincial University have developed a PV-powered fast-cycling sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (SAWH) system. “To increase the usability and scalability of our previous system, an innovative photovoltaic (PV) powered fast cycling SAWH system is proposed for sustainable off-grid water harvesting,” the group explains. “A PV energy supply system is designed to meet…

The US-based generator company has released its PWRmicro microinverter, which integrates with the company’s energy storage, generator and power management system to provide a ‘parallel backup’ solution. October 9, 2025 John Fitzgerald Weaver By pv magazine USA Generac is expanding its solar-plus-storage ecosystem with the launch of the PWRmicro microinverter. Each unit provides up to 820W of AC power and supports up to two 500W solar panels. It comes with a 25-year warranty, including five years of labor coverage for replacement. The PWRmicro is available in both 240 V and 208 V configurations. PWRmicro strings are fed into the Generac…

Mauritania has signed its first independent power producer contract, covering a 60 MW solar-wind hybrid project. Niger has signed a financing deal with the African Development Bank, which plans to develop 240 MW of solar energy by the end of the decade. October 8, 2025 Patrick Jowett Mauritania has signed a $300 million deal with Dubai-based developer Iwa Green Energy for a 60 MW hybrid solar-wind power plant. The deal is the first that Mauritania has signed with an independent energy producer. It is also one of the first projects developed under Desert to Power’s (DtP) Independent Power Producer Joint…

In the first nine months of 2025, Brazil added 1,718 GW of utility-scale solar generation capacity to its electricity matrix, compared to 4 GW in the same period in 2024. October 8, 2025 Livia Neves By pv magazine Brazil By September 2025, 935 MW of utility-scale photovoltaic capacity had come online in Brazil. From January to the end of September, newly connected large-scale solar power plants reached 1,718 GW of new capacity, compared to 4,050 GW in the same period in 2024. The National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) expects “centralized” solar to add a total of 3,493 GW by 2025,…