Author: solarenergy

By Brad Kramer November 10, 2025 This edition of Projects Weekly kicks off with an initiative at Michigan State University to study how solar panels placed alongside farm crops could save water, improve soil health and support ecosystems. But wait, there’s more! Arevon has begun operations at two solar projects in Indiana, adding 264 MW of power to the grid. Everybody Solar completed a new 10.08-kW solar array and EV charging station at Cottonwood Gulch Expedition’s main offices in New Mexico. GS Power Partners has acquired a community solar project to advance education and biodiversity in Bethlehem, New York. CleanCapital…

Researchers from Nanyang Technological University have demonstrated a method to integrate chemically inert low-dimensional interface materials into the fabrication of inverted perovskite solar cells. Their prototype solar cells retained more than 93% of the initial energy conversion efficiency of 25.1% after 1,000 hours of operation and 98% after 1,100 hours at 85 C. November 10, 2025 Valerie Thompson A research team from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore has developed a selective template growth method that enables the use of certain chemically inert materials in perovskite thin films, overcoming issues with solubility processes and reactivity, to enable more stable yet…

A key infrastructure asset at one of the world’s largest batteries has reduced operations and delayed completion by more than six months, with few details made public about the critical asset. November 10, 2025 Tristan Rayner By ESS news Akaysha Energy has had problems with its Waratah Super Battery in Australia, which at 850 MW / 1,680 MWh will become one of the largest batteries in the world, both in terms of power and capacity. According to reporting from The Australian Financial Review, one of the BESS plant’s three high-voltage transformers suffered a “catastrophic failure” just days after final testing,…

Scientists in China have developed a new deep learning model based on the so-called ‘You Only Look Once’ algorithm, which requires only one forward propagation pass through the neural network to make predictions. November 10, 2025 Lior Kahana Researchers in China have developed a new deep learning model to detect defects in photovoltaic panels. The approach uses high-resolution visible light imaging to identify defects using an algorithm based on the You Only Look Once (YOLO) deep learning framework, which makes predictions with just a single forward pass through the neural network. The new method also includes a hybrid attention transformer…

By Contributing Author November 10, 2025 Freeport Oil Company Limited (FOCOL), a leading energy supplier in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands, expanded into renewable energy sources through its subsidiary Bahamas Solar & Renewables (BSR). With the mission ‘Fueling Growth for People’, BSR wanted to strengthen its communities through clean energy. The company took an unconventional path, bypassing a traditional EPC and instead hiring local contractors for civil and electrical work to maintain economic benefits within the community. However, building solar on an island comes with unique challenges. High winds, complex underground conditions and difficult logistics increase the risk.…

Manufacturer of solar panels Qcells announced on Friday that it would lay off a third of its workers at its two factories in Georgia. The 1,000 employees will temporarily see reduced wages and hours due to increased U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apprehensions of solar cells and other upstream panel components. Qcells will also lay off 300 agency workers at the two factories. Qcell’s 1.7 GW module factory in Dalton, Georgia The federal government has stepped up enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which bans Chinese goods made with forced labor from entering the United States.…

The PPA price for pure photovoltaic projects has fallen by 20% in the past year, making such contracts less competitive. However, clear structures for profitable hybrid PPAs are now starting to take shape, says Pieter van der Mullen, Senior Account Manager at LevelTen Energy, in an interview with pv magazine. November 10, 2025 Michael Fuhs pv magazine: Do you think pure PV PPAs will remain an attractive segment in Germany? Pieter van der Meulen: Pure PV PPAs are becoming less competitive in markets such as Germany, where the rapid growth of solar energy has led to significant price cannibalization and…

Qcells says shipments of components delayed under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) have led to temporary production cuts at its Georgia solar plant. November 10, 2025 Ryan Kennedy By pv magazine USA Qcells, the U.S. solar manufacturing arm of South Korea’s Hanwha Solutions, said it is laying off about 1,000 factory workers and reducing hours at its facilities in Dalton and Cartersville, Georgia. The company is also cutting about 300 employees employed through temporary employment agencies. The move comes months after Qcells reported that certain shipments of solar cells and polysilicon – intermediates originating from allied countries such…

In total, 43.4% of Ireland’s electricity demand was met by renewable energy generation in October.Figures from Irish grid operator EirGrid show that electricity demand in October was 2,969 GWh, compared to 2,715 GWh in September. Grid-scale solar covered around 2% of this, the operator said, with the majority of the renewable share of electricity coming from wind power plants, which accounted for 36% of Ireland’s electricity consumption.In October last year, when demand was slightly lower, EirGrid metrics show that 41.5% of the electricity mix was generated from renewables, of which only 1.1% was from grid-scale solar.Unsurprisingly, solar power generation was…

The Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) says its new solar panel testing laboratory in Dhaka marks an important step towards enforcing quality standards and supporting the country’s export ambitions. November 10, 2025 Syful Islam Bangladesh has opened a testing laboratory to ensure quality and set standards for both domestically produced and imported solar panels. The facility has been set up at the BSTI headquarters in Dhaka and is equipped with German technology. The laboratory has a high-precision standard solar simulator that can test solar panels up to 2,700 mm x 1,600 mm and measure the performance efficiency of the…