Author: solarenergy
Avisford Park Hotel has invested £300,000 in a solar and storage installation on its site, in response to rising energy prices and growing guest expectations for sustainability.Novalux Solar designed, supplied and installed the system, which consists of 308 DAS Solar 590W N-Type Bifacial panels, ground-mounted on an unused tennis court, with a rated power of 163.24 kWp.It also uses two Solis S6-EH3P50K-H-EU hybrid inverters and two Dyness BF100-C100 outdoor battery cabinets, which provide a storage capacity of 200 kWh.The hotel’s peak electricity consumption times do not match the peak solar hours, so the integration of an energy storage system maximizes…
The European Commission published its electrification action plan on Friday, which aims to reduce Europe’s dependence on imported fossil fuels – a key driver of higher energy prices for households and industry in recent years. Although renewable electricity now accounts for 70% of the EU’s energy mix, electrification of final energy demand has remained at 23% over the past decade. “We must therefore accelerate the electrification of energy-consuming sectors, especially industry, transport and buildings,” the European Commission said. As part of the post-2030 Energy Union package, the Commission will set an indicative electrification target of 46% by 2040. It estimates…
South Korea’s Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment (MCEE) has unveiled a tender for around 1 GW of new solar capacity. The tender, which offers winning bidders a fixed-price contract, has been awarded a bid ceiling price of KRW 147,686 ($99.46)/kWh, about 5% lower than last year’s 1 GW solar tender. The tender also includes preferential prices for solar panels with a lower carbon footprint, taking into account their contribution to the domestic industry and supply chain, according to MCEE. The preferential price adds an additional KRW 16/kWh for the use of Class 1 certified modules, with the lowest CO2…
China’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) has announced that photovoltaic cells will be subject to a 2% consumption tax from April 1, 2027. The tax rate will increase to 4% from April 1, 2028. The tax is expected to accelerate capacity rationalization in China’s solar industry by increasing cost pressure on manufacturers with already low margins and making inefficient production facilities increasingly unviable. While a 2 to 4 percent consumption tax may seem modest, it could further pressure profitability for manufacturers operating on tight or negative margins, potentially hastening the retirement of aging capacity and the departure of less competitive players.…
Solar energy is one of the rare industries that brings together fieldwork, engineering, finance and administration: as many playing fields as possible for all genders and all abilities. As a young industry, born without specific degree requirements, it escaped the traditional glass ceiling of engineering. Solar energy is the most gender-balanced renewable energy sector in the world, with 40% of jobs held by women, far ahead of construction or fossil fuels, according to IRENA. Women have access to truly crucial positions, as project leaders rather than just assistants. Finally, it is a work of conviction: we promote values of sustainability…
Gene costs started as a simple research exercise: a way to explore how electricity generation and storage technologies were changing, and what those shifts meant for Australia’s future energy system. When the first CSIRO-led cost forecasts were published in 2017, the work was based on stable global conditions and predictable technology trends. Paul Graham is CSIRO’s chief energy economist and head of GenCost, and he remembers those early days well. “It was a fairly simple exercise at the time because the global environment was relatively stable and we could concentrate almost entirely on how technologies were improving,” Mr. Graham recalls.…
By Brad Kramer July 17, 2026 Vermeer has unveiled a new material transporter aimed at improving efficiency and safety in ground-mounted solar projects. The new MT500 automates the pole layout process to enable accurate and repeatable placement of 10- to 20-foot W-beam poles on ground-mounted solar jobs with minimal labor. Operated by one person at the touch of a button, the MT500 eliminates manual pile lifting, eliminating human error in the piling process on large-scale solar projects. “Labor is at the forefront of everyone’s minds, from finding workers, training workers and then retaining them, especially with solar crews, as we…
Four out of five planning refusal applications for grid-scale standalone battery energy storage systems (BESS) have been decided in favor of the developer.Of the 67 appeals for standalone BESS schemes decided by the English Planning Inspectorate, the refusing council lost 53, or 80.8%. Of the denials stating that the project site was on greenfield land, 85% of appeals overturned the council’s decision.This is the conclusion drawn from data collected and analyzed by GapSense, an AI platform that says it can speed up planning approvals for developers and planning specialists.The company has read the planning inspector’s decision letters for the appeals…
After reviewing industry data, the Commerce Department has decided to launch a nationwide investigation to determine whether imports of silicon solar cells from Ethiopia using Chinese components are circumventing long-standing anti-dumping/countervailing duties (AD/CVD) on solar cells from China. Credit: Toyo Solar The research was requested in May by the American solar cell and panel brands DYCM Power, First Solar, Qcells, Silfab, Solx, Suniva, Swift Solar and Talon PV. The petitioners alleged that two solar power manufacturers in Ethiopia – Toyo and Origin Solar – use Chinese-origin wafers to make solar cells in Ethiopia and then assemble those cells into modules…
By Martin McConnell July 17, 2026 West Lafayette, located in Indiana Rising solar energy has completed a series of nine on-farm agrivoltaic solar projects for the egg producer Handsome Brook Farms. The portfolio of nine projects, spread across Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, totals 579.7 kW, according to officials at Purdue Research Park, the headquarters of Emergent Solar Energy. In addition, the projects will offset approximately 668 tons of CO2 annually, the research foundation says. The projects will generate power on-site for Handsome Brook Farms, directly reducing the company’s electric bills, a move the company says is an investment in small…