Author: solarenergy

Longi claims to have achieved the world’s highest efficiency for a silicon solar cell. The result was confirmed by the German Institute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin (ISFH). April 28, 2026 Emiliano Bellini A few hours after Trina Solar revealed that it achieved the world’s highest efficiency for silicon solar cells with a 28.0% efficient device TOPCon-compatible hybrid back-contact solar cell (THBC), Chinese module manufacturer Longi announced that it achieved a higher efficiency of 28.13% with a hybrid interdigitated-back-contact (HIBC) solar cell. The result was independently confirmed by Germany Institute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin (ISFH). Longi also said that…

Solar energy design platform Solesca has launched Engineering Mode, a new workflow that allows commercial and large-scale solar teams to take a project from preliminary design to stamp-ready interconnection plan in minutes. Any roof, canopy or ground mounting project can now be estimated and designed in one session, without leaving the platform. Work that previously required AutoCAD experience, cost thousands of euros and took up to three weeks to complete, is now performed within Solesca, delivered with a full bill of materials, PE stampable single-line diagram, site map and DXF exports. “The transfer from sales to engineering has been the…

The US Department of Commerce has issued interim anti-dumping regulations for three major solar exporting countries, imposing tariffs of up to 123% on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules. April 27, 2026 Ryan Kennedy The US Department of Commerce has announced preliminary positive findings in its anti-dumping duty investigations into solar energy imports from India, Indonesia and Laos. According to a fact sheet released by Commerce, the agency has established preliminary dumping margins of 123.04% for India, 35.17% for Indonesia and 22.46% for Laos. These investigations were initiated last August in response to a petition from the Alliance for American…

Transpower’s latest assessment of the balance between electricity supply and demand in New Zealand suggests an energy gap could emerge by the early 2030s even if all committed and likely investments are delivered without delay. April 27, 2026 Patrick Jowett New ZealandState grid operator Transpower has said the supply of new generation and battery storage systems must continue into the 2030s to keep ahead of growing electricity demand. The company Draft security of supply assessment (SOSA) 2026, published earlier this week for consultation with the electricity sector, provides a ten-year overview of the balance between supply and demand in New…

Oxford PV has joined Nissan’s SUITE consortium, developing perovskite-silicon tandem solar technology that could extend the range of car-integrated solar EVs by a further 3 to 5 km per day and push the total daily solar driving range to 15 to 20 km. April 27, 2026 Brian Public Oxford PV Oxford PV has joined SUITE, a vehicle-integrated solar consortium led by Nissan Technical Center UK, saying its tandem technology could significantly increase solar’s contribution to electric vehicle range. The company claims its perovskite-on-silicon tandem technology could deliver 20% to 30% more power per unit area than conventional silicon in vehicle-integrated…

The research team developed a plasma interface engineering method to improve indium tin oxide layers and solve adhesion, contact resistance and stability problems in copper plating. The optimized process enabled uniform metallization of copper and increased the device efficiency to 25.2%, significantly outperforming untreated reference cells. April 27, 2026 Emiliano Bellini Researchers from Nankai University in China have fabricated a copper (Cu)-metalized heterojunction (HJT) solar cell using a novel interface engineering strategy aimed at addressing poor interfacial adhesion and high contact resistance in the transparent conductive oxide (TCO)-based indium tin oxide (ITO). The ITO layer is crucial for the performance…

British startup Nusku has presented a prototype of a fully integrated air heating system that combines a heat pump, a hot water cylinder and a control system in a single outdoor unit. The novelty of the all-in-one system lies in its integrated, pre-packaged design. Conventional heat pump systems typically require a separate outdoor unit, an indoor hot water cylinder and additional installation equipment. Nusku’s system, on the other hand, combines all essential components, including the heat pump and a compact hot water boiler, in one outdoor unit. “We know that many people are put off by having to find space…

Through an agreement with Overview Energy, Meta aims to circumvent the limitations of the Earth’s power grid by beaming near-infrared light from space to terrestrial solar power plants to power high-density AI workloads. April 27, 2026 Ryan Kennedy By pv magazine USA Meta focuses on orbital infrastructure to solve energy procurement challenges and signs a unique agreement with Overview Energy to provide space-based solar power to its data centers. The agreement gives Meta early access to Overview’s space solar system capacity of up to 1 GW. The system collects solar energy in space and sends it to existing solar facilities…

While the UK government’s cap-and-floor scheme for long-term energy storage (LDES) is a good approach, there is lively debate about how much to purchase in the first window.The subject was central to the ‘Advancing LDES: the perfect time to invest?’ discussion at the Energy Storage Summit 2026 in London in February, organized by our publisher Solar Media, part of Informa Markets. The government released her list of projects eligible for the scheme in September last yearwith a target capacity of 2.7-7.7 GW with a capacity of more than 8 hours in the initial period. Of these projects, 70% are lithium-ion…

Business utility SmartestEnergy has signed power purchase agreements (PPA) for four UK solar and storage projects with developer AGR Renewables, all backed by Contracts for Difference (CfD).The four CfD-backed PPAs cover the solar portions of AGR’s Eaton Socon, Little Hale, Priory Generation and Wymondley projects, located in Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Hertfordshire, totaling 192 MW of solar PV capacity. The projects also include an undisclosed amount of battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity, although this is not covered by the PPAs. These are the four projects awarded under the UK Government’s CfD Allocation Round 7 (AR7). AGR said at the time…