Author: solarenergy

Scientists in Saudi Arabia have assessed the techno-economic feasibility of floating PV installations at three different dams and found that such projects could deliver a return on investment of twelve to thirteen years. January 23, 2025 Emiliano Bellini Scientists from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Saudi Arabia conducted a techno-economic analysis to assess the country’s potential for floating PV (FPV) development and found that the levelized cost of energy (LCOE ) of floating PV projects can be as low as $0.053/kWh. The study assessed techno-economic feasibility at three different locations with varying climates and topographies: the…

In 2024 alone, China added 42.37 GW/101.13 GWh of new storage capacity (excluding pumped hydro), with an average discharge time of 2.3 hours – up from 2.1 hours in 2023. January 23, 2025 Vincent Shaw By ESS news China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) announced on January 23 that the country’s installed capacity of new energy storage had risen to 73.76 GW/168 GWh by the end of 2024, a 20-fold increase from the end of 2021. Compared to 31, 39 GW/ 66.87 GWh registered at the end of 2023, representing an annual growth rate of more than 130%. According to NEA’s…

Estonian Roofit.Solar has developed new building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) panels with an effective width of 470 mm and a power of 120 W or 180 W. January 23, 2025 Lior Kahana The Velario Slim Image: Roofit.Solar BIPV specialist Roofit.Solar has introduced a new series of tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar panels for residential applications. The Velario Slim product line is available in two versions with a power of 120 W and 180 W. “The narrow 470mm effective roof coverage of the Velario Slim panels is similar to the 550mm size of the Velario, but retains the defining features of the…

Sonelgaz has re-tendered three PV projects in Algeria for a total of 420 MW, with sites in Kenadsa, Touggourt and Tamacine, where initial earthworks have begun. The projects were previously awarded to a consortium of the Italian Fimer and the Algerian Cosider. January 23, 2025 Gwénaëlle Deboutte By pv magazine France Algerian utility Sonelgaz has issued another engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) tender for the construction of three PV installations. The projects include a 120 MW project in Kenadsa (province of Béchar), a 150 MW factory in Touggourt (province of Touggourt) and a 250 MW solar array in Tamacine (province…

Another solar project from Silicon Ranch. United Power, an electric cooperative serving Colorado’s northern frontier, announces the signing of a power purchase agreement for its newest solar resource, the 150 MW Byers Solar Farm. The new solar installation is being developed in collaboration with Silicon Ranch. “Byers Solar Farm continues United Power’s march toward energy independence,” said Mark A. Gabriel, president and CEO of United Power. both reduces our CO2 emissions and stabilizes our costs. Our vision to diversify and hyper-localize energy production will pay off for the cooperative’s members in an increasingly volatile energy market.” The solar farm will…

At the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, pv magazine spoke with two OPIS analysts about the current and expected price trajectory in the global supply chain. According to their analysis, overcapacity remains difficult to control, making an increase in solar panel prices very unlikely, at least in the near future. January 23, 2025 Emiliano Bellini According to Summer Zhang, Senior Analyst, Solar Supply Chain at OPIS, a Dow Jones company, there are some signs that solar panel prices could increase slightly in the second half of this year.go to pv magazine during the Word Future Energy Summit held…

A BESS project by Field that was completed around the turn of the year. Image: Trina Storage. There is now over 7 GWh of network-scale BESS capacity online in Britain, but 2024 saw a slowdown in both capacity additions and overall pipeline growth, while Ireland saw growth. This is evident from the latest figures from the UK Battery Storage Project Database Report from Solar Media Market Research, described in a blog on our sister site Energy storage.news this week. In 2024, around 1.5 GW of battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity was completed in Britain, 28% less than in 2023.…

Slovakia-based solar energy provider Solargis has released the next generation of its Evaluate software. Evaluate 2.0 provides high-resolution solar and meteorological data, a 3D PV power plant designer, a PV component catalog and energy yield simulations. January 23, 2025 Patrick Jowett Solargis has launched a new cloud-based solution for the design and evaluation of PV projects. Evaluate 2.0 is the next generation of the PV data company’s Evaluate solution. It says the new solution – designed to serve developers, technology providers, investors and technical advisors – is the most advanced and comprehensive project design and evaluation platform to date in…

The King of Lesotho supplies green energy to Davos elites Lesotho’s King Letsie III has embarked on an ambitious mission in snowy Davos, where global power brokers have gathered, to make a royal plea: invest in his tiny African nation’s green transition. The monarch traveled from his landlocked mountain kingdom in South Africa to promote his green energy fund during meetings with business and political leaders in the Swiss Alpine village. “Davos seems to be a magnet for political, economic and business leadership around the world,” King Letsie told AFP in an interview at the World Economic Forum. “We felt…

An international team investigating wide bandgap perovskite films has announced an effective technique to control crystal orientation without compromising charge transport. The new approach was demonstrated in an all-perovskite tandem solar cell with an open-circuit voltage of 2.21 V and a certified energy conversion efficiency of 29.1%. January 23, 2025 Valerie Thompson A team led by China’s Nanjing University has demonstrated a 0.049 cm2 all-perovskite tandem solar cell with reduced open-circuit voltage losses in the wide bandgap (WBG) perovskite subcell and improved overall efficiency. This result was achieved by suppressing non-radiative recombination using a two-dimensional perovskite as an intermediate phase…