Author: solarenergy

Free afternoon electricity programs are intended to shift household demand to periods of high solar PV generation, reducing midday surplus and evening fossil fuel increases. Research into Australia’s Solar Sharer program suggests such incentives can significantly improve renewable energy use, but results depend on consumer behavior, tax shifting and rebound effects. April 15, 2026 Emiliano Bellini Free midday electricity is an important tool to encourage consumers to use appliances and consume more energy during hours of strong photovoltaic production, when electricity supply often exceeds demand, creating inefficiencies in the system. By reducing prices to zero or near zero, consumers are…

Credential cyber attacks are a major category of cyber threats that target digital and cyber-physical systems that rely on secure access to maintain control and visibility. In PV systems, where operators rely on remote monitoring platforms, SCADA interfaces and cloud-connected devices, compromised credentials can provide attackers with direct and permanent access to critical infrastructure. These attacks include obtaining legitimate usernames and passwords through techniques such as phishing, brute-force attacks, credential stuffing, or exploiting weak authentication practices. Unlike denial-of-service attacks that overwhelm systems, credential attacks allow adversaries to impersonate authorized users, bypassing traditional security barriers. As a result, operators may be…

The German manufacturer said its new air-to-water heat pump system uses propane as a coolant and is available in three variants with outputs of 5 kW, 7 kW and 11 kW. The new product can reportedly achieve a coefficient of performance of up to 4.93. April 15, 2026 Emiliano Bellini German heating specialist Vaillant has launched a compact air-water heat pump, designed for flexible use in both new construction and renovation applications. “The new Arotherm Pro heat pump has been precision engineered to meet the demands of the current specification market, delivering a coefficient of performance (COP) of up to…

RWE has scrapped its 99.9MW Butterfly solar-plus-storage project in Wales after finding that the availability of grid connections made it unviable, in a move that comes against the backdrop of soaring demand for connections and mounting pressure on Britain’s queuing reform process. April 15, 2026 Brian Publicover Image: Sebastian Hermann, Unsplash RWE Renewables has withdrawn its proposed 99.9MW Butterfly (Glöyn Byw) solar-plus-storage project in Wrexham, Wales, after concluding that the availability of grid connections made the scheme unviable at this stage. “After careful consideration and a detailed assessment of the availability of grid connections and the overall viability of the…

IPP Elgin has secured up to £500 million in funding from a banking syndicate, which it says it will use to cover the construction of up to 1GW of solar and energy storage.The fully integrated utility-scale independent power producer (IPP) said the projects earmarked for the financing will be powered over the coming years, ahead of the UK government’s 2030 clean energy target. The banking group includes BNP Paribas, Siemens Bank, Société Générale, Standard Chartered and NatWest. NatWest also acted as the sole structuring and coordinating bank. While the full pipeline of projects to be funded by the funding was…

A new report from Metal Focus shows that the global silver market remains structurally tight, with high prices, a fifth consecutive annual supply shortage by 2025 and continued mining and recycling restrictions despite modest production growth. At the same time, demand for PV silver is falling sharply due to cost pressure and thrift. April 15, 2026 Emiliano Bellini The global silver market remains structurally tight despite weaker demand from the photovoltaic sector, with high prices and limited supply continuing to shape the PV production landscape. According to the latter World Silver Survey 2026 According to independent research consultancy Metals Focus,…

Greenvolt Next, part of the Greenvolt Group, will supply two solar power plants to the British energy producer Infinis.Greenvolt Next signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Infinis covering the latter’s 49.99 MW California Solar Park in Stockton-on-Tees, and the 43.8 MW Gowerton Solar Park in Swansea. Construction of the California solar power plant began in March this year, followed shortly by construction in Gowerton, and both sites are scheduled to be completed by summer 2027. Infinis will operate the plants when completed. Both locations have co-located battery energy storage systems (BESS). Each was acquired by Infinis after…

By pv magazine USA Smart electrical panel manufacturer Span has announced a new partnership with technology and semiconductor giant Nvidia to develop XFRA, a network of devices that convert unused electrical capacity in homes and small businesses into a distributed computing cloud. The network works by placing XFRA Nodes at customers’ homes and businesses and coordinating them to serve the data center workload. According to a video posted by Span CEO Arch Rao on LinkedIn, each node contains Dell PowerEdge servers with 16 Nvidia RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell GPUs, 4 AMD EPYC CPUs and 3 TB of RAM, connected to…

The EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) says investment in distribution networks has increased by 51% since 2021, but warns that fragmented planning rules and regulatory disruptions could limit efficiency and delay the energy transition. April 15, 2026 Brian Publicover Investments in Europe’s distribution network increased by 51% to €35.3 billion ($41.6 billion) per year between 2021 and 2024, and are expected to rise another 32% to €46.7 billion in 2027, according to a recently published ACER report. The figures, from 191 major distribution system operators in 25 EU member states and Norway – excluding Bulgaria and…

Researchers in Spain developed a porous silica anti-reflective coating for solar panels that improves optical transmission while balancing durability and mechanical stability through optimized sol-gel chemistry. April 15, 2026 Lior Kahana A research team led by the Spanish Center for Energy, Environment and Technological Research (CIEMAT) has developed a new anti-reflective coating (AR) for use in solar panels. “By jointly tuning the concentration of pore-forming agents, the thermal treatment and the chemistry of silica precursors, we show that it is possible to tailor coatings that combine near-unity permeability with mechanical and environmental stability suitable for real solar installations,” says corresponding…