World

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has invalidated all claims of two TOPCon solar cell patents previously asserted by Trina Solar against Canadian Solar subsidiaries.

A research team in Germany developed a dynamic model of spray cooling for floating PV systems that couples thermal behavior, electrical performance, and active cooling, and validated it against a 750 kW installation. Simulations across four climates showed that spray cooling reduces module temperatures by up to 42% and improves energy yield by up to 3.8%, with benefits strongly dependent on local conditions.

The Chinese manufacturer said its lightweight Light Diamond TOPCon module delivers 560 W at 24.94% efficiency.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick look at the main price trends in the global PV industry.

Welspun New Energy has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Solar Energy Corp. of India (SECI) for a 200 MW solar project paired with a 400 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS).

A new metric for assessing total system costs puts a least-cost mix of offshore wind and solar at about €46 ($54.20)/MWh in a future climate-neutral energy system for Denmark. Researchers tell pv magazine that figure is less than half the equivalent cost of nuclear under the same conditions.

Fraunhofer ISE-led researchers demonstrated zinc-doped tin oxide (ZTO) as an indium-free alternative to indium tin oxide (ITO) for recombination layers in fully textured perovskite–silicon tandem solar cells. ZTO delivers comparable device efficiencies of 27–28% under current-matching conditions, offering a scalable, indium-free pathway for high-performance tandem photovoltaics without efficiency loss.

A year-long study in the UK finds vertical bifacial PV systems achieve an up to 26.91% higher output during morning hours compared to traditional tilted PV systems. The vertical bifacial system bettered the tilted system across all four seasons, with average power gains as high as 24.52% during winter.

Figures from the International Renewable Energy Agency state that Vietnam’s cumulative solar capacity reached 19,252 MW by the end of last year, indicating a 586 MW increase in 2025.

Photovoltaic module prices have risen for the fourth consecutive month, driven by strong demand for energy independence despite falling upstream costs such as polysilicon. At the same time, production cuts in China and tighter supply conditions are limiting availability, reinforcing price increases across all technologies.