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Falling battery costs and “surging” renewables penetration make energy storage a “compelling flexible resource in many power systems.”

First, the bad news: PV modules will be caught up in the global wave of inflation. After a very brief respite, prices are picking up again for almost all module technologies. But the changes recorded for early October are paltry compared to the price increases still to come, writes Martin Schachinger of pvXchange. As of the cutoff date for this market survey, some manufacturers had already announced even more significant upward corrections for future deliveries. The price adjustments shown in the October index are thus only a tentative start to rises of no less than 15-20% over the price levels that prevailed just a few weeks ago. However, this will probably be the last price correction we can expect at the manufacturer level until the end of the year.

As solar PV increases its share in the world’s energy mix, it is becoming increasingly clear how valuable the data gathered from renewable energy generators is in informing important decisions about operation, maintenance and grid integration. Yazeed Al Mousa examines the latest applications for artificial intelligence in PV project development and operation.

A recent study by Clean Energy Associates showed that 90% of inspected rooftops had significant safety and fire risks. Here’s how to protect your solar asset.

A U.K. research group is developing an anti-soiling solution produced via a chemical process compatible with glass manufacturing. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council is providing $1.6 million of funding for the project.

IHS Markit predicts that global installed solar PV capacity will grow by 20% to over 200 GW in 2022, despite a difficult cost environment. PV system costs are expected to resume their downward trend from 2023, when more polysilicon capacities will come into operation.

The Antípodas project was announced by the Chilean government last week. It is aimed at taking advantage of the huge solar potential of the Atacama Desert, which is the world’s region with the highest solar radiation.

The Sun Horizon consortium has started to collect performance data on two pilot projects that combine heat pumps with solar systems using hybrid panels on homes in Riga, Latvia. The solution features a heat pump for space heating and domestic hot water and PVT panels to produce power for heating and domestic appliances, with excess power fed to the grid.

In a new report, experts from the International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power System Programme (IEA-PVPS) have assessed the economical and environmental benefits of repairing and reusing or replacing solar modules that are not complying with a 30-year expected lifetime. They found that reusing offers the best environmental impact in all cases, while the profitability of this option is currently guaranteed only by rooftop PV under certain conditions. As for large-scale solar, module replacement remains the most competitive option.

New investors and technological complexity demand new approaches to O&M service provision, argues NovaSource’s Timo Moeller. With larger PV fleets and the ability to process the operational data of generation, pure-play O&M may continue to deliver on solar’s cost learning curve.