World

An IEA-PVPS report finds that solar power above 60° North is not only viable but rapidly expanding, driven by cold-climate performance gains, bifacial technologies, and rising energy security needs. While challenges like extreme seasonality, snow, permafrost, and scarce data remain, Arctic PV is emerging as a critical—and technically distinct—frontier for global solar deployment.

New research from the University of New South Wales shows that PV module degradation varies widely with system design and location, driven by UV exposure, temperature, humidity, and atmospheric conditions. Tropical and desert regions face the highest stress, highlighting the need for climate-specific testing and system design.

Researchers in Brazil tested second-life polycrystalline PV modules for two years and found they retained 87–88% of their original power, with minimal degradation and stable performance. Despite strong sustainability and circular economy benefits, economic incentives remain limited due to the declining cost and short warranties of new state-of-the-art silicon PV modules.

Researchers in Turkey optimized electrospray cooling for PV panels, achieving optimal power output with minimal water use and a compact, energy-efficient setup. Their study identified irradiance, flow rate, voltage, and nozzle distance as ideal parameters.

Achieving a system cost of $0.65/W through the secondary market and do-it-yourself assembly demonstrates a viable pathway for US plug-in solar to provide immediate utility bill relief to renters and apartment dwellers.

SOSV-backed Qnetic is aiming to raise $20 million in 2026. Over the next two years it will work with the National Lab of the Rockies and other partners on field testing and validating its technology across multiple use cases.

Global solar PV continues its rapid growth, reaching around 650 GW in 2025, with record solar irradiation extremes across regions such as East Asia, India, and Latin America. With current production capacity and emerging technologies like perovskite-silicon tandem modules, PV is poised to surpass all other electricity generation technologies combined by the end of the decade.

The next generation of green ammonia facilities must not only operate safely and efficiently, but must demonstrate to the world that large-scale green molecules can be produced, stored, transported, and traded with the same confidence as their fossil counterparts. The organisations that rise to this challenge will not simply contribute to the energy transition — they will define the architecture of a decarbonised industrial future.

Tongwei is partnering with GS-Solar and Golden Solar to develop a large-scale manufacturing facility for hybrid heterojunction back-contact (HBC) solar cells that combine heterojunction passivation, tunneling oxide and polysilicon structures used in TOPCon designs, and the grid-free front-side architecture typical of back-contact technologies.

Greener says Brazil imported 17.9 GWp of PV modules in 2025, with distributed generation accounting for 79% of volumes despite a slowdown in installations.