Roughly 840,000 jobs were lost across the energy sector in 2020, and solar was hit especially hard. A rebound is underway, according to a new report from the Energy Department.

The 572 kW systems feature Prism Solar bifacial panels and are installed at a bioscience company’s facilities, which produce Covid-19 test kits.

The bill aims to thaw frozen tax-equity markets and help the solar and clean energy sectors recover from the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The $2 trillion package includes a proposed 10-year extension of the ITC and PTC and calls for further incentives to add transmission capacity. Most solar advocates liked it, but one nonprofit panned it as being too industry-friendly.

It’s been a busy two months since Joe Biden became president. Here are highlights of key initiatives on the energy and cleantech fronts.

Utility-scale solar served a sizable portion of peak electricity demand in the grid, said the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

The Milagro Solar+Storage project is projected to create about 200 jobs during the peak of its construction phase and will generate an estimated $7.9 million in tax revenue during the facility’s operating lifetime.

A dual-use solar and agricultural site in New York will add 2 MW of solar capacity while retaining active market crop production.

Wood Mackenzie said the U.S. market will install 66 GW of storage between 2023 and 2027, 83% of which will be at the grid scale.

Also on the rise: Honeywell invests in ESS to advance adoption of iron flow battery energy storage. Panasonic introduces half-cut HJT residential solar module, and more.

The rise of cost-effective TOPCon cell technology last year led to a ‘surge’ in production demand for solar n-type cell technology, with leading industry analysts TrendForce prophesying PERC cell capacities ‘may’ be phased out in two to three years.

Also on the rise: Not all ‘lithium-ion’ batteries are dangerous. Solar industry should focus on virtual power plants, says DOE’s Jigar Shah. And more.

Honeywell purchased $27.5 million in ESS common stock and intends to purchase $300 million in ESS product, with $15 million prepaid. The collaboration enables Honeywell to integrate ESS technology into its global offering, and ESS gains license to Honeywell’s flow battery intellectual property.

The facility will produce steel for Nextracker’s solar mounts and tracking systems. Nextracker and Unimacts held an event to dedicate the new production line, which coincided with the RE+ 2023 conference, the largest energy trade show in the country, also in Las Vegas.

Also on the rise: Ohio community solar pilot would unlock 1.75 GW market. On the Floor at RE+: $12/module recycling, Tesla Powerwall III specs, EV vegetation management, and more.

The process of pairing solar with agriculture has proven to be mutually beneficial for farmers and solar developers.

Also on the rise: Solar is reliably and predictably supporting the Texas grid, carbon electrode pervoskites are advancing, and more.

Job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy transition finance.

Fossil fuel-powered generators are strapped with emission concerns, maintenance needs, and potential personal risk, whereas a battery-based energy storage system is safe, efficient and has a very low operating cost.

An international research group has analyzed a vertical bifacial agrivoltaics system in a drought-stricken part of Chile. They say that the solar array can improve water efficiency for crop irrigation, while the vertical system configuration optimizes PV power generation throughout the day, minimizing curtailment.

A report from The Brattle Group and DNV recommends clearing barriers in the U.S. to high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission. HVDC transmission projects show many cost-saving use cases, but so far, transmitting solar power is rarely among them.

The NREL study focuses on a specific model that uses data to reduce the frequency of unscheduled maintenance, and increase the frequency of preventive maintenance.

Having discussed battery chemistry in a previous article, Volytica diagnostics here examines the causes of battery degradation and how to extend device lifetimes, ahead of a pv magazine webinar tomorrow.

Also on the rise: How long do residential solar batteries last? Sharp unveils all-black 420 W TOPCon solar panel with 21.51% efficiency. And more.

A U.S.-Mexican research team has investigated how linking heat pumps with solar thermal collectors may help reduce the surface needed to deploy the collectors themselves.