Technology

An international study has demonstrated that utility-scale solar PV paired with hydraulic hydro storage (HHS) could reach an LCOE as low as $0.022/kWh in select U.S. regions. The system could provide GWh-scale, cost-competitive, and highly reliable long-duration storage, capable of powering large commercial districts with minimal environmental impact.

Scientists in Australia claim that TOPCon cells are rapidly closing the open-circuit voltage gap with heterojunction counterparts, now under 10 mV, while offering greater wafer tolerance and high industrial scalability. Despite slightly lower efficiency, TOPCon-based perovskite/silicon tandems can achieve a levelized cost of energy comparable to heterojunction-based tandems due to reduced fabrication costs, according to the researchers.

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.

For most of the solar industry’s modern history, progress has been framed as a story of physics. Higher efficiencies came from better cell architectures, improved passivation schemes, and optimization of semiconductor performance. That framing was accurate for a long time.  As photovoltaic technologies approach their theoretical efficiency limits and global manufacturing capacity reaches unprecedented scale, […]

Robotic Terafab system and integration of PlantPredict with PowerUQ lean into new technologies.

SolarEdge has outlined a transition pathway to integrated 800 V (DC) infrastructure for data centers, arguing that legacy alternating current (AC) systems introduce inefficiencies that could constrain the growth of AI workloads. It says rising compute demand and next-gen NVIDIA GPUs are increasing urgency, while data centers lose an estimated 10% to 30% of input power through multiple conversion stages.

Cornell University researchers demonstrated that tracking solar panels in agrivoltaic systems can protect crops from wind damage while allowing airflow, outperforming traditional single-row tree windbreaks. They also proposed a new lowered-first-row panel design that improves wind protection, achieving up to 86% reduction in shelter-zone wind speeds under extreme conditions.

The Department of Energy is deploying a research framework across four national laboratories to harden the domestic power grid against digital vulnerabilities as solar deployment accelerates.

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.

As state governors across the PJM grid region “have expressed alarm over capacity prices” that drive up electric bills, retail choice models that can quickly deploy thousands of distributed batteries can make consumers “the primary source of new capacity,” says the author of a new report.