Tenaska and the Tennessee Valley Authority have reached a long term agreement for a 225 MW battery energy storage system in Hawkins County, Tennessee, marking a $300 million investment in regional grid reliability.

The state is putting the sun to work on the 2,000-foot heavy lift that keeps California hydrated.

Salt River Project (SRP) has commissioned its first utility-owned solar plant, a 55 MW facility at the Copper Crossing Energy and Research Center. Beyond its immediate generation capacity, the site is being utilized as a testing ground for PV hardware durability and long-duration storage technologies in extreme desert environments.

A 2025 update from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) finds that small-scale solar installations accounted for 19% of the 36 GW of total solar capacity added to the national grid last year.

The industry installed 1.4 GW in 2025, a drop from 2024 levels as leading markets like New York and Maine slowed.

The companies say they will supply 3 GW of Solx Aurora modules — which combine domestic silicon cells from Suniva and a top layer of Caelux “Active Glass” to reach 28% efficiency — with commercial volumes available in the U.S. market by 2027.

Tandem PV has opened a 40 MW commercial demonstration factory in Fremont, California, marking a significant transition for perovskite-silicon technology from laboratory development to repeatable manufacturing at scale.

The expansion will bring the company’s total domestic cell capacity to 5.5 GW, cementing its position as the largest merchant solar cell manufacturer in the United States.

Lion had already ordered 4.5 GWh of production from American Battery Factory, but the deal now goes further with an unspecified equity stake.

Company statements in the filing indicate it will seek an arrangement between itself and creditors that may allow it to survive “as a going concern.”

The Fronius Essential Backup Load Unit is a microgrid interconnect device that integrates with a hybrid inverter and battery system to automatically isolate and power critical household circuits during a utility grid outage.

A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction against a Department of the Interior policy that required Trump-appointed Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum’s approval for all renewable energy projects on public lands, effectively stalling tens of gigawatts of capacity.

In the United States, commercial solar and energy storage projects offer plenty of opportunity, but developers must navigate supply chain bifurcation, shifting fire codes, and the end of the tax equity era to bring commercial projects online in 2026. pv magazine USA’s Ryan Kennedy moderated a panel discussion on the topic at Intersolar & Energy Storage North America in San Diego and shares these key takeaways.

More projects are stalling before NTP as execution becomes the real differentiator.

Rooftop solar advocates are making a final stand at California’s highest court, arguing that state regulators have been given a free pass to dismantle the industry. After a lower court recently upheld the state’s controversial solar policy for a second time, environmental groups are calling on the Supreme Court to step in and enforce the law.

Researchers in the United States reviewed claims about PFAS in solar panels and found that while fluoropolymers may be used in limited components like backsheets or coatings, there is no confirmed evidence of PFAS leaching from commercially deployed modules. The study highlights widespread confusion between different PFAS types and emphasizes the need for clearer communication and transparency around fluoropolymer use in PV technologies.

The International Energy Agency’s latest Global Energy Review shows solar PV accounted for 27% of all energy demand growth, while demand grew 62% faster in the U.S. than the world total, largely driven by a 10% increase in coal use, as the world enters what the report’s authors call the “Age of Electricity.”

Investors are shifting focus from deployment growth to platforms that can orchestrate and monetize battery fleets.

Researchers from the University of Rhode Island explored why citizens who voiced pro-solar sentiments voted against a solar project development in a 2019 municipal referendum. Their analysis found objections over land use greatly outweigh proximity concerns.

Denial-of-service attacks overwhelm networked systems with massive traffic from compromised devices, disrupting communication and making critical services like PV system monitoring and control unavailable. They can cause operational instability, reduced energy production, and safety risks, requiring layered defenses such as filtering, redundancy, and automated mitigation to maintain system resilience.