Friday, 3 July 2026

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is seeking public comment on six draft electronic industry standards that would classify and grade photovoltaic products, pv magazine reported.

The scoring system sorts modules into three tiers. A score of 80 points or above earns Grade 1, a score of 60 to 79 lands a product in Grade 2, and anything below 60 falls to Grade 3.

At the top A+ band, the draft requires 25% efficiency for TOPCon, 24.8% for HJT, and 25.2% for BC products. Huatai Securities put the floor thresholds in the draft at 23.4% for TOPCon, 23.5% for HJT, and 23.9% for BC modules.

Huatai Securities modeled two scenarios for how much capacity the floors could strand. On its baseline case, drawn from current mainstream product efficiencies, roughly 317.5 GW of TOPCon capacity and 10.2 GW of HJT capacity could lose competitiveness, with BC capacity untouched. That baseline puts total exposed capacity near 327.6 GW, which the firm pegged at roughly one-third of industry capacity.

If efficiencies improve, the hit shrinks. Huatai's optimistic case trims the exposure to 143.4 GW of TOPCon and the same 10.2 GW of HJT, a combined 153.6 GW, or about 15% of installed manufacturing capacity.

The standards tie module grading to efficiency floors, so lines running below the thresholds would face retirement or upgrades under the draft. TOPCon carries the heaviest exposure in Huatai's baseline case at about 317.5 GW, while BC capacity would remain unaffected.

Rivian cut hundreds of jobs, fewer than 2% of its staff, seven days after it started delivering the R2 SUV.

The carmaker had roughly 15,200 workers across North America and Europe at the close of last year, Electrek reported. The reduction marks at least the fourth time Rivian has trimmed headcount since the start of 2024.

R2 pricing anchors Rivian's push into a cheaper segment. The Performance trim with the Launch Package opened at USD 57,990, the Premium at USD 53,990, and a Standard version at USD 48,490 arriving in 2027.

Rivian's accumulated deficit reached USD 27.0 billion at the end of 2025, and the company has yet to post a profit. It had aimed for its first profit in 2027 before pushing that target back in March while spending heavily on autonomous driving technology, Electrek reported.

That autonomy spending underpins a deal tied to the R2 platform. Uber plans to put up to USD 1.25 billion into Rivian and buy as many as 50,000 R2 SUVs to run as robotaxis.

Equinor ASA aims to lift oil and gas output to about 2.3 MMboe/d by 2030, drawing on added volumes from the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) and international upstream growth.

The increase amounts to 150,000 boe/d across the group by 2030. NCS volumes climb about 100,000 boe/d to 1.35 MMboe/d, while international oil and gas rises about 30% to roughly 950,000 boe/d.

The NCS absorbs around 60% of capital expenditure, according to Equinor. International oil and gas takes about 30% of capex, with output growth resting on assets in the United States, Brazil, Angola, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Equinor guided total annual capex to USD 11-13 billion across 2028-2030, after about USD 12 billion in 2027. That 2027 figure carries an extra USD 1 billion for high-return oil and gas projects.

On the NCS, Equinor is targeting 6-8 new tieback projects per year toward 2035. Parts of that portfolio carry break-even prices below USD 35/bbl and payback periods under 2.5 years.

The planned USD 11-13 billion range for 2028-2030 brackets the roughly USD 12 billion set for 2027. Those break-even levels below USD 35/bbl leave room to sanction NCS projects even if crude prices soften.

Sixth Street bought a 27% stake in Pinnacle Gas Services for USD 600 million, according to Oil & Gas Journal. Comstock Resources keeps 73% and stays on as operator of the midstream unit under a management services agreement.

The stake sale converts to a smaller position once Sixth Street clears set return thresholds, dropping to 19.5% while Comstock climbs to 80.5%.

Pinnacle handles gathering and treating for Comstock's Western Haynesville output, running 246 miles of high-pressure pipeline plus two treating plants.

Comstock plans to feed that same acreage into gas-fired power in Texas. Oil & Gas Journal reports Comstock is expected to supply the Texas Power Generation Hub, with deliveries that could approach 1 bcfd by 2031.

That hub would add up to 5.2 GW of gas-fired capacity inside the ERCOT market, at a cost Oil & Gas Journal puts near USD 16 billion. The US Department of Commerce selected the project alongside Japan's USD 550 billion US investment commitment, and the two governments will own it jointly.

Comstock is running four rigs across the Western Haynesville this year as it delineates the play. The operator expects 21 wells drilled and 20 brought online in 2026, according to Oil & Gas Journal.

Evonik Industries AG has started industrial-scale production of its DURAION anion exchange membranes (AEM) at its site in Marl, North Rhine-Westphalia, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The company states that its annual DURAION output could meet demand for electrolysers with over 2.5 GW of capacity. According to Hydrogen Fuel News, the new coating line at Chemiepark Marl is around twenty meters long and can handle polymer films up to one meter wide.

Evonik claims that using electrolysers with DURAION could reduce initial investment costs by about 25% compared to some existing systems.

The company is setting up an AEM application center in Shanghai to support local electrolyser manufacturers. Evonik's New Growth Area AEM within its Innovation Factory is led by Christian Däschlein.

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has drafted a target that would replace as many as five nuclear reactors slated for decommissioning through the 2040s, then a further 11 to 14 reactors through the 2050s.

The ministry pegs the replacement need at roughly 2.2 to 5.5 million kW of capacity for the 2040s. For the 2050s, counting work already underway in the prior decade, that figure climbs to between 12.7 million kW and 16 million kW.

The target tracks the 7th Basic Energy Plan, adopted in February 2025, which sets nuclear generation on a path from 8.5% of the mix in fiscal 2023 to about 20% by fiscal 2040.

Of the 33 reactors that remain operable, 15 have restarted so far, according to World Nuclear News.

The plan follows a February 2023 Cabinet decision that opened the door to building new reactors and stretched the operating life of existing units from 40 to 60 years. That move unwound the post-Fukushima line that had blocked new construction and held reactor lifetimes to a hard cap.

A sodium heat-pipe cooled microreactor built by Antares Nuclear reached criticality at a zero-power fuelled demonstration, clearing the July 4 target set by US President Donald Trump before any rival test unit. Run at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) under US Department of Energy (DOE) authorisation, the test made Antares, by its own account, the first private company to bring an advanced reactor critical under the DOE Reactor Pilot Program.

The pilot route traces back to an executive order Trump signed in May last year, which called for at least three test reactors to be built, operated, and taken critical through the DOE authorisation process by July 4, 2026.

DOE counted the Mark-0 as the 53rd reactor built at INL since 1951.

The unit runs on tri-isostructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel loaded with high assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), validating core physics parameters for the sodium heat-pipe cooled design.

"We went from concept to a critical reactor, safely, in less than 12 months," said Antares chief executive Jordan Bramble.

The company plans to generate electricity in 2027, with first customer deployments of electricity-producing microreactors the year after. Those deployments target US military installations by the end of September 2028.

Investors remain largely downbeat on renewables, with policy and fossil-fuel risks outweighing the rewards, according to RenewEconomy.

The cautious stance rests on two drags: shifting policy frameworks and continued competition from fossil generation, which together hold back the returns on offer for wind, solar, and storage.

That mood carries a cost. Developers seeking equity partners and listed renewable platforms draw from the same investor base, so a sustained downbeat view raises the bar new projects must clear and can push out final investment decisions on those exposed to merchant power prices.

A firmer policy footing in major markets, or a shift in fossil-generation margins, would change the calculation, but until then the rewards side stays too thin to offset the risks.

US solar manufacturing capital spending is set to reach roughly USD 2.5 billion by the end of 2026, up from USD 150 million in 2020, with the fastest growth flowing into cell production, according to Terawatt PV Research data reported by pv magazine.

Finlay Colville of Terawatt PV Research tied the shift to a move away from finished-panel imports. "Capital is rebalancing away from historical reliance on finished imports toward localized value chain integration," Colville said.

Much of the near-term cell capacity is coming from Canadian Solar, Trina Solar, and Talon PV, pv magazine reported, with a further 1 GW to 2 GW of cell lines slated for existing module sites through 2028. Terawatt tracks 30 to 40 US manufacturers from the bottom up, and its 2027 forecast leans heavily toward new cell infrastructure.

Corning is holding capital spending low, running about 2 GW of ingot and wafer capacity with no near-term expansion on the books, according to pv magazine.

Section 337 patent litigation brought by First Solar has raised legal and regulatory risk for domestic TOPCon output, according to pv magazine. That risk lands on a domestic technology base split roughly evenly among PERC, TOPCon, and Heterojunction lines.

GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Velan announced a collaboration to explore supplying Reactor Integral Isolation Valves and Containment Isolation Valves for the BWRX-300 small modular reactor projects in Europe, according to a GE Vernova press release.

The agreement was signed at GE Vernova's offices in Paris in the presence of Ontario's Minister of Energy and Mines Stephen Lecce.

The BWRX-300 is a 300-megawatt SMR designed to provide reliable, carbon-free electricity, according to the release.

In Poland, GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Orlen Synthos Green Energy are executing site-specific engineering and development activities to support deployment of at least 24 BWRX-300 units.

Ontario Power Generation is deploying the technology at its Darlington site, making it the first commercial-scale SMR under construction in the western world, the release said.

Lecce stated that more than USD 600 billion in global SMR investment is expected in the decades ahead.

Blykalla has filed the first advanced nuclear application under Sweden's new financing model, which came into effect on August 1 last year, seeking state aid to build the Norrsundet plant, according to World Nuclear News.

The design would generate up to 2.76 TWh a year from a plant rated at up to 330 MWe. That output covers roughly 13% of Sweden's goal of adding 2,500 MW of new nuclear capacity by 2035.

Blykalla is targeting an operational start in the first half of the 2030s, subject to permits and final investment decisions.

The financing model carries three instruments: government loans, a contract-for-difference, and a risk and profit-sharing mechanism. Blykalla's bid is the first to test how the model handles this type of project.

Ahead lie permitting, licensing, and a final investment decision before construction can begin. Reaching the 2,500 MW mark by 2035 will require further projects to clear those same steps.

Navitas Solar will commit about INR 1,500 crore (USD 181.1 million) to a Gujarat site housing a 3.6 GW solar cell plant plus a pilot line for wafers and ingots, pv magazine reported.

The investment carries the module maker into cell, wafer and ingot production, steps it does not currently make in-house.

Construction will proceed in phases, according to pv magazine, with the first phase set to commission in 2027. Civil works spanning more than 92,200 square metres are already running at the site.

Navitas estimates about 1,000 direct jobs, concentrated in manufacturing and research and development, along with indirect employment in logistics and ancillary industries.

The company runs 3 GW of annual module capacity today and sells mono PERC and TOPCon modules from 40 W to 720 W. The new 3.6 GW cell line would push its cell output past its existing module capacity, cutting the need to buy cells from outside suppliers.

Most Indian module producers still source cells abroad, and domestic wafer and ingot output remains scarce. The pilot wafer and ingot line at the Gujarat site would add capacity at a stage of the supply chain India has little of, pv magazine reported.

A Cornell University model finds that covering US lettuce farmland with perovskite tandem solar could offset up to 30.9 million tons of CO2-equivalent a year and save about 8.4 billion m3 of water annually, according to corresponding author Fengqi You.

The farm-to-fork life-cycle work compared perovskite-silicon and perovskite-perovskite tandem cells against conventional silicon panels on lettuce plots. It appeared in Nexus as "Advancing Food-Energy-Water Sustainability with Scalable Perovskite Tandem Agrivoltaics," pv magazine reported.

Mounting density decides the food-versus-power trade. Full-density arrays cut lettuce yield 40% but slash irrigation demand 50%; half-density layouts trim yield 20% and water 30%. Tracking systems keep more of the crop: single-axis tracking loses 12% of yield and 30% of water, and dual-axis tracking loses just 5% of yield while cutting irrigation 15%.

The team ran power conversion efficiencies of 25%, 30%, and 35% for both tandem designs. It paired those with system lifetimes of 2, 5, and 10 years.

That lifetime spread is the crux for developers. Perovskite tandems stack higher-efficiency layers on silicon or on a second perovskite, but the shortest modeled lifespan of 2 years signals the durability gap that still separates lab cells from field-ready arrays at farm scale. The Cornell numbers translate that gap into specific yield, water, and carbon outcomes for a single crop rather than an abstract efficiency claim.

Battery installations in India reached 4.6 GWh over the first quarter of 2026, up 939% from the 442.7 MWh added in the prior three months, according to pv magazine. The surge lifted cumulative installed battery capacity to 5.9 GWh by the end of March.

Raj Prabhu, chief executive of Mercom Capital Group, tied the jump to the expanded viability gap funding program and to storage mandates now attached to new solar projects.

Standalone systems dominate the installed fleet at 73% of the total, with round-the-clock renewable projects that pair solar, wind and storage accounting for another 15%.

The forward pipeline ran far larger. Developers held 69 GWh of energy storage projects across various stages at the close of the quarter, of which 41 GWh were standalone batteries. The remainder split between solar-plus-wind-with-storage at 11 GWh, solar-plus-storage at 9 GWh, and 1 GWh of round-the-clock renewable schemes. Gujarat led all states with 10 GWh of standalone battery projects in development.

Long-duration capacity leaned on pumped hydro, where 57.2 GW sat under various stages of development. Of 7.2 GW installed, 5.7 GW was running as of the end of March.

pv magazine reports that six major retailers, among them Currys, Screwfix, B&Q, Wickes, Asda and Amazon, met UK officials at a government roundtable on plug-in solar, a session held ahead of regulation changes expected in summer 2026.

The roundtable ran alongside a fresh government consultation setting out how households could fit plug-in solar panels themselves. Responses are due by June 30.

Existing Great Britain rules require electrical installations to meet British Standards requirements, chiefly BS 7671, a framework written for fixed installations that leaves little room for plug-in generation devices.

The proposal would let households plug solar directly into a standard mains socket, with the connection made without batteries. On that basis, pairing balcony solar with plug-in battery storage falls outside the changes the consultation currently anticipates.

Martin McCluskey, minister for energy consumers, said the panels can be "transformative" for renters and lower-income households.

John Bounphrey, Amazon UK and Ireland country manager, said the company is the largest corporate buyer of carbon-free energy in the UK, having backed more than 40 large scale solar and wind projects to date.

The consultation would shift Great Britain toward a socket-based model for small panels, while leaving plug-in battery storage paired with balcony solar out of scope for now. Retailers that could stock the category attended the roundtable as the government weighs amending BS 7671.