Tuesday, 7 July 2026

Scatec has begun construction of the 120 MW Sidi Bouzid II solar plant in Tunisia after reaching financial close, according to pv magazine.

The developer is building the project alongside Aeolus SAS, part of Toyota Tsusho Group, with each party holding a 50% stake, pv magazine reported. The site is expected to reach commercial operations during the second half of 2027, according to pv magazine.

Scatec signed a power purchase agreement for the project in December 2024 following a government tender, pv magazine reported.

Senior lenders are the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank, according to pv magazine. The financing package includes grant funding from the EU Neighbourhood Investment Platform and guarantees from the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus.

Tunisia has over 2.4 GW of operational solar, including 357 MW of utility-scale solar, according to the Africa Solar Industry Association's project database cited by pv magazine.

Iran is preparing to launch its first solar project fund in the coming weeks with an initial capacity of 500 MW, according to pv magazine. The fund will let residential and commercial customers take part in solar projects by buying shares.

SATBA has set a target of training 200,000 renewable energy specialists over the next five years, pv magazine reported. Tarztalab recently unveiled 17 specialized solar energy training centres intended to speed the development of solar power plants in Iran.

Iran has set a target of reaching 12 GW of renewables capacity by the end of the year, according to pv magazine. IRNA reported earlier in June that the country's cumulative renewables capacity has surpassed 5 GW.

Wärtsilä is feeding electricity from a pure hydrogen engine directly into Spain's national grid at its Bermeo lab in Spain, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Hydrogen Fuel News described the demonstration as the world's first of a large-scale engine running on 100% pure hydrogen.

The unit used in the demonstration is the Wärtsilä 31H2 Engine, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Wärtsilä's company history traces back to 1834, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Wärtsilä is participating in the H4PERION EU initiative, which focuses on hydrogen-powered shipping, as it rolls out hydrogen applications on land and at sea, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Utility-scale solar generation in the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) rose 21% during the first five months of 2026 compared with the same period in 2024, while electricity from natural gas plants fell 60% over the same timeframe, according to Electrek.

The generation shift tracks changes in installed capacity. Between April 2024 and April 2026, utility-scale solar capacity in CAISO grew 19% to 25 GW, according to Electrek citing the EIA's Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory. Battery storage capacity rose 79% to 16 GW over the same window. Natural gas capacity stayed essentially flat at 29 GW.

CAISO began importing electricity from the SunZia wind project in New Mexico starting in April, Electrek reported.

Retirements also reshaped the fleet. CAISO retired 555 MW of generating capacity between May 2024 and May 2025, according to Electrek. That total included a 300 MW battery storage facility retired after a fire in January 2025.

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) released an interactive map detailing solar energy's place on prime farmland across the country, according to Solar Builder.

The map shows solar occupies about 0.07% of farmland nationally, a figure SEIA described as "remarkably small," Solar Builder reported.

No state has solar taking up more than 0.05% of its prime farmland, according to SEIA's map.

SEIA set the solar footprint against other land uses. New suburban developments since 2014 have used roughly six times more prime farmland than solar projects, Solar Builder reported, citing the map.

Golf courses occupy 2.6 times the amount of prime farmland that solar arrays do, according to SEIA.

The release came under new leadership at the association. Tim Pawlenty took over as SEIA president and CEO from interim president Darren Van't Hof on June 15, according to Solar Builder.

Ukraine is adopting solar energy at a rapid pace as Russian missile strikes continue to damage its centralized power system, according to pv magazine.

Rooftop panels, batteries, and diesel generators have become part of daily survival for Ukrainian businesses, hospitals, and households dealing with chronic blackouts, pv magazine reported.

That wartime solar rush is now exposing a new problem, according to pv magazine: the grid is struggling to absorb the generation that helped keep the lights on.

Utility-scale solar deployment has accelerated in the country and is expected to feature prominently in eventual post-war recovery plans, pv magazine said.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has committed USD 95.4 million to extend the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP) research program out to 2033, according to pv magazine.

More than 250 researchers across Australia are collaborating under the ACAP umbrella to advance ultra low-cost solar, pv magazine reported.

ACAP is a consortium led by the University of New South Wales (UNSW). It includes the Australian National University (ANU), the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the University of Melbourne, Monash University, the University of Queensland, and the University of Sydney, according to pv magazine.

ARENA chief executive Darren Miller said pushing the limits of cell efficiency is necessary for Australia to reach ultra low-cost solar, according to pv magazine.

Chile has rewritten how small solar parks get paid under its distributed generation framework, the Pequeños Medios de Generación Distribuida (PMGD), according to pv magazine.

The framework covers renewable plants rated at 9 MW or less and lets them tap stabilized feed-in tariffs, pv magazine reported.

At the core of the change sits the MEP Balance, computed from the grid's real settlement resolution, which currently runs on 15-minute intervals.

Operators receive the MEP Balance each month, split pro-rata by system withdrawals, per pv magazine. Each PMGD plant then repays its share over the next year, also pro-rata, with the repayments adjusted for inflation.

The grid operator, Coordinador Eléctrico Nacional, checks compliance and runs the settlement mechanics, according to pv magazine.

Consultancy DNV weighed the outcome and found that stripping out the time value of the cash flows leaves a payment profile that tracks spot-market exposure, pv magazine reported.

Global hydrogen demand surpassed 100 million tonnes in 2025, according to the IEA as reported by pv magazine, while the agency warned that policy targets for the end of the decade are drifting beyond reach.

IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said persistent barriers, including high costs, uncertain demand, complex regulation and a lack of infrastructure, continue to slow deployment and are putting the 2030 targets set by governments increasingly out of reach, according to pv magazine.

Production of low-emissions hydrogen rose 20% year on year to almost 1 million tonnes, pv magazine reported. That advance sits against total demand above 100 million tonnes, underlining how small the low-emissions share remains.

Several project decisions moved forward as the IEA flagged the shortfall. Petrobras and Finep launched a call for proposals offering BRL 150 million (USD 30 million) in non-reimbursable funding to develop an industrial-scale electrolyzer, according to pv magazine. The funding is split equally between Finep and Petrobras, and the call requires at least 50% local content.

In Luxembourg, Enovos and its partners took a final investment decision on the Luxembourg Hydrogen Valley (LuxHyVal) project, pv magazine reported. The 5 MW electrolyzer will produce renewable hydrogen for mobility and industrial use in Luxembourg.

In Austria, Energie Steiermark will develop and operate a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzer under a deal with Wolfram, according to pv magazine. The unit will have capacity of up to 750 tonnes of green hydrogen per year.

JinkoSolar achieved a power conversion efficiency of 34.82% for a perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell, according to pv magazine.

The company said the result was certified by China's Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, pv magazine reported.

The figure improves on JinkoSolar's earlier work. In previous attempts, the manufacturer reached a cell efficiency of 34.76% for the same device configuration, according to pv magazine.

The new mark trails the world record for perovskite-tandem cell efficiency. Longi holds that record at 34.85%, achieved in April 2025, pv magazine reported.

Chinese wafer output hit close to 50 GW in May and may reach about 55 GW in June, per estimates cited by pv magazine, even with soft export demand and rising inventory.

Wafer prices stayed level across the leading formats last week. FOB China M10, 210R, and G12 grades settled at USD 0.138/pc, USD 0.147/pc, and USD 0.169/pc, flat versus the prior week, according to the OPIS Global Solar Markets Report of June 13 as relayed by pv magazine.

Overseas buying has cooled in recent months, pv magazine reported, after large wafer volumes moved into bonded warehouses across India, Southeast Asia, and Africa ahead of the cancellation of China's export tax rebate on April 1.

One leading wafer maker anticipates a recovery in export demand over the second half, helped by rising domestic cell manufacturing capacity in India, according to pv magazine.

A Middle Eastern solar cell plant that started up earlier this year ran at low utilization through the first half of 2026, held back by ramp-up problems and geopolitical conflict, pv magazine reported. With tensions easing, the project aims for a much higher operating rate by the third quarter.

K2 Pure Solutions is targeting commercial availability of hydrogen at its Pittsburg facility in Q3 2026, with PACC Services acting as the exclusive commercial partner responsible for contracting, logistics coordination, and supply chain management, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The hydrogen supplied from the site is a low-carbon byproduct of K2's existing chlor-alkali manufacturing process, according to Hydrogen Fuel News. The company says the output requires no natural gas reforming or standalone electrolysis infrastructure.

Hydrogen Fuel News reports that an agreement with Hyster-Yale represents one of the first committed offtake collaborations ahead of K2's planned commercial launch.

K2 has been commissioned since 2011, according to Hydrogen Fuel News. The company is a recipient of the Chlorine Institute's Platinum Level Process Safety Performance Award, one of the recognitions for chlor-alkali producers.