Tuesday, 14 July 2026

Ground has been broken on the Foxtail Flats Solar project in northwest New Mexico, pairing 170 MW of solar with 80 MW of battery storage on tribal lands, according to pv magazine.

D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI) is building the project as the opening phase of a larger footprint that could eventually hold as much as 350 MW of solar and 350 MW of energy storage, pv magazine reported.

The project stretches beyond 5,000 acres, taking in the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation alongside state and private parcels, according to pv magazine.

Under a signed contract, Los Alamos County Utilities will take the full 170 MW of solar output and 80 MW of battery storage from the site, per pv magazine. That volume steps in for the 36 MW the county had drawn from the San Juan Generating Station until its 2022 closure.

Work on the site started in summer 2025, with commercial operations set for fall 2026, according to pv magazine.

Researchers at City University of Hong Kong reported achieving a power conversion efficiency of 20.5% in an organic solar cell, according to pv magazine.

The result came from a strategy that re-associates normally non-emissive triplet excitons into extractable free charge carriers, cutting energy losses that have traditionally limited organic photovoltaic performance, pv magazine reported.

The cell integrates a small-molecule non-fullerene acceptor known as FTh-4F, according to pv magazine.

The technology was described in a paper titled "Recycling of spin-triplet excitons in organic photovoltaics," published in nature, pv magazine reported.

Solar project returns are decided by quality and performance choices made early in development, according to a new Task 13 report covered by pv magazine. Titled "Photovoltaic Project Decisions: Quality, Performance, and Economic Value" (T13-36:2026), the study pulled together 19 authors spanning research institutions, independent testing bodies, O&M analytics firms, and project developers, with contributors drawn from Europe, the Americas, and Australia.

A mobile lab tested more than 4,000 modules across 20 projects and five module manufacturers, finding that factory in-line power measurements overstated actual output by up to 4%, according to pv magazine.

The report prices out the two testing routes. Mobile lab work that includes electroluminescence runs roughly EUR 2,000 to EUR 3,000 (USD 2,286 to USD 3,430) per day and covers 100 to 150 modules, pv magazine reported. Stationary laboratory testing costs around EUR 20,000 per day, before transport is added.

A Chilean rooftop case study puts the design-stage payoff in numbers: a 5% yield gain produces roughly 400 additional kilowatt-hours a year for a standard 7.7 kW residential system, worth about USD 88 annually at Chilean electricity prices, according to pv magazine.

Projects without adequate planning tend to hit early failures within the first two years of operation, the report states, and these require expensive specialist intervention that opex budgets never accounted for.

A standard 2% annual soiling loss assumption, applied with no seasonal variation, is common among performance engineers, according to pv magazine. The report says that figure may hold for temperate climates but can cause serious over- or underestimation in drier regions.

The European Commission has opened applications for cross-border energy projects covering hydrogen infrastructure, industrial electrolysers, and CO2 transport and storage, according to Hydrogen Fuel News. The call runs under the revised Trans-European Networks for Energy (TEN-E) Regulation.

The application window opened this summer and runs through late September, Hydrogen Fuel News reported. The initiative is set up under the revamped TEN-E Regulation.

According to Hydrogen Fuel News, the process is designed to speed up permitting, harmonize regulations across borders, and prioritize access to EU funding for projects that support industrial decarbonization.

The initiative sits within the EU's climate targets, which Hydrogen Fuel News described as cutting greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 and reaching climate neutrality by 2050.

Hydrogen road transport has moved from concept fuel-cell passenger cars to a growing fleet of hydrogen-powered trucks and buses, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

More than 90% of the world's hydrogen fuel trucks are in China, supported by a mix of national and local subsidies, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

South Korea supports nearly one in five hydrogen buses globally, according to the same outlet.

Europe's hydrogen bus pilots face cancellations, according to Hydrogen Fuel News, which said the trend underscores the need for stable policies, infrastructure and low-emissions hydrogen supply to achieve zero-emission heavy transport.

VERDE HYDROGEN secured a supply contract with China Coal Energy Group to deliver core electrolysis equipment for Phase I of an off-grid renewable green hydrogen project, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Under the award, VERDE HYDROGEN will deliver four sets of 1,200 Nm3/h alkaline electrolyzers matched with a 4,800 Nm3/h integrated gas-liquid separation and hydrogen purification unit, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

The project is designed as an integrated closed-loop system combining on-site renewable power generation and localized green hydrogen manufacturing, serving heavy industrial low-carbon transformation demands, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The public tender attracted bidding from all top domestic Chinese electrolyzer manufacturers, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

The NEOM Green Hydrogen Complex will draw on around 4 gigawatts of renewable energy to make green hydrogen, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The facility is expected to produce around 600 tonnes of green hydrogen each day, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

To power electrolysis, the complex will use 257 onshore wind turbines alongside a large solar farm, according to the same report.

The hydrogen will be converted into green ammonia on-site and shipped to markets in Asia and Europe through a marine jetty designed for the purpose, Hydrogen Fuel News said.

The project is described as a central player in Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 plan to diversify its economy, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Researchers have shown that atomically dispersed cerium placed next to nickel nanoparticles can scavenge hydrogen and prevent catalyst poisoning, improving clean ammonia production, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The cerium atoms positioned beside the nickel nanoparticles act like hydrogen sponges, according to Hydrogen Fuel News. The outlet reported that this arrangement helps unlock active sites and boost catalyst performance.

Hydrogen Fuel News said the approach advances hydrogen-based energy work by making clean ammonia production more efficient.

The Netherlands approved 86 solar power projects with a cumulative capacity of 773 MW under the 2025 SDE++ subsidy round, according to pv magazine. That compares with 166 solar projects representing over 1 GW of capacity that submitted applications.

The approved projects were awarded a combined €358 million, pv magazine reported. Of that, €262 million went to ground-mounted projects, €68 million to rooftop projects and €28 million to floating PV projects.

The capacity breakdown shows 33 ground-mounted projects totaling 575 MW, 50 rooftop projects totaling 140 MW, and three floating PV projects totaling 58 MW, according to pv magazine.

The latest allocation falls short of SDE++ 2024, which awarded €449 million to 1.8 GW of solar, pv magazine reported.

Minister van Veldhoven's letter notes that many solar projects holding an SDE++ grant are not reaching completion, with grid congestion cited as one of the main obstacles.

The next subsidy round, SDE++ 2026, is due to open from October 27 to November 26, one month later than last year, according to pv magazine.

The Dutch government announced plans to phase out the SDE++ scheme in 2027 and replace it with two-way contracts for difference in line with EU market reforms, pv magazine reported.

Under one in ten investors expect Australia to reach its 2030 clean energy target, the Clean Energy Investor Group (CEIG) found.

Attractiveness ratings slid over the year. CEIG reported that 58 per cent of investors now rate Australia a somewhat or very attractive place to put clean energy money, a drop from 69 per cent.

"Investors are losing patience with a system that isn't delivering at pace," said CEIG chief executive Richie Merzian, who pointed to fresh obstacles including a proposed capital gains tax on existing international clean energy investments.

Queensland held onto the number two spot for preferred investor locations in the recent confidence survey, even after scrapping its renewables target and calling in several projects.

CEIG's results align with a June report from the Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC), which described institutional investors as largely downbeat on Australia's renewable energy prospects.

ES Foundry has completed a 2-GW expansion of its crystalline solar cell factory in Greenwood, South Carolina, according to Power Magazine.

The company said on July 7 that the first solar cell has come off the new production line at the site. Total annual solar cell manufacturing capacity at the plant is now 3 GW, according to Power Magazine.

The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources awarded 10 grants to nonprofit organizations in the state to expand rooftop solar deployment, according to CleanTechnica.

CleanTechnica reported that this marks the third round of grants under the department's Low-Income Services Solar Program (LISSP). This round totals USD 2.4 million, according to CleanTechnica.

Quaise Energy has raised USD 134 million to advance its first superhot geothermal power plant in central Oregon, according to Canary Media.

The Houston-based company announced the first tranche of its Series B financing round on Tuesday, bringing total funding to USD 230 million, Canary Media reported.

Quaise is developing a 50-megawatt plant, according to Canary Media.

Europe shed 40,000 solar jobs in 2025, its first workforce contraction in nearly a decade, according to SolarPower Europe.

The job losses came in the same year the region added 65.1 GW of solar capacity, according to pv magazine.

The workforce decline marks the first such contraction reported in almost ten years, per SolarPower Europe.

AGL Energy has switched on a microgrid that runs Koompartu Farms almond orchard in South Australia on solar power backed by battery storage, according to pv magazine.

At its core sit a 9.2 MW single-axis tracking solar array with more than 15,600 panels and a battery system rated at 10.2 MWh, split across four 2.55 MWh units, pv magazine reported. Rounding out the setup are 16 diesel backup generators, plus 19 kilometres of underground high voltage cabling that carries power around the 9,340-hectare site.

pv magazine reported that AGL expects the microgrid to supply about 85% of the farm's 6.7 MW demand while trimming diesel generation by an estimated 88%.

Koompartu, owned by U.S.-based fund manager RRG Capital Management, stands as the state's largest almond orchard, with plantings covering more than 2,500 hectares, pv magazine reported.

AGL built a comparable system two years earlier. In 2024 it completed a 4.8 MW solar and 4.2 MWh battery microgrid at Cadell Orchards in the NSW Riverina, which cut diesel dependence by 85%, according to pv magazine.