Thursday, 23 July 2026

A floating solar array over one-tenth of the Williston Reservoir, the impoundment behind BC Hydro's W.A.C. Bennett dam, would yield 13,500 gigawatt hours a year, nearly matching the dam's annual hydropower output, in an estimate by the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association reported by Solar Builder.

The country works with a thinner solar resource than the United States. Drawing on U.S. Energy Information Administration data, Solar Builder put annual average insolation across the U.S. at 3.5 to 6.5 kWh/m²/day, against a Canadian range of 2.5 to 4.5 kWh/m²/day.

Hardware suppliers are tuning designs for those conditions. Ciel & Terre USA floating arrays tilt up to about 12 degrees, Chris Bartle of the company told Solar Builder.

Vertical mounting has already reached commercial scale. Sinn Power, based in Gauting, Germany, recently installed a 1.8 MW vertical floating solar plant in the Bavaria region, according to Solar Builder.

Across the border, Profloating built a 3.2 MW system at Cohoes, New York, described as the first municipally owned floating solar array in the United States, Solar Builder reported. The USD 8 million City of Cohoes project sits on the city's water reservoir and uses 5,880 panels rated at 545 Wp each.

Engineers have also tackled freezing water. On an Ontario stormwater pond, a 7 kW array pumped bubbles to draw warmer water up from the pond floor, keeping ice from trapping the panels, Solar Builder reported.

A new report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) sets out cybersecurity priorities for the U.S. solar and storage industry, Solar Builder reported.

The document names three priorities: shoring up supply chain security, cutting risk, and firming up baseline practices, according to Solar Builder.

SEIA president and CEO Tim Pawlenty said cybersecurity must stay a core focus as solar and storage lead in adding new grid capacity, per Solar Builder.

U.S. inverter manufacturing has nearly tripled since the end of 2024, the report said, according to Solar Builder.

To underline the threat, SEIA pointed to Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in 2015, 2016, and 2022, and to attacks on American power producer sPower in 2019, Solar Builder reported.

Smaller-scale solar and storage systems sit outside NERC-CIP jurisdiction, which SEIA says leaves baseline protections uneven, according to Solar Builder. The association already holds an industry advisory board seat on the Department of Energy's Securing Solar for the Grid program, per Solar Builder.

James Petesic of PV Industries described the difficulty of keeping a panel recycling operation afloat while the federal photovoltaic (PV) recycling pilot remains paused, according to the Solar Insiders Podcast.

Petesic said panel smugglers are chipping away at feedstocks that recyclers depend on, according to the same podcast.

The episode on panel recycling was published on July 23, 2026.

Australia's nascent solar recycling industry is struggling to secure enough feedstock to survive, despite reports of used and damaged modules piling up in landfills and suburban back yards, according to RenewEconomy.

The shortage follows a drop in exports. Australia is no longer shipping off as many end-of-life panels as before, after legislative changes and plunging prices made exporting significantly less attractive, RenewEconomy reported.

Before that shift, panels were leaving the country through informal channels. Petesic said installers reported being paid figures such as $5 a panel or $10 a panel by parties who then sent the modules offshore, according to RenewEconomy.

A recycling pilot is intended to address the feedstock problem by paying for old panels and setting up 100 collection spots around the country, RenewEconomy reported.

Solar and energy storage together accounted for 91% of all new electricity generation capacity added to the U.S. grid during the first quarter of 2026, according to pv magazine.

Solar output crossed a threshold in May 2026, when monthly U.S. electricity generation from solar exceeded generation from coal for the first time, pv magazine reported. Solar now supplies about 13% of total U.S. electricity requirements, according to SEIA figures cited by pv magazine.

Grid operators logged a series of records through the period. On July 9, 2026, the battery storage fleet within the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) footprint discharged a record 12.99 GW, covering 36% of regional demand at its peak, pv magazine reported. The following day, July 10, CAISO set a solar generation record of 23 GW, meeting 72% of afternoon electricity demand in the region.

In the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) footprint, solar generation peaked at 34.427 GW on May 13 before being surpassed on July 9 with a 35.425 GW peak, according to pv magazine. Combined renewable resources in ERCOT set an absolute generation record of 52 GW on May 14.

Texas is the fastest-growing utility-scale solar market in the United States and holds the position of second-largest energy storage market, pv magazine reported.

The quarterly share of 91% covered both solar and storage additions.

The largest solar farm in Indiana came online in early 2025, according to Canary Media. The project sits in rural Jasper County.

Canary Media reported that nearby residents were not uniformly supportive of the development. Long-time Jasper County resident Gena Carlson said solar panels on farmers' land "will mess up their fields".

A fire at the Marathon Martinez Renewable Fuels refinery in the Bay Area engulfed worker Jerome Serrano, leaving him in a months-long fight for his life, according to Inside Climate News.

The fire occurred shortly after midnight on Nov. 19, 2023, while a processing unit at the refinery was starting up for the first time, Inside Climate News reported. Hydrogen and diesel leaking from an overheated metal tube ignited into the blaze that engulfed Serrano, a father of four.

Union colleagues who fought for stronger protections after the fire are now locked out, according to Inside Climate News.

Operational photovoltaic assets in Spain were valued between EUR 490,000/MW and EUR 720,000/MW during Q2 2026, with an average price of EUR 595,700/MW, according to pv magazine. The figure reflects a floor after valuations peaked in early 2024 at around EUR 1.1 million/MW, pv magazine reported.

The assessment covers projects that have reached commercial operation date. Solar capture prices have fallen to historic lows of EUR 15/MWh to EUR 18/MWh, according to pv magazine.

Ready-to-Build transactions in Spain during the quarter ranged from EUR 10,000/MW to EUR 56,000/MW, with an average value of EUR 32,600/MW, pv magazine reported.

The analysis by nTeaser draws on more than 780 expressions of interest, non-binding offers, binding offers, and completed transactions recorded on its platform during Q2 2026.

nTeaser identified renewed investor interest in projects below 5 MW during the quarter, which followed the approval of Royal Decree 7/2026, according to pv magazine.

Plants benefiting from legacy remuneration schemes, including RD 661/2008 and the RECORE framework, continue to attract valuation premiums, pv magazine reported. nTeaser attributed those premiums to more predictable revenue streams and lower exposure to electricity price volatility.

A powerful hail storm crossed Italy's Marche region this week, wrecking several photovoltaic (PV) installations along the Adriatic coast, according to pv magazine.

Michele Mencarelli of Italia Solare told pv magazine that hail damage had been extremely rare across 15 years of managing PV systems, but that such incidents have grown more frequent over the past two to three years.

Among the roughly 200 systems in Mencarelli's portfolio, only one took damage in this event, with losses put at EUR 80,000 to EUR 90,000, according to pv magazine.

That affected system, sited near San Benedetto del Tronto, holds an "all-risk" insurance policy tied to its origin under Italy's Conto Energia incentive scheme, according to pv magazine.

Pv magazine cited a recent study finding that PV installations consistently sustain damage when struck by hailstones of 60 mm or more in diameter, whatever the system layout.

Aldesa won a turnkey contract worth more than EUR 160 million (USD 182.7 million) to deliver a Mexican solar-plus-storage project pairing 420 MWp of photovoltaic capacity with a 150 MW battery energy storage system (BESS), according to ESS News.

The scope runs from detailed engineering through construction, equipment supply, and commissioning, ESS News reported.

Aldesa operates as a subsidiary of Chinese group China Railway Construction Corp. (CRCC), according to ESS News.

Interconnection for the plant will run at 400 kV, with more than 24 km of transmission lines linking substations that fall inside the same build, ESS News reported.

The BESS energy capacity in MWh was not disclosed, leaving storage duration unknown, and Aldesa has not named the project owner, location, construction timeline, or target operational date, according to ESS News.