Friday, 16 October 2026

Complaints about solar power to Utilities Disputes, New Zealand's independent dispute resolution body, have multiplied fourteen times over four years.

The count moved from 58 in 2022-23 to a projected 829 this year, according to Utilities Disputes.

Among marketing complaints, 86 percent cite returns that never materialised, Utilities Disputes said. Customer service problems, including firms not doing what they agreed, feature in 68 percent of all solar complaints.

Metering drove 219 of the solar complaints logged over the past year, spanning missing export credits and months-long waits for meters to be installed and switched on.

Utilities Disputes said it published ten tips on the benefits and risks of going solar, which providers may also use.

P2X Solutions has started injecting renewable e-methane into Finland's gas network, with the synthetic fuel bound for domestic and European customers, according to Fuel Cells Works. Gasgrid issued the country's first guarantees of origin for the fuel.

The guarantees of origin cover renewable e-methane produced at the P2X Solutions plant, according to Fuel Cells Works.

P2X Solutions is routing the e-methane through Finland's gas network and, via the Balticconnector, to European markets.

Zambia's 100 MW Maamba PV Power Station in Southern Province was commissioned on September 24, 2026, with high-efficiency central inverters supplied by Sineng Electric, according to EQ and AFSIA.

The facility uses Sineng central inverters rated at 3.3 MW and 4.4 MW, according to EQ and AFSIA.

The Maamba project is expected to generate more than 250,000 MWh of electricity a year, adding solar output to Zambia's national grid, according to EQ and AFSIA.

French hydrogen investment platform Hy24 has agreed to acquire Hynamics, the low-carbon hydrogen subsidiary of EDF, in a deal aimed at accelerating hydrogen infrastructure development across France and the United Kingdom, according to ESG Today and ChemAnalyst.

The acquisition is being made through Hy24's Clean Hydrogen Infrastructure Fund, which has raised EUR 2 billion, according to ESG Today.

Hynamics produces, stores and distributes renewable and low-carbon hydrogen for industrial and mobility applications, with projects spanning France and the UK, according to ChemAnalyst.

Scientists at the University of Surrey developed a lower-toxicity method for making perovskite solar modules at the scale a factory would need, according to a paper published in the journal Nano Energy.

The approach uses what the team calls a significantly reduced-toxicity (SRT) solvent, based on ethanol and 2-methyltetrahydrofuran with a small amount of a milder additive to control how the film forms.

Using the solvent, the team built mini-modules with active areas up to 11.5 square centimetres. Those mini-modules reached power conversion efficiencies above 18%, according to the University of Surrey.

The modules stayed stable under continuous light during testing.

New York's Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission (ORES) denied a permit application to build a 42 MW solar farm in Copake.

The agency said it rejected the Shepherd's Run permit because the applicant had not demonstrated compliance with applicable environmental considerations, including flood protection requirements.

ORES said this marked the third time a large-scale renewable energy project proposed in New York had been denied through a state permitting process when applicants could not show their proposals met legal standards.

Building out domestic supply of offshore wind castings and forgings through 2050 could support more than 10,800 jobs, a new report estimates.

UK manufacturers already hold, or could build, the technical skills to supply parts covering 37% of projected demand by weight, worth GBP 14.6 billion in gross value added by 2050, the report finds using the Industrial Growth Plan's Make or Buy framework. That weight share equals 41% of the market by value.

The UK offshore wind pipeline will need upwards of two million tonnes of castings and forgings between 2026 and 2050, according to the report.

Domestic firms now compete for roughly 8% of total castings and forgings demand. The report concludes existing capability could lift that to 14%, and investment in forged rings, hub castings and drivetrain components could push the share as high as 37% of total demand.

Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported that ACCIONA will serve as development partner on a transmission network to link as much as 2 GW of offshore wind capacity into the power grid in Victoria, Australia.

Taiwan's 1 GW Hai Long offshore wind project now has all 73 turbines in place and feeding electricity to the grid, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

P2X Solutions has begun injecting renewable e-methane from its plant in Finland into the country's natural gas network, according to pv magazine. The output reaches domestic customers and gains access to other European markets through the Balticconnector pipeline.

Gasgrid has issued Finland's first guarantees of origin for renewable e-methane produced at the P2X Solutions facility, pv magazine reported.

Those guarantees of origin allow the renewable source of the synthetic methane to be documented and verified, which lets customers distinguish it from fossil natural gas, according to pv magazine.

Italy needs 50 GWh of additional utility-scale energy storage by 2030 as solar capacity rises, grid operators Terna and Snam say, according to ESS News. The operators expect renewable curtailment to become structural as output climbs.

Italy's installed solar capacity is expected to rise from 43.5 GW at the end of 2025 to 82.3 GW in 2030, according to ESS News.

The build-out continues beyond that horizon. Italy's solar capacity could reach 137 GW by 2040, grid operators say, according to pv magazine.

Cuba has built 144 solar parks with a combined installed capacity of 1,418 MW, according to Xinhua, citing the country's foreign minister.

The expansion comes as the island faces U.S. measures targeting its fuel supply. In January, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing sanctions and tariffs on countries and entities supplying fuel to Cuba, Xinhua reported.

Granma described the U.S. economic measures against Cuba as including a blockade and energy and financial strangulation.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) unveiled plans for a $200 million expansion of its NY-Sun residential and commercial solar program, officials announced Oct. 14, according to Solar Builder.

The funding, delivered through the state's Sustainable Future Program, aims to widen access to affordable solar across New York and support more than 565 MW of new photovoltaic developments, Solar Builder reported. NYSERDA officials said the additional capacity would provide enough solar to power more than 90,000 homes across the state.

About $116 million of the funding, roughly 58%, will back about 450 MW of commercial and community solar projects around New York, according to NYSERDA officials cited by Solar Builder.

Australia's major gentailers neither need nor want to sign power purchase agreements for wind and solar projects, according to RenewEconomy.

The article attributes the preference for gas to the commercial position gentailers already hold. They want to build gas generation partly because their pipeline access, existing gas contracts and industry relationships give them a comparative advantage, RenewEconomy reports.

RenewEconomy points to the Nelson Report's ESEMs as a possible fix for the renewable contracting gap. Under that design, the PPA role shifts away from gentailers: state governments set the targets, a national administrator buys the contracts, and consumers carry any net cost.

The author says ESEM could resolve the problem but will not help over the next few years.