solar modules

As TOPCon dominance gives way to a more differentiated market, Ignacio Espinosa of JA (formerly JA Solar) sets out what really separates one module from another.

Lightweight warehouse roofs, vehicles, noise barriers, greenhouses and indoor IoT devices could all become markets for perovskite solar. A new IDTechEx report looks at the decade ahead.

CEO Talk: The utility business in Europe is growing and increasingly challenging. Solar fields now come with large batteries, and suppliers must meet standards for grid compliance, safety and security. How is the business changing and what strategy will ultimately succeed? Leon Zhang, President of LONGi Europe, shares his view.

More than 75 module assemblers operate across the continent, against just one ingot-and-wafer project and one polysilicon producer. Now over 35 industry players want the Industrial Accelerator Act to fill the gaps.

The 232 panels planned for the Northampton venue’s roof should cover its yearly demand, but evening performances make it a textbook case for adding battery storage.

PV Guided Tours: With 690 W and an efficiency of 25.6%, AIKO Energy once again sets new benchmarks with its fourth-generation modules. In the video, we explore the technical details and outline future developments.

PV Guided Tours: Lightweight modules that offer a solution for load-restricted roofs. Or special technologies that enable durable and flexible solar modules without glass. Is this magic? Let’s find out.

For utility-scale solar projects in the DACH region, module choice affects more than peak power: it shapes energy yield, land use and the investment case over the project’s lifetime. European research, testing and field assessments of LONGi’s Back Contact (BC) technology provide locally relevant evidence that developers and investors can consider in due diligence, alongside their own site-specific analysis.

All four module segments slipped in September 2026, with TOPCon bifacial at €0.114/W. sun.store’s purchasing managers’ index rose to 67 from 65, just below its historical average of 68.

Professor Martin Green of the University of New South Wales is a leading figure in solar research, holding numerous patents and efficiency records dating back to 1974. Now Chief Scientific Officer at Euronergy, he is focused on developing glass-free, lightweight modules that are exceptionally thin and easy to install.

A hybrid back-contact design verified by Germany's Institute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin has pushed crystalline silicon efficiency to 28.29 percent, close to the technology's theoretical ceiling.

The Institute for Solar Energy Systems calibration laboratory has confirmed 152 world efficiency records since 1986, from a then-impressive 16.4 percent silicon module in 1992 to today's world-leading 34.4 percent record.

A new 50 MWh order from Bucharest-based Enexus ranks among the Chinese firm's largest battery deals in the country, adding a storage dimension to an existing solar relationship.

A decade after taking over a former Bosch and Johanna Solar site in Brandenburg an der Havel, Oxford PV is shipping perovskite-silicon tandem modules worldwide, marking ten years of commercial production with ambitious plans ahead.

A high-performance 500 W module joins Winaico's back-contact line-up, rated at 24.5 percent efficiency and backed by a 30-year warranty.

The Saracen Sands Hotel & Conference Centre near Palermo has installed a solar carport and battery system it expects will slash €500,000 a year off its energy costs.

Level Up, the Swiss manufacturer's roof-integrated photovoltaic system, now comes with the ZRM+ module surface across the board, fully integrated and certified to a strict luminance threshold.

A caesium chloride seed layer developed at the institute promotes more even perovskite growth on textured silicon, addressing a defect that had limited performance in solvent-free tandem cells.

Featuring a patented shingle matrix developed at Fraunhofer ISE, the Apollon 2.0 delivers 450 to 460 W with enhanced shade tolerance and a 30-year warranty, developed, manufactured and tested entirely in Germany.

Germany's Fraunhofer ISE and the University of Freiburg have combined sputtering and slot-die coating to produce organic PV modules with 43.2 percent average transparency, addressing one of the field's longest-standing scale-up problems.

The company's Solrif in-roof and standard on-roof modules have both been certified to HW4, the top hail resistance classification recognised by Switzerland's Association of Cantonal Fire Insurers.

Full Black overtook the field to become the priciest module segment, while TOPCon bifacial kept easing. The PV PMI slipped to 65, its softest reading in months and a notch below the historical average, according to sun.store data.

Researchers at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin for Materials and Energy have developed a carborane-based electron transport material that raises perovskite cell efficiency by up to 2.4 percentage points, addressing a longstanding stability weakness in the process.

Winaico launches a black module at 24.5 percent efficiency. Enwitec's Brain Home controls wallbox, heat pump and storage. Conduct expands its Roofsupport range, and Intilion introduces modular large-scale storage for industry.

A leading figure in European materials research for renewables, Prof Dr Ilija Nasov has spent decades shaping solar technology. He shares his personal route through EU research programmes with PV Europe.