The Spanish government has unveiled plans to require data centres to have at least 80% of their hourly generation be powered by renewable energy.   Announced earlier this week during a council of Ministers, the Spanish government is working on a regulation (called a real decreto in Spanish) to regulate the requirements regarding energy and environmental sustainability, resilience and digital sovereignty applicable to data centres with a power output over 1MW.   The regulation would therefore require data centres to install new renewable energy on a 1:1 basis. Every new megawatt consumed must be matched by a new megawatt of renewable energy capacity installed within the 18 months prior to the facility’s operational start. This can be through self-consumption or a power purchase agreement (PPA).   According to the Spanish Ministry of Ecological Transition (MITECO), its Artificial Intelligence Strategy forecasts nearly 2.5GW of computing power by 2030. These projects would require an electricity demand between 3.5GW and 4GW. The reality is that since 2021, Spain has awarded over 12GW of grid access and connection rights for these types of facilities.   José Donoso, general director of trade body the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (UNEF), welcomed the measure, although he called for the inclusion of energy storage hybridisation.   “It is positive for data centres to be supplied by renewables, but requiring the entire supply to come from new capacity makes no sense given the high levels of technical and economic curtailment. There should be a balance, and the inclusion of hybridised storage should be permitted,” said Donoso.   Drafted by several ministries, including MITECO, the regulatory proposal is currently open for public consultation (in Spanish) until 4 September 2026.   The regulatory proposal also includes measures regarding resilience and digital sovereignty—such as the requirement that centre operations and the control of associated data be handled by entities subject to EU law—as well as measures concerning environmental and energy sustainability.   Spain follows Australia’s footsteps Spain’s approach towards data centres and renewables is somewhat similar to Australia’s. Last month, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that large-scale data centres will be legally required to put at least as much energy into the grid as they draw from it, and that this new energy should be renewables.   In the US, the Trump administration’s approach to that issue has been different. In March 2026, seven tech companies – Amazon, Google, OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle and xAI – had signed a pledge to build, bring, or buy the energy required to build and operate data centres, with no obligation that the energy come from renewables.

The Australian and New South Wales (NSW) governments have jointly committed AU$2.5 billion (US$1.63 billion) to secure the future of the Tomago Aluminium smelter.   The deal will see a shift to renewable energy, expected to unlock several gigawatts of new wind, solar and battery storage capacity across the state.   Announced on 13 August by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns, the package delivers a long-term renewable energy solution for the smelter, which is Australia’s largest single electricity user, accounting for around 950MW of near-constant demand, roughly 10% of the state’s total electricity consumption.   Tomago Aluminium, jointly owned by Rio Tinto, Gove Aluminium Finance and Norsk Hydro, has agreed to invest at least AU$1.1 billion of its own capital as part of the deal, including AU$100 million directed toward decarbonisation activities and a demand-response programme intended to position the smelter as an international leader in grid flexibility services.   Under the arrangement, the NSW government’s contribution is capped at AU$1.225 billion over ten years from 2029, with the Commonwealth providing an equivalent share.   The deal secures Tomago’s operation beyond the expiry of its current electricity supply contract on 31 December 2028, running through to 2038 under a new ten-year power purchase agreement (PPA), with electricity supplied to the smelter set to come entirely from renewable energy generation from 2033.   Unlocking a stalled renewable energy pipeline Federal energy minister Chris Bowen said the joint investment would help bring on close to 3GW of renewable energy generation and firming capacity, working alongside the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and Snowy Hydro to draw on projects already in the development pipeline, some of which have secured environmental approval but have yet to reach a final investment decision.   Bowen said the generation mix would include both wind farms and solar backed by battery energy storage systems (BESS), spread predominantly across NSW rather than concentrated in the Hunter region itself.   Analysis commissioned by the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) NSW/ACT from Energy & Resource Insights found that securing Tomago could unlock between AU$8 billion and AU$10 billion in renewable energy investment and support between 2,400 and 3,900 direct jobs during peak construction.   The analysis identified an existing pipeline of 12.3GW of renewable energy and battery projects with development approvals outside the state’s major Renewable Energy Zones (REZs), alongside a further 10.7GW of projects holding access rights in the South West and Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zones.   The deal follows a similar arrangement Rio Tinto secured in Queensland to repower its Boyne Island aluminium smelter and associated Gladstone refineries, where the company lined up more than AU$7 billion...

The European Commission has released its final Electrification Action Plan, a series of steps that intend to “make Europe the world’s first ‘electro-continent’,” according to commission president Ursula von der Leyen   The plan, which was leaked last week, aims for an electrification rate of 46% by 2040, double the current figure of 23% at which the EU has “stalled” over the last decade. In effect, this means Europe will redouble its efforts to build grid infrastructure and ensure bills are reduced. The commission noted that 70% of EU electricity is now generated from “homegrown clean energy sources”, and solar PV alone accounted for one-quarter of the EU’s domestic power generation last month.   “The best way to reduce Europe’s fossil energy dependency is to power our economy with electricity from clean, homegrown sources,” said von der Leyen. “Today we are proposing to make Europe the world’s first electro-powered continent.”   Cutting bills is a key part of the Electrification Action Plan, and will be driven by continued deployment of renewable energy and a reduction in reliance on fossil fuel imports. The commission estimates that meeting the 46% electrification ate target will cut the EU’s fossil fuel import bill by €260 billion (US$297.2 billion) per year by 2040.   Indeed, the plan “encourages Member States to take actions” to ensure that the cost of domestic electricity bills is no more than two-and-a-half times the cost of gas, and no more than twice the price for industrial users, by 2030.   While the commission does not provide further details on the actions that could be taken to achieve this goal, other reporting suggests that more ambitious deployment of solar PV and battery energy storage systems (BESS) could make a significant impact on this target; earlier this year, a report from SolarPower Europe found that more deployments of the technologies could cut energy bills by 49% by the end of the decade.   ‘Europe’s future runs on electricity’ “Europe’s future runs on electricity,” said SolarPower Europe CEO Walburga Hemetsberger, in response to the publication of the plan. “The commission has also taken important steps towards correcting the tax imbalance between electricity and fossil fuels, and recognising battery storage, flexibility and smarter grid use in network tariffs as essential pillars of a competitive and affordable energy system.”   However, she added that meeting Europe’s electrification target will require “clear investment and financial support,” through mechanisms like the Emissions Trading System (ETS), for which the commission also made new provisions last week.   This includes a new linear reduction factor (LRF)—the rate at which the ETS cap on annual carbon emissions reduces each year&...

Another residential solar power system malfunctioned! According to the Rostock Police Headquarters in Germany, a fire broke out at 3 PM on July 5th in a wooden shed within the yard of a detached house in Bentwisch. The investigation indicates that a battery storage module in an installed solar power system inside the shed overheated and ignited the fire. An explosion occurred during firefighting efforts, blowing off the roof and causing the entire structure to collapse. Three volunteer firefighters sustained minor injuries from the explosion. Flying debris also damaged two adjacent properties. The estimated damage is approximately €40,000. Following the incident, police cordoned off the scene. The fire department deployed an excavator and a large water tank to submerge the exploded battery debris in water to prevent further chemical reactions. A total of 75 firefighters from five volunteer fire brigades—Bentwig, Klein Kussewitz, Mönchhagen, Poppendorf, and Rövershagen—were deployed to the rescue operation. The prosecutor's office has ordered the dispatch of experts to determine the cause of the fire, and the criminal police have opened an investigation. Regarding the explosion, Jörg Westphal, deputy captain of the Neustrelitz volunteer fire brigade, explained that photovoltaic equipment is unique in that, in addition to conventional alternating current, it also contains a direct current circuit, with current flowing from the photovoltaic modules to the inverter. Furthermore, this power generation system continuously produces electricity based on real-time sunlight intensity. Based on the situation, the explosion was most likely caused by overcharging of the photovoltaic-energy storage system. (Photovoltaic overcharge explosions typically refer to explosions caused by thermal runaway of the energy storage battery due to overcharging in a "photovoltaic + energy storage" system. The core causes are often electrical system malfunctions or battery management failures.)   Residential photovoltaic-energy storage system explodes twice in two years! This explosion of a photovoltaic system in a German villa is not an isolated incident. Just last year, also in Germany, a villa with a photovoltaic system experienced an explosion. Around February last year, a serious explosion occurred in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. A residential building was severely damaged; photos from the scene show significant damage to the exterior walls. The local volunteer fire brigade reported: "A loud bang, followed by a pressure wave. Then thick smoke rose." It is understood that although multiple parts of the building caught fire, the fire was quickly brought under control. Fortunately, the severely damaged building was vacant at the time of the incident, but it may be demolished later. It is understood that this was a detached villa equipped with photovoltaic (PV) and energy storage facilities. According to NDR (North German Broadcasting), pr...

German solar PV generation has continued to grow in the first half of 2026, reaching a new all-time high of 43.2TWh. This is according to an analysis by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, based on data from the energy-charts.info platform, which highlights a 10% year-on-year increase for solar PV generation in Germany. The European Union experienced a similar trend in the past decade, with solar PV generation rising by 254% since 2015, as shown in the chart below. Solar PV’s share of electricity generation in H1 2026 reached 18.2% in Germany, a 1.3 percentage point increase from the same period last year. During that period, total installed solar PV rose from 118GW to 124.9GW, with ground-mounted systems contributing the most to the growth of solar PV in H1 2026 with 3.5GW. Rooftop solar followed with 2.1GW of new capacity in H1 2026, and solar installations between 30-100kW accounted for 1.1GW of new installed capacity. Despite the continued growth of solar PV by 7GW in the first six months of the year, a joint analysis by Fraunhofer ISE and German think tank Agora Energiewende the changes currently under discussion as part of the EEG amendment could make “smaller rooftop PV systems, in particular, less economically viable under current conditions.” This could create incentives to design systems on a smaller scale or not to fully utilise available rooftop space. Residential solar systems had already been on the decline in the first quarter of 2026, and the German Solar Association (BSW-Solar) warned at the time that further subsidy cuts for PV systems could push installations even lower.   Increase in negative prices for solar PV and wind Moreover, the high levels of solar PV and wind power generation have led to an increased number of hours during which the day-ahead market price for electricity is negative. Solar curtailment reached nearly 3GWh in H1 2026, with the majority of the curtailed solar PV (58.2%) happening when day-ahead prices were negative. This reinforces the need for intraday energy storage and flexibility, according to Fraunhofer ISE. It added that there remains a significant “storage gap” that needs to be closed in order to allow for the shift in surplus electricity to hours of low generation. That is despite the fact that in H1 2026, there has been more large-scale battery storage systems commissioned that the entirety of 2025. At the end of June 2026, installed energy storage rose from 25.4GWh to 29.3GWh. The expansion of battery storage for intraday storage could reduce negative electricity prices on the power exchange during the day and price spikes in evening hours, explained Fraunhofer ISE. “The heat wave in June, which led to increased electricity demand for cooling while conventional power plants were operating at reduced capacity, resulted in particularly sharp price fluctuations during the evening hours,” wrote the German institution.

On June 30, Reuters reported that three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday that the U.S. government is drafting a comprehensive new set of regulations to completely ban the import of Chinese-made photovoltaic and energy storage inverters.   Inverters are core power electronic devices that convert direct current (DC) output from solar panels and energy storage batteries into alternating current (AC) suitable for residential and public power grids; they are known in the industry as the "brain" of new energy power plants.   Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei Digital Energy, Sungrow Power Supply, and Deye Power Technology collectively hold over 60% of the global market share for residential and large-scale power plant-level inverters.   Two senior government officials confirmed that interagency consultations led by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and the Department of Energy began in April 2026, with a core concern being a security vulnerability in the firmware of Chinese inverters that could allow remote network access.   U.S. officials claim that such devices could be exploited to massively paralyze the U.S. domestic power grid in a national emergency. This proposed new set of regulations plans to completely ban the import of energy inverters manufactured by companies listed on the "Foreign Entities Watch" list.   The list encompasses almost all major Chinese renewable energy equipment manufacturers. Unlike the existing subsidy restrictions under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which only limited projects from claiming federal subsidies, the new order will directly prevent the equipment from clearing customs, regardless of whether the project used government funds.   An informed source involved in drafting the provision stated that the initial draft only included very narrow temporary exemptions: a small amount of residential inventory already shipped to the US would not be affected; however, once the new rule takes effect, all brand-new equipment from Chinese factories will be prohibited from entering the country.   The policy is expected to be officially implemented in early 2027 after a public comment period. Industry associations representing US photovoltaic installers and renewable energy developers warn that the sudden ban will immediately drive up the prices of photovoltaic and energy storage equipment. Currently, Western inverter manufacturers' production capacity is completely insufficient to replace Chinese supplies on a large scale.   Industry organizations say that European suppliers and US startups will need at least two to three years to expand production to match current market demand. Since late 2025, Republican lawmakers have been pressuring the White House to enact stringent inverter restrictions. At that time, over 50 House members jointly wrote to the government, calling for comprehensive import controls on national securit...

Oxford PV, a perovskite photovoltaic specialist, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Research (Fraunhofer ISE) in Germany have jointly unveiled a new module prototype that combines Oxford PV's perovskite-silicon tandem cells with Fraunhofer's shingled matrix interconnect technology.   The new product will be officially showcased at the upcoming Intersolar Europe trade fair in Munich. The two organizations stated that both prototype modules achieve a full-area conversion efficiency of 25.6%.   Stefan Glunz, head of the photovoltaic division at Fraunhofer ISE, explained that in the new design, Oxford PV's tandem cells are cut into tile-like shapes, interconnected using conductive adhesive, and then encapsulated. The entire tandem module employs a double-glass structure with edge sealing to protect the moisture-sensitive perovskite cells.   "We are delighted to be able to integrate two high-tech solutions from Europe into this photovoltaic module," Glunz added.   Ed Crossland, Chief Technology Officer of Oxford PV, emphasized the complementarity of the two technologies. "Our tandem technology is highly compatible with shingled interconnect technology," he said. "Because perovskite-silicon solar cells have a lower current density, the cells can be cut into wider strips, thus improving production efficiency." He further explained that tandem cells have higher open-circuit voltage and conversion efficiency compared to traditional silicon cells; the current is shared by two layers of sub-cells, resulting in a lower overall operating current. Lower current density effectively reduces internal resistance losses within the module.   "Meanwhile, the matrix shingled interconnect uses conductive adhesive, a low-temperature process that eliminates the need for copper busbars throughout," Crossland added. Reducing the use of copper components lowers manufacturing costs and alleviates internal structural stress within the module.   The new design has been applied to two prototype modules: a 491W residential rooftop solar system with an area of ​​1.92㎡; and a 546W bifacial high-power solar panel with an area of ​​2.13㎡. Both modules achieved a conversion efficiency of 25.6% across their entire area.   Crosland stated that the structural design of this prototype module is fully compatible with mass production.   "Oxford PV's HyPERcell cell technology is compatible with multiple interconnect methods. Our current offerings have an efficiency of 25% and a lifespan of ten years, but with continuous improvements in cell and module manufacturing technologies, regardless of module design, we expect to achieve an efficiency of 27% and a lifespan of twenty years by 2027. This year we will launch a product with an efficiency of 26%," he said.   Tannel modules, combining perovskite and silicon-based photovoltaic technologies, are widely regarded as the next major leap forward in the solar technology roadmap. Adding a per...

Solar module prices continued to rise across Europe in May, while buyer confidence recovered to its highest level since the start of the year, according to the latest market report from solar trading platform sun.store. The company’s latest PV Index found that the PV Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) increased to 70 in May from 66 in April, indicating stronger purchasing intentions among solar buyers following a brief slowdown last month. The rebound came as module prices continued their upward trajectory across most technology categories, extending a trend that has persisted throughout 2026. According to the report, tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) bifacial solar modules reached an average price of €0.125/Wp (US$0.14/Wp) in May, up 7% month-on-month, while TOPCon monofacial modules remained unchanged at €0.122/Wp. Sun.store said that the increase in bifacial module pricing was partly driven by a shift towards larger-format modules exceeding 500W. Additionally, premium residential modules witnessed further gains. Full black modules rose 3% month-on-month to €0.128/Wp, while back contact modules increased 4% to €0.134/Wp, making them the highest-priced category tracked by the index. The report suggests that demand for higher-efficiency and premium residential products remains resilient despite rising equipment costs. Based on sales volume through the platform, Trina Solar overtook JA Solar to become the best-selling module supplier in May. LONGi, Jinko Solar and Canadian Solar rounded out the top five manufacturers. While module prices continued to increase, inverter pricing remained largely stable for a third consecutive month. Hybrid inverter prices for systems between 1kW and 15kW were unchanged at €95.34/kW, while larger hybrid systems declined 3% to €79.60/kW. String inverter pricing also showed limited movement, with systems between 1kW and 15kW remaining flat at €44.02/kW and larger systems increasing slightly by 2% to €27.68/kW.   Deye, Huawei lead inverter rankings as prices hold steady In the inverter rankings, Deye maintained its leading position in the hybrid inverter segment ahead of Huawei and GoodWe. In the string inverter category, Huawei reclaimed the top position from Sungrow after briefly losing the lead in April. The report’s PMI survey, based on responses from 1,101 Sun.store users, found that 49% of respondents planned to increase purchases over the coming months, while only 10% expected to reduce procurement activity. The share of buyers planning to cut purchases was the lowest recorded during the reporting period. According to the last report, the PMI fell from 68 to 66 despite continued price increases across most module categories. At the time, sun.store attributed the decline to a moderation in demand growth following what it described as an exceptionally strong first quarter. With both pricing and buyer sentiment moving higher in May, the report sugge...