Adelaide study: past a few kilowatts, face the panels east and west
Analysis of 70 dwellings and a 42-apartment building in South Australia finds north-facing maximises self-sufficiency only below about 1.4 kW, with east-west better above it.
Renewables
Sri Lanka ends net metering for new rooftop solar and moves to Net Plus
New rooftop connections after 5 March 2026 fall under a feed-in tariff capped at 12 years, with smart meters required and higher time-dependent rates for solar-plus-storage.
New South Wales consults on making panel makers pay for solar waste
The Australian state has opened consultation on a mandatory product-stewardship scheme that would put financial responsibility for end-of-life solar panels on brand owners, aiming to divert thousands of tonnes from landfill.
A perovskite cell tuned for blue-green light hits 34.7% underwater
Water absorbs everything past 630nm, so a cell built for the spectrum that survives ten metres beats what the same cell manages in air.
Panels cut crop water loss by a fifth in French agrivoltaic trials
Barley under the canopy reached 90-96% of the control plot, air at crop level ran 4.1C cooler at midday, and maize yielded 19.6% more in a hot dry season.
Brazil's utility-scale module imports fall 82% as curtailment bites
Total imports halved to 5.48GW in the first half. The centralised segment collapsed from 2.3GW to 430MW, and prices went up 12.9% while volumes fell.
Ofgem would charge batteries £3,000 per MW to hold a queue place
A CUSC modification puts a price on staying in the connections queue, starting at £3,000 per MW and rising to £25,000. Consultation closes on 1 October.