Solar ... In the news

debitcardmayhem

That's damn clever of them…..OK i'll get my coat 😂

QrizB

An Italian company has supplied equipment for Iraq's first solar PV module assembly plant:

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/07/22/inside-pv-manufacturing-iraqs-first-solar-module-production-line/

200MW per year isn't huge but it's a start!

There are links in the article to other, similar, stories of smallish-scale PV manufacturing plants in countries that are expanding into that market.

Exiled_Tyke

Just spotted this little gem. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/02/solar-powers-record-share-britain-electricity-july

JKenH

I’d be surprised, if in reality, it isn’t a bit more than 14.4%. Drax Electric Insights recorded a 14.9% share for solar in July. I don’t think that takes into account all the embedded generation consumed. One very hot day in July I emptied my battery having forgotten to turn the aircon off in the evening. My daughter (visiting from Thailand) thought her bedroom was a bit chilly at 20C. There’s even a big chunk of generation at our house this summer that has gone undetected.

Since acquiring my second lot of solar panels and battery our domestic electricity consumption has significantly increased and not always in an easily predictable manner. The huge amount of hidden roof top solar will inevitably make managing the grid much more difficult. Domestic batteries will smooth out many of the demand peaks and troughs for the individual consumer but roof top solar without batteries is more problematic.

Another problem, which as far as I am aware hasn’t been mentioned is that the switch to more renewable generation has also coincided with an increase in more flexible working patterns. 50 years ago demand was much easier to predict when offices and factories had set hours and we all cooked our meals at regular times. Now NESO have to try and predict and respond to increasingly unpredictable and irregular patterns of behaviour and balance this with more intermittent and less easily measurable generation resources. AI will no doubt play a big part in managing these challenges and we should expect a few stumbles along the way.

EricMears

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82092533#Comment_82092533

Indeed, I can't see how any of my generation could ever be included in a daily 'snapshot'.

I make a FIT claim every three months but before that there's no way anyone else could ever know what I've generated. Although my smart meter has an export register it isn't that easy to access (no separate MPANumber) and very little of my generation is actually exported anyway as much of it is used locally and most of rest tops up my batteries..

No doubt many others are similar.

QrizB

Indeed, I can't see how any of my generation could ever be included in a daily 'snapshot'.

The vast majority of solar generation isn't accounted for centrally in real time. So, the usual source for solar PV generation info is Sheffield University. They get actual readings from a number of locations then use those to estimate the output from the entire installed capacity.

They get their data on what systems are where from Ofgem, I think. That will include your FIT-qualifying system (there's a sort-of-anonymised spreadsheet of FIT systems nationwide that you can download, which includes partial addresses).

What they won't know about is any unregistered solar PV systems, examples of which crop up on this forum from time to time.

silverwhistle

A further complication is that people with solar regulate their consumption in line with production to a certain degree, so although knowing what is being produced from installed load and sun hours is one figure, export availability to the wider network is a different issue. No doubt the models probably reflect this to a degree but micro-generation is a difficult thing to pin down.

debitcardmayhem

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82093551#Comment_82093551

Whilst I broadly agree, real time is virtually impossible but short term 1-2 day old data is easier to model using export data collected by DCCs . But let's face it AI has a long way to evolve.

zeupater

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82093681#Comment_82093681

Hi

…. so, employing the same logic, it would also be valid to propose that due to micro-generation self consumption the individual DCCs & ultimately NESO themselves have absolutely no idea what the total demand is (either on a spot or time-slice basis) and therefore any form of 'modelling' based on the data they collect has as much foundation in guesswork as data science ….

Although there's a potential for DCCs to collect and aggregate smart meter export readings, the question revolves around the benefits of doing so due to so many basic issues … for example … not all micro-generation sites have smart-meters, smart-meters are not real-time data providers & have no register of self-consumption and site TGM is not real-time, not automated & not even required if not registered for FiT payments ….. effectively, AI would have as little data to work on as the current 'guesswork' on the grid demand combined with the current 'guesswork' provided for micro-generation and the related proportion of self consumption that would include ….

AI is very good at retrieving masses of data, processing it quickly and providing an effective analysis … however, when guesswork & insufficient data becomes part of that analysis the question simply revolves around the benefit of (AI+guess) vs (developed algorithm+guess) ….

Well, I guess I think that's my position …. 😉 …. Z

QrizB

Another agrivoltaics story (I know this is one of @Martyn1981 's favourite topics).

https://energiesmedia.com/solar-panels-farmland-crops-agrivoltaics/

Shade is supposed to be the enemy of a farm. Crops chase sunlight, so roofing a field with panels ought to starve them.

Yet plot after plot came in with more fruit, not less, and the plants looked healthier than the ones baking in the open.

Stranger still, the shaded rows did it while drinking far less water. The pattern held across season after season, not just a lucky year. Even seasoned growers came out to see it for themselves.

Something about the panels was working in the plants’ favor, and the researchers wanted to know what. For farmers staring down longer droughts, that pairing sounded too good to be real.

More at the link.