#solar-backup

#solar-backup

"A stellarator is a thing that is objectively very difficult to design, objectively very difficult to build, but if it works, it can control the burning hot plasma better than a tokamak."

First Solar closed FY2025 with $9.54 billion in shareholder equity, $2.80 billion in cash, and total liabilities that fell 8.77% year over year, showcasing a stable and strengthening balance sheet.

Noor, meaning light in Arabic, is a solar facility that produces enough energy to power more than a million homes, utilizing concentrated solar power instead of traditional PV panels.

"The nuclear power technology that is most common - light water reactors - was originally invented for nuclear submarines. There has actually always been a history of basically pre-fabbing it and looking at it in a shipyard context."

"We were considering multiple forms of capital when we started. It just felt like the opportunity is so large that venture capital gives us the opportunity to take those risks upfront and have the possibility to generate an outsized return."

The most consequential shift for anyone considering rooftop solar in 2026 is the expiration of Section 25D, the Residential Clean Energy Credit. That 30% credit, which was worth up to $9,000 on a $30,000 system, is no longer available for home solar installations. The One Big Beautiful Bill, signed July 4, 2025, accelerated the phase-out that the Inflation Reduction Act had originally extended through 2034.

People who could afford to do it at that time realised that it was much cheaper and cost-effective and better for them in the long run to do a one-time investment in rooftop solar as opposed to keep paying high electricity bills from a grid that is also unreliable, said Nabiya Imran, an associate at Renewables First, a Pakistani thinktank.

The group points out, correctly, that the grid is designed for brief bursts of high demand; most of the time there's lots of capacity that goes unused. Utilize thinks that should change. The group argues that smarter ways to use that capacity already exist. Utilize name checks a number of those solutions, including battery storage, demand response, and virtual power plants, all of which have emerged en masse over the last decade, but remain under utilized.

Last year, the company's profit fell 45% compared with 2024, driven in large part by falling sales of its electric vehicles. Investors anticipated the decline in sales, but Tesla still beat Wall Street earnings and revenue estimates thanks to its energy storage business. Tesla deployed a record 46.7 gigawatt-hours of energy storage products in 2025, a 48% increase from last year, according to the company's official filings.

The pioneering technology means one of the oldest forms of energy storage, hydropower, can be used to store and release renewable energy using even gentle slopes rather than the steep dam walls and mountains that are usually required. The design means the principles of hydropower could be used as a form of long duration energy storage in many more locations across the UK, and the world, than traditional hydropower dams. The projects could be quicker and cheaper to build too.

When Specian dug into the data, he discovered that implementing energy-efficiency measures and shifting electricity usage to lower-demand times are two of the fastest and cheapest ways of meeting growing thirst for electricity. These moves could help meet much, if not all, of the nation's projected load growth. Moreover, they would cost only half-or less-what building out new infrastructure would, while avoiding the emissions those operations would bring.