After a recap of the year in our quarterly reviews which can be read here for Q1, here for Q2, here for Q3 and here for Q4, we bring you this year’s most reads stories on PV Tech. The year was marked by a downturn in the solar industry, with companies shutting down, laying off employees or restructuring their businesses.
Here, PV Tech runs down its top ten stories of the past 12 months.
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10 – Iberdrola to build 245MW PV plant in Sicily, Italy’s “largest”
February 27: In the past few years Italy has seen a rise in solar PV capacity additions both from the residential sector but also on the utility-scale front. Spanish utility signed an agreement with developer ib vogt to build a 245MW solar PV plant in the southern Italian region of Sicily. A further 60MW could be added to the project.
9 – ADT exiting residential US solar business after ‘underperformance’ and US$89 million write-down
January 25: US home security company ADT abandoned the residential solar business in what has been a complicated year for companies in that segment, both in the US and in Europe. By leaving the residential solar business, ADT focused on its core smart security and smart home business.
8 – SunPower ceases shipments, project installations and PPA sales
July 19: During the summer US residential solar provider had ceased several of its operations, including new shipments and financing options. This news transpired after a letter from the company to its investors obtained by Roth Capital revealed SunPower’s situation. A few weeks after this announcement, the company ended up filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
7 – US manufacturer Toledo Solar ceases operations
July 9: In what has been one of the most negative trends in 2024, cadmium telluride solar manufacturer Toledo Solar was among the companies that ended up closing its doors.
6 – LONGi reportedly to layoff 30% of workforce
March 18: Even the largest Chinese solar manufacturers have been hit with the continued solar manufacturing downturn and LONGi was no different. A report from Bloomberg in March mentioned that the company was reportedly cutting off nearly 30% of its workforce, which sat at 80,000 employees.
5 – Tsunami of Chinese solar company insolvencies in 2025 revealed in latest PV Tech Bankability Report
October 31: A PV Tech top ten most read stories could not be complete without a blog post from PV Tech’s head of research, Finlay Colville. The article looks at the latest release of the ‘PV ModuleTech Bankability Ratings Quarterly’ report and how the Chinese sector is at the verge of widespread company insolvencies.
4 – Three US solar trends to watch in 2024
February 22: This guest blog for PV Tech from Christian Roselund at the Clean Energy Associates, looked at three trends to look out in 2024. These were more domestic manufacturing capacity in the US, better clarity on domestic content bonus and more restrictions on Chinese companies and products.
3 – Biden to increase Section 301 tariffs on solar cells to 50%
May 14: As predicted by Roselund in his guest blog in February, the US has seen several tariffs imposed on solar components. This one in particular was announced by US president Joe Biden Under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 for Chinese solar cells, which increased the tariff from 25% to 50% and came into force in September 2024. In that same announcement, tariffs for batteries were also unveiled and more particularly for lithium-ion electric vehicle (EV) batteries and non-EV batteries.
2 – The pain points of Trump 2.0 for US solar
November 6: In this editorial blog, Will Norman and Ben Willis explore the possible impact of Donald Trump’s election as the next president of the US after the election held in November 2024. In it, they look at how this will affect the renewables industry, the Inflation Reduction Act, China and the likelihood of more tariffs and the fate of the Department of Energy.
1 – Australian government approves AAPowerLink project to export solar to Singapore
August 21: This year’s most-read story on PV Tech comes from Australia and the Australia-Asia Power Link (AAPowerLink) interconnector project. Renewables developer Sun Cable secured in August approval from the Australian government to go ahead with its project to deploy between 17GW and 20GW of solar PV and 36.42-42GWh of energy storage from Australia to Singapore.
