/daily ·07 AUG 2026 ·FRIDAY ·2 MIN READ ·6 STORIES

US hits polysilicon; Ørsted stacks 500 MWh in Texas

Washington imposes tariffs and a floor price on the solar supply chain's primary feedstock; Ørsted commissions Texas's largest co-located battery-solar project.

01 / The Day

FRIDAY 07 AUG 2026, ranked

US announces polysilicon tariffs and minimum import price

The Commerce Department set a minimum import price for polysilicon — the primary feedstock for crystalline silicon solar cells — and added new tariffs targeting Chinese and adjacent supply chains, effective in 90 days.

Why it mattersPolysilicon price controls are a direct intervention in solar manufacturing economics: US-sited module production becomes relatively more competitive while projects dependent on cheap imported feedstock face cost headwinds.

01 pv-magazine.com↗

Ørsted commissions 500 MWh BESS co-located with Texas solar

Ørsted turned on a 500 MWh lithium iron phosphate battery storage system in Texas, co-located with a new solar installation and designed to dispatch stored generation into ERCOT evening peak windows.

Why it mattersCo-located battery and solar at 500 MWh is a real merchant storage deployment at commercial scale — not a pilot. The round-trip economics will be visible in ERCOT settlement data.

02 pv-magazine.com↗

South Korea approves its largest single-site solar project

South Korea granted approval for a multi-gigawatt solar installation on reclaimed coastal land — its largest single-site project to date — paired with offshore wind at the same grid connection point.

Why it mattersSouth Korea has lagged most major economies on utility-scale solar; a commitment at this size on a single site signals a structural shift in the country's clean energy programme, not incremental expansion.

03 pv-magazine.com↗

Federal judge signals Trump offshore wind permit freeze is unlawful

A federal judge indicated the administration's blanket pause on offshore wind permitting likely violates statutory timelines under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, and may require the Interior Department to resume processing within 30 days.

Why it mattersIf the injunction holds, it restores the permitting pipeline for tens of billions in capital investment frozen since early 2025 — an immediate reversal with direct consequences for project developers.

04 heatmap.news↗

US household electricity bills hit an all-time high in July

Average US residential electricity bills reached record levels in July 2026, driven by AI data center load growth, extended heat wave cooling demand, and wholesale price pass-throughs in deregulated markets.

Why it mattersAI infrastructure load is now visible in consumer electricity bills — the demand side of the energy transition is arriving faster than the supply side is being built.

05 heatmap.news↗

Perovskite solar: copper contacts corrode under real-world conditions

Outdoor testing of perovskite solar cells documented accelerated corrosion of copper back contacts — a cheaper alternative to gold — caused by halide migration from the active layer, complicating commercialisation timelines for low-cost perovskite modules.

Why it mattersPerovskite efficiency records are regularly broken in lab conditions; durability under outdoor exposure remains the commercialisation bottleneck. Copper corrosion is a specific, solvable materials problem — but it's not solved yet.

06 pv-magazine.com↗

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Past days

The Daily Archive

/FRI 07 AUGUS hits polysilicon; Ørsted stacks 500 MWh in Texas /THU 06 AUGGrid delays, grid storage, and grid-scale bets /WED 05 AUGHome batteries scale up, microreactors raise $1B, and China ends the solar price war /MON 03 AUGFusion gets its billion; perovskite breaks 28%/SUN 02 AUGSurplus signals /SAT 01 AUGThe Heat Is the Story /FRI 31 JULCalifornia hits 51% monthly solar; China sets record targets /THU 30 JULThe Billion-Dollar Build Edition /WED 29 JULWednesday, 29 July — Sodium-ion arrives; Australia breaks records /TUE 28 JULMalaysia orders the grid; Australia scales the cell /MON 27 JULA Solar Farm Becomes a Data Centre, Wisconsin Campaigns Against Solar, and LONGi Breaks the Tandem Efficiency Record /SUN 26 JULThe Build-Out Accelerates /SAT 25 JULUS battery storage breaks Q1 record; China tightens polysilicon /FRI 24 JULShock and Shine /WED 22 JUL194 gigawatts and a record solar cell /TUE 21 JULStorage everywhere, blockages everywhere /SUN 19 JULTwo US LFP milestones, one weekend /SAT 18 JULOvercapacity meets the taxman /FRI 17 JULFriday in Energy: Sodium Scales, Silicon Shines /WED 15 JULRecords fall, costs diverge /MON 13 JULSolid-state gets a quality stamp