In Short : Indian researchers have developed a self-charging solar energy storage device that integrates energy harvesting and storage into one unit. Designed as a photo-supercapacitor, the system captures sunlight and stores power simultaneously, eliminating the need for separate solar panels and batteries. The technology promises efficient, low-cost solutions for portable and off-grid energy needs.
In Detail : An innovative sunlight-powered supercapacitor called photo-capacitor developed by scientists can both capture and store solar energy in a single integrated device.
This could be a remarkable step towards clean and self-sustaining energy storage systems paving the way for efficient, low cost, and eco-friendly power solutions for portable, wearable, and off grid technologies.
Traditionally, solar energy systems rely on two separate units: solar panels for energy capture and batteries or supercapacitors for energy storage. While such hybrid systems are widely implemented from large-scale solar farms to portable electronics, they rely on additional power management electronics to regulate voltage and current mismatches between the energy harvester and the storage unit. This requirement increases system complexity, cost, energy losses, and device footprint, which becomes particularly detrimental for miniaturised and autonomous devices.
This new photo-rechargeable supercapacitor, developed by the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bengaluru, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. seamlessly combined both processes converting sunlight into electrical energy and storing that energy for later, thus simplifying design and minimising energy loss during conversion and storage.
Under the guidance of Dr. Kavita Pandey, innovated with the help of binder-free use of nickel-cobalt oxide (NiCo2O4) nanowires, which have been uniformly grown on nickel foam using a simple in situ hydrothermal process.
These nanowires, only a few nanometres in diameter and several micrometres long, form a highly porous and conductive 3D network that efficiently absorbs sunlight and stores electrical charge. This unique architecture allowed the material to act simultaneously as a solar energy harvester and a supercapacitor electrode.
When tested, the NiCo2O4 electrode exhibited a remarkable 54% increase in capacitance under illumination, rising from 570 to 880 mF cm-2 at a current density of 15 mA cm-2. This exceptional performance stems from the efficient generation and transfer of light-induced charge carriers within the nanowire network. Even after 10,000 charge-discharge cycles, the electrode retained 85% of its original capacity, demonstrating its long-term stability, an essential feature for practical applications.
To evaluate its real-world applicability, the researchers prepared an asymmetric photo-supercapacitor using activated carbon as the negative electrode and NiCo2O4 nanowires as the positive electrode. The device delivered a stable output voltage of 1.2 volts, maintained 88% of its capacitance retention even after 1,000 photo-charging cycles, and operated efficiently under varying sunlight conditions-from low indoor illumination to intense 2 sun intensity. This stability indicates that the nanowire structure can endure both mechanical and electrochemical stress over extended periods of use.
By integrating sunlight harvesting and energy storage in a single device, the team developed self-charging power systems that can function anywhere even in remote regions without access to an electrical grid.
Such technology can substantially reduce dependence on fossil fuels and conventional batteries, paving the way for a sustainable and green energy future. In addition to the experimental, theoretical study was carried out to understand why the NiCo2O4 nanowire system performs so efficiently.
This study revealed that nickel substitution in the cobalt oxide framework narrows the band gap to approximately 1.67 eV and induces half metallic behavior. This means the material behaves as a semiconductor for one type of electron spin while remaining metallic for the other: a rare dual property that enables faster charge transport and higher electrical conductivity. Such spin dependent conductivity is particularly valuable for photo-assisted charge storage applications.
Integrating sunlight capture and charge storage in a single architecture has been a long-standing goal in sustainable energy research.
This study also demonstrates the synergy between experimental and theoretical insights in materials research. While experiments confirmed enhanced capacitance and durability, theoretical simulations revealed the atomic-level mechanisms driving these improvements. Together, they provide a comprehensive understanding of how nanostructured materials can be optimized for light-responsive energy storage.
This work, published in Sustainable Energy & Fuels (Royal Society of Chemistry Journal), introduces a new class of smart, photo-rechargeable energy storage devices. Overall, this research represents a paradigm shift in renewable energy storage. With further development, such systems could play a pivotal role in achieving India’s clean energy ambitions and inspiring similar innovations worldwide.
Manufacturing and battery technology advisory firm XC Technology has signed a strategic collaboration with Photon Automation to support the latter’s new subsidiary, Photon Energy, focusing on offering turn-key energy storage system (ESS) contract manufacturing services.
Photon Energy will leverage the collaboration to provide a complete suite of services, from design support and prototyping to full-scale production and quality assurance for various energy storage applications. That includes providing manufacturing solutions for a range of portable, grid and industrial ESS products.
Precision laser welding applications will use Photon Automation’s specialized capabilities for critical welding processes in ESS components. Meanwhile, battery production and optimization will leverage XC Technology’s battery process experience for performance and safety optimization for next-generation energy systems.
“XC Technology’s experience in optimizing production for complex battery technologies and turnkey assemblies, combined with Photon Automation’s turnkey systems build and integration, creates a powerful offering for the market,” said Ben Wrightsman, founder of XC Technology.
The Finnish start-up says its sand battery technology is scalable from 20 to 500 MWh with charging power from 1 to 20 MW, depending on industrial needs.
Finnish cleantech startup TheStorage says that its thermal storage technology could reduce industrial energy costs by up to 70% and cut carbon emissions by as much as 90%. The system converts renewable electricity into heat, stores it in sand, and delivers it on-demand for industrial heating.
The concept emerged in Finland in 2023, with engineering work beginning in 2024. In January 2026, TheStorage installed its first industrial-scale pilot at a brewery, putting the technology to the test in a real-world setting. There, it produces fossil-free steam for the brewery’s production lines.
“Producing steam without fossil fuels is a major step toward carbon-neutral production,” says Vesa Peltola, Production Director of the brewery.
TheStorage’s technology captures electricity when it is abundant and inexpensive, converts it into high-temperature heat, and stores it in sand. This stored heat can later be used in industrial processes independently of real-time electricity availability.
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Scientists have grown organic romaine lettuce under 13 different types of PV modules, in an unusual hot Canadian summer. Their analysis showed lettuce yields increased by over 400% compared to unshaded control plants.
A research group from Canada’s Western University has investigated the performance of organic romaine lettuce, a heat-sensitive crop, under a broad range of agrivoltaic conditions. The test was conducted in London, Ontario, in the summer of 2025, during which 18 days had temperatures over 30 C.
“Our study explores how agrivoltaic systems can be tailored to optimize crop growth, especially under extreme heat conditions, while contributing to sustainable energy generation,” corresponding researcher Uzair Jamil told pv magazine.
“This becomes especially relevant in the context of climate change, where we are experiencing temperature extremes across the world,” Jamil added. “We examined the performance of organic romaine lettuce under thirteen different agrivoltaic configurations – ranging from crystalline silicon PV to thin-film-colored modules (red, blue, green) – in outdoor, high-temperature stress conditions.”
More specifically, the experiment included c-Si modules with 8%, 44% and 69% transparency rate; blue c-Si modules with transparency of 60%, 70%, and 80%; green c-Si modules with transparency of 60%, 70%, and 80%; and red c-Si modules with transparency of of 40%, 50%, 70%, and 80%.
All agrivoltaics installations had a leading-edge height of 2.0 m and a trailing-edge height of 2.8 m, and the modules were oriented southwards at 34◦. Pots with organic romaine lettuce were placed under all configurations, along with three pots fully exposed to ambient sunlight without shading, used as controls.
In addition to measurements against the control, the scientific group has compared the results to the national average per-pot yield for 2022, which included less high-temperature days and was therefore considered typical. Those data points were taken from agricultural census data, which later enabled the researcher also to create nationwide projections of their results.
“Lettuce yields increased by over 400% compared to unshaded control plants, and 200% relative to national average yields,” Jamil said about the results. “60% transparent blue Cd-Te and 44% transparent crystalline silicon PV modules delivered the highest productivity gains, demonstrating the importance of both shading intensity and spectral quality in boosting plant growth.”
Jamil further added that if agrivoltaic were to scale up to protect Canada’s entire lettuce crop, they could add 392,000 tonnes of lettuce.
“That translates into CAD $62.9 billion (USD $46.6 billion) in revenue over 25 years,” he said. “If scaled across Canada, agrivoltaics could also reduce 6.4 million tonnes of CO2 emissions over 25 years, making it a key player in reducing the agricultural sector’s environmental footprint.”
Polysilicon trading in China remained largely inactive, with production cuts accelerating and wafer prices falling week on week, while downstream cell prices continued to rise and module prices held steady, according to a trade group representing China's nonferrous metals sector.
The China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (CNMA) said polysilicon trading remained largely stalled, with only limited exploratory orders completed. One leading producer has halted operations, while two others have implemented production cuts. January output is expected to fall by about 15% month on month, broadly in line with wafer production schedules, with February output forecast at 82,000 to 85,000 metric tons. The association said most wafer prices declined week on week, with average transaction prices at CNY 1.26 per piece for n-type G10L wafers, down 3.82%; CNY 1.32 for n-type G12R wafers, down 7.04%; and CNY 1.52 for n-type G12 wafers, down 8.43%. Downstream cell prices rose to CNY 0.41/W to CNY 0.45/W, up 4.88%, while module prices were stable at CNY 0.71/W to CNY 0.75/W.
Hoymiles has signed a supply contract with Indian renewable energy solutions provider KOSOL Energie to deliver 360 MW of its HMS series microinverters in 2026. The company said the products are optimized for India’s high-temperature, high-humidity, and high-irradiance conditions, as well as for larger module formats, large-scale commercial and industrial rooftops, and complex grid environments.
Boway Alloy has issued a profit warning, forecasting full-year 2025 net profit attributable to shareholders of CNY 100 million to CNY 150 million, down 88.9% to 92.6% year on year. The China-listed parent of Vietnam-based Boviet Solar said the decline reflects impairment charges linked to high US anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Vietnam-manufactured products, which made relocating production uneconomic, as well as reduced subsidies and order losses at its United States subsidiary following passage of the United States “Big and Beautiful” Act. Boway Alloy said it is exploring equity divestment options.
PowerChina has signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract through its Colombia branch for a 251 MW solar project in Santander province, Colombia. The scope includes PV plant development, equipment supply, installation and commissioning, with a string inverter plus tracking system configuration intended to improve generation efficiency and operational stability.
Deye said it submitted an application on Jan. 27 to issue H shares and list on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company said its listing application materials were published on the exchange’s website the same day.
Cubenergy has launched FlexCombo 2.0, a scalable battery energy storage system for utility, commercial, and industrial applications, offering up to 16 MWh capacity with LFP batteries. Its modular design, advanced BMS, and cloud-based operations enable easy installation, seamless expansion, and efficient grid integration, according to the manufacturer.
Cubenergy, a Chinese manufacturer of battery energy storage systems (BESS), has introduced a new energy block designed for utility, commercial, and industrial (C&I) applications.
The product, named FlexCombo 2.0, uses the company’s 835 kWh FlexCombo D2 batteries. It is available in three configurations: 10, 12, or 12 batteries, providing a total capacity of 8 MWh, 10 MWh, or 16 MWh, respectively.
“With the FlexCombo D2 modular design and parallel architecture, FlexCombo’s core advantage lies in its long-term scalability,” the company said in a statement. “It enables seamless capacity growth and effortless integration with power generation systems (PGS), simplifying deployment and accelerating delivery for ultimate flexibility.”
The FlexCombo D2 batteries feature lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry, offering a lifespan of 8,000 cycles at 70% capacity retention, according to the manufacturer.
Each battery measures 2 m x 1.68 m x 2.55 m and has a weight of up to eight tons. They carry an IP55 protection rating. Each block also comes with a power conversion system (PCS) rated at 430 kW AC with an IP66 protection grade. Optional medium-voltage (MV) transformers are available, with AC power ratings of either 8,800 kVA or 5,250 kVA.
“The FlexCombo 2.0 is designed primarily for utility and C&I applications, including renewable energy arbitrage, stand-alone grid stabilization, factories, and commercial buildings,” the company stated. “This integrated, easy-to-install BESS can be quickly connected and aligned with project requirements, while the advanced Active Balancing battery management system (BMS) and cloud-based operations provide a superior user experience.”
In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that in January most of East Asia experienced normal to above-average solar irradiance, with southeastern China seeing surges due to reduced clouds and low aerosol levels under lingering La Niña effects. In contrast, the Philippines faced below-average irradiance from early Tropical Storm Nokaen, while other regional cities like Seoul, Tokyo, and Taipei recorded modest gains.
Most of East Asia recorded normal to above‑normal solar irradiance in January, as weak La Niña conditions continued to influence regional weather patterns. The largest gains were observed across southeastern China, where suppressed cloud formation and reduced aerosol-effects delivered a strong start to the year for solar operators, while unusual early tropical storm activity brought significant rainfall and irradiance losses to parts of the Philippines. With two days left in January at time of publishing, this data uses live data from 1-29 January, and forecasts for 30-31 Jan from the Solcast API.
Irradiance in southeastern China surged well above historical averages in January, with Hong Kong exceeding 25% above average. A dominant Siberian high pressure system, with temperatures in parts of Siberia more than 10 C below normal, extended into western China. The resulting northerly flow delivered drier air into southeastern China, reducing both precipitation and cloud formation. This irradiance pattern aligns with typical La Niña effects, even though the La Niña signal was weak and fading toward neutral by late January. Additionally, lower than normal aerosol levels contributed to above average irradiance in coastal parts of China.
In a continuation of the irradiance and aerosol pattern seen in 2025, many parts of China, in particular low-lying industrial areas saw significant drops in aerosol load and a corresponding increase in available irradiance. Both Hong Kong and Shanghai regions saw significantly lower winter average aerosol loads, than the historical average for winter months from 2007-2026. Whilst this supported the exceptionally high irradiance in Hong Kong through January, Shanghai recorded slightly above-average irradiance, despite experiencing a rare snowfall late in the month. By contrast, Beijing has historically lower aerosol loads, however still saw slightly below-average irradiance due to prevailing cloud levels.
Elsewhere in East Asia, irradiance levels were generally normal to above normal for this month. Seoul and Tokyo recorded irradiance 5–10% above January averages and Taipei saw gains exceeding 10%. Across the maritime continent, irradiance and precipitation anomalies were near normal.
The most significant negative irradiance anomaly in the region was associated with Tropical Storm Nokaen (Ada), which marked an unusually early start to the 2026 Pacific typhoon season. Making landfall in January—the first such occurrence since 2019— Nokaen delivered intense rainfall and heavy cloud cover to the central and northern Philippines. Daily rainfall totals reached up to 200 mm, triggering mudslides and widespread disruption. Irradiance across the northern Philippines dropped by as much as 10% below average, while the southern parts of the archipelago, spared from the worst of the storm, saw irradiance climb to 10% above average.
Solcast produces these figures by tracking clouds and aerosols at 1-2km resolution globally, using satellite data and proprietary AI/ML algorithms. This data is used to drive irradiance models, enabling Solcast to calculate irradiance at high resolution, with typical bias of less than 2%, and also cloud-tracking forecasts. This data is used by more than 350 companies managing over 300 GW of solar assets globally.
Researchers at SUPSI found that six Swiss PV systems installed in the late 1980s and early 1990s show exceptionally low degradation rates of just 0.16% to 0.24% per year after more than 30 years of operation. The study shows that thermal stress, ventilation, and material design play a greater role in long-term module reliability than altitude or irradiance alone.
A research group led by Switzerland's University of Applied Sciences (SUPSI) has carried out a long-term analysis of six south-facing, grid-connected PV systems installed in Switzerland in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The researchers found that the systems’ annual power loss rates averaged 0.16% to 0.24%, significantly lower than the 0.75% to 1% per year commonly reported in the literature.
The study examined four low-altitude rooftop systems located in Möhlin (310m-VR-AM55), Tiergarten East and West in Burgdorf (533m-VR-SM55(HO)), and Burgdorf Fink (552m-BA-SM55). These installations use ventilated or building-applied rooftop configurations. The analysis also included a mid-altitude utility-scale plant in Mont-Soleil (1270m-OR-SM55) and two high-altitude, facade-mounted systems in Birg (2677m-VF-AM55) and Jungfraujoch (3462m-VF-SM75).
All systems are equipped with either ARCO AM55 modules manufactured by US-based Arco Solar, which was the world’s largest PV manufacturer with just 1 MW capacity at the time, or Siemens SM55, SM55-HO, and SM75 modules. Siemens became Arco Solar’s largest shareholder in 1990. The modules have rated power outputs between 48 W and 55 W and consist of a glass front sheet, ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) encapsulant layers, monocrystalline silicon cells, and a polymer backsheet laminate.
The test setup included on-site monitoring of AC and DC power output, ambient and module temperatures, and plane-of-array irradiance measured using pyranometers. Based on site conditions, the researchers classified the installations into low-, mid-, and high-altitude climate zones.
“For benchmarking purposes, two Siemens SM55 modules have been stored in a controlled indoor environment at the Photovoltaic Laboratory of the Bern University of Applied Sciences since the start of the monitoring campaign,” the researchers said. They also applied the multi-annual year-on-year (multi-YoY) method to determine system-level performance loss rates (PLR).
The results show that PLRs across all systems range from -0.12% to -0.55% per year, with an average of -0.24% to -0.16% per year, well below typical degradation rates reported for both older and modern PV systems. The researchers also found that higher-altitude systems generally exhibit higher average performance ratios and lower degradation rates than comparable low-altitude installations, despite exposure to higher irradiance and ultraviolet radiation.
The study further revealed that modules of the same nominal type but with different internal designs show markedly different degradation behaviour. Standard SM55 modules exhibited recurring solder bond failures, leading to increased series resistance and reduced fill factor. By contrast, SM55-HO modules benefited from a modified backsheet design that provides higher internal reflectance and improved long-term stability.
Overall, the findings indicate that long-term degradation in early-generation PV modules is driven primarily by thermal stress, ventilation conditions, and material design, rather than altitude or irradiance alone. Modules installed in cooler, better-ventilated environments demonstrated particularly stable performance over multiple decades.
“The study identified the bill-of-material (BOM) as the most critical factor influencing PV module longevity,” they concluded. “Despite all modules belonging to the same product family, variations in encapsulant quality, filler materials, and manufacturing processes resulted in significant differences in degradation rates. Early-generation encapsulants without UV stabilisation showed accelerated ageing, while later module designs with optimised backsheets and improved production quality demonstrated outstanding long-term stability.”
Dutch utility Eneco is testing low-noise air-to-water heat pumps from startup Whspr in around 20 homes, aiming to ease installation constraints near property boundaries. The systems reportedly achieve coefficients of performance of up to 5 and show up to 80% noise reduction in laboratory testing.
Dutch utility Eneco has begun testing an”innovative” type of air-to-water heat pump with low sound levels in residential buildings.
The company said conventional heat pumps rely on outdoor units that emit a constant hum, requiring installations several metres from property boundaries under Dutch building regulations and often forcing placement in prominent locations on terraced houses. By contrast, the “silent” heat pumps under test can be installed just 30 cm from the boundary.
“The pilot will provide insight into both ease of installation and real-world performance,” Eneco said in a statement. “The results will be used to further optimize the system, with the aim of making it widely available by the end of the summer.” The company added that around 20 homes are currently equipped with the systems to assess noise levels without “compromising residents’ everyday heating comfort.”
The heat pumps are supplied by Dutch startup Whspr. “Our 4 kW freestanding hybrid monoblock systems are designed for domestic space heating,” founder Hugo Huis in ’t Veld told pv magazine.
The unit measures 60 cm × 60 cm × 90 cm and weighs around 70 kg. “It is compact yet robust,” Huis in ’t Veld said, adding that initial measurements show efficiencies in line with the market, with coefficients of performance (COP) of between 4.5 and 5.0.
According to the manufacturer, the heat pump uses propane (R290) as its refrigerant and shows up to 80% noise reduction in laboratory testing.
Whspr also highlights ease of installation, stating that a single installer can fit and connect the unit, including the water side, in one day. A dedicated control and thermostat system has also been developed to reduce compatibility issues and simplify commissioning.
Further technical details have not yet been disclosed. “We are not at liberty to share designs at this stage, as patents are still pending,” Huis in ’t Veld said.
Eneco noted that pilot installations include both standard locations and more complex sites, such as rooftops and sheds at the end of gardens. The systems have also been installed in several rental homes owned by housing association Wooncompagnie. “Testing will continue until the end of April, after which the heat pumps will be further optimized,” the company said.
The UK-based perovskite solar PV specialist has announced a new metrology research project with Swansea University and a new development agreement with Renolit, a German plastic films, sheets and polymer solutions company.
Power Roll, a UK-based perovskite solar PV specialist, has announced a new metrology research project with Swansea University and a joint development agreement with Renolit, a German plastic films, sheets and polymer solutions company, which will begin with an outdoor field trial in Germany.
In the U.K., samples of Power Roll's patented flexible, micro-groove perovskite solar PV film will be provided to researchers at Swansea University and the National Physical Laboratory in a six-month feasibility project to support the development of inline and end-of-line testing tools for perovskite solar cells.
It also involves the development of stability guidelines for industry standards. Without these advancements, perovskite solar cell companies “could face significant hurdles in achieving product accreditation,” noted the company.
“The project will support scalable roll-to-roll manufacturing of lightweight perovskite PV, delivering commercial prototypes, testing protocols, and an invited academic review to strengthen UK capability in advanced semiconductor photovoltaics,” Nathan Hill, Power Roll Senior Scientist, told pv magazine.
It entails assessment of standards, metrology techniques, equipment, routes to characterize large scale devices and artificial intelligence (AI) pertaining to monitoring during manufacture.
In December, Renolit and Power Roll announced an 18-month joint development agreement that will begin with an outdoor trial of the UK company’s micro-groove perovskite prototypes on a Renolit building façade in Germany.
The initial deployment will be one to two square meters. There are plans to scale it up in size and power capacity as the project progresses, according to Hill.
“The purpose is to monitor and validate real-world performance and durability, and to understand the potential of the micro-groove solar technology,” Neil Spann, Power Roll CEO, told pv magazine.
Renolit has a commercial interest as a potential supplier of certain film layers to Power Roll, but also to explore integrating Power Roll's solar film into its existing building materials product lines, and to explore the potential of manufacturing under license in Europe, according to Spann.
Power Roll has also completed tests of smaller devices at its headquarters.
Renolit France, the French branch of the German company, recently launched a new PVC-based mounting product for rooftop PV systems.
Power Roll, founded in 2012, has proven its technology and manufacturing process, and secured 27 patent families.
Researchers in South Korea improved the performance of tin monosulfide (SnS) solar cells with a potassium fluoride-assisted post-treatment and a vapor transport deposition process. The treated solar cells had a power conversion efficiency of 4.10% and reduced recombination sites, compared to 3.42% for untreated devices.
Research led by Chonnam National University in South Korea has improved the performance of tin monosulfide (SnS) solar cells with a potassium fluoride-assisted (KF) post-treatment and a vapor transport deposition (VTD) process. The treated solar cells had a power conversion efficiency of 4.10% and reduced recombination sites, compared to control devices.
The research topic is complementary to the research group's earlier germanium oxide (GeOx) interlayer study, which achieved a 4.81% cell efficiency, according to first author of the research, Rahul Kumar Yadav.
“The KF treatment enhances the intrinsic quality of the SnS absorber surface, providing a superior foundation for subsequent interface engineering, while the GeOx interlayer optimizes band alignment and suppresses recombination at the rear contact,” Kumar Yadav, told pv magazine.
“In our ongoing work, we are actively combining KF surface treatment with GeOx back interface engineering, as we expect their integration to deliver further gains in voltage, operational stability, and overall device efficiency,” he added.
In the study, the researchers varied the concentration of KF solution to measure the effect of drop-cast KF surface treatment on the structural, morphological, and photovoltaic properties of VTD-SnS absorber layers.
Testing showed that the KF treatment enhanced “film uniformity, densification, and wettability.” Devices based on the optimized KF-treated SnS absorber had a PCE 4.10%, an improvement compared to 3.42% for untreated devices, with further analysis revealing reduced recombination sites.
“The KF-assisted solution post-treatment functions as a surface modulation step, improving grain connectivity, reducing surface roughness, and passivating electrically active defects,” said Kumar Yadav, adding that the resulting higher open-circuit voltage and fill factor, enabled enhanced efficiency “without altering the overall device architecture.”
The researchers concluded that the research represents a “scalable strategy to overcome key interfacial limitations” and to advance SnS thin-film photovoltaics.
Also participating in the study were Korea Aerospace University and Kyungpook National University.
Looking ahead, the group is focused on developing SnS thin-film solar cells beyond the 4% efficiency threshold “through coordinated absorber surface, heterojunction interface, and rear interface engineering, while maintaining compatibility with scalable manufacturing processes,” said Kumar Yadav.
The new Tesla Solar Panel and mounting system pairs with the company’s inverter, Powerwall battery, EV charging and vehicles, creating an all-Tesla residential solar offering for the first time.
In the residential solar sector, the industry has long sought the “holy grail” of vertical integration, creating a single point of contact for hardware, software, and energy management.
While Tesla has been a dominant player in storage with the Powerwall, a market leader with its inverter, and in electric vehicles, the company has historically relied on third-party solar panels.
With the launch of the Tesla Solar Panel (TSP-415 and TSP-420), the company is closing that loop. The company’s new modules, assembled at its Gigafactory in Buffalo, New York, represent a significant shift toward a proprietary, integrated ecosystem designed to solve the common rooftop challenges of shading, aesthetic clutter, and installation friction.
“This panel completes the full package of the residential energy ecosystem,” Colby Hastings, senior director, Tesla Energy, told pv magazine USA. “It is based on our long history of innovation and engineering when it comes to solar.”
Domestic manufacturing
Tesla said the new modules are assembled at its Buffalo, NY facility, the same site where it continues to produce Solar Roof components, which inspired the design of the panel. The factory is currently scaling to an initial capacity of over 300 MW per year.
This domestic assembly allows Tesla to leverage federal manufacturing incentives while securing a local supply chain for its growing network of installers.
Power zones
The most technically significant departure from industry norms in the TSP series is the implementation of 18 independent “Power Zones.” Standard residential modules typically utilize three bypass diodes, creating six distinct zones. In traditional architectures, a single shadow from a chimney or vent pipe can effectively “shut down” large swaths of a string’s production.
Tesla’s design essentially triples the granularity of the module. By dividing the electrical architecture into 18 zones, the panel behaves more like a digital screen with a higher pixel count; if one “pixel” is shaded, the remaining 17 continue to harvest energy at near-peak efficiency.
Image: Tesla
While high-density substring architectures have been explored in the utility space, Tesla’s specific 18-zone layout is unique to the residential market, engineered to deliver optimizer-like performance without the added cost and potential failure points of module-level power electronics (MLPE) on the roof.
Inverters, batteries, and mounts
The TSP modules are designed to pair specifically with the Tesla Solar Inverter and Powerwall 3. While Tesla offers these as a unified “Home Energy Ecosystem,” they are not strictly sold as a single, inseparable bundle. However, the hardware is optimized to work as a package; for instance, the panel’s 18-zone design is specifically tuned to perform with Tesla’s string inverter technology.
Tesla is not keeping this technology exclusive to its own crews. While Tesla’s direct installation business leads the rollout, the package is available to Tesla’s network of over 1,000 certified installers.
This “installer-first” approach is further evidenced by the new Tesla Panel Mount. The new rail-less mounting system, made of black anodized aluminum alloy, uses the module frame itself as the structural rail.
The new rail-less mounting system, made of black anodized aluminum alloy, uses the module frame itself as the structural rail. Image: Tesla
By eliminating traditional rails and visible clamps, Tesla said the system is 33% faster to install. The mount sits closer to the roof and is enhanced by aesthetic front and side skirts, maintaining the “minimalist” look Tesla consumers expect.
Product specs
The modules are competitive with the current Tier 1 market, pushing into the 20% efficiency bracket while maintaining a robust mechanical profile, said the company.
Parameter
TSP-415
TSP-420
Nominal Power (Pmax)
415 W
420 W
Module Efficiency
20.3%
20.5%
Open Circuit Voltage (Voc)
40.92 V
40.95 V
Short Circuit Current (Isc)
12.93 A
13.03 A
Max System Voltage
DC 1000V
DC 1000V
Weight
22.3 kg (49 lbs.)
22.3 kg (49 lbs.)
Dimensions
1805 x 1135 x 40 mm
1805 x 1135 x 40 mm
The new Tesla Solar Panels are now available nationwide.
Solar roof
For those wondering about the Tesla Solar Roof, the company maintains that the glass tile product remains a core part of its “premium” offering for customers needing a full roof replacement.
The cascading cell technology used in the new TSP modules, which overlaps cells to eliminate visible silver busbars, was originally designed in its Solar Roof product. Tesla is essentially taking the aesthetic and electrical innovations of its luxury roof product and integrating it into a traditional module form factor.
“We’re working more closely with utilities than ever to ensure that these assets participate in virtual power plants and support the grid and opening up new value streams, both for utilities and consumers that have these assets at home,” said Hastings. “We announced recently that we have a million Powerwalls deployed worldwide and 25% of those are enrolled in a virtual power plant program of some kind.”
Market strategy
The timing of this launch comes at a volatile moment for U.S. solar. With the passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act (OBBBA), the industry is navigating the early expiration of the 25D residential credit at the end of 2025 and the sunsetting of the 48E commercial credit.
Tesla’s move now is an opportunistic play for standardization and soft-cost reduction. By controlling the entire stack, Tesla can drive down customer acquisition and labor costs, which currently represent the largest portion of a system’s price tag.
“Utility rates across the country are going up,electricity is becoming increasingly unaffordable for homeowners,” said Hastings. “We’re still very bullish on the future of distributed energy here in the United States.”
Sungrow is introducing its large-scale energy storage system, PowerTitan 3.0, to Europe, featuring grid-forming capability, next-generation battery cells, DC coupling for co-located solar projects, and streamlined commissioning to accelerate deployment.
Sungrow is introducing its large-scale energy storage system, PowerTitan 3.0, to the European market. With the option to connect the battery to a central inverter on the DC side, the company is responding to strong demand for co-located solar-storage projects. The system was first presented at SNEC in Shanghai in June 2025 and has now been showcased to European developers at an event in Madrid.
The storage system is available in standard 10- and 20-foot container formats. The 20-foot version integrates a 1.78 MW power conversion system (PCS) with a 7.14 MWh battery, providing four hours of storage in a single container. A 30-foot version with roughly 12 MWh, also displayed in China, will not be offered in Europe due to logistics and transport costs, which could reduce project profitability. Larger systems in Europe can be achieved by connecting four units to form an AC block with approximately 7.2 MW of power and 28.5 MWh of capacity.
The higher energy density is enabled by new 648 Ah battery cells, with a volumetric energy density exceeding 440 Wh/L. A full liquid-cooling system and updated software maintain all cells within their optimal temperature range, reducing the system’s own energy consumption by around 10%, according to Sungrow. The company guarantees 10,000 cycles at 60% remaining capacity. State of charge is monitored at the rack level and synchronized across the system.
“We are seeing growing demand for stand-alone projects and a significant increase in co-location projects across Europe,” said Moritz Rolf, VP DACH at Sungrow. The DC coupling option is key to meeting this demand.
Paired with a PV system and Sungrow’s “1+X” central inverter, no separate PCS or medium-voltage switchgear is needed. The company estimates hardware and cabling savings for a 150 MWh project at around €1 million.
When connected on the AC side, the system includes an integrated PCS using silicon carbide MOSFETs. Maximum PCS efficiency is 99.5%, with a round-trip efficiency of 92%.
Fast commissioning
The PowerTitan 3.0 is delivered fully assembled and pre-configured. Commissioning is largely autonomous, taking about one hour per unit. A project can be connected to the grid in approximately 12 days, with no on-site parameterization required.
The system can also serve as an AC power source for plant certification tests. If a grid connection is not yet available, the battery can energize medium-voltage switchgear, inverters, and other equipment, simplifying logistics for commissioning and testing.
“Having completed the first stage of the energy transition—the expansion of renewables and their market integration—we are now entering the next phase: electrification, flexibility, and supply security,” said James Li, VP Europe of Sungrow, during a panel discussion.
Grid-forming capabilities were a central theme of the presentation. The system can provide short-circuit current with a ratio of 1.2, deliver instantaneous reserve power within five milliseconds, and contribute to harmonic attenuation, supporting grid strength and stability.
Antonio Arruebo, battery storage analyst at SolarPower Europe, highlighted the growing importance of these functions. Beyond frequency services, markets for instantaneous reserve, short-circuit current, and black-start capability are emerging across Europe. He stressed the need for early development of corresponding markets at EU and national levels, faster approval and certification processes for storage systems, and reduction of duplicate grid fees.
Key challenges
Discussions with event participants highlighted that, while the European battery storage market is developing positively overall, project financing remains a critical bottleneck. Highly leveraged projects are subject to intensive risk assessments by lenders, particularly regarding the valuation of future revenues from arbitrage and frequency markets. The long-term development of these markets is difficult to predict, directly affecting risk premiums and financing terms. Multi-bank financing structures appear to be becoming increasingly common.
From an investor perspective, the stability of revenue streams and technological risks are central. “The crucial factors are the resilience of the revenues and the likelihood of market mechanisms changing over time,” said Paula Renedo, Principal Engineer Director at Nuveen Infrastructure, during a panel discussion.
For battery storage, the balance between exposure to the stock market and contractually secured revenues is evolving. Creditworthiness of customers and technological reliability are gaining greater importance. “We look closely at proven technologies with robust operational experience, particularly regarding availability and degradation over the system’s lifespan,” Renedo added. Nuveen adopts conservative assumptions and engages external technical consultants to assess and mitigate these risks.
On pricing trends in the battery segment, and the Chinese government’s announcement requiring battery cell manufacturers to adopt “sustainable pricing,” Moritz Rolf noted that comparisons with recent photovoltaic module price trends are limited. PV modules have reached a high degree of commodification, whereas integrated large-scale storage systems involve numerous complex integration steps. As a result, prices equivalent to fractions of a cent per kilowatt, as seen in the module market, are not expected. After-sales service and local support remain critical for developers and operators. Sungrow currently employs around 800 people in Europe.
The South Korean giant said its new EHS All-in-One provides air heating and cooling, floor heating, and hot water from a single outdoor unit. It can supply hot water up to 65 C in below-zero weather.
South Korean tech giant Samsung has launched a new all-in-one heat pump for residential and commercial use.
Dubbed EHS All-in-One, the system provides air heating and cooling, floor heating, and hot water from a single outdoor unit. It is initially released for the European market, with a Korean rollout expected within a year.
“It delivers stable performance across diverse weather conditions. It can supply hot water up to 65 C even in below-zero weather and is designed to operate heating even in severe cold down to -25 C,” the company said in a statement. “The system also uses the R32 refrigerant, which has a substantially lower impact on global warming compared with the older R410A refrigerant.”
The product is an upgrade to the EHS Mono R290 monobloc heat pump that the company released in 2023. The company has enlarged the propeller fan and used a high-capacity motor in the novel model, reducing the number of fans from two to one. That results in a design with a height of about 850 mm, approximately 40% lower than before.
“The system also introduces a new Heat Recovery feature, which does not release waste heat from the cooling process to the outside but recycles it. Using this feature can boost the energy efficiency of water heating by more than twice under certain conditions,” Samsung added. “It also includes an ‘AI Saving Mode’ that can reduce energy consumption by up to 17%.”
The largest single-unit rooftop solar power plant in Europe, developed by French independent power producer Urbasolar, is under construction on the Delta 3 multimodal logistics platform in Dourges, in France’s Hauts-de-France region.
Construction has started on what Urbasolar says will be France’s largest rooftop solar installation, as the developer builds a 17.5 MW system on the Delta 3 multimodal logistics platform in northern France.
The project is being developed on the Omega building at the Delta 3 platform in Dourges, in the Hauts-de-France region, near Lille. The logistics hub, led primarily by local authorities, has long planned to integrate rooftop solar and is partially occupied by PepsiCo, which employs about 450 people at the site.
Following a tender concluded in 2024, French independent power producer Urbasolar was selected to finance, design, supply, build, and operate the system under a 30-year lease agreement.
The installation will cover 128,568 square meters and is divided into 12 sections of 10,714 square meters each. About 50% of construction has been completed, Maria Pedicini, France business development director at Urbasolar, told pv magazine France.
The system will use 28,971 Jinko Solar modules rated at 465 W, connected to about 100 inverters. Once completed, Urbasolar says it will be the largest single-span rooftop solar installation in Europe. By comparison, an 18-MW rooftop system in Germany is distributed across multiple buildings.
Pedicini said the project is technically complex due to the size of the roof and the need to coordinate multiple trades working in parallel, requiring detailed planning and phased execution.
Commissioning is scheduled for late 2026 or early 2027. The system is expected to generate up to 17 GWh of electricity per year, including about 1 GWh consumed on site at the Omega building. The remaining output will be fed into the grid and sold under a French Energy Regulation Commission tender awarded to Urbasolar at the end of 2024. The company did not disclose the strike price.
During testing at Estonia’s 100 MW Kiisa battery park, both EstLink 1 and EstLink 2 tripped, triggering the most severe disturbance to the regional power grid since desynchronization from the Russian electricity system. As a result, nearly 1 GW of capacity was lost within seconds. The park’s owner has since publicly pointed to the battery manufacturer.
A disturbance in Estonia’s power system on Jan. 20 forced both EstLink interconnections between Estonia and Finland offline, cutting roughly 1,000 MW of capacity, equivalent to about 20% of the Baltic region’s winter electricity load.
The shortfall was initially covered by support from the continental European grid, as the 500 MW AC connection between Poland and Lithuania operated at double its rated capacity to compensate. Later, reserve capacity within the Baltic states was deployed.
The oscillations were triggered by a 100 MW/200 MWh battery energy storage system in Kiisa, just south of Tallinn, one of the largest battery storage systems in the Baltics. The incident occurred during final grid connection testing, which caused the DC cables to trip.
The €100 million facility, developed by Estonian company Evecon in partnership with French firms Corsica Sole and Mirova, features 54 battery containers supplied by Nidec Conversion.
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The Dutch start-up, founded by former Tesla leaders, is taking a novel approach to sodium-ion battery technology, optimizing it for integration with solar power plants. Its technology is set to be deployed for the first time in a Dutch solar-plus-storage project later this year.
Amsterdam-based Moonwatt has developed a new type of battery storage system based on sodium-ion NFPP chemistry, purpose-built for seamless solar hybridization. The system integrates battery enclosures with hybrid string inverters, enabling efficient DC-coupled solar-plus-storage integration.
The company gained attention in March 2025 when it raised $8.3 million in seed funding to accelerate growth. Moonwatt operates as an energy storage system integrator, designing, developing, and supplying string battery enclosures, hybrid string inverters, and battery management and site control systems, while sourcing sodium-ion cells globally.
“Initially, we’re sourcing them from Asia, but we aim to add American and European cell sourcing options as soon as they become available and create value for our customers,” Valentin Rota, co-founder and CCO of Moonwatt, said in an earlier interview with ESS News.
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Makers of humanoid robots are targeting logistics, specifically the warehouse, as they continue a steady march to integrate their human-looking machines into today’s increasingly automated workplaces. That’s because research shows that the labor-intensive warehouse is a promising market for the still-nascent technology, which mimics the human body and can perform a range of material handling and order fulfillment tasks.
U.K.-based research firm IDTechEx projects logistics and warehousing will be the second-largest adopter of humanoid robots over the next 10 years, following just behind the automotive industry (see Exhibit 1). Key benefits in the warehouse include bringing precision and consistency to repetitive tasks and improving speed while minimizing human error, the company said in an October market outlook report.
“Facing acute labor shortages and rising operational complexity, warehouses are turning to humanoids as a promising solution,” according to the report. “The benefits are multifaceted: Humanoid robots help lower labor costs, reduce operational disruptions, and offer unmatched flexibility, capable of adapting to varying tasks throughout the day.”
But the research also tells a deeper story: As of last year, humanoid robot deployment in warehouses remained below 5%, due to both technological and commercial roadblocks. Short operating time and long recharge cycles can create substantial downtime, for instance, while limited field testing and safety concerns have left many end-users cautious. A separate industry study, by U.K. researcher Interact Analysis, predicts humanoid robot growth will be relatively slow in the short term, reaching about 40,000 shipments globally by 2032.
“The humanoid robot market is currently experiencing substantial hype, fueled by a large addressable market and significant investment activity,” Rueben Scriven, research manager at Interact Analysis, wrote in the 2025 report. “However, despite the potential, our outlook remains cautious due to several key barriers that hinder widespread adoption, including high prices and the gap in the dexterity needed to match human productivity levels, both of which are likely to persist into the next decade. However, we maintain that there’s a significant potential in the mid- to long term.”
Challenges aside, the work to develop and deploy humanoids continues, with many companies hitting major milestones in 2025 and early 2026. Here’s a look at some of the most recent accomplishments.
DIGIT GETS BUSY
Humanoid robots resemble the human body—in general, they have a torso, head, and two arms and legs, but they can also replicate just portions of the body. Robotic arms can be considered humanoid, as can bots that feature an upper body on a wheeled base. The bipedal variety—those that can walk on two legs—are gaining momentum.
Agility Roboticsannounced late last year that its bipedal humanoid robot, called Digit, had moved more than 100,000 totes in a commercial environment—at a GXO Logistics facility in Flowery Branch, Georgia. Just a few weeks later, the company said it would deploy Digit robots in San Antonio, Texas, to handle fulfillment operations for e-commerce fulfillment platform Mercado Libre. The companies said they plan to explore additional uses for Digit across Mercado Libre’s warehouses in Latin America. They did not give a timeframe for the rollout.
Agility’s humanoid robots are also in use at facilities run by Amazon and German motion technology company Schaeffler.
Agility is a business unit of Humanoid Global Holdings, which includes robotic companies Cartwheel Robotics, RideScan Ltd., and Formic Technologies Inc. in its portfolio of businesses.
ALPHA BIPEDAL TAKES OFF
U.K.-based robotics and AI (artificial intelligence) developer Humanoid launched its first bipedal robot this past December, introducing HMND 01 Alpha Bipedal. The robot went from design to working prototype in just five months and was up and walking just 48 hours after final assembly—a feat that typically takes weeks or even months, according to the bot’s developers.
Alpha Bipedal stands five feet, 10 inches tall and can carry loads of 33 pounds in its arms. Still in testing, the bot is designed to tackle industrial, household, and service tasks.
“HMND 01 is designed to address real-world challenges across industrial and home environments,” Artem Sokolov, founder and CEO of Humanoid, said in a December statement announcing the launch. “With manufacturing sectors facing labor shortages of up to 27%, leaving significant gaps in production, and millions of people performing physically demanding or repetitive tasks, robots can provide meaningful support. In domestic environments, they have the potential to assist elderly people or those with physical limitations, helping with object handling, coordination, and daily activities. Every day, over 16 billion hours are spent on unpaid domestic and care work worldwide—work that, if valued economically, would exceed 40% of GDP in some countries. By taking on these responsibilities, humanoid robots can free humans to focus on higher-value and safer work, improving their productivity and quality of life.”
HMND 01 Alpha Bipedal follows the September launch of Humanoid’s wheeled Alpha platform, which has been tested commercially and helped extend the company’s reach from industrial and logistics tasks—including warehouse automation, picking, and palletizing—to domestic support applications.
AGILE ONE TAKES OFF
Robotic automation company Agile Robots launched its first humanoid robot, called Agile One, in November. The robot is designed to work in industrial settings, where company leaders say it can operate safely and efficiently alongside humans and other robotic solutions. The bot’s key tasks include material gathering and transport, pick-and-place operations, machine tending, tool use, and fine manipulation.
Agile One will be manufactured at the company’s facilities in Germany.
“At Agile Robots, we believe the next industrial revolution is Physical AI: intelligent, autonomous, and flexible robots that can perceive, understand, and act in the physical world,” Agile Robots’ CEO and founder, Dr. Zhaopeng Chen, said in a statement announcing the launch. “Agile One embodies this revolution.”
The new humanoid is part of the company’s wider portfolio of AI-driven robotic systems, which includes robotic hands and arms as well as autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and automated guided vehicles (AGVs). All are driven by the company’s AI software platform, AgileCore, and are designed to work together.
“The real value for our industrial customers isn’t just a stand-alone intelligent humanoid, but an entire intelligent production system,” Chen said in the statement. “We see [Agile One] working seamlessly alongside our other robotic solutions, each part of the system, connected and learning from each other. This approach of applying Physical AI to whole production systems can give our customers a new level of holistic efficiency and quality.”
Full production of Agile One begins this year.
Safety first: Industry updates standards for humanoid robots
As two-legged and four-legged robots begin to find applications in supply chain operations, the sector is refining its safety standards to ensure that humanoid and collaborative robots can be deployed at scale, according to a December report from Interact Analysis.
The work is necessary because the unique mechanics associated with legged robotics introduce new challenges around stability, fall dynamics, and unpredictable motion, according to report author Clara Sipes, a market analyst at Interact Analysis. To be precise, unlike statically stable machines, dynamically stable machines such as humanoids collapse when power is cut, creating residual risk in the event of a fall.
In response, new standards such as the International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 26058-1 and ISO 25785-1 have been developed to address both statically and dynamically stable mobile robotics. In addition, ISO TR (Technical Report) R15.108 examines the challenges associated with bipedal, quadrupedal, and wheeled balancing mobile robots.
According to the Interact Analysis report, one of the most notable shifts is the removal of references to “collaborative modes.” In the most recent revisions, collaborative robots must be evaluated based on the application, not the robot alone, since each application carries its own risks, and the standard now encourages assessing the entire environment within which the robot operates.
Additional changes cover requirements for improved cyber resilience, the report said. European regulatory changes, particularly the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), AI Act, and Machinery Regulation, are establishing a unified framework for safety, cybersecurity, and risk management. That will shape the future of industrial automation by addressing new vulnerabilities within products that are increasingly connected to a network.
In its report, Interact Analysis advised manufacturers and integrators in the robotic sector to prepare early for the upcoming standards revisions. With multiple regulations taking effect over the next few years, organizations that begin aligning now will avoid costly redesigns and rushed compliance efforts later, the report noted.
In his 40 years leading McLeod Software, one of the nation’s largest providers of transportation management systems for truckers and 3PLs (third-party logistics providers), Tom McLeod has seen many a new technology product introduced with much hype and promise, only to fade in real-world practice and fail to mature into a productive application.
In his view, as new tech players have come and gone, the basic demand from shippers and trucking operators for technology has remained pretty much the same, straightforwardly simple and unchanged over time: “Find me a way to use computers and software to get more done in less time and [at a] lower cost,” he says.
“It’s been the same goal, from decades ago when we replaced typewriters, all the way to today finding ways to use artificial intelligence (AI) to automate more tasks, streamline processes, and make the human worker more efficient,” he adds. “Get more done in less time. Make people more productive.”
The difference between now and the pretenders of the past? McLeod and others believe that AI is the real thing and, as it continues to develop and mature, will be incorporated deeper into every transportation and logistics planning, execution, and supply chain process, fundamentally changing and forcing a reinvention of how shippers and logistics service providers operate and manage the supply chain function.
“But it is not a magic bullet you can easily switch on,” McLeod cautions. “While the capabilities look magical, at some level it takes time to train these models and get them using data properly and then come back with recommendations or actions that can be relied upon,” he adds.
THE DATA CONUNDRUM
One of the challenges is that so much supply chain data today remains highly unstructured—by one estimate, as much as 75%. Converting and consolidating myriad sources and formats of data, and ensuring it is clean, complete, and accurate remains perhaps the biggest challenge to accelerated AI adoption.
Often today when a broker is searching for a truck, entering an order, quoting a load, or pulling a status update, someone is interpreting that text or email, extracting information from the transportation management system (TMS), and creating a response to the customer, explains Doug Schrier, McLeod’s vice president of growth and special projects. “With AI, what we can do is interpret what the email is asking for, extract that, overlay the TMS information, and use AI to respond to the customer in an automated fashion,” he says.
To come up with a price quote using traditional methods might take three or four minutes, he’s observed. An AI-enabled process cuts that down to five seconds. Similarly, entering an order into a system might take four to five minutes. With AI interpreting the email string and other inputs, a response is produced in a minute or less. “So if you are doing [that task] hundreds of times a week, it makes a difference. What you want to do is get the human adding the value and [use AI] to get the mundane out of the workflow.”
Yet the growth of AI is happening across a technology landscape that remains fragmented, with some solutions that fit part of the problem, and others that overlap or conflict. Today it’s still a market where there is not one single tech provider that can be all things to all users.
In McLeod’s view, its job is to focus on the mission of providing a highly functional primary TMS platform—and then complement and enhance that with partners who provide a specialized piece of an ever-growing solution puzzle. “We currently have built, over the past three decades, 150 deep partnerships, which equates to about 250 integrations,” says Ahmed Ebrahim, McLeod’s vice president of strategic alliances. “Customers want us to focus on our core competencies and work with best-of-breed parties to give them better choices [and a deeper solution set] as their needs evolve,” he adds.
One example of such a best-of-breed partnership is McLeod’s arrangement with Qued, an AI-powered application developer that provides McLeod TMS clients with connectivity and process automation for every load appointment scheduling mode, whether through a portal, email, voice, or text.
Before Qued was integrated, there were about 18 steps a user had to complete to get an appointment back into the TMS, notes Tom Curee, Qued’s president. With Qued, those steps are reduced to virtually zero and require no human intervention.
As soon as a stop is entered into the TMS, it is immediately and automatically routed to Qued, which reaches out to the scheduling platform or location, secures the appointment, and returns an update into the TMS with the details. It eliminates manual appointment-making tasks like logging on and entering data into a portal, and rekeying or emailing, and it significantly enhances the value and efficiency of this particular workflow activity for McLeod users.
LEGACY SYSTEM PAIN
One of the effects of the three-year freight recession has been its impact on investment. Whereas in better times, logistics and trucking firms would focus on buying tech to reduce costs, enhance productivity, and improve customer service, the constant financial pressure has narrowed that focus.
“First and exclusively, it is now on ‘How do we create efficiency by replacing people and really bring cost levels down because rates are still extremely low and margins really tight,’” says Bart De Muynck, a former Gartner research analyst covering the visibility and supply chain tech space, and now principal at consulting firm Bart De Muynck LLC.
Most industry operators he’s spoken with have looked at AI. One example he cites as ripe for transformation is freight brokerages, “where you have rows and rows of people on the phone.” They are asking the question “Which of these processes or activities can we do with AI?”
Yet De Muynck points to one issue that is proving to be a roadblock to change and transformation. “For many of these companies, their foundational technology is still on older architectural platforms,’’ in some cases proprietary ones, he notes. “It’s hard to combine AI with those.” And because of years of low margins and cash flow restrictions, “they have not been able to replace their core ERP [enterprise resource planning system] or the TMS for that carrier or broker, so they are still running on very old tech.”
For those players, De Muynck says they will discover a disconcerting reality: the difficulty of trying to apply AI on a platform that is decades old. “That will yield some efficiencies, but those will be short term and limited in terms of replacing manual tasks,” he says.
The larger question, De Muynck says, is “How do you reinvent your company to become more successful? How do we create applications and processes that are based on the new architecture so there is a big [transformative] lift and shift [and so we can implement and deploy foundational pieces fairly quickly]? Then with those solutions build something with AI that is truly transformational and effective.” And, he adds, bring the workforce along successfully in the process.
“People have some things in their jobs they have to do 100 times a day,” often a menial or boring task, De Muynck adds. “AI can automate or streamline those tasks in such a way that it improves the employee’s work experience and job satisfaction, while driving efficiencies. [Rather than eliminate a position], brokers can redirect worker time to more higher-value, complex tasks that need human input, intuition, and leadership.”
“With logistics, you cannot take people completely out of the equation,” he emphasizes. “[The best AI solutions] will be a human paired up with an intelligent AI agent. It will be a combination of people [and their tribal knowledge and institutional experience] and technology,” he predicts.
EYES OPEN
Shippers, truckers, and 3PLs are experiencing an awakening around the possibilities of technologies today and what modern architecture, in-the-cloud platforms, and AI-powered agents can do, says Ann Marie Jonkman, vice president–industry advisory for software firm Blue Yonder. For many, the hardest decision is where to start. It can be overwhelming, particularly in a market environment shaped by chaos, uncertainty, and disruption, where surviving every week sometimes seems a challenge in itself.
“First understand and be clear about what you want to achieve and the problems you want to solve” with a tech strategy, she advises. “Pick two or three issues and develop clear, defined use cases for each. Look at the biggest disruptions—where are the leakages occurring and how do I start?”
Among the most frequently targeted areas of investment she sees are companies putting capital and resources into broad areas of automation, not just physical activity with robotics, but in business processes, workflows, and operations. It also is about being able to understand tradeoffs, getting ahead of and removing waste, and moving the organization from a reactionary posture to one that’s more proactive and informed, and can leverage what Jonkman calls “decision velocity.” That places a priority on not only connecting the silos, but also on incorporating clean, accurate, and actionable data into one command center or control tower. When built and deployed correctly, such central platforms can provide near-immediate visibility into supply chain health as well as more efficient and accurate management of the end-to-end process.
Those investments in supply chain orchestration not only accelerate and improve decision-making around stock levels, fulfillment, shipping choices, and overall network and partner performance, but also provide the ability to “respond to disruption and get a handle on the data to monitor and predict disruption,” Jonkman adds. It’s tying together the nodes and flows of the supply chain so “fulfillment has the order ready at the right place and the right time [with the right service]” to reduce detention and ensure customer expectations are met.
It is important for companies not to sit on the sidelines, she advises. Get into the technology transformation game in some form. “Just start somewhere,” even if it is a small project, learn and adapt, and then go from there. “It does not need to be perfect. Perfection can be the enemy of success.”
The speed of technology innovation always has been rapid, and the advent of AI and automation is accelerating that even further, observes Jason Brenner, senior vice president of digital portfolio at FedEx. “We see that as an opportunity, rather than a challenge.”
He believes one of the industry’s biggest challenges is turning innovation into adoption, “ensuring new capabilities integrate smoothly into existing operations and deliver value quickly.” Brenner adds that in his view, “innovation is healthy and pushes everyone forward.”
Execution at scale is where the rubber meets the road. “Delivering technology that works reliably across millions of shipments, geographies, and constantly changing conditions requires deep operational integration, massive data sets, and the ability to test solutions in multiple environments,” he says. “That’s where FedEx is uniquely positioned.”
DEFYING AUTOMATION NO MORE
Before the arrival of the newest forms of AI, “there were shipping tasks that had defied automation for decades,” notes Mark Albrecht, vice president of artificial intelligence for freight broker and 3PL C.H. Robinson. “Humans had to do this repetitive, time-consuming—I might even say mind-numbing—yet essential work.”
Application of early forms of AI, such as machine learning tools and algorithms, provided a hint of what was to come. CHR, which has one of the largest in-house IT development groups in the industry, has been using those for a decade.
Large language models and generative AI were the next big leap. “It’s the advent of agentic AI that opens up new possibilities and holds the greatest potential for transformation in the coming year,” Albrecht says, adding, “Agentic AI doesn’t just analyze or generate content; it acts autonomously to achieve goals like a human would. It can apply reasoning and make decisions.”
CHR has built and deployed more than 30 AI agents, Albrecht says. Collectively, they have performed millions of once-manual tasks—and generated significant benefits. “Take email pricing requests. We get over 10,000 of those a day, and people used to open each one, read it, get a quote from our dynamic pricing engine, and send that back to the customer,” he notes. “Now a proprietary AI agent does that—in 32 seconds.”
Another example is load tenders. “It used to take our people upwards of four hours to get to those through a long queue of emails,” he recalls. That work is now done by an AI agent that reads the email subject line, body, and attachments; collects other needed information; and “turns it into an order in our system in 90 seconds,” Albrecht says. He adds that if the email is for 20 orders, “the agent can handle them simultaneously in the same 90 seconds,” whereas a human would have to handle them sequentially.
Time is money for the shipper at every step of the logistics process. So the faster a rate quote is provided, order created, carrier selected, and load appointment scheduled, the greater the benefits to the shipper. “It’s all about speed to market, which whether a retailer or manufacturer, often translates into if you make the sale or keep an assembly line rolling.”
LOOKING AHEAD
Strip away all the hype, and the one tech deliverable that remains table stakes for all logistics providers and their customers are platforms that provide a timely and accurate view into where goods are and with whom, and when they will get to their destination. “First and foremost is real-time visibility that enables customer access to the movement of their product across the supply chain,” says Penske Executive Vice President Mike Medeiros. “Then, getting further upstream and allowing them to be more agile and responsive to disruptions.”
As for AI, “it’s not about replacing [workers]; it’s about pointing them in the right direction and helping [them] get more done in the same amount of time, with a higher level of service and enabling a more satisfying work experience. It’s human capital complemented by AI-powered agents as virtual assistants. We’ve already [started] down that path.”
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