The past three years have been the world’s hottest on record. In 2025, Earth was 1.44°C warmer than the long-term average, perilously close to breaching the Paris Agreement goal of 1.5°C.

Around a fifth of solar panels examined in a new study fail much faster than expected and some may last for only half their anticipated lifetime.

There was a watershed moment for Australian energy transition this week as the Australian Energy Market Operator released its energy dynamics report for the December quarter of 2025: Renewables comprised more than half of energy supply in the quarter, driving down wholesale electricity prices by nearly half. Coal-fired generation was down 4.6% year on year, falling to an all-time quarterly low. Gas-fired generation plunged 27% to its lowest level for 25 years.

For the last decade, the global conversation around electric vehicles (EVs) has focused almost entirely on adoption. Targets, incentives, charging stations and sales figures have dominated headlines. The EV transition is happening daily, at street level, across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. Yet a far less glamorous question is now becoming just as important as how many EVs we sell: what happens when their batteries are no longer good enough for the road?

Solar and wind now provide 99% of new generating capacity in Australia. Renewables supply more than 40% of power to the main grid. Australia will need six times as much solar and wind to reach net zero through the electrification of everything. This means building new transmission corridors, as existing lines were built to connect cities with coal power stations. But the best solar and wind resources lie in different places.

Energy storage project developer Enervest has sold its 1.2 GW / 4.8 GWh Hanworth battery energy storage system in New South Wales to clean energy developer and fund manager Octopus Australia.

Rystad Energy says it expects global battery energy storage system (BESS) additions to exceed 130 GW/350 GWh in 2026, led by Australia, China, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

South Australian clean energy technology recycling developer Iondrive has reported early laboratory results from its proprietary IONSolv metal extraction platform shown greater than 85% silver extraction efficiency in initial bench-scale testing.

The Western Australia government has partnered with traditional owners of Ngarluma Country in the Pilbara, and Perth based conglomerate Perdaman, to progress the Ngarluma Green Energy Park with the development of a proposed 50 MW solar farm.

PV Hardware has developed a 95% Australian-made steel tracker supply chain setting a new benchmark for local manufacturing in the renewable energy sector.

Australia’s rooftop solar fleet continues to expand with a combined 28.3 GW of generation capacity commissioned by the end of 2025 with approximately 4.3 million installations across the country.

Plans to build a 26 GW solar, wind, and green hydrogen project in Western Australia’s Pilbara are set to accelerate with the federal government providing a $21 million funding injection to further advance the project.

Cargill, the world’s largest agricultural commodities trader, has launched its first utility-scale renewable energy project in Australia, switching on a 2.58 MW solar array at its Newcastle oilseed processing facility.

The IP66-rated Aura 5000 energy storage system features bidirectional inverter functionality and an AC output of up to 2.5 kW.

Spanish building integrated PV manufacturer Onyx Solar is delivering a custom building integrated PV system featuring almost 1,800 solar glass ‘louvres’ designed to help power Australian tech giant Atlassian’s new 39-storey headquarters in downtown Sydney with 100% renewable energy.

UNSW researchers identified a new damp-heat degradation mechanism in TOPCon modules with laser-fired contacts, driven primarily by rear-side recombination and open-circuit voltage loss rather than series-resistance increase. The study highlights that magnesium in white EVA encapsulants accelerates degradation, guiding improved encapsulant and backsheet selection for more reliable modules in humid environments.

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.

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.

Conceived for stationary energy storage, the proposed sodium-ion battery configuration relies on an P2-type cathode material and an hard carbon anode material that reportedly ensure full-cell performance. Electrochemical testing revealed initial capacities of 200 mAh/g for the cathode and 360 mAh/g for the anode with capacity retentions of 42% and 67.4% after 100 cycles.

Battery energy storage went from strength to strength across Australia in Q4 2025, seeing the technology outperform past records in both the National Electricity Market and Western Australia’s Wholesale Electricity Market.

AlphaHPA has received a $75 million National Reconstruction Fund Corporation investment toward delivery of its ultra-high purity alumina plant in Queensland, which will supply critical materials for lithium-ion battery manufacturing.

Engineers at the University of New South Wales have developed a real-time monitoring technique that reveals how silicon solar cells can self-repair following ultraviolet-induced damage, offering new insights into solar panel degradation and lifetime performance.

A new wireless, Wi-Fi-connected solar solution featuring three Sungrow 100 kW inverters is now allowing more than 300 kW of solar generation to be dynamically balanced across distribution boards throughout a school on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, significantly offsetting grid electricity use.

With silver prices rising, more large solar manufacturers are expected to switch to copper for cell metallization. Radovan Kopecek of ISC Konstanz tells pv magazine that he expects the entire industry to follow. Ning Song of the University of New South Wales says a small efficiency tradeoff may be acceptable if the cost savings are significant and do not introduce new reliability risks.

The Chinese firm has unveiled its latest energy storage solution, the ENERpro-LFP48300, equipped with a 48V, 300 Ah lithium battery. The company boasts a lifespan of more than 9,500 cycles at a high 95% depth of discharge.

Plans to build a 100 MW solar farm and 45 MW, two-hour capacity battery energy storage system in the Yass Valley have been given fresh impetus with a New South Wales court dismissing concerns the project will affect the region’s rural character.

Investment in utility-scale solar in Australia dropped 35% in the second half of 2025 compared to the previous six months with Bloomberg New Energy Finance saying the growth of rooftop solar and a booming battery market are among the reasons for the precipitous decline.

Snowy Hydro has commissioned a fourth tunnel boring machine for its Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project in New South Wales as it seeks to prevent any further delay to the start-up of the renewable energy mega-project.

Omnidian, GoodWe and AIKO have collaborated to install, donate and support long term, a 17 kW rooftop solar and 19.2 kWh battery storage system on an animal shelter in Victoria, and encourage industry to follow suit.

A high voltage 2.5 MW / 3 MWh community battery installed through a South Australian electricity distributor, ARENA-funded program will be energised in March 2026 and remain on standby to help manage a regional community’s peak demand.