As utility-scale battery energy storage systems continue to be deployed across Australia’s National Electricity Market, fire risk assessment is rapidly shifting from a compliance exercise to a core project viability consideration. For developers, asset owners, insurance considerations and regulators, the key question is no longer whether systems meet component certification standards, but how complete BESS systems behave under severe real-world conditions.

For decades, copper was the material the solar industry knew it needed but could not manufacture at scale. That barrier has been lifted. What follows matters for every rooftop, every supply chain, and every gigawatt the energy transition still requires.

As Australia accelerates its shift toward renewable energy, attention has largely focused on generation – scaling solar, deploying storage, and integrating distributed energy resources. But a quieter constraint is emerging beneath this transformation: the grid’s limited ability to see its own condition in real time.

Most of Australia’s existing homes are old, uncomfortable, and expensive to run. Too many are energy inefficient, and rising electricity and gas prices are making things worse. Mainstream programs are supporting home energy upgrades but the transition isn’t happening quickly enough and risks leaving behind the households that could benefit most. New research shows how local initiatives can make solar and electrification more accessible.

The war on Iran has made crystal clear how shaky our reliance on fossil fuels is. It’s no surprise electric vehicles and transport have become more appealing. In Australia, sales of electric vehicles surged 40–50% in March.

Researchers from 11 universities globally, including the University of New South Wales, have collaborated on a paper advocating for the need to guarantee energy security, research in photovoltaics is essential for continued innovation.

Almost 40 residents of a multi-unit complex in Templestowe have opted for two, three or four, 480 W panels, or to share clean energy from a 5 kW solar community board supported by 11 panels under the Victorian Solar for Apartments scheme, scheduled to close at the end of April 2026.

An all-female team of engineering students from the University of the South Pacific, with professional Australian solar technicians have designed, engineered and installed a microgrid for a remote school on the Fijian island of Waya.

Rystad Energy says capital expenditure on data centers reached $1,086 billion in 2025, matching investment levels in photovoltaic infrastructure and surpassing upstream oil and gas.

Sydney-headquartered vanadium redox flow battery company EORA Energy has launched in Australia with a pipeline of long-duration energy storage projects in mining, data centres and regional infrastructure.

New Zealand’s electricity authority has updated its rules to better enable grid-scale and residential solar energy systems to supply local networks, and requires lines companies to set a default export of 10 kW for household solar and battery systems.

Analysis from Wiki-Solar finds the world’s 33 largest utility-scale solar markets had a cumulative capacity of 1,008 GWac by the end of last year.

Australia’s rooftop solar market has surged 19% in the past month with the latest data revealing a record 341 MW of small-scale rooftop PV capacity was registered across the country in March as consumers also raced to install battery energy storage systems.

Aggreko has unveiled plans to build what it says will be Australia’s biggest off-grid renewable hybrid power facility after signing a long-term power purchase agreement with the owner of Queensland’s largest proposed copper mine.

New research from the University of New South Wales shows that PV module degradation varies widely with system design and location, driven by UV exposure, temperature, humidity, and atmospheric conditions. Tropical and desert regions face the highest stress, highlighting the need for climate-specific testing and system design.

Output from Australia’s utility-scale solar assets jumped almost 22% in the past 12 months with new data showing the country’s large-scale PV assets generated 1.82 TWh of clean energy last month.

Scientists at the Australian National University claim that TOPCon cells are rapidly closing the open-circuit voltage gap with HJT counterparts, now under 10 mV, while offering greater wafer tolerance and high industrial scalability. Despite slightly lower efficiency, TOPCon-based perovskite/silicon tandems can achieve a levelised cost of energy comparable to HJT-based tandems due to reduced fabrication costs, according to the researchers.

A UNSW-led team found that annealing conditions significantly affect stress, strain, and microstructure in copper-plated heterojunction solar cell contacts, with fast annealing increasing microstrain in both copper and indium tin oxide.

LONGi has launched LONGi ONE, an integrated solar-plus-storage product strategy for grid-scale, and commercial and industrial projects, which will be supported by a growing network of 30 new service centres opening in key locations globally by 2028.

The Australian Energy Council has released its Energy 2050 report addressing what policy makers and industry might do to deliver a net zero system, while balancing affordability, reliability and sustainability.

Building-integrated PV technology company ClearVue Technologies is a step closer to commercial deployment of its metal-backed solar panels after securing global IEC certification for the integrated rooftop system.

UNSW researchers developed a chemically selective, nitrate-based, single-sided accelerated ageing method for TOPCon solar cells that replicates the mildly acidic environment inside EVA-encapsulated modules. The proposed approach enables rapid, physically meaningful screening of front-side metallisation stability, reliably predicting module-level degradation and reducing development time and costs, according to its creators.

Tongwei is partnering with GS-Solar and Golden Solar to develop a large-scale manufacturing facility for hybrid heterojunction back-contact solar cells that combine HJT passivation, tunneling oxide and polysilicon structures used in TOPCon designs, and the grid-free front-side architecture typical of back-contact technologies.

Australian solar and thermal energy storage company RayGen says it has achieved a major international milestone with the commissioning of a 1 MW concentrated solar plant in Brazil.

Chinese clean tech manufacturer Sungrow has introduced a hybrid solar energy storage solution that integrates Sungrow’s 1+X modular inverter with a dedicated storage interface, PowerTitan 3.0 with built-in DC/DC module, and the solar-ESS Synergy Management System.

South Australia has opened up more than 11,000 square kilometres of land for the potential development of renewable energy projects as it continues the march towards its target of 100% net renewables by 2027.

A local Victorian council has pre-empted future large-scale renewable energy project proposals by developing a comprehensive clean energy guideline, based on community consultation.

The Thala Beach Nature Reserve, 1,600 kilometres north of Brisbane in tropical Far North Queensland, has installed a 110 kW solar energy system and battery energy storage to enhance the property’s eco-tourism and sustainable operations.

A multibillion-dollar pipeline of electricity transmission upgrades is being proposed by South Australia’s network operator ElectraNet as it seeks to keep pace with “unprecedented” levels of connection demand.

New South Wales transmission company Transgrid has shortlisted nine battery energy storage projects with a combined capacity of 2 GW to provide essential system strength services to the state’s electricity grid from later this year.