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.

A parliamentary inquiry into solar panel reuse and recycling is calling for written submissions on how Australia currently handles ageing and decommissioned solar panels, the scale of the current waste challenges and needs for future management.

Ebor battery storage system developers US-headquartered Energy Vault and Queensland’s Bridge Energy have been awarded a Long-Term Energy Service Agreement under the NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap.

Queensland based critical minerals company Graphinex is collaborating with Japanese entities to deliver graphite from its proposed $1.3 billion Esmeralda mine project to Japan, and create a fully integrated graphite-to-anode supply chain.

China’s PV industry expects 238 GW to 287 GW of domestic capacity additions in 2026 as it pivots away from volume-led growth after a loss-making year driven by overcapacity and sharp price declines. The shift follows rapid expansion in 2021-25 that lifted cumulative capacity above 1.2 TW, annual additions beyond 300 GW and exports over $180 billion.

London-based clean energy developer Revera Energy has bagged a $213 million facility to accelerate a multi-GW pipeline in Australia and the United Kingdom.

An international study finds that successful agrivoltaic projects require farm-specific, holistic co-design that integrates solar layout with agricultural mechanisation from the earliest planning stages. Without proper alignment between machinery, crops, and solar systems, agrivoltaics risk major land loss, lower field efficiency, and higher operating costs, undermining farm profitability.

The latest rooftop solar figures from market analyst SunWiz show small scale technology certificate volumes dropped sharply by 32% after four months of growth, though January outcomes were broadly in line with seasonal norms.

Italian inverter manufacturer Fimer has launched a new advanced photovoltaic array sizing simulation tool that combines real site data with customer behaviour accessed through its cloud-based project management platform Aurora Vision.

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.

South Korean researchers have developed a guided-learning framework that accurately predicts PV power without requiring irradiance sensors during operation, using routine meteorological data instead. The model reportedly showed strong out-of-sample performance while outperforming conventional irradiance-based approaches, particularly under noisy or inconsistent data conditions.

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

Researchers at NREL found that UV exposure can cause significant, partly non-recoverable degradation in TOPCon solar cells, with strong cell-to-cell and intra-cell variability linked to passivation and processing inconsistencies. While some UV-related losses recover quickly under light and are unlikely to affect field performance, the findings highlight gaps in current qualification tests and the need for improved UV aging standards.

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.

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.

Western Australia’s state-owned electricity gentailer Synergy has announced one of Australia’s biggest batteries, the 500 MW / 2.4 GWh Collie battery energy storage system is now operational.

Clean energy developer Iberdrola Australia has been awarded a long-term contract for the New South Wales based 100 MW Kingswood battery energy storage system, and launched it’s 65 MW Smithfield battery.

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.

The New South Wales Roadmap Tender Round 6 for long duration storage has awarded contracts to six new battery energy storage projects representing 1.17 GW / 12 GWh of capacity, bumping the state’s storage under contract to 30 GWh.