It’s no secret that extreme weather events are increasing, both in terms of severity and frequency. Australia is no exception. Despite historically seeing a relatively low occurrence of natural catastrophes, over the past 24 months the country has experienced cyclones, bushfires, large hail storms and numerous flooding events. This includes the recent floods in March of this year, in which New South Wales and parts of Queensland saw the worst flooding the region has experienced for six decades. Recent estimates predict the flooding to have caused between AU$919 million and AU$1.055 billion* in insured losses.

My partner and I just bought our first home, and after years of renting, we’re excited to get the keys and finally have the chance to install solar. But the process of choosing a solar installer and appropriate system size, ensuring that our appliances are set up to utilise energy during the middle of the day, and picking the best deal from a retailer is daunting – even for someone like me who works in energy.

The debate around the regulatory reform of distributed energy resources will help decide the future direction of Australia’s electricity system.

There is a big concern in the industry right now for even the top tier solar companies. As the demand for installers and systems is ever increasing, the number of good solar installers are not. 

The return of Barnaby Joyce to the federal National Party’s top job has highlighted tensions within, and dilemmas for, the broader party – particularly on climate change policy and coal.

Despite the growth, one-off exceptional events in the fourth quarter hit the solar EPC’s overall fiscal performance. These included a prime subcontractor going bankrupt in Australia, rising module prices, and increased freight costs.

More than 100 Australian businesses, including some of the country’s largest, have banded together to put pressure on government to commit at least 1% of GDP to a green energy recovery in the May budget and to ensure a more equitable transition to renewables for marginalised Australians.

The $2 trillion package includes a proposed 10-year extension of the ITC and PTC and calls for further incentives to add transmission capacity. Most solar advocates liked it, but one nonprofit panned it as being too industry-friendly.

Queensland’s government will install five community batteries at regional substations across the state in a bid to time-shift its abundant solar resources.

Canadian Solar is pivoting towards energy storage and is preparing to IPO its manufacturing and Chinese solar project activity in China, under the CSI Solar operation, by July.

Solar PV is an important contributor to all energy scenarios presented in AEMO’s latest “Input, Assumptions and Scenarios Report,” but what’s the best possible outcome it can enable?

The manufacturer has launched sodium-ion products online. Production has begun and will be easily scalable, according to the CATL chairman. Researchers have been keen to make the technology work as it offers a cheaper, more environmentally friendly alternative to lithium-ion products.

Australia’s big energy providers are being forced to take stock of the costs of fossil fuels versus renewables. One industry analyst and commentator has a fresh recipe for success for Australia’s biggest wholesaler and retailer of gas.

The U.S.-based manufacturer is planning a vertically integrated thin-film solar module manufacturing facility in India. The factory will likely be built in Tamil Nadu and become operational in the second half of 2023.

Indonesia, the second-biggest coal exporter in the world, is now taking more steps to reduce its dependency on “black gold” as it starts to consider clean energy.

Acciona Energía has received approval from the Queensland state government for an expansion of its plans for the Aldoga Solar Farm outside Gladstone. Originally slated as a 250 MW project, the project will now reach a capacity of 600 MWp and work to support the development of Gladstone’s green hydrogen hub.

Mining giant BHP has taken another step on the path towards a renewable energy future, commissioning a 48.2 MW solar + storage hybrid power facility that will help power its Nickel West mining operations in regional Western Australia.

Standalone power system specialist Boundary Power has teamed up with Australian hydrogen technology company LAVO to investigate the potential application of its renewable hydrogen energy storage system in power solutions suitable for off-grid and edge-of-grid customers.

According to a new report, India’s commercial and industrial sectors will increase their rooftop solar deployments by 47% year-on-year, with bifacials and large-size high-wattage modules offering cost-effective support for reducing electricity costs.

Mining giant Rio Tinto has tapped NRW Holdings to begin construction of a large-scale solar PV and battery energy storage system at the Anglo-Australian multinational’s $2.6 billion Gudai-Darri iron ore mine in Western Australia.

A British-Australian research team has assessed the potential of liquid air energy storage (LAES) for large scale application. The scientists estimate that these systems may currently be built at a cost between €300 and €600 (AU$480 to $960) per megawatt-hour and that a positive business case could be favoured by certain conditions, including a determined price structure in the energy market and the presence of a grid unable to support high levels of renewable energy penetration.

Speculation will be rife as to the cause of the fire which destroyed one Tesla Megapack and damaged another in Moorabool on Friday. Investigators are waiting until the site is deemed safe to begin their forensic examination.

It’s a breakthrough so staggeringly simple the patent office needed convincing it counted as an invention. In what Professor Thomas Nann jokingly told pv magazine Australia basically equates to adding dishwashing liquid and oil to water, he and two of his former PhD students have unlocked the potential of water-based electrolytes for batteries, promising a solution that is cheaper, easier to manufacture and non-toxic. The startup plans to initially use the formula in supercapacitors before exploring it in conjunction with redox flow batteries.


Solar panels the size of five cent pieces will be used to locate koalas and protect them from incoming bushfires as well as to care for the threatened species as their habitat regenerates.

The federal government has allocated $25.6 million to support 20 microgrid feasibility studies, including in communities affected by the Black Summer bushfires, which left regions without power for weeks.

A gigafactory, as the name indicates, is a facility that aims to produce Li-ion cells at a gigawatt-hours scale of total capacity, so they can then be used in electric vehicles or stationary storage applications. The global production capacity of Li-ion cells is expected to reach 740 GWh by the end of 2021 – almost a threefold increase from 2017 – and Europe will account for 8% of the total. João Coelho, an analyst at Delta-EE, looks at how Europe plans to catch up.

Western Australian company Australian Vanadium Limited has been awarded $3.69 million in federal government funding to fast-track manufacturing of large-scale vanadium redox flow battery systems that can be used to support rooftop solar PV or in off-grid settings such as mining, agriculture and remote communities.

The manufacturer plans to start production of the performance-enhanced solar modules in August. The first customers should then receive the products in October.

Australia’s first lithium-ion battery manufacturer, Energy Renaissance, has received a half million dollar grant to develop its pilot manufacturing facility in the state’s Hunter region.

Kent Kernahan has set out to take the heat out of solar cells. He and his partners may end up bringing solar manufacturing jobs to disadvantaged communities, while making low-cost rooftop solar more widely available.

The TotalEnergies-controlled solar manufacturer will secure an, as yet undetermined chunk of a new €118.6 million low-carbon innovation fund to start producing its frameless, glass-free solar roofing products at Porcelette, in northeastern France.

Households with residential batteries have doubled in Queensland in the last two years, though cost remains a barrier – as it has with electric vehicles. As prices fall, however, the state is likely to welcome the technology with open arms, as it has with solar. 37% of Queensland households now harvest the sun’s energy and a further 22% looking to install or upgrade their systems, according to the government’s Queensland Household Energy Survey. Of those with solar systems, 93% would would replace their panels with the same size or larger, if they were to fail.

The City of Melbourne is planning a network of co-ordinated community batteries to be installed at council sites across the city, aiming for a potential capacity of 5 MW by 2024.

Victorian solar company RACV Solar has continued its expansion strategy with the acquisition of Great Ocean Solar and Electrical, a solar and battery installation business based on the Bellarine Peninsula in the state’s southwest.

Boston startup Form Energy has secured US$200 million (AU$270 million) Series D funding for the development of what is being called a breakthrough in energy storage.