Highlights

Australian deployment of battery storage remained steady in 2021, according to market research firm SunWiz, bringing cumulative installations to 1,089MWh.

Western Australian miner Iluka Resources will build Australia’s first integrated rare earths refinery to supply electric vehicle and renewable energy industries. The project has been enabled by a $1.25 billion loan from the Commonwealth government and is part of a broader push within Australia to establish ourselves as a serious alternative to China for the supply of processed critical minerals.

The result was confirmed by the National Institute of Metrology of China. It was achieved with a cell size of 210x210mm.

New Zealand’s federal government has opened the final funding round in its NZ$14 million (AU$13 million) Māori Housing Renewable Energy Fund, open to small and larger-scale projects.

With a PV panel surface area of 309.83m2, the solar tree is officially certified by Guinness World Records (GWR) as the largest solar tree in the world.

The world has installed its first terawatt of hardware on earth to generate electricity directly from the sun.

Federal Labor has promised to allocate $22 million to help establish the Lansdown Eco-Industrial Precinct being developed in northern Queensland if it wins the election in May.

Star Scientific, a hydrogen technology company based north of Sydney, has won the global South By Southwest innovation award for its Hydrogen Energy Release Optimiser, or HERO technology.

Risen Energy has extended the product warranty on its Australian residential modules from 15 to 25 years. The news comes just weeks after SunPower Maxeon pushed the Australian market by increasing its new warranties to 40 years.

The Victorian government will fund a floating solar project, an initiative to locally manufacture solar batteries, and install a portable renewable energy system for community services during emergencies as part of its Latrobe Valley program.