With a volatile global fuel and energy crisis continuing relentlessly, Australia holds a quiet but powerful advantage that provides cost-of-living energy relief to millions by allowing our cars and homes to run on sunshine instead of fossil fuels.

Grid-forming inverters represent a critical technology transition for the Australian National Electricity Market as the grid moves toward 100% renewable sources. With 10 operational grid-forming battery energy storage systems totaling approximately 1,070 MW and 94 projects in the pipeline, Australia is emerging as a global leader in grid-forming deployment.

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.

Amazon Australia has announced nine new power purchase agreements, that include three utility-scale solar and battery hybrids, four distributed solar-battery projects, and a new battery at the Mokoan Solar Farm, committing stable revenues to 430 MW of renewable energy.

Researchers from South and Western Australia have found electric vehicles equipped with vehicle-to-home technology can reduce the need for large home battery systems.

Victorian community-owned clean energy developer Indigo Power has launched a 482 kWh community battery with 100 kW inverter at the Cricket Albury Wodonga Indoor Stadium, co-located with an existing 98 kW solar system.

Sydney-based renewable energy company CleanPeak Energy Holdings has agreed to acquire Adelaide-headquartered owner and developer of solar and battery assets Sustainable Energy Infrastructure.

Free midday electricity schemes aim to shift household demand into periods of high solar PV generation, reducing midday surplus and evening fossil-fuel ramp-up. Research on Australia’s Solar Sharer program suggests such incentives could significantly improve renewable utilisation, but outcomes depend on consumer behaviour, load shifting, and rebound effects.

The company driving two of Australia’s largest renewable energy projects has announced key milestones for the system architecture that is to serve as the backbone for the proposed giga-scale green hydrogen projects.

Chinese battery energy storage system manufacturer Dyness has expanded its available product portfolio in the Australian market with its Stack100 Pro securing the official tick of approval from the Clean Energy Council.

Researchers have found that PV plants in arid regions create a measurable cool island effect that varies strongly with season, location, and plant design, influencing surrounding vegetation in complex and spatially uneven ways. They showed that cooling intensity and distance differ widely across sites, are driven mainly by plant morphology,

Plans to build a green hydrogen production facility powered by up to 6 GW of solar and wind generation in Western Australia are moving forward with the project selected for accelerated development under the federal government’s new Investor Front Door pilot program.

A new report from global energy think tank Ember shows 814 GWdc in new solar and wind capacity was installed in 2025, but the pace of wind deployment rose 47% year-over-year compared to just 11% for solar.

A new UNSW study shows that laser-enhanced contact optimisation can boost industrial TOPCon solar cell efficiency by improving contact properties and reducing recombination losses. By combining optimised firing conditions with LECO “repair” of contacts, the approach balances recombination and resistance, offering a practical path for conventional TOPCon cells to compete with PV technologies offering higher efficiencies.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Solar Fabrik has introduced a 400 W red-brown glass-glass PV module designed to meet strict aesthetic requirements for historic and protected buildings, offering a 20.02% efficiency and compatibility with traditional tiled rooftops.

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.

One of the biggest batteries under construction in South Australia is set to change hands with Australian asset manager Palisade Investment Partners striking a deal to buy the 240 MW / 960 MWh Summerfield project from Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

Australian mining giant Fortescue is fast tracking the delivery of what it says is the world’s first fully integrated green energy grid designed to completely eliminate diesel and other fossil fuels from large-scale industry.

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.

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.

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.